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2024-10-29 19:42:56
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Corporation 18
The radius of Guangzhou-Zhanjiang, for my taste, was the most inhospitable place on this planet. Two hundred million people, a complex patchwork of zones controlled by Yanguang and Tri-Trade, a wild amount of industrial abandonment from the time of the Great Experiment, the terrible ecology associated with this, and yes, orderly rows of towers of the first wave of development, twined to the waist with a communication network.The Slinkers called these two hundred kilometers along the coast "glade", so freely any representative of our respected profession felt here. Corporate freemen on the ruins of the former autonomous regions, the rampant level of corruption and banal slovenliness on the ground, the overall density of buildings plus the abundance of "gray", no-man's objects turned the "glade" into the Asian branch of Central Africa during the post-war Black Boom.For a slinker, there was always work here, and it wasn’t about money at all - perhaps only the magical Bohai or the Islan
Corporation 19
And no one around, not a single extra signal. Even the lidar of the Corporation's agents, which glided over the client's car, I still spotted. There was nothing at all here. Even the blackness of the signal blockade, like there, in the client's apartment.An ordinary residential tower, also half empty, but still filled with the usual household signals. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see anyone else.It was impossible to pull the rubber further.Either move forward or leave. But you can stand like this, listening, endlessly.And then I made up my mind.Unauthorized movement across foreign territory, even for an experienced slinker, is not an easy task. Other representatives of our kind of activity study this all their lives, mastering the difficult science of penetrating secure communications, hacking systems from the outside and from the inside. Others seem to be born with this knowledge, possessing, if you like, a special angle of view, when instead of breaking through a
Corporation 20
The chirper chirped somewhere at the very edge of hearing, teasing with its inaccessibility. Like a mosquito in the night - it flutters its wings, squeaks disgustingly, and go and see it, a bloodsucker.Whoever was that kind person that glided over the crowns, and even in our remote places, he preferred to zealously protect his incognito. He flew his flight in lowlands and at low speed, as if suspecting the surrounding farms of the bad intention of catching the flyer and giving it publicity.And don't say it's wrong. Pozat spring arrived on the regiment of armored motorized hussars, the gentleman from the capital with a special order. Well, how, capital, not from the city of Moscow itself, but closer, from the regimental district that guards the Pipe. He arrived and arrived, only he has since been searched by city-towners. No like no. Yes, and motorized hussars have since worn out in appearance - who drank himself, who went without permission. They are not expected to return without t
Corporation 21
- Well, let's say, what does your secret police have to do with the strictness there?- And besides, there is no special secret police, all corporations have been taken over, from Moscow itself to the Japanese islands.Rodion only raised his eyebrows in surprise.- Isn't there any?“And Pipes, if you think about it, not either.- Explain.“What is there to explain here,” Vanya threw up his hands, “it seems to me that the Pipe has been empty for a long time, so, fiction. A reason to stand here, to guard everything around.“Wait, I don’t understand anything. And the rent? Moskov does not just cut coupons, but from the cash flow. If there is nothing in the Pipe, where does the money come from?“From there, look around. What do you see?Rodion looked around with interest.- Well, your farm.- You can't see anything! Because there is nothing here. And so to the Sayan. It wasn't, it isn't and it won't be. For that and supervision. And this loot is exaggerated - there is bullshit and lure. T
Corporation 22
Your mother.Pominkas were such a well-established ritual that for Ansel all local jokes should have become familiar long ago, just another boring day at a boring job, but where there, over the years they only pissed off more and more, leading to new rounds of soul-searching, they say, you need to quit everything and think of something better to do.But what else can an expat do in the capital city of Moscow? Most of those whom Ansel managed to meet in the Lenin zheev bar or a couple of similar inconspicuous establishments “for their own”, one way or another worked in consulting and moderation, in other words, they worked in razvodyashy positions, in larger and smaller offices, mostly local unofficial representative offices of the metropolis, and then whoever is lucky.Working for pominkas was no worse than any other occupation, as always, it depends on the client. The main thing in this business is not to belong to one of the competing clans, which in the world of mutual responsibili
Corporation 23
And what is most unpleasant is a barely noticeable difference in the data, overlooking this is not a problem at all. But now this very problem confronted Ansel in all its unpleasant glory. Had he faced a common case of fraud with social capital, as often happens here, Ansel would have silently called the social police and all matters, let them sort things out among themselves, but look around, this is a rich, serious clan, why do they need these spillikins. The whole story was sharply overshadowed by big troubles, and Ansel did not need them at all.Without a robe, in a white shirt and skinny trousers, he could easily pass for the staff that ran around here with tablecloths and samovar. Here, a towel on hand, that's better. The main thing is not to catch the eye of these cute paunches, right? So, drone in your pocket, eyes on the floor and go-go-go. Some kind of ochrannick was standing at the elevators, but he didn’t even look in his direction, that’s fine.Only when the elevator habi
Corporation 24
The hermetic door jammed again.Yes, how is it. Groaning and groaning, Lindström pulled the groaning metal towards him. The exoskeleton feedback obediently reached the red markers and froze helplessly, howling in the ears like a siren. You don’t have to do that, old man, and you’ll ruin the equipment, and you’ll kill yourself, and as long as we need you alive.Remember, there was a case on Ceres, one businessman found a fragment on the site. Well, like a fragment - such a stone is two meters in diameter. Kamenyuka and kamenyuka, take in the convoy and drags to buy up, they are so valuable there. Just take that pebble and turn out to be the core of an impact asteroid, go and understand what kind of metal, 50 tons in weight. Pulls, pulls, can't pull. The delyaga was not at a loss, he tore off the fuses from the lift, the chamber was crazy, and in the end, he flew away with the tractor into free swimming. It was only on the third sol that they saw him through a telescope, knowing what ki
Corporation 25
This means that something even larger must be moving behind the self-propelled gun. Well, to hell with them, let's deal with the avant-garde patrol for the time being."Unidentified self-propelled gun, you are about to cross the territory of a private allotment, I order you to stop."If Lindström's going on the air had any effect on the intruders, they responded by choosing not to talk about it. The self-propelled gun continued to shove in azimuth without changing speed. And yes, she aimed precisely at the place of wealth discovered by Lindström. Would you like to understand how they guessed so? Is it really possible to guess from the ringing of a bent core sampler and from the cheerful cursing of an old hard worker that something unprecedented has happened, and now we urgently need to whistle everyone upstairs?Even if there is a self-propelled gun at the nearest bio-domes and someone very astute decides to wait all day for a signal “on horses”, even in this case, such a thing needs
Latest Chapter
- Corporation
Epilogue
Deprived of the present - does not live, deprived of the past - was not even born. I don’t remember who said so, all these books merged into one mess for me during the flight. But, returning in my thoughts to my life on Earth, I cannot help but think about the Corporation, and I cannot help but think about the fate that brought me to the Corporation. The place where I grew up has long ceased to be a sleepy town far from the big and noisy world, the suburbs of the metropolis have moved in on it, comparing hills and raising faceless towers of cheap high-rise housing around. The black cubes of factory buildings, lined with light-absorbing tiles, seemed to be the focus of secrets in the dark and musty chaos of thousands of people who were not interested in anything; no one thought about it. I hardly remember when Corporations appeared in our lives. Sometimes I feel like they've always been there. The faceless masters of the world, at first they were somewhere far, far away. Not here. Per
- Corporation
82
The roof breathed a thick smell of hot metal, the sun was so hot that even the familiar tropics of the lower levels seemed like a resort from the coast of the Northern Ocean. In such places, in the middle of the realm of dusty iron and a web of wires creaking in the barely perceptible wind, a normal person will not linger. And if you remember the composition of the local air, full of carbon monoxide rather than oxygen, you involuntarily catch yourself thinking - why did you get here, run away from here, run ...There was little use for these thoughts. The introduction says clearly - the "patient" will try to break through here, and you should not worry about his plans, sweat between your shoulder blades and dry concrete crumb under your tongue. Whatever he is looking for here - he should not pass by. Neither alive nor already dead. If you do your job, you will head north, or even south, across the sea - it is dry there, there is no eternal smell of rivers rotting in the concrete bowel
- Corporation
81
The drowned city was empty again, and did not really have time to become a new home for immigrants from the Megapolis, which surrendered under the pressure of the Glacier. Until quite recently, life was in full swing here, shuttles took the last pax from the gravity well, heavy trucks delivered here and unfolded giant cubes of fabricators, but now everything was quiet, and only the quiet lapping of the waves of the Tethys Sea beat against the metal-polymer supports of the newly erected towers here.- Are you happy? she asked that day with what he thought was sincere curiosity.- Satisfied with what?“Because we leave this world alone.“Ah, that,” Romulus shrugged, “I will be pleased when they leave me alone. And Mother, she still does not hear us. She doesn't care what we think about her.- Stupid humanity tired even the all-powerful Romulus.- Don't bother with words. You have only lived with this for a quarter of a millennium, but I have been dealing with people for more than four h
- Corporation
80
Romulus climbed along the ridge with a measured step, from time to time looking back at the stone labyrinth of the Megapolis slowly plunging into the blue haze.Here, fifty kilometers from the edge of the Glacier, it looked quite familiar, if you do not remember how deep into the multi-year snow layers these stone skeletons now go. Towers, Bauhaus and palazzos sink deeper and deeper into the compressed ice pack every year. Go get it.Nothing, the fabricators have already reached the product capacity, releasing a million of their hardworking rats a day to the borders of the agglomeration.Romulus watched them work with his own eyes yesterday. Three individuals fiercely fought for a kilogram stub of monothread steel, zealously grinding their diamond cutters on it, only sparks flew around.These mechanical laborers will open any deposits of debris, make their way into the very hodgepodge of ceilings, dig their way into the depths of permafrost, but in the end they will wipe this abscess
- Corporation
79
We have seen a new humanity. People are weakened, divided, they will be even more crushed by the Age Outside, but sooner or later, one way or another, they will begin their expansion. But until that moment they cannot be left alone with Romulus. They need to be kicked in the ass into the Galaxy and locked up within the boundaries of the Barrier as much as possible.The guest thought, now for a long time. The clouds grew darker, the sunset faded, the snowflakes hit her cheek more and more painfully, and she stood still and was silent. Finally, when she spoke again, her voice was cold and formal.“I will speak to the soorn-infarh. But I don't promise anything.The redhead bowed again.“We couldn’t have hoped for more, wise one.” But I can see that something is bothering you.“Romulus confuses me. Will he fall into such a trivial trap?- Who knows who knows. Perhaps they themselves want to be deceived.The guest gave a short nod and moved away, through the oncoming gusts of a piercing no
- Corporation
78
The three from the chest were comfortably seated at the very edge of the cliff. One of them, a tall, desperately red-haired old man, waved his arms all the time, trying to jump up and run, in every possible way depicting general excitement. The other two, on the contrary, reclined comfortably in hammocks, pulling their blankets up to their chins, and hardly moved. A slight, but at the same time filled with internal contentment, a smile wandered on the face of both.All three would look very suspicious to an outsider's eye - what fate brought them to this windy land and what was the purpose of their today's observation, even the most desperate detective could not figure out, even if one happened so far south of Maharashtra.But in fact, there was no one here for a long time and reliably. The Goan land lay empty, and only the cold winter wind carried dust whirlwinds along these once populous lands, throwing handfuls of sand in the face of a random oncoming one.But these three were not
- Corporation
77
And what, it's even reasonable on their part. Less emotion, less stigma, less inevitable exophobia. It makes less sense to talk about something.Inside the makeshift conference room, to which the gateway led, already gathered, meanwhile, quite decently people. Apparently, their shuttle did not arrive first.It is necessary to get out somewhere far away to the side, very few people here would like to see him alive, let alone face to face. However, he was lucky, there was still a pleasant exception.- Companion Urban.— Ilmari Olsson.Both nodded briefly to each other, but not at all in the way that Lilia nodded to him when they met. Two intense gazes, clinging for a second in the surrounding crowd, managed to show each other enough emotions to immediately calmly part. Unlike the Companion of Ulysses, they always knew how to disperse peacefully with Urban. Of all the Companions, only Jean Armal still retained a certain amount of humanity. After all, only he knew what it was like to phys
- Corporation
76
The evacuated moon domes were far more depressing than he had expected. Live on Krasnaya for a couple of dozen turns, and you will no longer be surprised by its lifeless expanses. The lifestyle there was such that everyone seemed to be afraid of both this sand and each other. For a thousand sols you can not meet a single living soul, only chains of heavy copters stretching in the bloody skies remind that this world is inhabited by someone. But Muna... Muna in his memories was always a grandiose covered anthill, where everyone was in a hurry somewhere. The main staging post of the Sol system has remained the true heart of the Sol system since its inception.So it was before Ceres. And so it was before the Arrival.Now, looking at the empty galleries inside the domes and the cleared launch pads beyond, he only thought about what they had missed.What happened to the people who once set foot on the gray lunar regolith in the hope of developing a new frontier? The easiest way was to say t
- Corporation
75
The onboard observatory of the flagship, although it was focused on tracking objects located no further than a hundred kilometers from the Sun, nevertheless, gave a background image rich in details and colors, enriched with spectra outside the visible range from microwave to hard X-ray inclusive. The resulting composite panoramic banner only at first glance resembled the familiar picture of the starry sky - the former tracer did not need to be reminded of what deep space usually looks like to the naked eye. The white pupil of the distant Sun and the barely noticeable points of the brightest stars plus the planets, that's the whole poor visual range. Immediately at the disposal of the navigator, free from other activities, was given the multi-colored world of the contours of the Galaxy and entire star placers of the nearest cluster.When looking at this rich panel, made up of billions of stars, gas clouds, globular clusters and nebulae of the nearest galaxies, for once it became clear
