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THE OUTLAND 109
- Well no. Pleasant. You are like my reflection, only better in everything - smarter, more interesting, prettier. True, I still do not understand who you really are? Are you an AI in charge of game mechanics? Game master? Just a player? One of those vegetables that became the elder gods of the Tlalli world?“You already know the answer to your question, Rob. Agnis winked. “You're a human, you're Astrix's apprentice and Warkart's protégé. You just don't want to admit to yourself that you already know who I am.- I do not know. I sincerely confessed.- You know. One day you will understand that you always knew this, even from our first meeting, when I pulled off the blanket from you and drove you to work. And I'll be waiting. Her voice weakened until it dropped to a barely audible whisper. “I just want to hope that you don’t hate me after this, drive me away and exclude me from your life.- I do not know. I can't, I won't promise what I don't know.- I'm fine with that answer. But you s
THE OUTLAND 110
- We do not issue a personal certificate.“Oh, what’s wrong with you?! The girl has cyber psychosis, she is not so long ago.“That’s what they would have said right away. Who are you, relative? - The guy signed some paper, breathed on the print and put a triangular seal. - You are in the fourth department, all psychiatry is there. Third floor.Yes, relative. I took the pass and hurried to the stairs.Another checkpoint is the guard nurse. Here, too, nothing seems to have changed since the construction. It's good that Bauer did all these things last time, and I just had to wait until he rolls Edik out into the sun. I think it's fair to say that I didn't like the hospital. Although, perhaps, a direct stimulus of escapism can inspire someone to do something, but for me personally, rectangular linoleum gray caused only melancholy.- Where, to whom?- Alova. Can I see her doctor?- And who are you sick?- None of your business. I smiled politely. - I don't plan to answer the same questions
THE OUTLAND 111
"Are you sure he'll be all right?" - For probably the fifth time I asked, seeing the departing ambulance.- Calm down, Rob. Bauer pointed out judiciously. “Neither you, nor I, nor anyone else can provide better help than doctors of cyber-psychiatry.But he was released! He rested for a week, getting ready to go to work!- Discharged as he recovered. But the problem is that it takes much longer for his nervous system to adapt to the high speed of signaling. Much longer than if I had had the operation. And certainly, much longer than it would take for you, the young one, accustomed to constantly driving billions of bytes of data through the spinal cord.— And how old are you, Bauer?— Thirty-seven, Rob. I, too, belong to a generation that was not grafted with silicon and gold.Like Edik.- Exactly. Cigarette?- Thanks.We stood on the porch and, spitting on all prohibitions, all instructions and laws, both written and unwritten, smoked, and there was no one to reproach us. The import su
THE OUTLAND 112
Thanks, Fros. I croaked.“No problem, commander. If you need another blow to the head, just whistle. Fros nodded.- In general, how are you?“We scattered the people of the Conquista who were here. Antey said. “Here, several detachments roamed the streets, but you yourself remember what kind of shooters they are. Since then, they hid and remained silent. Got in, probably.“Or…” I began slowly. “They retreated to some one point, where they have the main forces, to fall on us in a huge crowd and crush us with numbers.I got into the broadcast of the battle, turned on the tactical analyzer. This is where the psi-protection began to sink in, here I looked up at Agnis in tight clothes. And here… Stop.I stopped playback and rewinded a few seconds. Here the psi-background grows, here the fighters begin to resist, here the priests stepped up the onslaught, but Manyunya quickly calmed them down. But here ... Yes, exactly. Agnis' silhouette became translucent, and through it peeped an eerie wo
THE OUTLAND 113
- What is the connection between Warcraft, Edik and Froze?— Edward? Don't you hear yourself?- Not.— Ed-War-D. When the creator laid the first lines of code at the foundation of the world, he left a message for posterity. A kind of autograph, author's Easter egg.“But didn’t the Tlalli gods emerge from that first seven in a coma?”- Only partly. Do I need to explain about Froza, the intelligence medic?- Yes, I understand, thank you. I got up and slung the puncher over my shoulder. - Take care.He opened the door... And fell out onto the stairs leading further to the next floor-tier of the Sholotli temple.No, I definitely did not know who or what built this grandiose structure, but it is definitely not a person, and not even a group of people.— Commander?“Fey, we don't clear all the floors. - I waved it off. We don't have the energy or time for this. Besides…- What?In addition, if Agnis is right, then each floor of this temple may well be part of a biome or even a separate worl
THE OUTLAND 114
- Nothing, we'll get it. The main thing is now the detachment to get together. Antaeus, hold the ladder at gunpoint, but switch weapons. Froze, drive the others and join yourself!The second floor is a beach from the world of Thoth. The third is a pantheon-temple with porticos, overlooking a huge rocky cliff with a bottom lost in the fog.— A temple within a temple. Antaeus chuckled. - Recursion in all its glory."Don't get distracted, fighters!" If the entrance has already been cleared, then the entire conquistador army is already rushing through our soul! Fey, do you have explosives?- There is a little, commander!- Very well.And so, we rush along the seemingly endless stairs, from time to time scattering along the steps in a chain that helps to find further passages higher and further. Of course, if we weren’t such idiots, we would just take tele-cats, fix ourselves somewhere high, high above and climb on a winch .... And along the way, they collected the entire lead stock of the
THE OUTLAND 115
Fifty.This is not what they taught me in intelligence school, definitely not this. But unlike the clean and handsome boys who come to this school for privileges and early retirement, I entered the service to escape my past. Therefore, I knew that you only need to break through and gnaw your way up on your own, no one will give you anything on a silver platter, and sometimes you need to be ready for anything if you don’t want to go back to hell, from where you illegally resurrected.The world is full of injustice, social elevators are bullshit, and all your life you belong only to the place where you once opened your eyes for the first time.I thought that I would deceive fate by substituting my shoulders for epaulettes, I would develop in myself inhuman abilities, without which it would be impossible even to think of leading a special group. But in the end it all ends where it started. Once upon a time, I fled from a blurry shadow trying to cut out several of my internal organs in pa
THE OUTLAND 116
Ten.The command worked without me, without any instructions. So, will she be able to handle it on her own? Won't die, won't get into trouble?I again sent Xolotl to the floor, sacrificing another limb and, leaning on the "hole punch" like a crutch, froze in anticipation of the rise of the goddess.Eight.And the unhurried, quiet hum turned out to be Manyuni's voice, her victory song.— Nooooo! - It resounded around us, scattering, throwing on the floor.Yes, only too late - all the space along the path of the shot has shifted, including both the slab and the stone in it.The figure of the goddess puffed up, swelled up and in one leap occupied all the available space, as then, during the awakening of her husband.We'll meet again, soldier. Xolotl promised.And she disappeared.Four.And for the first time in all this time, light peered into the black hall through the walls that had become transparent. And no, the light is not the rising sun, a symbol of victories and hopes.Far, far t