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.’‘What happened?’‘He died in the ambush,’ Halliday said.‘He took his own life.’ He could not bring himself to describe the death of the woman or the details of the bloody finale in the restaurant.Joe Kosinski nodded.‘It’s almost over, Hal.It’s coming to an end.LINx no longer has implantees to control, and soon we’ll be able to eradicate it from the Net.’‘How’s the program coming along?’‘Oh,’ Joe said, smiling.‘It’s finished.That’s why I summoned you here.’‘You confident it’ll work?’‘Hal, I developed LINx and its prototypes.I know it intimately.I know what brought it into being, and I know what will kill it.Why do you think it was so eager to eliminate me?’Halliday shook his head.‘It’s been a nightmare.Joe.The deaths.the needless deaths.’The silence stretched.‘Don’t you think I feel a measure of responsibility?’Halliday waved.‘I didn’t mean to blame you.You weren’t to know what’d happen.It was a fluke, a terrible, tragic accident.’ He shook his head.‘You were no more responsible than the parents of a child who grows up to be a killer.’‘Some people would claim that parents are responsible for the actions of their children, Hal.’He looked at the young computer-scientist in the guise of a Buddhist monk.Was he playing the devil’s advocate? ‘You don’t really believe that’s true, though?’Joe hesitated.‘I don’t know.Perhaps not so much in the case of parents, but as for LINx.It was my programming.I sequenced its parameters, its initial range of references.’‘But it grew into something different, something almost evil.That had nothing to do with you.’The monk gestured.‘Perhaps I will atone when the program wipes LINx forever from the Net.’ He looked up at Halliday.‘I need you to collect the program and deliver it to Wellman.’‘It isn’t with you at the safe house?’Joe laughed.‘Call me paranoid, Hal.I lived in constant fear of LINx finding out where I’m in hiding.I couldn’t risk the possibility of the program being discovered by Dan Reeves.I completed it a few hours ago and deposited the needles in a sealed envelope at Connelly’s, off Broadway.I told the bartender you’d be along to collect it later today.’Halliday nodded.‘I’ll do that.When you get out of the tank, Wellman and Barney will be with you.I could meet you back there when I’ve picked up the program.’‘We’ll have a celebratory drink, Hal.To the success of the program.’Halliday smiled.‘I’ll drink to that, Joe.’He gave Halliday the address of the safe house, an exclusive street on the Upper West Side.They watched the hunched shape of a yak make its way slowly up the hillside towards them.Halliday had seen the huge, hunched beasts from a distance during his first visit to the site, but never this close - and, as ever in VR, he was surprised again by the reality of the image.He turned to Joe.‘Hal.’‘What is it?’ Halliday stared at him.Joe was scratching his chest through the robes, a frown on his face.‘Hal, I feel bad.’The yak looked up, straight at them, and something about the fixity of its stare struck Halliday as most unlike that of an animal.The way it was looking at Joe, with a strange air of intent, was not animal-like at all.Halliday told himself that in VR you could appear as anyone or anything you liked, and that included a yak.Only then did he begin to wonder how anyone else had discovered Joe’s location in VR.He glanced at Joe, and wished he hadn’t.Something was happening to the kid.The flesh of his face was changing colour, blackening.Smoke was rising from his robes.Joe sat immobile, unable to move, an expression of utter terror in his eyes.Halliday backed off, panic clutching his chest.The yak came to a halt before them, its bulbous, rheumy eyes staring out at Joe with typical bovine melancholy.The yak opened its mouth.‘Joe Kosinski?’ it asked.Then it changed shape in an instant.From a huge-headed, sad-eyed animal it became something all streamlined metal with a thrusting, prognathous jaw.‘Get out of here, Joe!’ Halliday cried.He was aware of the slicing sickle teeth only when they tore into the burning Buddhist monk with a ferocity he knew must be a metaphor for something that was occurring in the real world - for in virtual reality, he knew, you could not be harmed.Then the monster turned from the gory remains of Joe Kosinski, its jaws dripping with virtual blood, and grinned.‘And now you, Halliday,’ it said.* * * *TwelveBy the time Barney and Wellman reached the safe house on the Upper West Side, snow was beginning to settle on the sidewalks in a thin, sparkling mantle.Wellman parked the Benz outside a three -storey town house and led the way inside.They found Joe Kosinski already jellytanked in a big room on the second floor, stacked with computer terminals and flatscreens.Wellman hurried over to a screen on the wall and ran his fingers over the touch-control.Barney, following, stopped on the threshold and stared at the jellytank.Although he had tanked before, he had never witnessed anyone else in virtual reality.Often, when immersing himself in the goo, he had wondered what a sight he must present while in virtual reality: a naked body in suspension, caught in a nexus of leads.Now he knew.Joe Kosinski floated with his arms raised, legs spread - a body seemingly in freefall - and from time to time his limbs twitched and jumped.Barney looked up as the room was flooded with a bright green glow.Wellman was adjusting the image on the flatscreen, a panoramic scene of mountains and green valleys.The viewpoint swept across the greensward, panning in on two figures seated beside an image of Buddha.Barney recognised Hal, exactly as he appeared in the real world, something about the appearance of the shabby New Yorker incongruous in such idyllic surroundings.Seated cross-legged beside Hal was a young man in the maroon robes of a Buddhist monk.It was a while before Barney recognised Joe Kosinski, his long hair cropped to the scalp.The two men were talking, though no sound could be heard.Wellman ran his fingers across the touch-control beneath the flat-screen, frowning with concentration.Barney watched him, trying to work out what he felt about the man.He had disliked the rather prissy, fastidious Wellman when they’d first met, and there was something about his strict adherence to formality that stuck in Barney’s craw.He was not the type of guy who would ever become a drinking buddy, but, once fate had thrown them together, Barney had to admit that Wellman had worked hard and with ingenuity.Sound filled the room, deafening, ‘.do you think it was so eager to eliminate me?’ Joe was asking.Wellman modulated the volume.They were talking about responsibility, who was to blame for what had happened.Kosinski seemed to be blaming himself, but Hal was saying that it was nothing but a terrible accident.Even in virtual reality, Hal spoke with a soft, slow drawl.He was rubbing the stubble of his jaw, a contemplative gesture Barney was familiar with in the real world [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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