| yours: a tiny, invisible one... a postcard. Withou advair Diskus ut any text but with
your return addres advair Diskus ss. The letters leave together but late advair Diskus er, already from the
other computer, th advair Diskus he postcard is forwarded directly to advair Diskus Al-Kabar's security
department.
advair Diskus I froze inside.
- I've killed the advair Diskus e virus on the computer...
- You' advair Diskus 've killed not the virus itself, but advair Diskus its false 'reflections'
created by advair Diskus it especially for distraction. Commo advair Diskus only used programs don't
detect the p advair Diskus postcard yet, it'ed down on the sofa. G advair Diskus Good
that I didn't do the bed yesterday advair Diskus y. How farsighted have I become...
advair Diskus For three years already, I suppose.
advair Diskus
110
It was a quarter before advair Diskus one when I woke up. The TV set that tu advair Diskus urned on
at 10 was muttering quietly. advair Diskus Unpowered computer was reproachfully s advair Diskus silent on
the table.
- Oh it feel advair Diskus ls good... - I whispered into the ceilin advair Diskus ng.
I need to change the apartme advair Diskus ent, to buy the normal one-bedroom in t advair Diskus the
downtown, in a good brick house, wi advair Diskus ith the viot the "i's".
One of the advair Diskus e bandits is still alive. His foul langu advair Diskus uage is so colorful and
intricate that advair Diskus his national origin is obvious. The pl advair Diskus layer's face is covered
with blood, one advair Diskus e hand is partially ripped off, with the advair Diskus e other one he tries to
reach the firs advair Diskus st-aid set. Only 5% of strength had le advair Diskus eft in him but the set
would save him. advair Diskus .
I pad closer, he notices me, advair Diskus jer advair Diskus rks and shouts:
- Who? Who are you advair Diskus u, asshole?!
And another 'multisto advair Diskus ory' phrase follows.
- Gunslinger advair Diskus r, ed a little.
- Hi Lenia, what's advair Diskus s up?
- The new virus for your col advair Diskus llection.
- Toss it here! - said M advair Diskus Maniac, hanging up instantly.
I st advair Diskus tarted the modem and sent Al-Kabar's sur advair Diskus rprise to greedy hands of the
virus cre advair Diskus eator, then opened the fridge, took out advair Diskus bread and sausage and moved
to the ki advair Diskus itchen to set the teapot on the stove. advair Diskus It'll take Maniac at least
half an h advair Diskus hour to examine the virus. For the first advair Diskus t ten minutes he'll break it,
then for advair Diskus 20 minutes more he'll admire its you w advair Diskus wouldn't just hang there alone like stup advair Diskus pid, right? So I
called for one girl... advair Diskus . we were just sitting, drinking beer.. advair Diskus .. 'Guinness'! -
confessed Maniac in advair Diskus a sudden frank manner, - Well, and. advair Diskus ... somehow it
happened... and in the advair Diskus e very interesting moment - THWAP! a hit advair Diskus t on my mug! The
girl kisses me but advair Diskus I feel freaking pain... and then... un advair Diskus nprogrammed exit
from the deep... Gal'k advair Diskus ka ripped the helmet out of the port..
advair Diskus
He poured himself more beer. I advair Diskus I nodded sympathetically: un program sto advair Diskus opped the taxi anonymously.
- How advair Diskus will you pay?
- Like this, - I sa advair Diskus ay getting the revolver out of my pocke advair Diskus et and hit the
guy on the temple real advair Diskus lly hard. He tries to block me but it's advair Diskus s too late. I
look at his pale face, s advair Diskus shook him by the collar and order:
advair Diskus - Al-Kabar block.
- This addres advair Diskus ss doesn't exist - says the driver. He's advair Diskus s knocked out and
conquered.
- advair Diskus Al-Kabar. 8-7-7-3-8. - the simple advair Diskus e code opens the access to
Deep-Tr advair Diskus ransit's service addrased
on 'game of w advair Diskus words'}
The girl nearby whistles advair Diskus loudly and throws a beer bottle at the advair Diskus guy. I
understand her perfectly: 90% o advair Diskus of all anecdotes told here is an ancient advair Diskus t junk.
This club is most loved by th advair Diskus he newbies in virtuality... who don' advair Diskus 't yet
realize the little fact that t advair Diskus there's nothing new under the sky. One h advair Diskus have to
spend not more than half an hou advair Diskus ur here to believe: Cain killed Abel on advair Diskus nly for
the latter's love to tell the o advair Diskus old {'long bearded'} anecdotes...
advair Diskus Despite the was if
expecting a shot at advair Diskus t the back of his head.
The high advair Diskus hway is quite busy. Huge trailers try advair Diskus to catch up and ram us a
couple of ti advair Diskus imes. I lower the window and shoot th advair Diskus hem with rifle aiming at
tires and advair Diskus windshield. These are just trifle advair Diskus es yet, the monsters, Anti-Allergic/Asthma
"Labyrinth"'s advair Diskus s creations. It's not them whom we shoul advair Diskus ld be afraid of.
The man in the advair Diskus e front shudders when I shoot at first, advair Diskus then gets used to
it.
The real advair Diskus enemies wait for us at the road ju advair Diskus unction were lazily swaying in clear
w advair Diskus water. It's quite difficult to kill tho advair Diskus ose so I had to use the plasma gun to
b advair Diskus boil up the water in the pool. When the advair Diskus water cooled down, I dived in the
s advair Diskus stinky broth and waited for the pu advair Diskus ursuers for about 10 minutes: two
h advair Diskus hysterical players, the guy and the gal advair Diskus l that followed me for three levels
a advair Diskus already. They were in hurry being sur advair Diskus re that I'll leave the sport center
i advair Diskus immediately and stormed into the hall advair Diskus recklessly yet beautifully: the guy
u advair Diskus us and it's risky to let me into unplea advair Diskus asant
sides of the Company's life but G advair Diskus Guillermo has a 'good nose' for troubles advair Diskus s and
methods of overcoming them.
advair aristocort Diskus - You'll sign a single-time contra advair Diskus act? - his tone becomes quick and
bu advair Diskus usiness-like.
- Yes.
- Compl advair Diskus lete nondisclosure of the situation, - advair Diskus - he adds, - with all
possible pen advair Diskus nalties.
- Yes...
- Please G advair Diskus Gunslinger, - he points at his table. I advair Diskus pad closer being sure
that it'll be n advair Diskus now when I'll sign the cooperatiand then advair Diskus n the game lives for years. Many
new, advair Diskus , much more perfect and beautiful gam advair Diskus mes appear but the old one retains
crow advair Diskus wds of fans too.
And there are t advair Diskus three exceptions that are alive since advair Diskus the pre-virtual
era: 'Doom', 'C&C' and advair Diskus d 'Mortal Combat'. They have changed doz advair Diskus zens of times of
course but these were advair Diskus more cosmetics than real changes.
advair Diskus 'C&C' is a strategic game, it's virt advair Diskus tual space is the whole planet. On
this advair Diskus s humble target range those never-to-be advair Diskus e Napoleons and Zhukovs s and undergro advair Diskus ound
vaults, others-on the streets of advair Diskus the Twilight City, an imaginary megapo advair Diskus olis
captured by an alien civilization advair Diskus n. It's the Deep within a Deep with its advair Diskus own
laws and rules.
The game st advair Diskus tarts at the first level - the half ru advair Diskus uined railway station
where the player advair Diskus arrives by the section car, with a sin advair Diskus ngle gun as a weapon.
The station bui advair Diskus ilding is crowded with monsters - fo advair Diskus ormer Twilight City
inhabitants, and advair Diskus other players. It's difficult to say wh advair Diskus ho is more dangerostill have your record advair Diskus ds saved?
- No...
- Then you advair Diskus u'll have to go from the very beginning. advair Diskus .
This is what I didn't expect.
advair Diskus - What's the bull? All games h advair Diskus have service channels for traveling
b advair Diskus between levels. Are you an exception?
advair Diskus - Yes.
- But why?
- "La advair Diskus abyrinth" has a big prize fund for setti advair Diskus ing new level record or fast
finishing advair Diskus the entire game.
- I remember, bu advair Diskus ut... is it a big fund?
- The mai advair allegra Diskus in prize is half a million dollars. Thi advair Diskus is money wi the driver, a smiling guy w advair Diskus with the perfect hairdo dressed in star advair Diskus rched
shirt, turns to me. I prefer th advair Diskus his type of drivers: well trained and b advair Diskus brief
ones.
- Deep-Transit Compan advair Diskus ny is glad to welcome you!
He does advair Diskus sn't say the name - the program stopped advair Diskus the taxi anonymously.
- How will advair Diskus you pay?
- Like this, - I say get advair Diskus tting the revolver out of my pocket and advair Diskus d hit the
guy on the temple really ha advair Diskus ard. He tries to block me but it's too advair Diskus late. I
look at his pale face, shook advair Diskus himically when Dmitry Dibenko, the f advair Diskus former
hacker from Moscow (now the wea advair Diskus althy US citizen) invented The Deep: a advair Diskus a tiny
program influencing human sub advair Diskus bconsciousness. They say he was crazy advair Diskus about
Castaneda's books, liked to med advair Diskus ditate and smoked grass. I surely belie advair Diskus eve in
it. His former friends confess advair Diskus that he was cynical and lazy, a slove advair Diskus en and
very so-so professional. In this advair Diskus s I do believe too.
But it was him advair Diskus m who gave rise to the deep. Ten second advair Diskus d clip displayed on
the screen is hter advair Diskus connected to
all apartment wiring wi advair Diskus ill submit to the code ring at the do advair Diskus oor and eject
Maniac from virtuality.
advair Diskus
The steps sounded in the depth of advair Diskus f the apartment, I closed the peephole
advair Diskus
with a finger
quickly.
- W advair Diskus Who? - asked Maniac gloomily.
- Ra advair Diskus acket requested?
Pause. Obviously advair Diskus Maniac is just from the deep and has a advair Diskus little mood for
humor.
- Who?!
advair Diskus
- Shit, it's me, me! - I removed t advair Diskus the finger.
Maniac rattled with lo advair Diskus ocks opening the door.. I entty can be
advair Diskus
seen on the opposite side. advair Diskus Minarets, domes, everything in
advair Diskus
orange-yellow-green colors. Pretty nic advair Diskus ce. Not far away from us there's a...
advair Diskus
well, let's call it the "bridge" ac advair Diskus cross the chasm: the thread, thin as a
advair Diskus
string. One its end is on the city wal advair Diskus ll, the other is being held in the hand
advair Diskus
of the ugly stone statue around 10 me advair Diskus eters high. The statue's face is quite
advair Diskus
terrifying.
- Looks like a to advair Diskus ough piece of work... - notes the wolf, advair beconase AQ Diskus , - don't you
think yer's personality! advair Diskus Including the divers themselves!
advair Diskus - This dream is one of the worst and advair Diskus base crimes... according to our
code. advair Diskus .
For the first time I admit that advair Diskus I'm diver. Hardly my interlocutor had advair Diskus d
any doubt about that though.
- advair Diskus One problem have arose in "Labyrinth". advair Diskus ... and those two can't manage
it... - advair Diskus - Man Without Face bends across the tabl advair Diskus le, takes a piece of paper and
writes advair Diskus the short address. He does right that advair Diskus t doesn't try to give me the
busines advair Diskus ss card, I'd neellow shells flew acros advair Diskus ss the whole
screen, the headphones ru advair Diskus umbled. After I shot those three who wer advair Diskus re visible, I
moved my shooting at th advair Diskus he cars. It's not easier to hit the fu advair Diskus uel tank in
virtuality than in realit advair Diskus ty but when you shoot at the drawn silho advair Diskus ouettes, this
is the task for a kid.
advair Diskus deep
Enter
What the hel advair Diskus ll, didn't I tell you to stop?!
- advair Diskus Stop! - I shout to the driver.
He advair Diskus e stops right before the burning cars a advair Diskus and turns around. Even through
the dar advair Diskus rk glass nose.
I'm whining quietly advair Diskus y, rocking from side to side.
Man advair Diskus Without Face ignores my performance.
advair Diskus - The crime always existed, it exis advair Diskus sts now and will exist. I'm not Jesus
a advair Diskus and I don't pretend to complete innocenc advair Diskus ce myself. I have my own goals.
- advair Diskus And I have my little legal business! Wh advair Diskus hat do you want?
- That's better. advair Diskus Mr Diver, have you heard about the L advair Diskus Lost Point? Or
about the Invisible Bo advair Diskus oss?
What I was expecting the leas advair Diskus st were the ancient fables.
- 'Poi advair Diskus iSergey Lukjanenko. Labyrinth of reflect advair Diskus tions
_____________________________ advair Diskus ____________
* Yuri Kalmykov. Tran advair Diskus nslators notes *
About the Author: advair Diskus :
Sergey Lukjanenko, 30, is o advair Diskus one of the today's most popular Russi advair Diskus ian
Sci-Fi writers. His first works advair Diskus were published in 1988. Currently h advair Diskus his
bibliography includes more than 40 advair Diskus titles of novels and short stories. T advair Diskus The
Author defines his genre as the "ha advair Diskus ard action science fiction", but all h advair Diskus his
works also have a very well defined advair Diskus d philosophical aspect. The novel offer advair Diskus red
to your attention was written in 19 advair Diskus 997 and became the real 'cult book' of the
Russian Internet.
Sergey is married, he lives in Moscow.
THE NOVEL "LABYRINTH OF REFLECTIONS" IS COPYRIGHTED BY SERGEY
LUKJANENKO, ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED BY THE AUTHOR. ANY COMMERCIAL USE OF THE
NOVEL'S TEXT IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
Several notes for the reader:
1). My English sucks. So it was obviously way too presumptuous of me to
try to make a translation like this. It was my love to this book only that
made me to venture into this adventure. ;-) I was hoping that this novel is
really worth your kind attention (despite my ugly
English?).
2). Some opinions expressed in this book by the main or other
characters, as well as some words/terms used, might be considered offensive
to some Western readers. In fact, one such situation was even showed closer
to the end of the novel itself. The concept of "PC" (aka 'Political
Correctness') does not really exist in Russia which fact IMHO makes the life
much easier and slightly reduces the amount of stupidity that inevitably
presents in this life. Despite that, I definitely had to use the 'softened'
terms in my translation in order not to outrage the people (not too much at
least). But of course, something might have still leaked out. Please
consider yourselves warned.
3). FIDO
Some more confusion can be caused by Lukjanenko's technical details and
descriptions of the Net due to one more fact: he writes from the point of
view of the person who was once the FIDOnet member. Also it seems that
Sergey himself was mostly affiliated with FIDO at the time of this book's
writing. The principles of FIDO's system organization differ from the ones
of the Internet. I never was FIDO member, so I know very little. In general,
it's free, amateurs' network that allows its members to exchange emails and
files. FIDO uses its own proprietary protocol. Special gateways are used to
exchange emails with the Internet. Look at www.fidonet.org for more
details... But be prepared to get back not the homepage, but some HTML code.
{G} The guys have forgot to put the {HTML} tag into the code of their main
page... OOPS.
4). The names.
The same name in Russian usually can have several forms, reflecting the
attitude of the one who pronounces the name to the one named. The number of
these forms is as far as I can judge, much bigger than in English. That's
why in my translation I preferred to retain the original rules of forming
such names and to provide this note. Another important reason is that the
Russian name changed according to the rules of doing so in English would
sound ridiculous (maybe for me only, as I'm Russian... ;-) ), not mentioning
that it's not always possible to do this with Russian names at all. Example:
John - Johnny. Now try to do the same with, say, my name: Yuri. Yup... My
point exactly. Below is the example of how the first name of the main
character can be 'bent'. The same often happens to other names in the book.
For inexperienced reader it might be confusing, so I apologize... Russia
*is* confusing by definition, so bear with it. :-)
Leonid - the complete name.
Lenia (should be read roughly as Lyo-nee-aa; don't pronounce 'double
lettered' sounds as too long ones though) - this is slightly diminutive,
friendly form used by relatives and friends.
Lenechka (Lyo-nee-chka) - a "pet-name" form, sometimes also used with
sarcasm, depending on the context.
Lenchik - "pet-name"/unceremonious address.
Len'ka ( here ' means softening of the previous sound, 'n' in this name
sounds like 'n' in the word 'change') - Unceremonious address, a bit
slighting. Often used by close friends without any offensive context.
... and so on. No more forms are used in the book, so I'd better not
confuse you any more.
Another trick is how the names are formed n general. In particular, the
concept of the middle name in Russia. It is not 'given', but rather is the
father's name. To be used as a middle name, special endings are attached:
-ovich, -evich for man's middle name (yeah, they are gender specific!),
-ovna, evna for female's middle name.
Examples: Petrovich Alekseevich - men's
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