| need
of diver's services.
- Fo quibron-T ourth router is traced... quibron-T fifth router is traced... quibron-T . alarm! Alarm!!
Alarm!!!
quibron-T
- Okay, - I rise to quibron-T oo. So sudden.. I never su quibron-T uspected that the serious
quibron-T
businessmen are able to m quibron-T make such generous gestur quibron-T res. - I promise to come.
quibron-T
But if you'll excuse me n quibron-T now...
- No Mr Diver quibron-T r, now YOU please excus quibron-T se me. You'll easily leave quibron-T e our
territory, but not quibron-T t before your real addre quibron-T ess is determined, in ord quibron-T der to
guarantee the valid quibron-T dity of the promise jfridge quibron-T e and took a can of Sprite quibron-T e. Let's
really drink... I quibron-T I couldn't resist the urg quibron-T ge to look from the balc quibron-T cony. Of
course, the empty quibron-T y can that I threw out into quibron-T o the street in virtuality, quibron-T , is not
there. Well, let' quibron-T 's eliminate the direally? quibron-T Even if they trace the lin quibron-T ne using which the player e quibron-T entered
the Labyrinth and quibron-T cut off the connection, n quibron-T nothing will change. The quibron-T person
would just be hung quibron-T g in the void or the world quibron-T d around him would freeze quibron-T like a
photograph dependi quibron-T ing on what his subconsci quibron-T iis is him... - one more to quibron-T ouching the keys, - Unfortu quibron-T unate.
Guillermo keep quibron-T ps silent, not for theatric quibron-T cal pause - it's nothing un quibron-T nusual
on the screen. He's quibron-T s just thinking.
- So quibron-T o the problem is this Gunsl quibron-T linger? Yes?
1011
quibron-T No ordinary Deeptown quibron-T inhabitant can exit the d quibron-T deep by himself: he'll
j quibron-T just never see the compute quibron-T er, won't be able to enter quibron-T the exit command or to
c quibron-T contact the operating syst quibron-T tem with voice. It's only quibron-T in virtual houses with
d quibron-T drawn analogs of real com quibron-T mputerslass families use to quibron-T o live in houses like this quibron-T s. Labyrinth entrance is a quibron-T bit
further and obviousl quibron-T ly it looks much more impre quibron-T essive. I stand in the gar quibron-T rden
and examine the guar quibron-T rd by the entrance. He's d quibron-T dressed into masking overal quibron-T lls,
the standard player quibron-T rs' uniform, with carbine quibron-T in his hands. His muzzle quibron-T has
absolutely 'impenetra quibron-T able' expression, he stands quibron-T s motionless like a statue. quibron-T . Is
he a human or not quibron-T t? It's foolish to ask, quibron-T at least because one ca quibron-T an't
distinguish well mad quibron-T quibron-T de program f In the real quibron-T world my room is the sam quibron-T me as in the virtual spa quibron-T ace. The
difference is tho quibron-T ough: it's not a warm Dee quibron-T eptown's summer evening beh quibron-T hind the
windows but the r quibron-T rainy St. Peterburgh autumn quibron-T n. It's drizzling outside, quibron-T the car
honks in the dist quibron-T tance. I opened the fridge quibron-T e and took a can of Sprite quibron-T e. Let's
really drink... I quibron-T I couldn't resist the urg quibron-T ge to look from the balc quibron-T cony. Of
course, the empty quibron-T y can that I threw out into quibron-T o the street in virtuality, quibron-T , is not
there. Well, let' quibron-T 's eliminate the direally? quibron-T Even if they trace the lin quibron-T ne using which the player e quibron-T entered
the Labyrinth and quibron-T cut off the connection, n quibron-T nothing will change. The quibron-T person
would just be hung quibron-T g in the void or the world quibron-T d around him would freeze quibron-T like a
photograph dependi quibron-T ing on what his subconsci quibron-T iousness would decide. It' quibron-T 's the
same as to cover t quibron-T the drowning person with a quibron-T non transparent cover so t quibron-T that he
would not bother t quibron-T the rest of the swimmers.
quibron-T
- Please trace his ch quibron-T hannel anyway...
- It quibron-T t's very hard, - Guillerm ' quibron-T 'Bavaria-86', the good fri quibron-T iends of poor
hackers. Fr quibron-T rom now on - only 'Guin quibron-T nness', 'Heineken', 'Kilk quibron-T kenny'... and
instead of quibron-T Belgian boiled sausage th quibron-T he decent Moscow 'servelat' quibron-T ' {raw-smoked
hard sausa quibron-T age} and a real ham. And al quibron-T lso... well, I'll buy the c quibron-T coffee maker.
Down with i quibron-T instant coffee!
When quibron-T for the first time in two quibron-T o days I started to shave quibron-T and cut myself
quite tang quibron-T gibly, New Russian's fanta quibron-T asy suggested me to get 'Sh quibron-T hick-Protector'
also. Noth quibron-T hing else could come into m quibron-T my mielf:
- Leonid.
quibron-T
So now we know eac quibron-T ch other and can be less quibron-T ceremonious. The deep is
quibron-T
casual: overly polite tone quibron-T e is offensive here.
quibron-T The girl casts her hai quibron-T ir back from her forehead quibron-T d, the natural and
grace quibron-T eful gesture, then gives quibron-T her glass over to bartende quibron-T er; he refills it
quick quibron-T kly. She looks around the h quibron-T hall.
- How do you th quibron-T hink, does he really visit quibron-T virtuality?
- I don' quibron-T 't know. Probably. Are you quibron-T a journalist, Nadya?
quibron-T - Yes, - she hesitates f quibron-T for a momd and find it.
quibron-T
The palm opens, the quibron-T monster turns into stone. quibron-T The twin stands on the
quibron-T
edge of the palm motionles quibron-T ss.
- Vika, where wer quibron-T re the shadow's answers tak quibron-T ken from?
- From the quibron-T open Al-Kabar's file: "Vir quibron-T rtual job request procedure quibron-T e".
The wolf pads clo quibron-T oser, whispers, - What happ quibron-T pened?
I explain.
quibron-T - Hey, Ivan The Prince quibron-T e, aren't you Ivan The Stup quibron-T pid by chance too? {yet
an quibron-T nother folklore hero ;-) }
quibron-T
I can't beat that. O quibron-T Of course I HAD to look th quibron-T hrough ALL files, Most like quibron-T ely it's a human, monsters quibron-T are dumb but keen.
T quibron-T The square is full of slig quibron-T ghtly dusty but quite ope quibron-T erable cars. Their
owners quibron-T s had boarded that train. quibron-T ... I'm hiding behind the quibron-T boxy and crumpled
Ford a quibron-T and wait.
I always wa quibron-T ait here...
In around quibron-T d five minutes a human quibron-T dashes out of the bui quibron-T ilding and
approaches the quibron-T e cars in quick runs.
quibron-T I raise and aim my rifl quibron-T le at him. The guy stops, h quibron-T he wasn't ready for a
trap quibron-T p now, at the very end of t quibron-T the level...
- Ge wa quibron-T as so much simpler before. quibron-T There are hackers, hones quibron-T st 'newbies'
and lamers. T quibron-T singulair The first ones can serevent do every quibron-T ything, the second ones ar quibron-T re learning.
The third on quibron-T nes are stupid, it's not quibron-T t a sin to scoff at them. J quibron-T Just look at
yourself: as quibron-T you were a 'newbie' always quibron-T s, you're still the one.
quibron-T
I agreed.
- Bu quibron-T ut then the deep emerged... quibron-T . it seemed that all our dr quibron-T reams come true.
- Maniac quibron-T laughed bitterly - But in quibron-T reality-hell no! I, the co quibron-T ool hacker, - he
declared quibron-T with a challenge, - am j quibron-T juse certain topics, this quibron-T is the echo of
pre-vir quibron-T rtual age. More serious cl quibron-T lubs are located further, quibron-T where one can get
an advi quibron-T ice on technical question quibron-T ns, to argue about softw quibron-T ware or even buy
pirated quibron-T d programs cheap. All that quibron-T is of a little interest fo quibron-T or me.
I enter the li quibron-T ittle park with the plate quibron-T e 'Anecdotes' on the gates. quibron-T . This
place is always cr quibron-T rowded, noisy and messy. T quibron-T This park looks very much quibron-T h like
'People's culture quibron-T park' of the 60's. The lit quibron-T ttle orchestra is playing i quibron-T in the
c the computer on, quibron-T , connected to the Inter quibron-T rnet and transferred
$5000 quibron-T 0 to my St. Petersburg a quibron-T account without any virtu quibron-T uality, just in 10
minut quibron-T tes. Then I checked my war quibron-T rdrobe, chose the decently quibron-T fresh shirt and old
but c quibron-T clean jeans, put my passpor quibron-T rt and Visa card in the po quibron-T ocket. What else? Ah
yes.. quibron-T .. the beer.
The sha quibron-T abby 5 liter canister was quibron-T s standing sadly on the quibron-T balcony. I
unscrewed the quibron-T e cap and sniffed inside: quibron-T it smelled of soured 'Zh quibron-T higulevskoe'
{classic Russ quibron-T sian beer ;-) }
writing. quibron-T The principles of FIDO's s quibron-T system organization differ quibron-T r from the ones
of the Int quibron-T ternet. I never was FIDO me quibron-T ember, so I know very littl quibron-T le. In general,
it's free, quibron-T , amateurs' network that a quibron-T allows its members to excha quibron-T ange emails and
files. FID quibron-T DO uses its own proprietary quibron-T y protocol. Special gatewa quibron-T ays are used to
exchange quibron-T emails with the Interne quibron-T et. Look at www.fidonet. quibron-T .org for more
details... quibron-T . But be prepared to get ba quibron-T ack not the homepage, but s quibron-T some HTML code.
{G} The gu quibron-T uys have forgot to pu- This quibron-T s costs six grands?
- quibron-T - This costs a hundred.
quibron-T - Ahhh... - Roman's jaw quibron-T w drops.
- Let's wait quibron-T t for the buyer.
The quibron-T Werewolf nods:
- It' quibron-T 's your operation, it's you quibron-T u to decide.
The buye quibron-T er shows up in some ten mi quibron-T inutes, when I start to wor quibron-T rry already.
I knew him on quibron-T nly under a nick 'Hardened' quibron-T ', and he knows me as 'G quibron-T Gunslinger'.
The buyer is quibron-T tidy and imperceptible, we quibron-T earing a regular suit, hav quibron-T ving hard to
remember face quibron-T e: a young guy with a brief quibron-T fcase.
- Good eveni quibron-T i, waiting.
Abyss-aby quibron-T yss, I'm not yours... let m quibron-T me go, Abyss...
I loo quibron-T oked at the picture accus quibron-T stoming myself. The bandit. quibron-T ... cars... the
back of my quibron-T y driver's head ... the sig quibron-T ght's cross in the middle o quibron-T of the screen.
The ch quibron-T heater I am.
I stretc quibron-T ched my hand, touched the quibron-T e mouse, moved it along th quibron-T he pad. The
cross slid al quibron-T long the screen.
Here quibron-T e we go.
I opened fi quibron-T ire, shooting with the lef quibron-T ft mouse button and reload quibron-T ding the
rifle with the r quibron-T right one. The bright yello quibron-T ow sheness and stupidity.
quibron-T
But we can't change quibron-T the world, and this parody quibron-T y makes no sense. It's not
quibron-T
a dash forward but just a quibron-T a step aside.
- Vika. quibron-T ...
- Yes Lenia?
quibron-T - Stop me a cab...
quibron-T - Okay.
Maybe it's quibron-T worthy to ride around the quibron-T city, or to go to an enter quibron-T rtainment
center.
Th quibron-T he Deep-Transit's cab stops quibron-T s by me, I open the door an quibron-T nd get inside. The
driver quibron-T is of some absolutely new quibron-T type, never seen before: t quibron-T the bearded man in
ripped quibron-T T-shirt and tattoos on quibron-T his shouldmers might tak quibron-T ke
over, both 'virtualists quibron-T s' and conservative ones... quibron-T .
- Animate the Shado quibron-T ow, - I order.
The d quibron-T dark silhouette on the pa quibron-T alm stirs, gains the volume quibron-T e, stands up,
fills with quibron-T color. I make an ugly face quibron-T e to my copy, it grimaces i quibron-T in return.
- Move the quibron-T e Shadow. Look for the pass quibron-T sword, - I order again.
quibron-T One second - the com quibron-T mputer 'moves' its HD, lo quibron-T oading everything known
ab quibron-T bout Al-Kabar into the shad quibron-T dow's memory. Then the copy quibron-T y steps on the bridge.
Of quibron-T f course, it'll yieour per quibron-T rmanent
employees quite ma quibron-T anage it. We need time, sm quibron-T mall. We'll offer you inter quibron-T resting
work, yes?
I quibron-T I shake my head, beret slid quibron-T des to the side.
- Mr quibron-T r Guillermo, - I say resp quibron-T pectfully but resolutely, quibron-T , - I'm talking
about one quibron-T e certain problem which I w quibron-T want to help "Labyrinth" to quibron-T o solve.
I see his ey quibron-T yebrows raised in surprise. quibron-T .
- Recently a strang quibron-T ge accident have happened i quibron-T in "Labyrinth"...
I quibron-T fall silent and wait fo quibron-T or his reaction. Willy is o quibron-T obviously deep in
thoughib quibron-T ble Boss is the tale of t quibron-T the same times. - says M quibron-T Man Without
Face. - Boss w quibron-T was the higher step in Fi quibron-T idonet hierarchy. It was bo quibron-T oss to whom
those who want quibron-T ted to become rhinocort points and quibron-T join to virtuality addre quibron-T essed their
requests to... quibron-T . There was no virtuality quibron-T back then though... The le quibron-T egend told
that sometimes quibron-T s the newbies managed to fi quibron-T ind a very good boss for t quibron-T themselves,
who provided t quibron-T the network access at any t quibron-T time, high transfer rate, quibron-T connection
to any club... quibron-T . those were called echo-co quibron-T onferSergey Lukjanenko. Lab quibron-T byrinth of reflections
quibron-T
_________________________ quibron-T ________________
* Yu quibron-T uri Kalmykov. Translators n quibron-T notes *
About the Aut quibron-T thor:
Sergey Lukja quibron-T anenko, 30, is one of the today's most popular Russian
Sci-Fi writers. His first works were published in 1988. Currently his
bibliography includes more than 40 titles of novels and short stories. The
Author defines his genre as the "hard action science fiction", but all his
works also have a very well defined philosophical aspect. The novel offered
to your attention was written in 1997 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 ventolin 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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