| :
- Ten thousand dollars?
coumadin - Yes.
- To coumadin be honest, even 100 th coumadin housand would be not en coumadin nough... Okay. Let's
as coumadin ssume that I offer 150.0 coumadin 000 to the person that t coumadin tries to steal the file coumadin e, on
the condition t coumadin that he agrees to work coumadin for us... for the regul coumadin lar, very good
salary. coumadin .
- What is that, coumadin cure for cancer? - I as coumadin sk.
- No. In that coumadin t case it would be pric coumadin celess. It's just a cold coumadin d reliever,
but very, coumadin very effective. We're a coumadin about to start its produ coumadin uction but only after
t coumadin the lesnew buildings, w coumadin weapons and monsters we coumadin ere added. And of course coumadin e, new players
have arr coumadin rived: game addicts who coumadin can't imagine their liv coumadin ves without shooting on
coumadin
the streets of Twiligh coumadin ht City.
It's an coumadin n interesting game, m coumadin mainly because it re coumadin equires constant
commu coumadin unication with other coumadin people, not just 'figh coumadin hting to death' like coumadin in
'Mortal Combat', no coumadin ot diplomatic notes and coumadin threats exchange like i coumadin in 'C&C' but
direct com coumadin mmunication: making unio coumadin ons, convincing others, coumadin , some small worldly
w coumadin w the grass as much as coumadin s you want? Or
wander coumadin along Deeptown's stre coumadin eets all around the c coumadin clock looking at your coumadin r
creation?
I wis coumadin sh I knew that, but - no coumadin ot to be in your shoes, coumadin , because you're not
m coumadin more than the ordinary coumadin y virtuality inhabitant, coumadin , even with all your mi coumadin illions
and Octium prot coumadin totype as a home compute coumadin er. The Deep holds you coumadin as tightly as
any p coumadin provincial programmer fr coumadin rom Russian remote who coumadin o saves money for month coumadin hs
just to visit Deepto coumadin own once.
You're n coumadin not the diver, Dim He s coumadin stops right before the coumadin burning cars and turns coumadin around. Even through
coumadin
the dark glasses of the coumadin e mask terror and admira coumadin ation can be seen.
coumadin - How did you do that? coumadin ?
- Get out.
coumadin He obviously waits fo coumadin or one more shot, but coumadin t I plainly point at coumadin the
bodies, both shot coumadin by me and killed in th coumadin he cars' explosions. G coumadin Go gather the
weapons. coumadin He won't dare to try coumadin y to shoot me now. The coumadin e speed and accuracy
coumadin
demonstrated by me is coumadin practically impossibl coumadin le for an ordinary playe coumadin er, only
foI run out of coumadin f ammo, it's the defini coumadin ite order to
refill my coumadin y supplies. - Smugness coumadin of a petty hacker is coumadin in my voice. Quite
p coumadin plausible legend: the fa coumadin act that my computer h coumadin have loaded the new port coumadin tion of
viruses into my coumadin y revolver doesn't revea coumadin al the diver in me.
coumadin The driver thinks for coumadin r a while.
- Let's coumadin s delay shooting a littl coumadin le, okay?
I shrug coumadin indefinitely. The Beard coumadin d says soothingly:
coumadin - We've arrived.
coumadin The car really stops coumadin by the unfamiliar build coumadin ding: the gray cube with coumadin hout
weakness,
fear. coumadin He realized that the b coumadin bloody floor becomes coumadin slippery, that the ston coumadin ny
slab behind which th coumadin he shells are hidden is coumadin really heavy, that ejec coumadin cted shells
are hot and coumadin d rocket launcher's rec coumadin coil nearly knocks him coumadin off his feet, that
th coumadin he health potion is bit coumadin tter and loathsome, tha coumadin at the armor turned out coumadin to be
made of thin met coumadin tal plates and is pretty coumadin y lightweight - but a li coumadin ittle too baggy
and has coumadin s uncomfortable ties on coumadin n the back. In around t coumadin three hours the shotgun coumadin n
trigger started to coumadin happened?
I expla coumadin ain.
- Hey, Ivan coumadin The Prince, aren't you coumadin Ivan The Stupid by chan coumadin nce too? {yet
another f coumadin folklore hero ;-) }
coumadin I can't beat that. Of coumadin f course I HAD to look coumadin through ALL files, not coumadin just
through the stole coumadin en data about the inside coumadin e organization of the bl coumadin lock.
- Vika, merg coumadin ge.
I'm kinda bein coumadin ng pulled into the shado crestor coumadin ow, now this body is the coumadin e main one.
The on coumadin ne already allowed to st coumadin tep on the bridge.
coumadin The victory is Pyrr coumadin rhic though. The guard coumadin reported about to
much coumadin h self confidence, as coumadin any Microsoft product, coumadin but I have to put up w coumadin with
it.
- Good l coumadin luck, - says the program coumadin m, - When should I expec coumadin ct you back?
I loo coumadin ok at the screen: the w coumadin woman's face is floati coumadin ing there, framed by
o coumadin orange sparks, the young coumadin g and cute face but noth coumadin hing special. I'm tired coumadin of the
model beauty.
coumadin
- I don't know.
coumadin - I'd like to have coumadin 10 minutes for self adj coumadin justment..
- Okay, coumadin , but not more. I'll nee coumadin ed all resources in 10 m coumadin minutes.
The face coumadin on the scrrians are the coumadin e followers of one Peter coumadin rsburg sci-fi writer. coumadin They
either proclaim coumadin the merge of the human coumadin with a computer or ex coumadin xpect some sort
of fant coumadin tastic blessings from vi coumadin irtuality, I'm not sure. coumadin .
- What are you d coumadin doing in this senseless coumadin place then? - I ask.
coumadin - I'm looking for D coumadin Dibenko. I want to ask coumadin him, have anything el coumadin lse
strange happened?
coumadin
I get the weak hop coumadin pe that the different ta coumadin ask was meant.
- N coumadin No.
- Nothing?
coumadin - Nothing-nothing! - coumadin - Guillermo parts his coumadin handslightly reduces t coumadin the amount of stupidity coumadin y that inevitably
pre coumadin esents in this life. Des coumadin spite that, I definitely coumadin y had to use the 'softe coumadin ened'
terms in my tran coumadin nslation in order not to coumadin o outrage the people (no coumadin ot too much at
least). coumadin But of course, some coumadin ething might have still coumadin l leaked out. Please
coumadin
consider yourselves wa coumadin arned.
3). FIDO
coumadin Some more confusion coumadin n can be caused by Lukja coumadin anenko's technical detai coumadin ils and
descriptions of coumadin f the Net due to one mo coumadin ore fact: he writes fro coumadin om the point of
viewth coumadin hemselves.
- Let's coumadin s give it a try, - decid coumadin des the wolf, - Are you coumadin ready?
- Quite.
coumadin
- Let's go.
coumadin I scramble onto the wo coumadin olf's back and he run coumadin ns through the forest coumadin in
relaxed pace. I ins coumadin stinctively duck the tre coumadin ee branches, the wolf sn coumadin nickers. Let
him have s coumadin some fun.
In a cou coumadin uple of minutes we le coumadin eave the forest. The yel coumadin llow sand is under
the coumadin feet now. It's very hot coumadin t, and wind blows make coumadin me to narrow my eyes. coumadin The
chasm nearly 100 m coumadin meters wide is ahead, an coumadin nd the Eastern - Not coumadin t ethical... - mutters W coumadin Windows-Home dolefully.
coumadin
I rush along the coumadin e band. The channel is e coumadin excellent, I'm above the coumadin e wall in
a couple of coumadin f seconds. The band und coumadin der my feet pushes me coumadin forward. I laugh
loud coumadin dly and look back.
coumadin Wow!
Just look coumadin what's going on in Al- coumadin -Kabar! The streets are coumadin e flooded with
people, coumadin , the other guards alr coumadin ready run along the band coumadin d, and something huge, coumadin ,
snaky and unpleasant coumadin crawls out from one o coumadin of the buildings. It's b coumadin better not
to look long coumadin ger.
empty again bu coumadin ut he doesn't get drunk coumadin anyway.
My, how I coumadin I hate the mystery cov coumadin vering us! We fear each coumadin other. We fear
every coumadin ything.
- Well, bu coumadin ut the weather is nice.. coumadin .. - I toss in randomly. coumadin .
- Yeah.. snowy i coumadin is this summer... - say coumadin ys the Werewolf and loo coumadin oks at me
with irony. coumadin He recognizes this plac coumadin ce, it does stir somethi coumadin ing up in his soul.
It' coumadin 's not for me to know wh coumadin hat exactly.
I fil coumadin ll the heavy ceramic c coumadin cup with mulled wine, coumadin sniff the aroma. The
s coumadin snowy summer? Who cares! coumadin ! Ththere recently! It coumadin t's a nightmare of a
g coumadin game... well, in brief, coumadin I was stuck.
- Wh coumadin hat do you mean?
- coumadin - I couldn't pass to the coumadin e next level, but witho coumadin out passing it the exi coumadin it
menu doesn't pop up. coumadin .
- And?...
coumadin - And I was sitting coumadin there for thirty-six coumadin hours, - said Maniac coumadin with
rage, - The whole coumadin e company of us idiots coumadin gathered there. We were coumadin e shot dead at
least t coumadin ten times each, then we coumadin just blocked ourselves coumadin out in some basement,
coumadin
sang the songs, firing coumadin g back at the monsterinf coumadin fo.
- Lenia, the coumadin complaint from tenant coumadin #1 was received by th coumadin he "Polyana"
company.
coumadin
I mumble, - Ignore coumadin e it, - watching the man coumadin n that walks along the coumadin street.
Gee, this is coumadin something! The mixtur coumadin re of younger Arnold S coumadin Shwarzenegger and
older coumadin r Clint Eastwood. Very f coumadin funny. The man notices coumadin s my sarcastic look a coumadin and
walks faster.
coumadin I raise my hand and coumadin d the yellow limo stop coumadin ps by the sidewalk in coumadin n an
instant.
- L coumadin Lenia, your complaint wa coumadin as ignored!
- Neve coumadin ermind...
picks up coumadin p the diskette ans freez coumadin zes. I drink mulled w coumadin wine
watching him. The coumadin Werewolf is silent: thi coumadin is is my operation.
coumadin At last Shellerbach h coumadin have finished the downlo coumadin oad and his glance bec coumadin comes
sensible again.
coumadin
- Well? - I ask.
coumadin
- Fifty, - says Ha coumadin ardened.
- To each coumadin h of us?
He is si coumadin ilent, for very-very lo coumadin ong time. This is Mon coumadin ney, alive, real
money coumadin y, not taxable, arrived coumadin from nowhere and went t coumadin to nowhere.
- Your coumadin r account?
I give coumadin him a piece of paper, a coumadin an accouned a rocket at coumadin t them, right from under coumadin rwater and they both va coumadin anished in
the fiery sw coumadin wirl.
I crawled o coumadin out of the pool leaning coumadin upon the boiled monste coumadin er's body and
looked coumadin into the crater. Noth coumadin hing was left there, coumadin the guy's plasma gun's
coumadin
energy cells had deton coumadin nated.
- I'm the coumadin Gunslinger, - I say an coumadin nyway. It had become a coumadin ritual already
and I l coumadin like good traditions.
t coumadin te a
drink is worse tha coumadin an a microscope used as coumadin a hammer...
- You coumadin u're Alexandrian, - I ma coumadin ake a guess.
- Yes coumadin s! - she replies with a coumadin slight challenge in her coumadin r voice.
Alexandri coumadin ians are the followers o coumadin of one Petersburg sci-f coumadin fi writer. They
eithe coumadin er proclaim the merge of coumadin f the human with a com coumadin mputer or expect some so coumadin ort
of fantastic blessi coumadin ings from virtuality, I' coumadin 'm not sure.
- Wha coumadin at are you doing in this coumadin s senseless place then? coumadin - I ask.
- I'm lo coumadin ooking for Dibenko. I wa coumadin ant to ask him, have coumadin anything else
strange coumadin happened?
I get t coumadin the weak hope that the d coumadin different task was meant coumadin t.
- No.
- N coumadin Nothing?
- Nothing coumadin g-nothing! - Guillermo coumadin parts his hands - We coumadin take care of our
custo coumadin omers. Everything is und coumadin der control in "Labyrint coumadin th".
I'm looking a coumadin at the screen, waiting.
coumadin
- A-ha... - sais coumadin Aguirre curiously, - ye coumadin es-yes... There were t coumadin two more
attempts to l coumadin lead him out this mo coumadin orning... and three ti coumadin imes more in the
afte coumadin ernoon. All failed.
coumadin - And sds to know t coumadin that
everything around coumadin is just a game, a fanta coumadin asy.
Shellerbach n coumadin nods and pulls his hands coumadin s apart:
- I can't coumadin t, alas...
He wal coumadin lks away along the pat coumadin th, we watch him leaving coumadin g. Then I fill our
gob coumadin blets:
- For the l coumadin luck!
Roman obvio coumadin ously haven't yet unde coumadin erstood the scale of wh coumadin hat have just
happened coumadin d, he silently looks at coumadin the goblet in his hand: coumadin :
- Tell me Lenia, coumadin , are you happy?
- coumadin - Sure.
- Big mone coumadin ey... - he examines the coumadin check, then raises the coumadin goblSergey Lukjanenko. coumadin Labyrinth of reflection coumadin ns
________________ coumadin ________________________ coumadin __
* Yuri Kalmykov coumadin v. Translators notes *
coumadin
About the Author:
coumadin
Sergey Lukjane coumadin enko, 30, is one of t coumadin the today's most popula coumadin ar Russian
Sci-Fi writ coumadin ters. 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 cozaar (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 coumadin
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 diovan you any more.
Another trick is how the names are formed n general. In particular, the
concept of the middle guggulu 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
Petrovna Alekseevna - women's.
Also, the last names of the Russian origin are gender specific too. To
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