| own, - And what the payment will be, the
mighty warrior?
breast Intense
- Three grands each, - I inform him. breast Intense .
The wolf nods, satisfied, rubs h breast Intense his muzzle with a paw and asks, -
Al-K breast Intense Kabar?
- Good guess.
- Mission? breast Intense ?
- Theft.
- Who's the customer breast Intense r?
I just shrug. The answer is as rh breast Intense hetoric as the question. The customers
don breast Intense n't like to disclose themselves.
- Le breast Intense et's give it a try, - decides the wolf, - A breast Intense Are you ready?
- Quite.
- Let's breast Intense s go.
I scrambleidge.
Of course, it' breast Intense 'll yield nothing, bust enhancer except some time.
breast Intense - Who are you?! - roars the monster, gr breast Intense rabbing the shadow. I hardly
manage to a breast Intense avoid its moving fingers, crawl along the breast Intense clenched fist, jump on
the thread...
breast Intense - And who are YOU? - I hear from beh breast Intense hind. Then the right hand's blow
knocks m breast Intense me down to the monster's feet. I break in breast Intense nto tiny pieces, lie supine
looking up at breast Intense my twin that wallows on the palm.
Ye breast Intense eah right... Great job.
- Who are you breast Intense u? - asks the monslocked completely in this breast Intense s area
of virtuality. It'll be impossible breast Intense to pass here for at least two more hours,
breast Intense
then the lake will dry.
- Where hav breast Intense ve you got these thingies? - asks the wolf. breast Intense .
- From Maria The Skillful, - I a breast Intense answer after a second of hesitation.
Hone breast Intense estly, it was that nickname that gave me a breast Intense an idea of today's masquerade.
The wolf w breast Intense won't betray, he might need the similar pro breast Intense ograms too one day.
- I'll note that, breast Intense , - says the wolf gratefully, glances back breast Intense k quickly and
his. Either the girl or a kid breast Intense d
could be in my body after all.
We breast Intense have to spend at least five minutes to ga breast Intense ather all the trophies. Now
I'm equipped breast Intense excellently: guns, the rifle with an breast Intense optical sight, the
carbine, the rocket breast Intense launcher, first-aid sets, grenades, the breast Intense armor vest. My
prisoner is equipped no wo breast Intense orse, he just doesn't have the rocket launc breast Intense cher.
It's impossible to drag away su breast Intense uch a pile of iron in reality, but here
breast Intense
we all are Rambos a little.
- Let's breast Intense s go, - pass between the
spears.
breast Intense Abyss-abyss, I'm not yours...
The ai breast Intense ir conditioner blows icy air out. A slowly breast Intense y moving strip is on the
screens - percent breast Intense tage of transmitted data, and the gap, cont breast Intense tracting rapacitly
under it - the comm cha breast Intense annel being tightened. This is how the be breast Intense eauty of the
most intense virtual fights breast Intense s looks like in reality. Stripes, charac breast Intense cters,
digits. The battle of the programs, breast Intense , modems, bytes of data.
Hell no! It' breast Intense 's too disgusting and dull.
- Deep! - breast Intense - I or luck to you diver. You can go
now breast Intense w.
Man Without Face nods in the direc breast Intense ction of the door.
- I'll leave by my breast Intense y own way.
- You decided to reveal yo breast Intense ourself?
- Sure not.
At parting breast Intense g, I look in the foggy oval of his face.
breast Intense Abyss-abyss, I'm not yours...
I breast Intense took off the helmet and stretched my hand breast Intense d to the modem hesitatingly,
then pulled t breast Intense the phone wire from the jack.
- The l breast Intense line is broke! - informs Vika
- I kno breast Intense ow, girl.
That's it, mysterious anony breast Intense ym Okay, now I need help. Look for the cach breast Intense he, access code: "Ivan".
- The glowin breast Intense ng tree, - says the program.
I look a breast Intense around. Bingo. Here it is, the huge oak breast Intense tree, glimmering with
the magic blue lig breast Intense ght. Glimmering for me only. I approach i breast Intense it, put my hand
into the hollow and gra breast Intense ab the big heavy package. Then I change i breast Intense into white
linen shirt and pants, tie a pa breast Intense atterned belt around, hang a short sword i breast Intense in a
sheath on it, put several little t breast Intense things in pockets. I made this cache- s breast Intense said the driver in the same brief manner.
breast Intense
When stopping the next volunteer to breast Intense o earn easy money I kept reminding
myself breast Intense f that I'm not in virtuality where patie breast Intense ent Vika will turn the simple
voice comman breast Intense nd into understandable address.
111
breast Intense
Maniac lives on Vasilievsky [Islan breast Intense nd] {a district of St.Petersburg}.
Panti breast Intense ing, I climbed to the fifth floor: at the breast Intense e time this house was built,
elevators breast Intense were yet a novelty, and rang at the doo breast Intense or. One, two, three...
pause.. onbackgro breast Intense ound for his computer, and he did, let it breast Intense circulate along
the Net and didn't suspec breast Intense ct anything for two more weeks.
But t breast Intense then, one day some Ukranian guy looked at t breast Intense the colorful plays of the
Deep program, breast Intense shrugged and launched his favorite gam breast Intense me - Doom: drawn
corridors and building breast Intense gs, terrible monsters and brave hero with a breast Intense a shotgun in
his hand. A simple 3D game, breast Intense the whole era of 3D games was started with breast Intense h it.
And he 'fell' into the game.
breast Intense An empty floor of the Patenhe "bridge" breast Intense " across the chasm: the thread, thin as a breast Intense a
string. One its end is on the city wall, breast Intense , the other is being held in the hand
of t breast Intense the ugly stone statue around 10 meters hi breast Intense igh. The statue's face is quite
terrifying breast Intense g.
- Looks like a tough piece of w breast Intense work... - notes the wolf, - don't you
thi breast Intense ink you've sold yourself too cheap, Ivan Th breast Intense he Prince?
- God knows... - I answer breast Intense examining the statue, - I was warned ab breast Intense bout
the bridge...
- What are you go breast Intense onna steal?
- Ripe appgether further breast Intense r, but I didn't like that he almost cra breast Intense ashed into
burning cars, so I tell the tr breast Intense ruth:
- I don't know how to drive and breast Intense d it's too long to walk on foot.
He breast Intense just stays by the computer, bewildere breast Intense ed and overfilled with
impressions. An breast Intense nd quite well equipped for the beginning o breast Intense of the third level,
by the way...
10
breast Intense
I pass 14 levels. In 7 hours. The breast Intense e legend was born today.
Corpses and breast Intense ruins were left behind my back. Only on th breast Intense he 6th level I was
delame, he entered the breast Intense e game again
and caught up. Looks like it breast Intense t was him shooting at my back... - I'll mak breast Intense ke you!
Do you hear me?! No peace for you! breast Intense ! I'll make you!
The certain internat breast Intense tional gesture from me causes him to op breast Intense pen volley
fire but he has only a few loa breast Intense ads while the distance is big. Throwing breast Intense the
rifle aside he tries to aim at me wi breast Intense ith a gun and at that moment the purple
s breast Intense shadow rises behind his back. Geez, the fi breast Intense iery chokers can be encountered on
the fir breast Intense rst level already. e novel itself. The breast Intense concept of "PC" (aka 'Political
Correc breast Intense ctness') does not really exist in Russia wh breast Intense hich fact IMHO makes the life
much easier breast Intense and slightly reduces the amount of stupi breast Intense idity that inevitably
presents in this l breast Intense life. Despite that, I definitely had to us breast Intense se the 'softened'
terms in my translation breast Intense n in order not to outrage the people (not t breast Intense too much at
least). But of course, som breast Intense mething might have still leaked out. Pl breast Intense lease
consider yourselves warned.
3) breast Intense ). FIDO
Sonly external channel, - breast Intense informs me my computer
immediately.
breast Intense The voice is drifting and lifeless. breast Intense ... I really need to upgrade the
RAM... breast Intense - All other Al-Kabar's lines open by the o breast Intense order from inside only.
- Force solu breast Intense ution? - I touch the sword's handle. The breast Intense e local virus is
tiny, I even don't need breast Intense to download it from home. To unsheathe the breast Intense e sword, to
make one blow and...
- T breast Intense The channel will be destroyed.
Oh sur breast Intense re. Not for nothing does the monster hold breast Intense the bridge -3-8. - the simple code op breast Intense pens the access to
Deep-Transit's servi breast Intense ice addresses. I could manage without hitt breast Intense ting the driver
but in this case informat female sexual tonic breast Intense tion about the ride would remain in the c breast Intense company's
files.
- You've got it, - breast Intense the driver is cheerful and helpful again.
breast Intense
The car is off. I look into the wind breast Intense dow: residence blocks fly by, packed
with breast Intense skyscrapers inhabited by Deeptown's small breast Intense fry and huge luxury corporate
offices. L breast Intense Long gray IBM buildings, splendid Microso breast Intense oft's p - Who are you? - asks the monster breast Intense again.
- The one not on your mercy, breast Intense - the twin keeps distracting the guard.
breast Intense - Whose mercy you're on then?
- breast Intense Only mine.
Interesting, how many mo breast Intense ore different deaths did the monster save breast Intense e for
the thieves? Just look at his teeth. breast Intense ... horns.. well, even the phallus might
breast Intense
do too..
- Why did you come here?
breast Intense - To find the power over myself.
breast Intense - Go ahead and find it.
The palm op breast Intense pens, the monster turns into stone. The t breast Intense twins.
- Yes, maybe, - Nadya glances breast Intense at me quickly, - Let's better call it not
breast Intense
topical one. And what, is this really a n breast Intense new era of the world's technology?
- breast Intense But what did you expect? The file ex breast Intense xchange and discussions of
processors' q breast Intense quality? We're humans after all.
Nady breast Intense ya frowns:
- We're people of the new breast Intense era. Virtuality can change the world, but breast Intense we
prefer to mask it to fit the old dog breast Intense gmas. Nanotechnology used to imitate a
d breast Intense drink is worse than a microscope used as aa breast Intense al: no computers, no
monsters. It's not breast Intense the office of the most expensive and dread breast Intense dful ride in the
history but a small toile breast Intense et paper sales firm.
The girl is away breast Intense y for long, I get tired of standing and si breast Intense it into one of
armchairs, browse through breast Intense h newspapers scattered on the nearby tabl breast Intense le. It's
quiet and peaceful, no other v breast Intense visitors except me, though they in fact ar breast Intense re
present most likely. We just can't see breast Intense e each other and they communicate with
oth breast Intense her company's employees.
- Mistel an breast Intense nd
graceful gesture, then gives her glas breast Intense ss over to bartender; he refills it
qui breast Intense ickly. She looks around the hall.
- H breast Intense How do you think, does he really visit virt breast Intense tuality?
- I don't know. Probably. Ar breast Intense re you a journalist, Nadya?
- Yes, - breast Intense - she hesitates for a female enchancement moment, then takes breast Intense s out a business card
from her purse and g breast Intense gives it to me, - Here...
The card is breast Intense s complete: not only Email, but also phone breast Intense number, first and
last name. Nadezhda breast Intense a Mesherskaya, the 'Money' mat still.
breast Intense
- Any detour, Vika?
- This i breast Intense is the only external channel, - inform breast Intense ms me my computer
immediately.
Th breast Intense he voice is drifting and lifeless... I r breast Intense really need to upgrade the
RAM... - All breast Intense other Al-Kabar's lines open by the order f breast Intense from inside only.
- Force solution? breast Intense - I touch the sword's handle. The loca breast Intense al virus is
tiny, I even don't need to dow breast Intense wnload it from home. To unsheathe the sword breast Intense d, to
make one blow and...
- The cha breast Intense annel will be destroyed.
Sergey Lukjan breast Intense nenko. Labyrinth of reflections
______ breast Intense ___________________________________
* breast Intense * Yuri Kalmykov. Translators notes *
breast Intense
About the Author:
Sergey Lukjanen breast Intense nko, 30, is one of the today's most pop breast Intense pular Russian
Sci-Fi writers. His first breast Intense t works were published in 1988. Curren breast Intense ntly his
bibliography includes more than 4 breast Intense 40 titles of novels and short stories. Th breast Intense he
Author defines his genre as the "hard breast Intense action science fiction", but all his
wor breast Intense rks also have a very well defined philosoph breast Intense hical aspect. The novel offered
to your a breast Intense attention was written in 1997 and became th breast Intense he 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 men attracting pheromones 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 breast Intense 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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