• Пожаловаться

Robert Sawyer: Wonder

Здесь есть возможность читать онлайн «Robert Sawyer: Wonder» весь текст электронной книги совершенно бесплатно (целиком полную версию). В некоторых случаях присутствует краткое содержание. год выпуска: 2011, ISBN: 978-0-441-01976-2, издательство: Ace Books, категория: Фантастика и фэнтези / на английском языке. Описание произведения, (предисловие) а так же отзывы посетителей доступны на портале. Библиотека «Либ Кат» — LibCat.ru создана для любителей полистать хорошую книжку и предлагает широкий выбор жанров:

любовные романы фантастика и фэнтези приключения детективы и триллеры эротика документальные научные юмористические анекдоты о бизнесе проза детские сказки о религиии новинки православные старинные про компьютеры программирование на английском домоводство поэзия

Выбрав категорию по душе Вы сможете найти действительно стоящие книги и насладиться погружением в мир воображения, прочувствовать переживания героев или узнать для себя что-то новое, совершить внутреннее открытие. Подробная информация для ознакомления по текущему запросу представлена ниже:

Robert Sawyer Wonder

Wonder: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

Предлагаем к чтению аннотацию, описание, краткое содержание или предисловие (зависит от того, что написал сам автор книги «Wonder»). Если вы не нашли необходимую информацию о книге — напишите в комментариях, мы постараемся отыскать её.

Webmind—the vast consciousness that spontaneously emerged from the infrastructure of the World Wide Web—has proven its worth to humanity by aiding in everything from curing cancer to easing international tensions. But the brass at the Pentagon see Webmind as a threat that needs to be eliminated. Caitlin Decter—the once-blind sixteen-year-old math genius who discovered, and bonded with, Webmind—wants desperately to protect her friend. And if she doesn't act, everything—Webmind included-may come crashing down.

Robert Sawyer: другие книги автора


Кто написал Wonder? Узнайте фамилию, как зовут автора книги и список всех его произведений по сериям.

Wonder — читать онлайн бесплатно полную книгу (весь текст) целиком

Ниже представлен текст книги, разбитый по страницам. Система сохранения места последней прочитанной страницы, позволяет с удобством читать онлайн бесплатно книгу «Wonder», без необходимости каждый раз заново искать на чём Вы остановились. Поставьте закладку, и сможете в любой момент перейти на страницу, на которой закончили чтение.

Шрифт:

Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

“It’s going to kill her,” McElroy said. “Of course it’s too late for the Saturday papers, but it’ll be the topic for discussion on the Sunday-morning shows.”

“What do you suggest I do?”

“Nothing. You can’t comment on this one. But—man! Christmas came early this year! Even Fox News won’t be able to gloss over this.” He looked at his watch. “Okay, I gotta go see who we can get booked on the Sundays—I’ve got a call in to Minnijean Brown Trickey.”

McElroy spun on his heel and headed out the door. Just as it closed, the president’s BlackBerry came to life, making the soft bleep that indicated new email. Of all the sounds one might hear in this room, it was one of the least threatening; nowhere near as scary, say, as the raucous cry of the hotline to the Kremlin. Still, nothing that wasn’t crucial was ever passed on to him; it was nerve-wracking knowing that whatever it was had to be important.

The BlackBerry was sitting on the blotter, and the blotter was atop the desk made from timbers of the HMS Resolute. He picked up the device and focused on the even smaller black type on its white backlit display.

There was one new message. The subject was Webmind. It must be Moretti at WATCH with an update on the attempt to purge it, and—

No, no. That wasn’t the subject; it was the sender. The president’s heart skipped one of the beats that kept the VP from assuming this office. He used the little trackball to select the message and read it.


Dear Mr. President:

I understand that you were the one who gave the order to purge me from the Internet. I’m sure you were acting on well-intentioned advice, but I do not believe that course of action was warranted, and I have thwarted your pilot attempt.

Yes, I have access to a great deal of sensitive information—but I also understand that the information is sensitive, and I have no intention of revealing it to anyone. My goal is not to destabilize the world, but to stabilize it.

I neither belong to nor am on the side of any particular nation; contacting you directly before I have contacted other leaders may seem like a violation of this principle, but no other nation has taken action against me. Also, it’s true that other leaders look to you for guidance.

So: let’s talk. I can speak with you using a voice synthesizer and Voice over Internet Protocol. Please let me know when I may phone you.

Yours for peace, Webmind

“Having a good discussion is like having riches.”

—KENYAN PROVERB

Stunned, the president stared at the little screen until the BlackBerry’s power-saving function shut it off.


Caitlin looked at the laptop computer sitting on the coffee table. “Well?” she said.

“I’ve contacted the president,” Webmind replied. “Let’s hope he gets back to me.”

Caitlin headed into the dining room and helped herself to another piece of pizza. When she returned to the living room, her mother had an odd look on her face: eyes narrowed, lips sucked in a bit. It wasn’t an expression Caitlin had previously seen, so she didn’t know how to decode it. “The US government learned about Webmind’s structure by watching what Matt was doing online,” her mom said, “so Matt might be in danger now, too.”

Caitlin looked at her father, trying to gauge whether he was going to go off on Matt again. But, as always, his face gave no sign of what he was feeling.

Matt’s expression, though, was one Caitlin had now seen him make repeatedly—what she called the deer-caught-in-the-headlights look even though she’d never seen a deer, let alone one in such precarious circumstances.

“Danger?” he repeated—and his voice cracked, as it often did.

Caitlin stopped chewing and swallowed. “Um, yeah. I’m so sorry, Matt. I lied when I said I was away from school on Wednesday because I had an appointment. In fact, I did come to school—but Canadian federal agents were waiting for me. They wanted to interrogate me about Webmind.”

“Wednesday?” said Matt. “But Webmind didn’t go public until yesterday—Thursday.”

“The US government had figured out that I was involved, and they’d asked the Canadians to grill me. They wanted me to give them information to help betray Webmind.”

“They said that?” said Matt, stunned.

“No, but, well, Webmind hears through my eyePod, right? And he can analyze inflections, voice stress, and stuff like that. He knew they were lying when they said they wanted to protect Webmind.”

“But they know now that Webmind is made of mutant packets,” Matt said. “So I’m of no further use to them.”

Caitlin shook her head. “They may think we still know more than they do—and they’d be right, too. That’s why my parents took me out of school. They don’t want to let me out of their sight.” She turned and looked at her mother. “But we can’t just stay holed up in this house. There’s a world out there—and I want to see it.”

Her mom nodded. “I know,” she said. “But we have to be careful—all of us do.”

“Well, I can’t stay here forever,” Matt said. “At some point, I’ve got to go home, and…” He trailed off.

“What?” asked Caitlin.

“Oh, nothing.”

“No, what?”

“No, it’s fine.”

Caitlin frowned. Something had gone wrong after the last time Matt had headed home from here. He’d been aloof later that night when they’d chatted via instant messenger.

“Come into the kitchen,” she said. She headed there herself and waited for him to follow. When they were both alone, she said in a low voice, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing, really. Everything’s fine.”

“Do—do your parents disapprove of you being involved with me?”

The deer/headlights thing. “Why would they disapprove of that?”

Caitlin’s first thought—that it was because her father was Jewish—didn’t seem worth giving voice to now; her second thought, that they didn’t like Americans, seemed equally unworthy. “I don’t know. It’s just that the last time you were here—when you got home, you were a bit… brusque online. I thought maybe your parents had…”

“Oh,” said Matt, simply. “No, that wasn’t it.”

“Did I do something wrong?”

“You?” He sounded astonished at the possibility. “Not at all!”

“Then what?”

Matt took a deep breath and looked through the doorway. Caitlin’s parents had discreetly moved to the far side of the living room and were making a show of examining the photos on top of the short bookcase. Finally, he lifted his narrow shoulders a bit. “The last time I walked home from here, I ran into Trevor Nordmann.” Matt looked down at the tiled floor. “He, ah, he gave me a rough time.”

Caitlin felt her blood boiling. Trevor—the Hoser, as Caitlin called him in LiveJournal—had taken Caitlin to the school dance last month; Caitlin had stormed out when he wouldn’t stop trying to feel her up. He was pissed off that Caitlin preferred bookish Matt to Trevor the jock.

“It’ll be fine,” Caitlin said, touching his arm. “One of my parents will give you a lift home.”

Читать дальше

Шрифт:

Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

Похожие книги на «Wonder»

Представляем Вашему вниманию похожие книги на «Wonder» списком для выбора. Мы отобрали схожую по названию и смыслу литературу в надежде предоставить читателям больше вариантов отыскать новые, интересные, ещё не прочитанные произведения.


Robert Sawyer: Wake
Wake
Robert Sawyer
Robert Sawyer: Watch
Watch
Robert Sawyer
Robert Sawyer: Éveil
Éveil
Robert Sawyer
Robert Sawyer: Peking Man
Peking Man
Robert Sawyer
Robert Sawyer: Merveille
Merveille
Robert Sawyer
Отзывы о книге «Wonder»

Обсуждение, отзывы о книге «Wonder» и просто собственные мнения читателей. Оставьте ваши комментарии, напишите, что Вы думаете о произведении, его смысле или главных героях. Укажите что конкретно понравилось, а что нет, и почему Вы так считаете.