Нова Проспект / Nova Prospect: Flagcarrier (Адам)

Flagcarrier (Adam)

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 14:30

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Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 14:30

++"Attention! The Health Guard system is critically damaged. The Typhoon system is critically damaged. System..."

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:01

A lousy news summary. The last time he'd experienced a similar sensation was right after surgery when the swelling of his brain had made the messages flash before his eyes in red jerky lines.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:02

"Extremely stress-resistant psyche" if the dossier compiled by Sharif Industries' security service was to be believed. Adam had the feeling that the world had set out to test that characteristic against him. Durand's betrayal. Dismissal. with blacklisting. That July morning when he'd first laid eyes on what he'd once called his hands.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:03

Everything that happened in his life before he met the girl on the roof can be summarized by the short phrase "shit happens". Shit happens to everybody. The events afterward were a potent mix of fantasy and mysticism. Both genres Adam couldn't stand.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:04

He poured some of the shit they sell in Shanghai under the label "whiskey" into his glass. Globalization, for fuck's sake, and the local stuff was just window cleaner. It burned his throat pleasantly but didn't help the nasty aftertaste.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:05

What was the green weightlessness that Ciri had dragged him through? In the hand of the "elf" - Adam already hated that word - a block of ice appeared out of nowhere. Where had he gotten the matter and energy to form it? How did he control it?

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:06

Immersed in his musings, Adam tried in parallel to contact Pritchard via the terrible glitchy Infolink.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:08

Recommendation from the chancellor of the University of Phoenix. Top of his class. Adam knew how the world worked and what laws it obeyed. There's no magic in the world. Just physics. Mechanics. Thermodynamics. Electrodynamics. Quantum... The devil with it, quantum physics cannot be fully understood by any mentally healthy person.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:14

There must also be laws describing this so-called magic. The theory of portals and the function of fireballs. All of existence can be reduced to one equation. What did Bumby have to say about Ciri's DNA? He's got, uh.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:15

"Don't you wash yourselves with soap?" A girl's voice rang out.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:15

Adam smiled involuntarily - someone had more pressing problems than his own. He had already risen from his chair to help but thought better of it in time. //"I hope she doesn't ask me to show her how to use the shower," Adam grinned, "I'm on duty.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:16

++"A secure connection to nucl3arsnake will be established within a minute".

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:17

The first good news of the day.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:17

Adam clicked the TV remote. Instead of the Warsaw hospital, the screen showed a blonde woman with unnaturally long legs, calling out loudly to the Almighty. Monstrous proportions. The implants ushered in a new, very surreal era in pornography. The Picasso era.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:18

Somebody got to channel forty-six and decided to stop. A commendable eagerness to learn about the local culture.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:18

Elise Kassan, with her unchanging plastic smile, lied that there was no news.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:18

Adam puffed on a crappy Chinese cigarette, hoping the filters would let the nicotine through. Hell no. Glitching is just what Adam needs more of right now.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:19

"Alive?" Pritchard's voice was as ironic as ever.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:20

Adam never thought he'd be glad to hear him. Pritchard remained the last bastion of sanity in this crazy world.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:20

"Dead," Adam replied phlegmatically.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:28

"As is your sense of humor, Jensen. A girl?"

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:29

There were splashes coming from the bathroom.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:29

"She is washing," Adam answered briefly and then got to the point: "We're in Shanghai. We need to get out of here."

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:30

The silence lingered for a couple seconds.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 16:20

"Shanghai?! Why not at Tai Yun's Headquarters?" Pritchard's voice had that familiar sarcasm in it. "It would have saved me a headache, and them too."

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:15

Tai Yun Medical. The information about the Warsaw Incident must have reached their ubiquitous ears. Adam put out his cigarette and immediately lit a second one.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:16

"I didn't ask for this."

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:16

Pritchard sighed expressively.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:16

"Why doesn't Vanderwoman teleport you to Detroit? Out of mana?"

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:18

The mana argument is no more absurd than the others.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:18

"She's exhausted. We have to find another way out of China. And I need a pilot."

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:18

"Did I ask you for a Wishlist?" There was something nervous in Pritchard's laughter. "Jensen, this place is going to hell. The elves... the fucking elves!.. are being dismantled for parts by Tai Yun. Your Supergirl is next."

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:19

When he was a student, Adam had a girlfriend who liked to watch B-movies, masterpieces like "Abraham Lincoln vs. the Zombies" and "Godzilla vs. Terminator". Now he's got a starring role in one of those movies. Cyborgs vs. Elves.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:20

"All right. I'll give you a pilot."

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:21

Ciri came out of the bathroom, wiping her ashy hair with a towel. Despite her skinny appearance, her legs were clearly muscular, and she was no stranger to sports. //"What the hell is a sport in the Middle Ages," Adam faltered. - A swordswoman. A swordswoman and a mage. Multiclass."

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:21

He'd miscalculated the length of the shorts - it had been a long time since he'd bought a woman clothes. Adam averted his eyes before the girl could see him. The lenses, however, masked the direction of his gaze.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:22

Ciri coughed, and he continued the conversation on the balcony. The sky over Shanghai was a dusky gray. It was getting harder to breathe in the evening, and passersby kept their filter masks on.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:23

++"Critically poor air quality. Filters are st...". The message was interrupted, and the vision module turned red for a moment. The elite of Hensha Island could afford large-scale air purifiers. Their filth was settling on the continent.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:44

"Stay down until we figure out a way to get you out."

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:45

Lay low. Adam glanced at the barely visible cameras mounted just inside the entrance to the apartment. Not a good plan. More than anything, he hated inaction.

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:45

"Wait for the signal."

Camrad_RIP 11.03.24 в 17:22

"Connection to nucl3arsnake established." Adam was left alone with a view of southern Shanghai, an industrial zone where cubic factory buildings dominated the residential areas. An enormous anthill in which everything moved so fast that it seemed as if someone had put what was happening on fast-forward. And only in the distance could be seen the huge towers of corporations, glowing in the twilight like neon supernovae.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:02

The air, filled with particles of factory dirt tickled his nostrils compulsively. In the distance, a hologram of the lead singer of the Atomic Kittens could be seen twitching to the beat of inaudible music. Adam wondered for a moment what this picture looked like to a girl from the Middle Ages. St. Witt dancing in the middle of Doomsday.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:03

He heard a quiet voice calling to him. Ciri was leaning over the monitor with a glass of whiskey. If she wanted to try the local liquor, she should start with something other than this booze. //"Is she even twenty-one?" - The vigilant cop in Adam woke up.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:03

The plastic frame of the glasses slid down to the tip of the graceful nose. One of the few Steiner-Bisley designs for civilians. The first thing that came to Adam's mind. Sharif Industries employed a blinded engineer who used Steiner-Bisley to magnify and decipher text. He flatly refused to be modified, even at the company's expense.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 12:04

The luxury of choice.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 09:37

Adam was already imagining how he would explain the computer's construction, but Ciri pointed to the flickering lines. A plain text file.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 09:38

TAI YUN MEDICAL WILL BE HERE IN HALF AN HOUR.

Camrad_RIP 12.03.24 в 09:38