News at 11
On the street it poured like a bucket. Throughout all the channels, there is only talk of a superstorm gathering with forces. It should go a hundred kilometers north. We will have a normal storm with flooded streets, torn power lines and fallen trees.
I was doing ordinary business. He worked in the morning, then he dissected all day over the desert on a military drone. Shot down by an enemy drone and checked five hours of military service.
Satisfied went to the balcony, leaving the world his royal majesty. Of course, nobody cared, and I desperately needed at least some kind of reward. Returned home. He took paper towels in one hand and the TV remote in the other:
- Call Li Love.
At first the audio was connected.
- Andrey, you? Hey. Today is an hour earlier.
- You have time?
- Just a moment. I'm not dressed at all.
- Good. Just don’t forget about the lenses.
She sighed.
“They hurt my eyes so much.” We agreed once.
- And last time ...
- I was in them. Do you not remember at all?
- Exactly. I'm sorry.
A minute later, the video turned on. Lee Love sat on the bed, dressed in a translucent white dress. Bright scarlet lipstick on thin lips, spotlessly straight black hair and slightly slanted Asian eyes of the same color.
- How are you? She asked coquettishly.
- Today I shot down an enemy drone.
- Cool tell me how it was, I'm terribly interested.
- And I wonder what you have under the dress.
She smiled:
- Everything that is under my dress belongs to you.
She took several seductive poses, then deftly pulled off her pink panties, leaving them to dangle on one leg. Lee Love knows how to get me started. She came close to the camera and lowered it slightly so that a silicone dildo fell into the frame. I looked at her thin fingers, at the movements of her lips, but most of all I wanted to see her eyes.
- Look at me. Look at me.
And she looked. A minute, two, three ... It seemed to me that I was close, but it was not so. A few more minutes of unsuccessful efforts. Finally, I'm tired of:
- Dress the damn lenses, please. Just a minute.
- Good.
She took out a flat blue box from the bedside table. I moistened the lenses in the solution and sat opposite the mirror carefully put them on. After a moment, two blue eyes with cat pupils looked at me.
- Yes, finally. Come here soon.
Her gaze was mesmerizing, penetrated into consciousness and forced to believe: what she does, she does only for you. I felt her thin fingers, her lips, her tongue, and light biting her teeth ... oh, no, no, not now ... oh, no! Oh yeah!
Lee Love kissed the camera. A trace of lipstick remained on the glass.
“I hope you enjoyed it.”
- Yes thank you.
Lee Love disconnected, and I sat for a long time, imagining the blue cat's eyes. From the trance brought the sound of a new message.
"Dear friend,
I have a suggestion for you. Of course, you're not one of those ... well, if not. Because I do not see anything criminal in what I do. Unlike those hypocrites who look down on people like you and me. But we show them that we are strong. That we can achieve our goals, despite their hatred. This is the blue ocean.
I asked many reputable machine learning experts, but they rejected my offer. OK, I don't care. We live in a free world where people like you can do better than some arrogant idiots.
We need to meet and talk about business in person. I will tell you what. I can’t offer a lot of money now, but believe me, together we make millions. This is the blue ocean, my friend. Come to Glitch at 9pm. ”
It looks like regular spam, I get such offers every day. If not for one word: “Glitch”.
Glitch is a strange place. Any institution is trying to attract customers. Competition. War for a passing place, promotion in social networks, travel applications, search engines and in real life. Push your elbows harder and they will notice you. Glitch, on the contrary, is constantly hiding. No mention on the public Internet. You can get to it only through onion servers. But even here the curious will face difficulties. Spontaneous change of mirrors leads to the fact that link collectors give outdated info. Only a well-trained sniffer can catch a vanishing trace on the net. The mirror contains IRL location information and an access code. IRL also changes, but not so often. Reality is slow.
If the author of the letter knows how to find Glitch, then he is not just a spammer.
*****
Yes, “Glitch” is an institution for its own. Inside is a nostalgic vaporvive. Happy consumers are smiling from the posters. Old televisions broadcast news: Desert Storm and riot in Los Angeles, burning white house in Moscow and September 11, the Fukushima accident and the bombing of Syria. An endless string of disasters in an atmosphere of comfort and security. As if in childhood you were staring at pictures on the TV, waiting for the next series of Pokemon.
Three visitors. A couple at the table. Belle pointedly does not notice me. She drags a new boyfriend into the Glitch every week. All of them can hardly talk about the weather. About real topics you can not even stutter. Belle likes these. Glitch is one of the first Darknet bars, so getting here is still a privilege, but Bel breaks the rules and she doesn't care.
“Once you drag a monkey here and say that she found her way,” Jose, the owner of the establishment, complains.
- They are so cute, an endangered species. Like Neanderthals, Belle smiles.
Belle and her boyfriend are too busy with each other to pay attention to me. Yes, and I'm more interested in a third person sitting at a distant table between a palm tree in a tub and pink flamingos. On the head are glasses in the shape of hearts, and a T-shirt with a cover of the News at 11. album. An idiotic tourist smile on his face. Such white and even teeth are found only in advertising. At the feet of an old-fashioned black case.
That’s how I saw Mike, a funny guy hanging around in his crazy world. He got out of the table and rushed to shake my hand:
- I knew you will come. I knew it. They say, they care about their reputation. Bullshit they just too afraid to act. They always hesitate. But you are not like them, aren't you?
I shrugged, not really developing my position. Let's see what he says.
- What will you order? - asked Jose, as soon as we sat at the table. He knew that I love Blue Dream, so he turned to the guest.
“Just bear,” Mike threw at ease.
- Friend, are you sure you came to the address? Can you bring another burger?
The guest laughed, his mouth wide open. His innocent, infectious laugh acted on Jose like a red rag on a bull. He began to breathe heavily, picking up the most offensive expressions in his mind. Jose hates tourists. Can break and throw into the street. And go then complain about the unfair treatment.
“Give him the same as me.”
It was possible not to intervene for the stranger, to see how Jose would deal with him. But the guy looked harmless.
Jose looked at me with his stubborn look, turned around and went to the bar.
“Your mother, another week has not passed, and they are already rolling,” he said, not really caring whether they heard him or not.
The tourist showed a thumb:
- Perfect, man. You need just a little promotion. People would love this place.
“Fuck you,” Jose muttered, charging the bong, “the roof has completely moved off.”
“So, tell me your name and your story,” I said.
“Mike,” he introduced himself briefly. - I go straight to the point and show you, what I want to do for humanity.
Case was on the table. Two clicks, and its contents opened to me: several cylindrical devices. Plastic fucking for some strange purpose. I took one, the one that was transparent. Inside are two loops with beads. From the end there is a silicone stopper with a hole in the form of lips.
- What is it? I asked, although I already realized that I was holding a toy from a sex shop.
- Don't you see? - smiled Mike.
- I hope it's brand new?
“I've tried them just a couple of times,” he answered in his carefree tone and leaned back in his chair, “and you know what, We can do better than this.”
I imagined the dark gates, lonely passers-by, to whom we pester with a proposal to suck for a dozen, but Mike certainly did not mean this.
- Do you wanna make machine like this? I asked, putting the thing back in the case. I did not take another. Black hair blew off the table.
- Better! I wanna do better than this stupid electric device. I need machine that will act like a human being.
I explained to Mike that I had nothing against his idea, but I myself would prefer to do something more interesting. He nodded intently, listening to me, and then delivered his speech. Summary: The world is full of people who for various reasons do not have a sexual partner: disability, lack of free time, banal constraint, in the end. Many people use their hands and feel guilty because they satisfy themselves ... which can be a big sign of a failure in modern society. They turn to technology for help, but what can we offer? The clumsy mechanisms that make you even more insignificant. After all, you used a stupid car.
You will say why not call a living woman or man to your house. After all, the oldest profession has not gone anywhere. This is where the financial argument comes into play. I feel sorry for the girl who for some reason agreed to do work that not a damn thing can do. She chokes with saliva, bites and chokes, and both of you dream that it would end soon. Again, sheer disappointment, instead of pleasure. To get quality service from a professional, you need to roll off at least a hundred ... at a time.
“I have a dream,” Mike finished. He stood in the middle of the establishment, with a cylinder from a case in each hand, - I have a dream where every single person will get a professional blow job from the machine that absorbed all human experience. Every man in the world finally will find satisfaction and peace.
Silence fell in Glitch. And then the big man, who was dragged by Belle, pushed back his chair and stood up.
- I do not understand, he wants to make a jerking machine? Yes, I’m right now ...
Mike quickly dangled in the air. His toys fell to the floor. Drugan Belle trampled them with his heel, like huge bugs.
“Stop it,” Belle ordered him, but he had already flown off the coils. A short video was scrolling through my head with a train flying downhill.
“I'll knock your teeth out now.” You’ll suck yourself, freak. - the big guy pushed Mike into the wall and brought a chopped rough fist over his head.
He was stopped by the sound of a shotgun reload. Jose stood behind the counter. The Winchester’s barrel was aimed at Belle’s friend. He smiled back and nodded toward Mike.
“You’ll shoot at me, it will also hook him.”
“I don't care,” Jose said calmly. “I don't like both of you.”
Belle stood between them:
- Take away the trunk. And you put the man in his place. We are leaving.
This time the thug obeyed. Bel came so close to me that I could smell her skin. The pants instantly became cramped. Blue eyes with cat pupils looked at me:
- Andrey, what do you want?
- Nothing. I have a meeting here.
She sighed and followed her Neanderthal boyfriend.
- Do you really wanna do this machine with the whole human experience inside? Jose asked, hiding his weapon back under the counter.
“That's what I mean,” Mike answered, looking at the wreckage of the cars, “shit,“ A-class ”wasn't that bad actually.
However, after a couple of seconds he smiled again, as if nothing had happened.
*****
I started preparing the data the next day. Mike is a normal guy, albeit moved on his own topic. He said that he had received failures in various forms. Some sought to leave soon, worrying about their reputation. Others laughed, others were offended, but no one took him seriously.
Marking lip movements in the next video, I thought about my reputation. Of course, I'm just a freelancer and I can do the job anonymously. But still, how would customers react, knowing what I'm doing now?
Six hours of porn with a lunch break and ... well ... all the same porn. I could not resist. By the way, after that it became easier to disengage and the work went faster.
I noticed several patterns. For example, male actors work completely differently than women. I had to call Mike and ask if our product is designed for gay men.
“Well, maybe later,” he answered, “but we start from wider audience.”
Frankly, gay porn is disgusting for me, so I gladly deleted it from the sample.
It turned out further that each actress has her own set of standard movements, usually three or four, so it’s enough to watch two or three videos to complete the markup. I again called Mike to ask by what principle he selected the videos that he sent me and if I could change the selection.
- Oh, it is just my personal collection. Started from high school. Feel free to change selection as you like.
I have no preference for porn, so I started searching the lists like: 100 oral pleasures of all times, 100 best blow jobs of the year, Banana reward nominees, Deep Throat reward and so on.
At the top of all the lists was one name: Jessica Bright.
“There are people who do the impossible. Jessica is one of them. ”
“I worked with her on the set of Survival Sex. The first three times I was enough for half a minute no more. "
“She can play with you, or she can brutally fuck. In any case, she’s great. ”
After reading the reviews, with trembling fingers of excitement, I clicked the mouse on the image of a blonde angel. At first I tried to count patterns, but she did something incredible. I quickly lost count and only spellbound watched her art.
The pants became warm and wet. The video went on, and I sat stupidly looking in front of me. I am thirty two years old. And I have seen enough porn to treat it as an entertainment for schoolchildren. “It’s impossible to surprise me,” I thought. That's because I did not see Jessica.
I got to the toilet, wiped the traces of my first meeting with her and called Mike for the third time.
“We can't create anything like that,” I explained.
- How many patterns you found? - asked Mike.
- I don't know, man. It's not about the patterns.
- Looks like you just fell in love.
- Bullshit! She's just ... she's just ... the special one.
- How many patterns?
- Fuck you! It's not about the patterns!
I hung up, realizing that my work on Mike was finished. Whatever we create, this machine will be a miserable likeness of man. For those who take advantage of it, it will cause nothing but disgust. Now it’s clear why so many people refused him. An idiotic undertaking.
A message came from Mike: “Meet at Glitch, today 6 pm.”
****
Glitch has already moved. Jose added a couple of clever algorithms. I read about one of them a couple of weeks ago, and he invented the second himself, so I had to tinker. I barely managed before six in the evening. Mike sat inside, yawning. Nearby stood a bong and three empty popcorn buckets.
“Oh, looks like I came too early,” he said, and laughed a thick smoky laugh.
- Listen, I don't think this is gonna work.
Mike nodded and lowered his eyes. I wanted to say a few encouraging words to him, but I just spread my arms and turned around to leave. The door did not open. Jose smoked a wheeze from behind.
- Of course you are a regular customer, but if you come here to have fun, the institution will not stand the competition.
- Sorry, Jose.
I wanted to take a free table, but Mike waved his hand, inviting for his own. I did not refuse. Mike is a great guy. Maybe his crazy idea will work one day, who knows.
Mike laid out the causal stuff from the case in popcorn buckets and climbed onto the Internet. He muttered excitedly under his breath and hastily wrote down the numbers on a piece of paper.
- What are you doing?
- Wait. I need to calculate something.
On each bucket he wrote the results of his calculations and leaned back in his chair. He looked absolutely happy.
- Look at these numbers. These are profits, that the companies gained from their primitive devices.
I looked at the numbers. Millions of dollars.
- You may check my calcs if you'd like to. People are buying those things and that's true. One hundred percent true. Maybe they know, the device is not perfect, but they curious and excited. So don't tell me it's not gonna work simply because you prefer jerking by hand.
Puffs of smoke flowed around Mike like a triumphant statue of an ancient god.
*****
I returned to work that evening. He studied the patterns of hundreds of the best porn actresses. I did not set high goals for the first version. The main thing is to launch a prototype.
For someone, work is success, achievement, career. For some, a difficult everyday need. For some, the opportunity to feel their worth. There are surely many other reasons. For me, work is meditation. Endless focus on one single point. Work that cannot be seen and cannot be quantified. It all happens in the mind. You can only see the result.
I flew in this strange mathematical world, trying to grasp the answer, not for the sake of the answer, but for the sake of interest. The real world has faded into the background. This happens with people who are passionate about the game. The answer was hiding around the corner, then around the next. But I was getting closer every day and finally caught him. All forecasts converged, the probabilities were off scale. Wow! This is what I did something! I created a stably working algorithm that absorbed the life experience of many people.
I looked around. A tower of pizza boxes piled on the table. Coffee mugs surrounded my work chair like mines. A plant hung from a bookcase, the name of which I did not remember, but its miserable appearance made it clear how seriously I fell out of reality. Another stupid Mike case in the corner. Why did he give it to me?
I cracked my joints, getting up from my chair. Skillfully made his way between the circles, grabbing one of them along the way. I took water and poured the dried soil of the plant. He will live, not the first time. The phone briefly tinkled on the table. I unearthed it, simultaneously bringing down a tower of cardboard boxes on the floor.
Mike! Just in time. “Meet in Glitch at 6 pm”
I even looked at the air vent. Did he spy on me. Like in that series of Jumble where the pioneer weaned the pioneer from smoking.
Glitch by that time again changed the location. I had to hunt him all day in the depths of Darknet. I arrived at 6:15. Being late in Glitch is not only a sign of bad taste, but also an indicator that you are not good enough. Jose shook his head disapprovingly:
- You are losing ground.
Mike was sitting at the table, surrounded by his toys. Nearby stood a pair of bongs. How! How does he get here so early?
Noticing me, he again showed his white-toothed smile.
- Come here. I've got some good news.
He solemnly took out a steel box from the case with army engraving on the lid. I stopped him, explained that I did not want to deal with state affairs.
- Don’t worry. This is kind a vaporwave product.
The story turned out to be pretty funny. Since irregular relations in the IRL army are strictly prohibited, soldiers carry all sorts of personal toys from a citizen. Enemy spies began to integrate microphones and video cameras into them. Videos appeared on the Internet with the tag: "the joys of military service." The command was concerned about the leak of state secrets. It was decided to develop a special device exclusively for military organizations. The best military engineers took up the matter, but when the funds were spent, it turned out that it was cheaper to buy ordinary toys in the nearest Chinese sex shop, check them, write inventory numbers and give them to the personnel. The development was closed and forgot about it.
Mike bought the patent and this technological miracle hung in his hand. In appearance, the gut was about fifteen centimeters in length, the device consisted of hundreds of elastic rings capable of contracting and stretching under the action of tension.
- Are you sure it would work for us?
- Why not. You need to test it though.
I really wanted to argue, but deep down I understood. You really have to test yourself, otherwise you will not have to refine the fine-tuning. Only now I really realized what I signed up for. Hmm, but it’s really interesting to try this thing in practice. Mike and I chatted about this and that, but I was more and more distracted, wondering how to connect the batteries. Mike himself kept getting his phone to discuss some contracts.
“We are ready to allocate two million for business development if we provide a working prototype tomorrow morning.”
In short, I ran home with a military development under my arm. He was worried, of course, although he knew exactly what would happen. Do not cling batteries to the first version. It can be connected to a board with a USB output.
The idea worked perfectly and soon the waves passed through the rings, compressing and expanding them. I had to work all day to translate the work of the algorithms to the iron level. Encouraged by the desire to test the prototype, but when finished, so tired that he only wanted to sleep. “Damn, you have to somehow force yourself,” I thought, and instantly fell asleep, dropping my head on the table.
*****
Woke up from persistent meowing. A wet cat poked at the balcony door from that side. On the street concrete rain poured. The cat flew home, driven by a roar.
I glanced at my watch. Half past nine in the evening. On the phone is a message from Mike. “Meet sponsors at 11 pm. Plaza Hotel ".
Heck! I have an hour and a half to meet with sponsors at the opposite end of the city in the most expensive and pathos place. Plaza Hotel, the exact opposite of Glitch. A one-story skyscraper in the sea, two kilometers from the coast. It can be seen from anywhere in the city.
I jumped into a taxi, realizing that I would have to come up with a solution on the go. You can’t get there without an invitation. I did not even imagine what to do. Who does he take me for?
I looked at the price of the room ... well, in general, I already knew that the place was not for me. Serious people gather here to solve serious business problems. A guy in a Saint Pepsi T-shirt, a tattered cap and a wanker in his hands will be completely off topic there. And I don’t have such money. I had to scratch my brain. After all, businessmen like to hang out with their own kind. It cannot be that some important business forum does not take place now.
Indeed, a dozen forums took place in the Plaza. I paid a couple of hundred for registration, and managed to take shape just when the car stopped at the pier.
Plaza Hotel's catamarans glittered in the spotlight, reflecting the rain. The wind ruffled the cloak of a neat steward who was checking tickets at the entrance.
“Hmm ... not the best time to take a walk.” Superstorm is coming, ”he said, scanning the ticket.
“It will go a hundred kilometers north,” I answered, glancing at my watch. Twenty five minutes before the meeting. You have to stop being late.
“What would you do if you knew that we would be at the epicenter?” - the steward looked at me from under his hood, smiling strangely, - you would have run to save. All ten million inhabitants of the city would run, but they won’t save everyone ... - he slapped me on the shoulder, - of course, he will go a hundred kilometers north, my friend.
I doubted it might be better to go home before it's too late. The wind and rain are really stronger every minute. And what will I tell Mike when he asks why I did not come to the meeting? What did the entrance ticketer advise me to return?
The catamaran turned out to be a small room with a bar. Soft carpets, unobtrusive jazz, people in expensive suits interestedly discussed business problems.
- We presented the product at the spring forum in Singapore. Got good reviews. We will launch in a month.
- I would advise conducting a strategic market research.
- Yes, first of all, it is necessary to study the target audience of the product.
They looked at me condescendingly. Well, yes, I will be presenting a jerking machine. It doesn’t sound so cool, but they don’t launch rockets into space, either? In short, I tried to encourage myself as I could. And yet he foresaw that I would sound unconvincing ...
- What are you selling? I asked one of them.
- Product.
- Which one?
Indulgence gave way to tension. For them, I'm an alien element, about the same as Belle’s boyfriends in Glitch.
- We present turnkey solutions for business integration.
- Just say what are you selling?
“Ahhh,” he laughed nervously, “I understand.” You are interested in our product. We do not just sell, but also carry out a full cycle of support. Continuous feedback allows us to track customer satisfaction in a timely manner.
“Just say, your mother, what are you selling?”
The guards were already hurrying to the meeting, but Mike suddenly appeared in front of them.
- Don’t worry gentlemen, we just having some fun over here.
Then, he patted the businessman on the shoulder in a friendly manner:
- We are really interested to invest in your business. How about a dinner in Friday?
The guy immediately relaxed. He and Mike were talking in this style for the rest of the way, and I struggled with nausea. The ship rocked pretty. A couple of times the floor went down so abruptly that my heart sank with fear.
Catamarans moored, we went to the Plaza Hotel tower. Mike said goodbye to the businessman as if they were best friends. A high-speed elevator took us to the presidential room on the hundredth floor.
- How is it? Mike asked, about to knock on the door.
Then I remembered that I had not tested the machine. It’s a pity that it’s too late to talk about it.
“Awesome,” I answered.
Mike nodded and knocked. The door was opened by an unshaven black man in a rapper outfit.
- Finally. We waited for you my friend, he said with flashing golden teeth, “You are our God of Fuck, fucking good god. Give me this thing.
He grabbed the box from my hands, before I could look around. The room was probably not cleaned for at least a week. Bottles, grass, pills lay everywhere. Vomited. A sad, gray-haired old man sat hunched over a notebook at a desk in the far corner. The rapper went to the huge TV in the middle of the room, pulled down his pants and started broadcasting on YouTube. He no longer paid attention to us.
- Who is this guy? I whispered to Mike.
- Dj, singer, music producer, something like this. He's trending on YouTube. Gained some fortune and wants to invest in technology.
I didn’t really want to watch the work of my typewriter, so I took an unfinished bottle of champagne and went to the window. He winked at his reflection, then clung to the glass to look at the storm raging over the city. Mike joined me. Lightning pierced the sky from horizon to horizon, snatching from the darkness swirling gloomy clouds.
The rising star of YouTube fluttered, laughed and announced the number with an animal roar.
- O my god! I came three times already! Can you believe it? Let's see how much this thing can suck out of me.
I handed Mike a bottle.
- Do you believe we really doing something important? Look around. This is just bullshit, nothing more.
Mike laughed with his ever-laid-back laugh.
- I don't know, man. Ask yourself, not me.
From something I was not at all surprised. Only I was reflected in the window with the now empty bottle of champagne in my hand.
- Oh, shit! Five times! Five times! Can you beat this, my dear subscribers?
The man at the table first closed the booklet and put it in his inner pocket.
“We are ready to offer you a contract for five million instead of three,” he said, coming up to me.
The lawyer was reflected in the window, but still did not want to talk to him. In the end, this is Mike’s business, not mine. I nodded and approached the cold window again. The city lights went out one by one.
- Something is wrong? The lawyer asked with concern. “You looked ... hmm ... different.” Is something hurting you?
“Do you think they will survive?”
The lawyer approached the glass, put his palm on the visor:
- Unlikely. Storms get stronger every year. So do you agree on five million? A helicopter is waiting on the roof. We'll have time to get out before the storm gets here.
He moved to the exit.
“But what about him?” - I nodded towards the YouTube star, who was lying by the sofa and muttering unintelligible rubbish under his breath. The grinder continued to hum evenly.
The old man smiled faintly:
- Tomorrow he will have billions of views. He always dreamed of becoming a rock star.
I saw myself cheerful and happy. I followed the lawyer laughing carefree and ranting about the prospects for business development:
- Sure, we need move manufacturing into Asia and outsource client support. I need a couple of weeks to make wireless prototype and we fly straight to the moon. I really see huge perspective in our product. We expect great customer satisfaction.
On the threshold I looked around and winked at myself:
- I've talked with Jessica Bright lately. She begged me to arrange meeting with you. She really likes techy guys. Come with us.
I grabbed a bottle from the table and launched it into Mike. She flew through it, hit the wall, but did not crash, rolled on the floor, splashing out the contents.
- You're crazy? - shouted the lawyer, bulging his eyes ridiculously, - I offer you real money, you moron.
He ran to the door. The second bottle was shattered by a waterfall of fragments. It seems that stop wasting expensive alcohol in vain. I took the whiskey. He pulled the chair closer to the window and sat down to watch the storm. How is Jose like Bel? It would be great to be in Glitch. Listen to News at 11 and Jose's grunts; admire the cat's eyes Belle. It is a pity that all this is in the past. Cracks ran through the thick impact-resistant glass. The time has come for me to become part of the news ...
And suddenly I realized that I did not want to watch from the side. Superstorm will eat me one way or another. Why not have fun in the end?
I ran out of the presidential number. Out of service reported the scoreboards on all four elevators. I ran onto the roof on the stairs, jumping over three steps.
The lawyer was halfway to the helicopter when I was on the roof. He covered his hands from the rain lashing in his face. When he noticed me, I was so close that he only managed to cry out briefly. After receiving a blow to the jaw, the lawyer fell to his knees.
The helicopter has not yet unscrewed the screws. The pilot sat with his legs dangling from the edge of the platform and watched me come closer. A cigarette smoke erupted from under a covered palm
- Don’t touch me, okay? He shouted through the wind and shot the goby into the howling darkness. The light instantly disappeared from view. - Where do you need it?
- There! - I pointed towards the city, plunged into darkness.
- Moron. There is an epicenter. Fly there yourself.
“That's what I want.” Stay here or flew with me.
The pilot pulled off his helmet and put it in my hands.
“I'm going to miss a couple of glasses.” Nothing will happen to the tower for sure.
During the six months of service, I had to fly many drones, but flying a real helicopter turned out to be much more pleasant. He responded to the slightest movements of the helm. The direction and strength of the wind were felt ... well, as it happens in reality. So this is why many still prefer real flights instead of drones. Magically!
Suddenly, the car shook so that I almost flew out of the chair, and the helicopter spun in place. In all seriousness, I clung to the helm with my claws and pulled myself out of the pit.
So in just a couple of minutes I experienced the most beautiful and most terrible moments in my life. I did not want to die at all, but I rushed to the epicenter of the superstorm. You need to have time to drop into one place, just one place.
For fifteen minutes I circled the block in search of a landing spot. Finally, he sat right in the middle of the street, breaking off the screws and rolling the car on its side. I managed to wonder why the street is completely empty. Are people still sitting at home, waiting for news? But there was no time to think.
I burst into the Glitch, breathing heavily. The clothes were wet through, my heart was pounding with crazy doses of adrenaline.
Belle sat in a chair opposite the window, wrapped in a blanket. Near the table, the flame of a candle trembled. She looked up at me with her delightful blue eyes with cat pupils.
“Where is Jose?” I asked in a tone as if I had come here by accident.
She shrugged and smiled.
“He said he wanted to be alone.” And you?
I came closer really not knowing what to say. I imagined myself as a savior. Many triumphant thoughts flashed through my head when I was in a hurry here. It turned out she was quite comfortable with a book in her hands.
- Right now, I wanted to apologize and leave, carefully closing the door behind me. But this is some kind of stupid thought, because I flew here by helicopter, turned a half of a block while I sat down ... I think now I want to be with you.
She burst out laughing:
- Just stay? Read a book together?
I nodded.
“Yes, why not.”
“Not the best thing before the End of the World,” she put down the book, threw back the blanket and stood up. She was naked and her cat's eyes shone exactly as I had imagined countless times. She wrapped her arms and legs around me, pressed her whole body against me. We will meet this End of the World great ...
I was doing ordinary business. He worked in the morning, then he dissected all day over the desert on a military drone. Shot down by an enemy drone and checked five hours of military service.
Satisfied went to the balcony, leaving the world his royal majesty. Of course, nobody cared, and I desperately needed at least some kind of reward. Returned home. He took paper towels in one hand and the TV remote in the other:
- Call Li Love.
At first the audio was connected.
- Andrey, you? Hey. Today is an hour earlier.
- You have time?
- Just a moment. I'm not dressed at all.
- Good. Just don’t forget about the lenses.
She sighed.
“They hurt my eyes so much.” We agreed once.
- And last time ...
- I was in them. Do you not remember at all?
- Exactly. I'm sorry.
A minute later, the video turned on. Lee Love sat on the bed, dressed in a translucent white dress. Bright scarlet lipstick on thin lips, spotlessly straight black hair and slightly slanted Asian eyes of the same color.
- How are you? She asked coquettishly.
- Today I shot down an enemy drone.
- Cool tell me how it was, I'm terribly interested.
- And I wonder what you have under the dress.
She smiled:
- Everything that is under my dress belongs to you.
She took several seductive poses, then deftly pulled off her pink panties, leaving them to dangle on one leg. Lee Love knows how to get me started. She came close to the camera and lowered it slightly so that a silicone dildo fell into the frame. I looked at her thin fingers, at the movements of her lips, but most of all I wanted to see her eyes.
- Look at me. Look at me.
And she looked. A minute, two, three ... It seemed to me that I was close, but it was not so. A few more minutes of unsuccessful efforts. Finally, I'm tired of:
- Dress the damn lenses, please. Just a minute.
- Good.
She took out a flat blue box from the bedside table. I moistened the lenses in the solution and sat opposite the mirror carefully put them on. After a moment, two blue eyes with cat pupils looked at me.
- Yes, finally. Come here soon.
Her gaze was mesmerizing, penetrated into consciousness and forced to believe: what she does, she does only for you. I felt her thin fingers, her lips, her tongue, and light biting her teeth ... oh, no, no, not now ... oh, no! Oh yeah!
Lee Love kissed the camera. A trace of lipstick remained on the glass.
“I hope you enjoyed it.”
- Yes thank you.
Lee Love disconnected, and I sat for a long time, imagining the blue cat's eyes. From the trance brought the sound of a new message.
"Dear friend,
I have a suggestion for you. Of course, you're not one of those ... well, if not. Because I do not see anything criminal in what I do. Unlike those hypocrites who look down on people like you and me. But we show them that we are strong. That we can achieve our goals, despite their hatred. This is the blue ocean.
I asked many reputable machine learning experts, but they rejected my offer. OK, I don't care. We live in a free world where people like you can do better than some arrogant idiots.
We need to meet and talk about business in person. I will tell you what. I can’t offer a lot of money now, but believe me, together we make millions. This is the blue ocean, my friend. Come to Glitch at 9pm. ”
It looks like regular spam, I get such offers every day. If not for one word: “Glitch”.
Glitch is a strange place. Any institution is trying to attract customers. Competition. War for a passing place, promotion in social networks, travel applications, search engines and in real life. Push your elbows harder and they will notice you. Glitch, on the contrary, is constantly hiding. No mention on the public Internet. You can get to it only through onion servers. But even here the curious will face difficulties. Spontaneous change of mirrors leads to the fact that link collectors give outdated info. Only a well-trained sniffer can catch a vanishing trace on the net. The mirror contains IRL location information and an access code. IRL also changes, but not so often. Reality is slow.
If the author of the letter knows how to find Glitch, then he is not just a spammer.
*****
Yes, “Glitch” is an institution for its own. Inside is a nostalgic vaporvive. Happy consumers are smiling from the posters. Old televisions broadcast news: Desert Storm and riot in Los Angeles, burning white house in Moscow and September 11, the Fukushima accident and the bombing of Syria. An endless string of disasters in an atmosphere of comfort and security. As if in childhood you were staring at pictures on the TV, waiting for the next series of Pokemon.
Three visitors. A couple at the table. Belle pointedly does not notice me. She drags a new boyfriend into the Glitch every week. All of them can hardly talk about the weather. About real topics you can not even stutter. Belle likes these. Glitch is one of the first Darknet bars, so getting here is still a privilege, but Bel breaks the rules and she doesn't care.
“Once you drag a monkey here and say that she found her way,” Jose, the owner of the establishment, complains.
- They are so cute, an endangered species. Like Neanderthals, Belle smiles.
Belle and her boyfriend are too busy with each other to pay attention to me. Yes, and I'm more interested in a third person sitting at a distant table between a palm tree in a tub and pink flamingos. On the head are glasses in the shape of hearts, and a T-shirt with a cover of the News at 11. album. An idiotic tourist smile on his face. Such white and even teeth are found only in advertising. At the feet of an old-fashioned black case.
That’s how I saw Mike, a funny guy hanging around in his crazy world. He got out of the table and rushed to shake my hand:
- I knew you will come. I knew it. They say, they care about their reputation. Bullshit they just too afraid to act. They always hesitate. But you are not like them, aren't you?
I shrugged, not really developing my position. Let's see what he says.
- What will you order? - asked Jose, as soon as we sat at the table. He knew that I love Blue Dream, so he turned to the guest.
“Just bear,” Mike threw at ease.
- Friend, are you sure you came to the address? Can you bring another burger?
The guest laughed, his mouth wide open. His innocent, infectious laugh acted on Jose like a red rag on a bull. He began to breathe heavily, picking up the most offensive expressions in his mind. Jose hates tourists. Can break and throw into the street. And go then complain about the unfair treatment.
“Give him the same as me.”
It was possible not to intervene for the stranger, to see how Jose would deal with him. But the guy looked harmless.
Jose looked at me with his stubborn look, turned around and went to the bar.
“Your mother, another week has not passed, and they are already rolling,” he said, not really caring whether they heard him or not.
The tourist showed a thumb:
- Perfect, man. You need just a little promotion. People would love this place.
“Fuck you,” Jose muttered, charging the bong, “the roof has completely moved off.”
“So, tell me your name and your story,” I said.
“Mike,” he introduced himself briefly. - I go straight to the point and show you, what I want to do for humanity.
Case was on the table. Two clicks, and its contents opened to me: several cylindrical devices. Plastic fucking for some strange purpose. I took one, the one that was transparent. Inside are two loops with beads. From the end there is a silicone stopper with a hole in the form of lips.
- What is it? I asked, although I already realized that I was holding a toy from a sex shop.
- Don't you see? - smiled Mike.
- I hope it's brand new?
“I've tried them just a couple of times,” he answered in his carefree tone and leaned back in his chair, “and you know what, We can do better than this.”
I imagined the dark gates, lonely passers-by, to whom we pester with a proposal to suck for a dozen, but Mike certainly did not mean this.
- Do you wanna make machine like this? I asked, putting the thing back in the case. I did not take another. Black hair blew off the table.
- Better! I wanna do better than this stupid electric device. I need machine that will act like a human being.
I explained to Mike that I had nothing against his idea, but I myself would prefer to do something more interesting. He nodded intently, listening to me, and then delivered his speech. Summary: The world is full of people who for various reasons do not have a sexual partner: disability, lack of free time, banal constraint, in the end. Many people use their hands and feel guilty because they satisfy themselves ... which can be a big sign of a failure in modern society. They turn to technology for help, but what can we offer? The clumsy mechanisms that make you even more insignificant. After all, you used a stupid car.
You will say why not call a living woman or man to your house. After all, the oldest profession has not gone anywhere. This is where the financial argument comes into play. I feel sorry for the girl who for some reason agreed to do work that not a damn thing can do. She chokes with saliva, bites and chokes, and both of you dream that it would end soon. Again, sheer disappointment, instead of pleasure. To get quality service from a professional, you need to roll off at least a hundred ... at a time.
“I have a dream,” Mike finished. He stood in the middle of the establishment, with a cylinder from a case in each hand, - I have a dream where every single person will get a professional blow job from the machine that absorbed all human experience. Every man in the world finally will find satisfaction and peace.
Silence fell in Glitch. And then the big man, who was dragged by Belle, pushed back his chair and stood up.
- I do not understand, he wants to make a jerking machine? Yes, I’m right now ...
Mike quickly dangled in the air. His toys fell to the floor. Drugan Belle trampled them with his heel, like huge bugs.
“Stop it,” Belle ordered him, but he had already flown off the coils. A short video was scrolling through my head with a train flying downhill.
“I'll knock your teeth out now.” You’ll suck yourself, freak. - the big guy pushed Mike into the wall and brought a chopped rough fist over his head.
He was stopped by the sound of a shotgun reload. Jose stood behind the counter. The Winchester’s barrel was aimed at Belle’s friend. He smiled back and nodded toward Mike.
“You’ll shoot at me, it will also hook him.”
“I don't care,” Jose said calmly. “I don't like both of you.”
Belle stood between them:
- Take away the trunk. And you put the man in his place. We are leaving.
This time the thug obeyed. Bel came so close to me that I could smell her skin. The pants instantly became cramped. Blue eyes with cat pupils looked at me:
- Andrey, what do you want?
- Nothing. I have a meeting here.
She sighed and followed her Neanderthal boyfriend.
- Do you really wanna do this machine with the whole human experience inside? Jose asked, hiding his weapon back under the counter.
“That's what I mean,” Mike answered, looking at the wreckage of the cars, “shit,“ A-class ”wasn't that bad actually.
However, after a couple of seconds he smiled again, as if nothing had happened.
*****
I started preparing the data the next day. Mike is a normal guy, albeit moved on his own topic. He said that he had received failures in various forms. Some sought to leave soon, worrying about their reputation. Others laughed, others were offended, but no one took him seriously.
Marking lip movements in the next video, I thought about my reputation. Of course, I'm just a freelancer and I can do the job anonymously. But still, how would customers react, knowing what I'm doing now?
Six hours of porn with a lunch break and ... well ... all the same porn. I could not resist. By the way, after that it became easier to disengage and the work went faster.
I noticed several patterns. For example, male actors work completely differently than women. I had to call Mike and ask if our product is designed for gay men.
“Well, maybe later,” he answered, “but we start from wider audience.”
Frankly, gay porn is disgusting for me, so I gladly deleted it from the sample.
It turned out further that each actress has her own set of standard movements, usually three or four, so it’s enough to watch two or three videos to complete the markup. I again called Mike to ask by what principle he selected the videos that he sent me and if I could change the selection.
- Oh, it is just my personal collection. Started from high school. Feel free to change selection as you like.
I have no preference for porn, so I started searching the lists like: 100 oral pleasures of all times, 100 best blow jobs of the year, Banana reward nominees, Deep Throat reward and so on.
At the top of all the lists was one name: Jessica Bright.
“There are people who do the impossible. Jessica is one of them. ”
“I worked with her on the set of Survival Sex. The first three times I was enough for half a minute no more. "
“She can play with you, or she can brutally fuck. In any case, she’s great. ”
After reading the reviews, with trembling fingers of excitement, I clicked the mouse on the image of a blonde angel. At first I tried to count patterns, but she did something incredible. I quickly lost count and only spellbound watched her art.
The pants became warm and wet. The video went on, and I sat stupidly looking in front of me. I am thirty two years old. And I have seen enough porn to treat it as an entertainment for schoolchildren. “It’s impossible to surprise me,” I thought. That's because I did not see Jessica.
I got to the toilet, wiped the traces of my first meeting with her and called Mike for the third time.
“We can't create anything like that,” I explained.
- How many patterns you found? - asked Mike.
- I don't know, man. It's not about the patterns.
- Looks like you just fell in love.
- Bullshit! She's just ... she's just ... the special one.
- How many patterns?
- Fuck you! It's not about the patterns!
I hung up, realizing that my work on Mike was finished. Whatever we create, this machine will be a miserable likeness of man. For those who take advantage of it, it will cause nothing but disgust. Now it’s clear why so many people refused him. An idiotic undertaking.
A message came from Mike: “Meet at Glitch, today 6 pm.”
****
Glitch has already moved. Jose added a couple of clever algorithms. I read about one of them a couple of weeks ago, and he invented the second himself, so I had to tinker. I barely managed before six in the evening. Mike sat inside, yawning. Nearby stood a bong and three empty popcorn buckets.
“Oh, looks like I came too early,” he said, and laughed a thick smoky laugh.
- Listen, I don't think this is gonna work.
Mike nodded and lowered his eyes. I wanted to say a few encouraging words to him, but I just spread my arms and turned around to leave. The door did not open. Jose smoked a wheeze from behind.
- Of course you are a regular customer, but if you come here to have fun, the institution will not stand the competition.
- Sorry, Jose.
I wanted to take a free table, but Mike waved his hand, inviting for his own. I did not refuse. Mike is a great guy. Maybe his crazy idea will work one day, who knows.
Mike laid out the causal stuff from the case in popcorn buckets and climbed onto the Internet. He muttered excitedly under his breath and hastily wrote down the numbers on a piece of paper.
- What are you doing?
- Wait. I need to calculate something.
On each bucket he wrote the results of his calculations and leaned back in his chair. He looked absolutely happy.
- Look at these numbers. These are profits, that the companies gained from their primitive devices.
I looked at the numbers. Millions of dollars.
- You may check my calcs if you'd like to. People are buying those things and that's true. One hundred percent true. Maybe they know, the device is not perfect, but they curious and excited. So don't tell me it's not gonna work simply because you prefer jerking by hand.
Puffs of smoke flowed around Mike like a triumphant statue of an ancient god.
*****
I returned to work that evening. He studied the patterns of hundreds of the best porn actresses. I did not set high goals for the first version. The main thing is to launch a prototype.
For someone, work is success, achievement, career. For some, a difficult everyday need. For some, the opportunity to feel their worth. There are surely many other reasons. For me, work is meditation. Endless focus on one single point. Work that cannot be seen and cannot be quantified. It all happens in the mind. You can only see the result.
I flew in this strange mathematical world, trying to grasp the answer, not for the sake of the answer, but for the sake of interest. The real world has faded into the background. This happens with people who are passionate about the game. The answer was hiding around the corner, then around the next. But I was getting closer every day and finally caught him. All forecasts converged, the probabilities were off scale. Wow! This is what I did something! I created a stably working algorithm that absorbed the life experience of many people.
I looked around. A tower of pizza boxes piled on the table. Coffee mugs surrounded my work chair like mines. A plant hung from a bookcase, the name of which I did not remember, but its miserable appearance made it clear how seriously I fell out of reality. Another stupid Mike case in the corner. Why did he give it to me?
I cracked my joints, getting up from my chair. Skillfully made his way between the circles, grabbing one of them along the way. I took water and poured the dried soil of the plant. He will live, not the first time. The phone briefly tinkled on the table. I unearthed it, simultaneously bringing down a tower of cardboard boxes on the floor.
Mike! Just in time. “Meet in Glitch at 6 pm”
I even looked at the air vent. Did he spy on me. Like in that series of Jumble where the pioneer weaned the pioneer from smoking.
Glitch by that time again changed the location. I had to hunt him all day in the depths of Darknet. I arrived at 6:15. Being late in Glitch is not only a sign of bad taste, but also an indicator that you are not good enough. Jose shook his head disapprovingly:
- You are losing ground.
Mike was sitting at the table, surrounded by his toys. Nearby stood a pair of bongs. How! How does he get here so early?
Noticing me, he again showed his white-toothed smile.
- Come here. I've got some good news.
He solemnly took out a steel box from the case with army engraving on the lid. I stopped him, explained that I did not want to deal with state affairs.
- Don’t worry. This is kind a vaporwave product.
The story turned out to be pretty funny. Since irregular relations in the IRL army are strictly prohibited, soldiers carry all sorts of personal toys from a citizen. Enemy spies began to integrate microphones and video cameras into them. Videos appeared on the Internet with the tag: "the joys of military service." The command was concerned about the leak of state secrets. It was decided to develop a special device exclusively for military organizations. The best military engineers took up the matter, but when the funds were spent, it turned out that it was cheaper to buy ordinary toys in the nearest Chinese sex shop, check them, write inventory numbers and give them to the personnel. The development was closed and forgot about it.
Mike bought the patent and this technological miracle hung in his hand. In appearance, the gut was about fifteen centimeters in length, the device consisted of hundreds of elastic rings capable of contracting and stretching under the action of tension.
- Are you sure it would work for us?
- Why not. You need to test it though.
I really wanted to argue, but deep down I understood. You really have to test yourself, otherwise you will not have to refine the fine-tuning. Only now I really realized what I signed up for. Hmm, but it’s really interesting to try this thing in practice. Mike and I chatted about this and that, but I was more and more distracted, wondering how to connect the batteries. Mike himself kept getting his phone to discuss some contracts.
“We are ready to allocate two million for business development if we provide a working prototype tomorrow morning.”
In short, I ran home with a military development under my arm. He was worried, of course, although he knew exactly what would happen. Do not cling batteries to the first version. It can be connected to a board with a USB output.
The idea worked perfectly and soon the waves passed through the rings, compressing and expanding them. I had to work all day to translate the work of the algorithms to the iron level. Encouraged by the desire to test the prototype, but when finished, so tired that he only wanted to sleep. “Damn, you have to somehow force yourself,” I thought, and instantly fell asleep, dropping my head on the table.
*****
Woke up from persistent meowing. A wet cat poked at the balcony door from that side. On the street concrete rain poured. The cat flew home, driven by a roar.
I glanced at my watch. Half past nine in the evening. On the phone is a message from Mike. “Meet sponsors at 11 pm. Plaza Hotel ".
Heck! I have an hour and a half to meet with sponsors at the opposite end of the city in the most expensive and pathos place. Plaza Hotel, the exact opposite of Glitch. A one-story skyscraper in the sea, two kilometers from the coast. It can be seen from anywhere in the city.
I jumped into a taxi, realizing that I would have to come up with a solution on the go. You can’t get there without an invitation. I did not even imagine what to do. Who does he take me for?
I looked at the price of the room ... well, in general, I already knew that the place was not for me. Serious people gather here to solve serious business problems. A guy in a Saint Pepsi T-shirt, a tattered cap and a wanker in his hands will be completely off topic there. And I don’t have such money. I had to scratch my brain. After all, businessmen like to hang out with their own kind. It cannot be that some important business forum does not take place now.
Indeed, a dozen forums took place in the Plaza. I paid a couple of hundred for registration, and managed to take shape just when the car stopped at the pier.
Plaza Hotel's catamarans glittered in the spotlight, reflecting the rain. The wind ruffled the cloak of a neat steward who was checking tickets at the entrance.
“Hmm ... not the best time to take a walk.” Superstorm is coming, ”he said, scanning the ticket.
“It will go a hundred kilometers north,” I answered, glancing at my watch. Twenty five minutes before the meeting. You have to stop being late.
“What would you do if you knew that we would be at the epicenter?” - the steward looked at me from under his hood, smiling strangely, - you would have run to save. All ten million inhabitants of the city would run, but they won’t save everyone ... - he slapped me on the shoulder, - of course, he will go a hundred kilometers north, my friend.
I doubted it might be better to go home before it's too late. The wind and rain are really stronger every minute. And what will I tell Mike when he asks why I did not come to the meeting? What did the entrance ticketer advise me to return?
The catamaran turned out to be a small room with a bar. Soft carpets, unobtrusive jazz, people in expensive suits interestedly discussed business problems.
- We presented the product at the spring forum in Singapore. Got good reviews. We will launch in a month.
- I would advise conducting a strategic market research.
- Yes, first of all, it is necessary to study the target audience of the product.
They looked at me condescendingly. Well, yes, I will be presenting a jerking machine. It doesn’t sound so cool, but they don’t launch rockets into space, either? In short, I tried to encourage myself as I could. And yet he foresaw that I would sound unconvincing ...
- What are you selling? I asked one of them.
- Product.
- Which one?
Indulgence gave way to tension. For them, I'm an alien element, about the same as Belle’s boyfriends in Glitch.
- We present turnkey solutions for business integration.
- Just say what are you selling?
“Ahhh,” he laughed nervously, “I understand.” You are interested in our product. We do not just sell, but also carry out a full cycle of support. Continuous feedback allows us to track customer satisfaction in a timely manner.
“Just say, your mother, what are you selling?”
The guards were already hurrying to the meeting, but Mike suddenly appeared in front of them.
- Don’t worry gentlemen, we just having some fun over here.
Then, he patted the businessman on the shoulder in a friendly manner:
- We are really interested to invest in your business. How about a dinner in Friday?
The guy immediately relaxed. He and Mike were talking in this style for the rest of the way, and I struggled with nausea. The ship rocked pretty. A couple of times the floor went down so abruptly that my heart sank with fear.
Catamarans moored, we went to the Plaza Hotel tower. Mike said goodbye to the businessman as if they were best friends. A high-speed elevator took us to the presidential room on the hundredth floor.
- How is it? Mike asked, about to knock on the door.
Then I remembered that I had not tested the machine. It’s a pity that it’s too late to talk about it.
“Awesome,” I answered.
Mike nodded and knocked. The door was opened by an unshaven black man in a rapper outfit.
- Finally. We waited for you my friend, he said with flashing golden teeth, “You are our God of Fuck, fucking good god. Give me this thing.
He grabbed the box from my hands, before I could look around. The room was probably not cleaned for at least a week. Bottles, grass, pills lay everywhere. Vomited. A sad, gray-haired old man sat hunched over a notebook at a desk in the far corner. The rapper went to the huge TV in the middle of the room, pulled down his pants and started broadcasting on YouTube. He no longer paid attention to us.
- Who is this guy? I whispered to Mike.
- Dj, singer, music producer, something like this. He's trending on YouTube. Gained some fortune and wants to invest in technology.
I didn’t really want to watch the work of my typewriter, so I took an unfinished bottle of champagne and went to the window. He winked at his reflection, then clung to the glass to look at the storm raging over the city. Mike joined me. Lightning pierced the sky from horizon to horizon, snatching from the darkness swirling gloomy clouds.
The rising star of YouTube fluttered, laughed and announced the number with an animal roar.
- O my god! I came three times already! Can you believe it? Let's see how much this thing can suck out of me.
I handed Mike a bottle.
- Do you believe we really doing something important? Look around. This is just bullshit, nothing more.
Mike laughed with his ever-laid-back laugh.
- I don't know, man. Ask yourself, not me.
From something I was not at all surprised. Only I was reflected in the window with the now empty bottle of champagne in my hand.
- Oh, shit! Five times! Five times! Can you beat this, my dear subscribers?
The man at the table first closed the booklet and put it in his inner pocket.
“We are ready to offer you a contract for five million instead of three,” he said, coming up to me.
The lawyer was reflected in the window, but still did not want to talk to him. In the end, this is Mike’s business, not mine. I nodded and approached the cold window again. The city lights went out one by one.
- Something is wrong? The lawyer asked with concern. “You looked ... hmm ... different.” Is something hurting you?
“Do you think they will survive?”
The lawyer approached the glass, put his palm on the visor:
- Unlikely. Storms get stronger every year. So do you agree on five million? A helicopter is waiting on the roof. We'll have time to get out before the storm gets here.
He moved to the exit.
“But what about him?” - I nodded towards the YouTube star, who was lying by the sofa and muttering unintelligible rubbish under his breath. The grinder continued to hum evenly.
The old man smiled faintly:
- Tomorrow he will have billions of views. He always dreamed of becoming a rock star.
I saw myself cheerful and happy. I followed the lawyer laughing carefree and ranting about the prospects for business development:
- Sure, we need move manufacturing into Asia and outsource client support. I need a couple of weeks to make wireless prototype and we fly straight to the moon. I really see huge perspective in our product. We expect great customer satisfaction.
On the threshold I looked around and winked at myself:
- I've talked with Jessica Bright lately. She begged me to arrange meeting with you. She really likes techy guys. Come with us.
I grabbed a bottle from the table and launched it into Mike. She flew through it, hit the wall, but did not crash, rolled on the floor, splashing out the contents.
- You're crazy? - shouted the lawyer, bulging his eyes ridiculously, - I offer you real money, you moron.
He ran to the door. The second bottle was shattered by a waterfall of fragments. It seems that stop wasting expensive alcohol in vain. I took the whiskey. He pulled the chair closer to the window and sat down to watch the storm. How is Jose like Bel? It would be great to be in Glitch. Listen to News at 11 and Jose's grunts; admire the cat's eyes Belle. It is a pity that all this is in the past. Cracks ran through the thick impact-resistant glass. The time has come for me to become part of the news ...
And suddenly I realized that I did not want to watch from the side. Superstorm will eat me one way or another. Why not have fun in the end?
I ran out of the presidential number. Out of service reported the scoreboards on all four elevators. I ran onto the roof on the stairs, jumping over three steps.
The lawyer was halfway to the helicopter when I was on the roof. He covered his hands from the rain lashing in his face. When he noticed me, I was so close that he only managed to cry out briefly. After receiving a blow to the jaw, the lawyer fell to his knees.
The helicopter has not yet unscrewed the screws. The pilot sat with his legs dangling from the edge of the platform and watched me come closer. A cigarette smoke erupted from under a covered palm
- Don’t touch me, okay? He shouted through the wind and shot the goby into the howling darkness. The light instantly disappeared from view. - Where do you need it?
- There! - I pointed towards the city, plunged into darkness.
- Moron. There is an epicenter. Fly there yourself.
“That's what I want.” Stay here or flew with me.
The pilot pulled off his helmet and put it in my hands.
“I'm going to miss a couple of glasses.” Nothing will happen to the tower for sure.
During the six months of service, I had to fly many drones, but flying a real helicopter turned out to be much more pleasant. He responded to the slightest movements of the helm. The direction and strength of the wind were felt ... well, as it happens in reality. So this is why many still prefer real flights instead of drones. Magically!
Suddenly, the car shook so that I almost flew out of the chair, and the helicopter spun in place. In all seriousness, I clung to the helm with my claws and pulled myself out of the pit.
So in just a couple of minutes I experienced the most beautiful and most terrible moments in my life. I did not want to die at all, but I rushed to the epicenter of the superstorm. You need to have time to drop into one place, just one place.
For fifteen minutes I circled the block in search of a landing spot. Finally, he sat right in the middle of the street, breaking off the screws and rolling the car on its side. I managed to wonder why the street is completely empty. Are people still sitting at home, waiting for news? But there was no time to think.
I burst into the Glitch, breathing heavily. The clothes were wet through, my heart was pounding with crazy doses of adrenaline.
Belle sat in a chair opposite the window, wrapped in a blanket. Near the table, the flame of a candle trembled. She looked up at me with her delightful blue eyes with cat pupils.
“Where is Jose?” I asked in a tone as if I had come here by accident.
She shrugged and smiled.
“He said he wanted to be alone.” And you?
I came closer really not knowing what to say. I imagined myself as a savior. Many triumphant thoughts flashed through my head when I was in a hurry here. It turned out she was quite comfortable with a book in her hands.
- Right now, I wanted to apologize and leave, carefully closing the door behind me. But this is some kind of stupid thought, because I flew here by helicopter, turned a half of a block while I sat down ... I think now I want to be with you.
She burst out laughing:
- Just stay? Read a book together?
I nodded.
“Yes, why not.”
“Not the best thing before the End of the World,” she put down the book, threw back the blanket and stood up. She was naked and her cat's eyes shone exactly as I had imagined countless times. She wrapped her arms and legs around me, pressed her whole body against me. We will meet this End of the World great ...