Tell the Machine Goodnight. Katie Williams
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Название: Tell the Machine Goodnight

Автор: Katie Williams

Издательство: HarperCollins

Жанр: Научная фантастика

Серия:

isbn: 9780008265052

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ id="uf5cdb3af-8c5e-5d51-932e-ba339b32e6e1"> cover
Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams

       Copyright

      The Borough Press

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018

      Copyright © Katie Williams 2018

      Cover design by Andrew Davies/HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      Jacket imagery by Andrew Davies. Bee images © Shutterstock.com

      Katie Williams asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780008265038

      Ebook Edition © June 2018 ISBN: 9780008265052

      Version: 2018-05-30

       Dedication

       For Uly and Fia

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Copyright

      Dedication

       4. SUCH A NICE AND POLITE YOUNG MAN

       5. MIDAS

       6. ORIGIN STORY

       7. SCREAMER

       8. BODY PARTS

       9. THE FURNITURE IS FAMILIAR

       10. TELL THE MACHINE GOODNIGHT

      Acknowledgments

      About the Author

      Also by Katie Williams

       About the Publisher

       Image Missing

       The Happiness Machine

       Apricity (archaic): the feeling of sun on one’s skin in the winter

      The machine said the man should eat tangerines. It listed two other recommendations as well, so three in total. A modest number, Pearl assured the man as she read out the list that had appeared on the screen before her: one, he should eat tangerines on a regular basis; two, he should work at a desk that received morning light; three, he should amputate the uppermost section of his right index finger.

      The man—in his early thirties, by Pearl’s guess, and pinkish around the eyes and nose in the way of white rabbits or rats—lifted his right hand before his face with wonder. Up came his left, too, and he used its palm to press experimentally on the top of his right index finger, the finger in question. Is he going to cry? Pearl wondered. Sometimes people cried when they heard their recommendations. The conference room they’d put her in had glass walls, open to the workpods on the other side. There was a switch on the wall to fog the glass, though; Pearl could flick it if the man started to cry.

      “I know that last one seems a bit out of left field,” she said.

      “Right field, you mean,” the man—Pearl glanced at her list for his name, one Melvin Waxler—joked, his lips drawing up to reveal overlong front teeth. Rabbitier still. “Get it?” He waved his hand. “Right hand. Right field.”

      Pearl smiled obligingly, but Mr. Waxler had eyes only for his finger. He pressed its tip once more.

      “A modest recommendation,” Pearl said, “compared to some others I’ve seen.”

      “Oh sure, I know that,” Waxler said. “My downstairs neighbor sat for your machine once. It told him to cease all contact with his brother.” He pressed on the finger again. “He and his brother didn’t argue or anything. Had a good relationship actually, or so my neighbor said. Supportive. Brotherly.” Pressed it. “But he did it. Cut the guy off. Stopped talking to him, full stop.” Pressed it. “And it worked. He says he’s happier now. Says he didn’t have a clue his brother was making him unhappy. His twin brother. Identical even. If I’m remembering.” Clenched the hand into a fist. “But it turned out he was. Unhappy, that is. And the machine knew it, too.”

      “The СКАЧАТЬ