（外文电子版资料）Pat Cadigan - Dirty Work.pdf

PAT CADIGAN Deadpan Allie, the pathosfinder, is a character familiar to Pat Cadigan fans, whove followed Allies career through several science fiction stories (a few of which appeared in OMNI) and the sf novel Mindplayers (Bantam). Because of my fondness for the character and because so many of her cases seemed to verge on the subject of vampirism, I asked Pat to write a Deadpan Allie story for this book . Com 1879625-JJJDeadpanAllie TZT-Tijuaoutlie XQWithheld NelsonNelson NelsonNelsonMindplay Agency TZT-Easct.Njyman XQ.2717.06X0661818JL GO So, NN, hows the family? Ah, sorry, I mean the agency. Of course. Yes, of course. Im sending you this instead of coming back myself. Sorry to cut into your Bolshoi Ballet viewing time like this. I wont be transmitting a vocal. I havent spoken for, Im not sure, days. Lots of days. Somethings happened to my speech center. Id have to put a socket in my head to vocalize and there doesnt seem to be a surgeon handy. Anyway, I know how much you hate sockets. Then, too, I dont speak any Romance language. But just about all the merchants sign, so I make my needs known that way. I used to sign a lot back at J. Walter Tech when I was getting my almost worthless education and learning to read Emotional Indexes—Indices?—and Id forgotten how much I enjoyed it. You know, NN, I like it so much, Im thinking about just letting my speech center go. I havent sustained complete damage to language. I can write, and I can read what Ive written for as long as my short-term memory cares to hold it. Its a capricious thing, short-term memory. Where was I? Oh. Ever hear of that kind of damage before? I dont know if I can understand anything said to me because I havent heard any English or Mandarin since I got here. But then, maybe I wouldnt know if I had. I hear them talking here in their own language and it doesnt sound right, it doesnt sound like language. It sounds like noise. Clang-clang, clang-clang. Being a mute may be unne