Crashland Read Online Free PDF

which was a bit unusual but not entirely so. Some people didn’t live anywhere permanently; they wandered from place to place as the mood took them, fabbing everything they needed on the other side of their latest d-mat jump. His profile contained no photo.
    Another bump came, hard on the tail of the first.
    â€œFive others also surrendered. The rest of the Improved are lying low, except for four who committed suicide. I’d like to credit them with guilty consciences, but maybe they’re just afraid of what you’d do if you caught them.”
    Clair raised her head slightly. She felt like she was being watched, but the clump of prisoners was staring anywhere but at her.
    â€œKeep looking up,” said a third bump. Then: “Now, to your right. Hello. I’m Devin.”
    The ginger teen near Tilly Kozlova lifted an eyebrow in greeting. He was so fine-featured she could easily have mistaken him for a girl, if not for his Adam’s apple, which protruded prominently like the keel of a ship. The name supplied by her lenses matched the one that came with the bump.
    â€œWho are you?” she bumped back, opening a chat.
    â€œRADICAL.”
    She rolled her eyes.
    â€œThat’s a noun, not an adjective,” he said. “Strictly speaking, it’s an acronym, like WHOLE and VIA. You’ve never heard of us?”
    â€œNo.”
    The corners of his lips turned up slightly. “That’s the answer I was hoping for. We like to hide in the noise.”
    Clair searched the Air for anything called RADICAL. If there was a hit, it was deeply buried and she didn’t see it.
    â€œYou just searched for us, didn’t you?”
    â€œYes,” she admitted. “What are you doing here? You’re not one of them or else you’d be cuffed.”
    â€œVoluntary attaché. The PKs don’t really want me here, but we have transparency laws for a reason, and RADICAL knows how to insist. It’s our job to protect the interests of future humans.”
    He had to be joking, surely. No one could really be that pompous.
    â€œRADICAL used to stand for ‘Radical Assembly of Digitalists, Ideators, Cyborgs, And Longlifers’,” he explained without prompting. “Note the way it contains its own name: that’s supposed to be clever. Woo.”
    â€œWhat does it stand for now?”
    â€œWell, it became the ‘Radical Association for the Diligent and Intelligent Creation of Artificial Life’, but it’s still a moveable feast. Sometimes we’re radicalized instead of just radical, depending on our mood. And sometimes it’s control rather than just creation, depending on the circumstances.”
    â€œWhat are the circumstances now?”
    â€œControl, definitely,” he said. “The life of every human is at risk. We could all be dead within a year, and not because of killer duplicates and mind-rape and the crash and all that stuff you’re worried about. We’re seeing a much bigger picture. The entity’s the problem. I’m here to figure out what it’s doing and what needs to be done about it.”
    â€œWhat entity?”
    â€œYou know: Q.”
    She felt herself gape at him. She couldn’t believe they were back here again. “Q is not the problem.”
    â€œIsn’t she? I’d like to talk to you about that.”
    Clair was about to suggest that any discussion they had should be conducted in public so it didn’t seem like they were sharing an illicit secret, when the door opened and PK Forest walked in, his face a businesslike mask.
    Behind him, cuffed at the wrists and ankles, shuffled Clair’s dupe.
    Clair stood up. The dupe’s sweeping gaze locked on her. They stared at each other for a long moment during which Clair didn’t think at all. It was like looking into a mirror—but at the same time not like a mirror at all. This was no reflection, nor was it a recording in her