Insistence of Vision Read Online Free PDF Page B

set it up for me, he thought, trying to will her image to a far-back corner of the percept . Mr. Patel will have my hide if I don’t file my report on transportation trends. I still think they indicate a turnaround in air freight that –
    Resisting his efforts to dismiss her, Gaia’s aivatar clung to one of his maglev-zep performance charts, continuing to wand a series of chiding reminders while his impatient, leave-me-alone wind pushed her backward. That chart collapsed and surrounding data got caught up in the meme-storm as she blew backward in a blur of data-splattered robes.
    All of a sudden, Carmody’s percept reached some kind of overload. One corner contorted as graphs and prospectus appraisals started whirling around each other, crumpling into a funnel-cyclone, like dirty water circling a drain, sucking away his entire week’s labor – and his wife’s protesting analogue – vacuuming them all toward some unknown infosphere singularity.
    “Cancel!” Carmody shouted. “Restore backup five minutes ago!”
    He kept grunting and issuing frantic commands but nothing worked. Reaching and grabbing after the maelstrom, he did something wrong, some mis-cued gesture, triggering a cyber lash-back! Searing bolts of lightning seemed to lance between his eyes.
    Shouting in pain, Carmody tore off the immersion goggles, clutching them in both hands. Laying his face onto the cool surface of the desk, he suppressed a sob.
    I used to think I was so hip and skilled with specs and goggs. Only now, kids are replacing them with contaict lenses and, even eyeball implants that juggle ten times as much input.
    Can I really be so obsolete, so soon?
    “Bob?” A real voice, grating in his real ears. “Bob!”
    Even worse, it was Kevin’s voice. Standing next to the desk.
    Carmody didn’t move.
    “Are you okay, Bob? Is there a problem, man?”
    Glancing up, eyes still smarting and misty, Carmody shook his head.
    “Fine. Just resting a sec,” he put up a brave face of complacent humor, knowing better than to show any weakness to this young jerk, supposedly his assistant, but clearly angling for Carmody’s job. Still, an inner voice moaned.
    I can’t take this anymore.
    “Well, I’m glad of that,” the younger man said. But a smug expression told Carmody everything. The breakdown of his percept and loss of all that work… he suddenly knew it was Kevin’s doing! Some trick, some hackworthy sabotage that Carmody would never be able to prove.
    Does he have to gloat so openly?
    Still smirking, Kevin continued.
    “I thought I better let you know, Mr. Patel is on his way down. He wants a word with both of us.” Kevin’s look of eager anticipation was so blatant, Carmody had to quash a sudden, troglodytic urge to erase it with his fist. Kevin might have at least learned some surface tact, if he had gone to university or worked at a regular people job. But no. His generation just absorbs technical skills directly, like suckling from a –
    The right metaphor wouldn’t come, no matter how hard he beckoned one. And strangely, that was the last straw for Carmody.
    Enough is enough.
    “You look terrible,” the younger man added, with faux concern. “Maybe you better visit the loo and clean up, before… Bob? Mr. Carmody? Where are you going? Mr. Patel wants…”
    Carmody had one hand on the window pane and the other on its frame. Staring through the gap and down twenty-three stories, he inhaled deeply, feeling resolution build, overcoming the panic, layering upon the panic, amplifying his sense of panic into something that abruptly felt more manly.
    Determination.
    Time to end this.
    Carmody felt eyes turn this way as the window swung wide and his left foot planted on the sill, pushing till he stood, teetering along emptiness.
    “Bob. What’re you doing?”
    Carmody glanced back and smiled at his co-workers, none of whom rose to stop him.
    “I’m taking the easy way out.”
    And – after inhaling one more deep breath – he