Zurich Meet Tomorrow by Alastair Reynolds - Book - Page 5
Amaka grimaces, remembering the early months. There had
been no discomfort, but the phantasmagoric night-visions
had pushed her to the brink. It had been like being drunk, but
with none of the pleasant aspects.
‘All that again?’
‘Yes, and may I remind you that having two new customgrown eyes is actually rather a miraculous thing, even in this
age?’ He slides the tray and its offending passenger back
under the desk. ‘Six weeks, then. Use them profitably, Amaka.’
The hydrofoil surges, outpacing pelicans. Amaka grasps the
handrail and places a call with her glasses. The boat, the sea, the
birds, dissolve away. Amaka’s point of view shifts east to Tanzania,
where the sun hangs two hours higher. She perambulates along a
grove of trees, embodied within a rugged robot avatar about
the size of Mitsu.
Amaka has been working with this forester for years, but
lately there have been concerns about the quality of her
favoured Eucalyptus veneers.
Amaka is hunting for the plantation manager when another
bipedal robot hoves into view. Draped over it is a ghostly
humanoid avatar.
She recognises it with bemusement and irritation: Marcus
Siow.
Siow is another interior designer, of comparable renown. They
were friends for a while, until Siow developed a habit of cutting
Amaka out of projects by low-balling his bids. He delivers, but his
work is cheaply-specified and looks shabby after only a few years.
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