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he faint
stench of burned skin, and the dummy returned the book, with a
barcode burned into its spine. `You can check this out on the
ground floor.'
Genesis lay on his bed in his room above the Suteriik Kitchen,
reading the book while listening to This Mortal Coil's `Filigree
and Shadow'. The book was written entirely in twisted,
Druillet-like symbols that made his eyes cross; he had to stop
every few minutes and shake his head to clear it. Even so,
meaning was filtering into his backbrain, the runes interpreted
by some pre-literate section of his mind still outside the
electronic simulation he was experiencing. He was about a third
of the way through the book when he noticed a faintly glowing
figure sitting at the foot of his bed. He squinted at it, and it
faded. He shook his head vigorously, and kept reading. Half way
through the book, he looked up again, and it was back, more
clearly defined.
It was Kely.
As he watched, it faded slightly, but the outline remained. He
frowned; what was happening here was that the book had encoded
routines that caused the brain to generate a complete
personality-entry in the electronic fan
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