You want to see the stuff I wrote? he shouted. Before it gets erased? The new revisions are due to be released tonight over the net. Someone must have found out that the planet I spent fifteen years on has been demolished by now. They missed it on the last few revisions, but it can’t escape their notice for ever.
It’s getting impossible to talk isn’t it?
What?
She shrugged and pointed upwards.
There was a copter above them now which seemed to be involved in a side skirmish with the band upstairs. Smoke was billowing from the building. The sound engineer was hanging out of the window by his fingertips, and a maddened guitarist was beating on his fingers with a burning guitar. The helicopter was firing at all of them.
Can we move?
They wandered down the street, away from the noise. They ran into a street theatre group which tried to do a short play for them about the problems of the inner city, but then gave up and disappeared into the small restaurant most recently patronized by the pack animal.
All the time, Ford was poking at the interface panel of the Guide. They ducked into an alleyway. Ford squatted on a garbage can while information began to flood over the screen of the Guide.
He located his entry.
Earth: Mostly harmless.
Almost immediately the screen became a mass of system messages.
Here it comes, he said.
Please wait, said the messages. Entries are being updated over the Sub-Etha-Net. This entry is being revised. The system will be down for ten seconds.
At the end of the alley a steel grey limousine crawled past.
“你想看我写的东西么？”他喊道。“在它被删除之前？新的修订版今晚将在网上发布。一定有人会终于发现我待了十五年的星球如今已经完蛋了。他们在前几次修订中漏过去了，但它不会永远漏掉。”
“现在咱已经没法谈了，不是吗？”
“啥？”
她耸了耸肩，指着上方。
他们的头上有一架直升机正卷入与楼上乐队的遭遇战。大楼浓烟滚滚。录音师正用指套挂在窗户外面，而发疯的吉他手则使劲敲打着火的吉他。直升机正向他们全部开火。
“要不我们挪个地儿？”
他们在街上徘徊，远离那些噪音。他们跑到一个街头剧团那里，那个剧团打算演一出关于内城问题的短剧，但随后就放弃了，最终消失在了一家刚刚才被牲畜光顾的小餐馆里。
福特一直不停地翻弄着银河系漫游指南的面板。他们躲进了一条小巷。在福特蹲在一个垃圾桶上的时候，指南的屏幕上开始闪现出信息。
他找到了他的条目。
“地球：基本无害。”
突然间屏幕上涌现了大量系统信息。
“来了。”他说。
“请稍候，”信息显示。“条目正在亚以泰网上被更新。此条目正被修订。系统将在十秒后关闭。”
小巷尽头有一辆铁灰色的豪华轿车正在慢吞吞地挪动。