The Resurrected Man (54 page)

“Goodbye, Jonah.”

“
Au revoir,
” he had replied, thinking,
Anything is possible.

She had almost smiled, and left.

Immortality.
In a thousand years, or sooner, maybe they
would
meet again. Jonah didn't want to hope for that. He had enough to cope with for the time being.

He stood.
Such as?
There were things he should've been doing, including cleaning out the office, updating his address book, contacting old acquaintances, catching up on everything he'd missed in the previous three years—but all of them were ties to the past. He felt like moving forward for a change. Away from Marylin, away from Lindsay, away from JRM.

“Room,” he said, “I'm going out for a while.”

“Do you request that incoming calls be forwarded to your overseer?”

“Yes, forward them. I'll be—”

Where?
He stopped on the threshold, just like Marylin had done only minutes earlier. He had no idea where he was going, how he was going to get there—or even what he was going to do when he arrived.

But he was sure he would think of something.

“—back later,” he finished.

ACOC—Administration Complex & Operations Centre

EHS—Enforceable Honour System

EJC—Earth Justice Commission

FDC—Full-Disclosure Citizen

CRE—Context-Rich Environment

GAP—Global Access Point

GLITCH—GLobal Information & Traffic Correlation Hardware

JRM—JRM Data Acquisition Services

KTI—Kudos Technologies Incorporated

LEO—Law Enforcement Officer

LSM—Last Sustainable Model

MIU—Matter-transference Investigative Unit

MLu—MegaLuhr

NSR—New Soviet Russia

QUALIA—QUantum ALgorithmic Intelligent Awareness

RAFT—Radical Association of Free-Thinkers

SCAR—Science of Consciousness Applied Research Centre

SciCon—Science of Consciousness Foundation

SHE—Standard Human Equivalent

uBNS—ultra high-speed Backbone Network Services

UDW—Ultraviolet Discharge Weapon

UGI—Universal Glitch Identifier

URA—United Republics of Australasia

v-med—vegetative-meditative

VTC—Virtual TeleConference

WAST—West Australian Standard Time

aie
—ouch (French)

amtlich
—proper, cool (German)

ben quoi?
—so what? (French)

bert
—idiot (German)

bok
—shit (Turkish)

bolhai
(from
balhe')
—trouble, scandal (Hungarian)

buli
—party, cool stuff (Hungarian)

c'mégère
—that shrew (French, abbreviated)

chienne
—bitch (Quebequois)

d'ac
(from
d'accord)
—ok (French)

da nu ego na khuy
—to hell with it (Russian)

do chorta
—damn you (literally “to the Devil,” Ukranian)

dupk
—little ass (Polish)

écrase
—shut up (French)

faszi
—guy (Hungarian)

fous
(from
je m'en fous)
—I don't give a damn (French)

futz
—vagina (Swiss)

gebbabel
—nonsense talk (German)

geil
—horny (German)

golya
—freshman (literally “stork,” Hungarian)

hé
—hey (French)

hein?
—huh? (French)

j'suis pas'n cave
—I'm not stupid (French, abbreviated)

jabolo
—greetings (German)

jebaniec
—fucker (“c” pronounced “ts,” Polish)

jokey
—unwitting drug courier (Turkish)

kerhane
—brothel (pronounced “care-hah-nay,” Turkish)

krank
—period-sick (German)

kuss
—shut up (pronounced “koosh,” Hungarian)

le caïd
—the boss (French)

marde
—shit (Quebequois)

más
—more (French)

mudillo
—dumbass, motherfucker (Russian)

museii
—wet dream (Japanese)

ouais
—yes (French)

ouf
—phew (French)

pic
—sonofabitch (Turkish)

pimbêche
—stuck-up female (French)

pizda
—vagina (accent on “da,” Ukranian)

pososi moyu konfetku
—suck my dick (literally “candy,” Russian)

putaine
—goddammit (literally “a whore,” French)

robine
—bad alcohol (Quebequois)

schyss
—shit (Swiss)

slomeau
—thick person (French)

spierdz
(from
spierdzielac
)—get the fuck away (Polish)

stup
—narcotic drug (French)

suczka
—little bitch (Polish)

syf
—dirt, unlikeable situation (Polish)

tfu
—sound of spitting (Ukranian)

tordue
—weird (French)

vaffler
(from
vaf'la)
—flying penis or zeppelin (Russian)

vanka
—commonly the name of village idiot in folk stories (Russian)

zsaru
—police officer (Hungarian)

zonta
—rude person (Turkish)

zut
—damn (French)

S
EAN
W
ILLIAMS was born in Whyalla, South Australia, and spent much of his early life moving with his family from place to place. An avid reader of crime and speculative fiction, he bought his first word processor in 1989 and dropped out of university in order to pursue a career in writing. Now a
New York Times
best-seller with over sixty published short stories and eighteen novels under his belt, he is a multiple winner of Australia's speculative fiction and literature awards. He writes full time from his home in Adelaide.

For more information, visit:
http://www.seanwilliams.com
.