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.padding-bottom: 56.25%;"> “你想看我寫的東西麼？”他喊道。“在它被刪除之前？新的修訂版今晚將在網上發佈。一定有人會終於發現我待了十五年的星球如今已經完蛋了。他們在前幾次修訂中漏過去了，但它不會永遠漏掉。” “現在咱已經沒法談了，不是嗎？” “啥？” 她聳了聳肩，指着上方。 他們的頭上有一架直升機正捲入與樓上樂隊的遭遇戰。大樓濃煙滾滾。錄音師正用指套掛在窗戶外面，而發瘋的吉他手則使勁敲打着火的吉他。直升機正向他們全部開火。 “要不我們挪個地兒？” 他們在街上徘徊，遠離那些噪音。他們跑到一個街頭劇團那裏，那個劇團打算演一出關於內城問題的短劇，但隨後就放棄了，最終消失在了一家剛剛纔被牲畜光顧的小餐館裏。 福特一直不停地翻弄着銀河系漫遊指南的面板。他們躲進了一條小巷。在福特蹲在一個垃圾桶上的時候，指南的屏幕上開始閃現出信息。 他找到了他的條目。 “地球：基本無害。” 突然間屏幕上涌現了大量系統信息。 “來了。”他說。 “請稍候，”信息顯示。“條目正在亞以泰網上被更新。此條目正被修訂。系統將在十秒後關閉。” 小巷盡頭有一輛鐵灰色的豪華轎車正在慢吞吞地挪動。
