"Allen, Roger MacBride - Chronicles of Solace 3 - Shores of Tomorrow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Allen Roger Macbride)

ALONG THEMISTVALEROAD
WILHEMTONDISTRICT
THEPLANETSOLACE

By the light of the burning police cruiser, Zak Destan walked back from the road and surveyed the scene with satisfaction. The two dead bodies, facedown in the road, marked a significant victory. No oneЧnot even the local groundcop forceЧespeciallythe local groundcopsЧwas going to shed a tear over Watch Officers Walzen and Teglen. Of course, the groundcops would investigate, but that would just be for formТs sake. They wouldnТt reallyneed to investigate. They would know, forty-five seconds after they came on the scene, who had done it. Hewanted them to know it. He was going to makesure they knew it. And they, and everyone else, would know why. Copies of WalzenТs and TeglenТs discipline files, along with certain other highly informative documents, would arrive the next morning at every mayorТs office and news service and police department in the district. Everyone had always known the two of them were dirtyЧnow everyone would be astonished to learn justhow dirty. With the whole district bleeding to death, the two of them had just kept squeezing harder for more. A little honest graft between friends was one thingЧbut cops running a protection racket, and upping the rates, on farmers with starving kidsЧthat was crossing every line there was, and maybe a few that hadnТt been thought of before.

УLetТs wrap it up, boys,Ф Destan called out into the darkness, and his troopers started to put a move on, gathering up the loot and the weapons they had pulled from the cruiser before setting it alight.

Destan stayed where he was for the moment, savoring the moment. Even though he had just done the local groundcop commander a favor, even though the commander would know it, and be glad to be rid of the pair, that wouldnТt matter. They would have to go after him, and Destan knew he would get the jolt for this one if they caught him. It didnТt bother him. They had evidence enough against him to do plenty alreadyЧif they caught him. How many times could they execute one man?

He had done the local commander more than one favor, come to think of it. Not only had he weeded out the two worst crooks on the forceЧhe had given all the others a very strong incentive to play the game straightЧunless they wanted to end up like the two in the road.

His troopers finished packing the guns and gear theyТd stripped from the cruiser, and started hauling it toward the two camouflaged aircars they had used to spring the ambush.

The weapons Destan would keep, but the satchelful of cash and the other goodiesЧthat was blood money. That he could not keep, and still be thought of well by the villagersЧor by himself. Besides, the two dead cops had been good enough to keep detailed records of their shakedowns and other enterprises. It would take some care, and some doing, but quietly, carefully, their victims would be compensated from the stash, as best Destan could manage it.

There was a muffledboom and the flames flared up for a moment. It was time to go. They had a lot to do yet. Everyone would be watching the Ignition Day doings. It was as if the Planetary Executive herself had arranged a gigantic diversion for DestanТs Reivers, drawing all the worldТs attention away from them. Zak Destan was determined to make the most of it.

He headed toward the lead aircar, and their next objective. HeТd planned a busy night for his boysЧand for the cops.

ABOARDLODESTARVII
INORBIT OF THEGASGIANTPLANETCOMFORT
SOLACIANSYSTEM

Neshobe Kalzant stood on the narrow platform in the rear of the large compartment, ignoring the busy people at the command consoles below. Instead she studied the huge display at the far end, the forward end, of the compartment. She glared at the display, at the numbers slowly ticking away toward a zero that would arrive in just over an hour. The big screen was subdivided to show a half dozen different views at the moment. Her gaze shifted to the image of the small world GreenhouseЧthen to the image of the SunSpot, the artificial sun that was about to die. Last, she looked on NovaSpot, the still-dormant artificial star that orbited Greenhouse. If all went well, SunSpot would die giving life to NovaSpotЧgiving life to all of them.

Neshobe could feel sweat trickling down the small of her back, and wished once again they could do something about the heatЧbut she knew better. There were simply too many nervous people and too many overworked machines in too small a space. The shipТs cargo-zone cooling system hadnТt been designed to handle the load. It had taken some doing to build the command center into what had been the cargo hold of theLodestar VII, but theyТd managed it. Barely. And so the heat built up. Never mind. The people working there were concentrating on somewhat larger climatic problems.

From behind her came a voice she was already thoroughly tired of hearing. УOn my mark,Ф the voice said, УFinal Sequence start in one hourЧmark.Ф

As if she, or anyone else, needed to be told. The moment of Ignition had been chosenЧor perhapspreordained would be a more accurate termЧyears before.

Ignition would generate a hellfire of radiation, a spherical blast wave of gamma rays, X rays, and heavy particles that would sterilize any living world or habitat unlucky enough to be caught in its path. Therefore Ignition had to be timed for a moment with very particular conditions of planetary alignment, such that not only the planet Solace, but all the spaceside habitats, were well out of harmТs way. Those alignment conditions would obtain very soonЧbut once the window was closed, they wouldnТt come back for another dozen years. Even then the alignment would be far less satisfactory, with several orbiting habitats in the danger zone and requiring evacuation.

Not that it would matter, twelve years in the future. By then, nearly everyone in the Solacian system would have been evacuatedЧor would be dead.

UnlessЧunless a lot of things. Starting with whether the Ignition worked. All else depended on that. Neshobe Kalzant had bet nearly everything and everyone on it working. A high-risk gambleЧbut then, it was the only game in town. There were no other options. Depending on oneТs point of view, it was therefore most fortunate, or disastrously unfortunate, that Neshobe was a gambler. She had to be. She was utterly convinced that to play it safe in their current situation would be the same as playing dead.

УIn just under one hourТs time,Ф the announcer droned on, Уthe final sequence will begin, culminating in the Ignition of NovaSpot, successor to the aging SunSpot. NovaSpot will, of course, be the largest and most powerful artificial fusion reactor in all history, larger than any ever seen in any sky, with a maximum potential output four times more powerful than the original SunSpot was at maximum output. ThatТs more than ten times the SunSpotТscurrent output. The excess power output capacity was engineered in to permit centuries more power at optimum capacity.Ф

The announcerТs console was at one corner of the narrow platform, affording him a fine view of everything that happened down below. Just incidentally, it put him but a few meters from the spot where Neshobe Kalzant and a few other notables had been invited to observe the proceedings. Neshobe was not grateful for the proximity. She turned toward him, and her face was caught in shadow for a moment. The curses she thought at him from the safety of darkness should have been enough to turn him to stone then and there. But there was no justice in the universe. Her bitter maledictions had no effect whatsoever.

УOnce, the SunSpot was powerful enough to light an entire hemisphere of Greenhouse, from pole to pole,Ф the announcer burbled on. УBut for more than a century, the SunSpotТs power output has been diminishing, and the light from the SunSpot has been concentrated down into a tighter and tighter beam, in order to conserve power and protect the SunSpotТs aging machinery. For the last fifty years, that light has been directed only onto the equatorial zones of Greenhouse, literally leaving the higher latitudes in the dark.

УNow, all that ends. NovaSpot will operate with sufficient power to permit illumination once again from pole to pole, thus providing a day-night cycle over the entire surface of Greenhouse for the first time in many generations.

УOne hour from now, the Final Sequence leading toward Ignition will commence, and a new era will begin in the history of GreenhouseЧindeed in the history of the entire Solacian system.Ф

If it works,Neshobe told herself.