"Bova, Ben - Voyagers 03 - Star Brothers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bova Ben)

"Hardly But did you observe that there's not a military uniform to be found anywhere among our hosts? And how relieved the ambassador appears to be?"

"You mentioned that before "

"Yes De Sagres thwarted the army's coup attempt in Brasilia, you know "

"So I heard "

"The president appears to have gained the upper hand over the generals His cousin seems happy about it "

"Shouldn't he be?"

"I had always wondered about him," said Sir Harold "Which way he would )ump when the fire got hot "

Jo gave him a sly smile "Miguel doesn't jump at all He merely stays here in Washington and waits for the smoke to clear in Brasilia Whoever is in power, that's who he supports "

"You think so?"

Jo nodded

"I suppose you have better sources of information than I do," Sir Harold admitted "You have the farflung operations of Vanguard Industries at your beck and call All I have is British Intelligence "

A series of musical tones chimed out over the hubbub of conversations

"They're calling us to dinner," Jo said "Just like on a cruise ship "

"How gauchel"

The crowd streamed in to the formal state dining room with its three magnificent chandeliers, where a dozen circular tables had been set with flawless damask, sparkling crystal, and beautiful figured chmaware from Coimbra Livened servants showed the guests to their tables Jo was placed next to the ambassador and his wife, an overweight former video star in a grotesquely green gown with a plunging neckline and enough emeralds to make a maharajah jealous Seeing that Sir Harold was being seated several tables away, Jo spoke briefly with the ambassador, and the Englishman was asked to change places with one of the Brazilian flunkies at the ambassador's table

Senora Branco glared at Jo, who ignored her and welcomed Sir Harold to their company

* * *

Less than twenty kilometers away, but more than thirty meters below ground, three technicians sat at their monitoring stations, exchanging exaggerated tales of their daring and bravery to pass the long hours

"So there I was," said the youngest of the three, traces of acne still blemishing his )ovial round face, "at the top of the jump with a busted fitting on my right ski and nowhere to go but down the chute "

On the other side of the steel walls that enclosed their station, a thermonuclear fusion generator quietly converted isotopes of hydrogen and helium to energy Deep in the heavily shielded heart of the fusion generator blazed a man-made star, a core of plasma a hundred million degrees hot that duplicated the unimaginable forces existing in the heart of a star Incredibly powerful magnetic fields held the fierce blazing plasma in a cage of energy The forces at play inside the fusion generator, if let loose, could have destroyed the city of Washington in an eyeblmk

But the monitor screens showed that everything was under control more energy than the entire power grid of the United States had been able to produce a mere generation earlier was routinely created and used while the three technicians swapped stories

"There were three of 'em," the second technician was saying, unconsciously toying with his thick red mustache "Mako sharks, and man did they look hungry"

A fraction of the energy generated by the fusion reactor was converted into the electricity that powered most of the government buildings in Washington The White House, the Capitol, the Library of Congress, the office buildings for the House and Senate and all the administrative departments from Agriculture to Space, all the agencies from FBI to IRS-- their lights, their air conditioners, their coffee makers and paper shredders and computers and even their pencil sharpeners were all powered by electricity from the man-made star

The largest part of the fusion-generated energy, however,

powered a strangely small device that made no noise, no vibration, and seemed to be doing nothing Energy went in, but to the unappreciative eye, it seemed that absolutely nothing came out The device, little more than a hemisphere of polished metal gleaming in the overhead lights, seemed to swallow the energy and give nothing in return