"John Dalmas - The Second Coming" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dalmas John)

Lute got it and opened to the Gs. "GтАФGiga. Here we are. GigaтАФone billionтАФten to
the ninth power. So a five-gigaton asteroid is a five-billion-ton rockтАФwe're talking a
rock that's miles thickтАФclipping along at maybe twenty or thirty thousand miles an
hour. That's way faster than a bullet." He returned the dictionary to the shelf. "It'd
drive more than this house down to hell," he added. "More than Blaine County or
Montana. If it hit here, it'd pulverize North America and wreck the whole damn
planet. Like an aught-six soft-point hitting a punkin."


"Is there such a thing? As a five-billion-ton asteroid?"


"You bet. Various of them."


Axel said nothing for a minute, just sat looking at the stove. "You know," he said at
last, "the way the world's getting, God might take a notion to do just that. Show us
who's boss."


Lute's smile was lopsided. "Five gigatons would wipe us out so quick, it'd be a waste
of time. We'd be dead before we knew it hit us." Again he laughed. "There's satellites
watch all the big asteroids that might hit us someday. Give us plenty of warning, so
we can all convert to CatholicтАФconfess our sins and be saved. Although there's some
of us with so many sins, we might run out of time." He laughed again. "Can you
imagine the lines of people waiting to confess? And the priests would be all tied up
confessing to each other what they did to the altar boys."


Axel shook his head. "Lute, I can't always tell when you're kidding."


"That's all right. Neither can I."


"How old is it they say the Earth is?"


"Four billion years, they say. That's four thousand million."


"Huh! And it's still here. I won't spend much time worrying about it then." Axel put
his glasses back on and picked up his book.


Lute watched him for a minute. Carl and Axel, he thought, two old farts so soured on
the world, they'd hire someone killed for no more reason than somebody else said he
was the messiah.