"Robert Doherty - Area 51 - The Reply" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doherty Robert)

had thick gray hair that she kept tied to the rear with a bright ribbon. Her
skin was red and peeling from exposure to the harsh South Pacific sun. "I heard
about you getting booted by the guardian."
"The whole world's heard," Nabinger said, sitting down on a folding chair.
"Looks like you're going to have this tent all to yourself soon. We've suddenly
become rather boring here."

28


"The major networks and CNN will keep a stringer here indefinitely," Kelly
said. "They don't want to get caught flatfooted if the guardian does come back
on-line. But the smaller outlets can't afford putting out this much money for
nothing. They've filed all the stories they could dredge up on this island and
taken all the shots of the guardian. It costs a lot to keep someone out here
doing nothing, and they can get their feed off those of us who are here. I'm
syndicated now in over sixty papers."
That was a far cry, Kelly knew, from where she had been just two weeks ago,
when she'd been struggling to sell articles to any paper or magazine that would
pay. But being part of the group that had uncovered the secrets of Area 51 and
the guardian here on Easter Island had certainly bolstered her career, a thought
that brought back an image of Johnny Simmons's casket.
Nabinger caught the look on her face. "How did it go?"
"The funeral was a media circus. I don't think the real feelings have caught
up with me yet. And I'm not sure I want them to right now. I have too much to
do. I owe Johnny that. He wouldn't want me to sit around crying when I could be
hitting sixty papers with this"тАФshe pointed at her laptop.
Nabinger nodded. "I understand."
"So," Kelly said, taking a deep breath. She forced a smile. "So. Since I have
an exclusive with the man himself, why don't you tell me what's going on?"
 "The guardian is still working," Nabinger said. "We know that because it's
taking in power. It's just not talking to us."

29


"Why not?"
"Probably because it figured out we're not Airlia," Nabinger answered. "They
hid it here in the first place to keep us homo sapiens from finding it."
Easter Island, known as Rapa Nui to the locals, was the most isolated island
on the face of the planet. According to Nabinger's translations of the Airlia's
high rune artifacts and interpretation of the information given him by the
guardian, that was why Aspasia had chosen it to be the receptacle for the
guardian computer. Underneath the lake in Rano Kau's crater, one of the two
major volcanoes on the island, the Airlia had built a chamber and put their
computer in place, leaving a small, self-sustaining cold fusion reactor to power
it. Even the reactor's advanced workings were off-limits to the scientists, as
the shielding guarding it was impenetrable. The dwindling power the reactor put
out had recently been supplemented by numerous human generators flown in, and
the guardian was at full power; but nothing was happening that could be