"George Alec Effinger - All the Last Wars at Once" - читать интересную книгу автора (Effinger George Alec)

v1.0 by Mishap



All the Last
Wars at Once
GEORGE ALEC EFFINGER
Here is another war story of tomorrowтАФin a
manner of speaking. It may be the ultimate statement
on the racial and political differences that have
threatened to disrupt the United States in recent
years. George Alec Effinger, one of the brightest of
science fiction's new stars, is married and lives
currently in New Orleans; his unusual and delightful
first novel, What Entropy Means to Me, was
published in 1972.


We interrupt this pтАФ
тАФupt this program toтАФ
тАФterrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you this bulletin pieced
together from the archives of the General Motors Corporation.
"Good afternoon. This is Bob Dunne, NBC News in New Haven, Connecticut.
We're standing here in the lobby of the Hotel Taft in New Haven, where the first
international racial war has just been declared. In just a few seconds, the two men
responsible will be coming out of that elevator. (Can you hear me?)
"тАФelevator. Those of you in the western time zones are probably alreadyтАФ"
The elevator doors opened. Two men emerged, smiling and holding their hands
above their heads in victorious, self-congratulatory boxers' handshakes. They were
immediately mobbed by newsmen. One of the two men was exceptionally tall and
black as midnight in Nairobi. The other was short, fat, white, and very nervous. The
black man was smiling broadly, the white man was smiling and wiping perspiration
from his face with a large red handkerchief.
"тАФC News. The Negro has been identified as the representative of the people of
color of all nations. He is, according to the mimeographed flyer distributed scant
minutes ago, Mary McLeod Bethune Washington, of Washington, Georgia. The
other man with him is identified as Robert Randall La Cygne, of La Cygne, Kansas,
evidently the delegate of the Caucasian peoples. When, and by whom, this series of
negotiations was called is not yet clear.
"At any rate, the two men, only yesterday sunk in the sticky obscurity of
American life, have concluded some sort of bargaining that threatens to engulf the
entire world in violent reaction. The actual content of that agreement is still open to
specuтАФ
"тАФor at any later date."
A close-up on Washington, who was reading from a small black notebook.
"We have thus reached, and passed, that critical moment. This fact has been
known and ignored by all men, on both sides of the color line, for nearly a
generation. Henceforth, this situation is to be, at least, honest, if bloodier. Bob and I
join in wishing you all the best of luck, and may God bless."
"Mr. Washington?"