"Alan Dean Foster - Humanx 5 - Sentenced To Prism" - читать интересную книгу автора (Foster Alan Dean)

communications system?"
Machoka smiled broadly. "Wait until you see the suit you'll be working with.
Unless their deepspace beam has been snapped by an earthquake or something,
you'll be able to tie right into the base generation system with your suit
electronics. There's a lot more to this suit than your Avilla software. Our
engineers are rightly proud of it." He paused, steepling his fingers.
"There are some on the Board who say I'm being too cautious in this matter. I
think not. There's too much at stake here. This is too important to the
company,
to me, to all of us. There are fortunes and futures aplenty to be made from
this
discovery and its subsequent exploita-tion‑ if we can keep it quiet for
a year
or two. That means keeping greedy s.o.b.'s like the people from Reliance and
Helvetia in the dark. It also means keeping everything secret from the
Commonwealth Council. Not to mention the United Church. I don't want that
bunch
of pious mor-alists poking around Prism until we're thoroughly estab-lished
there.
"If we can keep it quiet for a year or so we'll be set. After that it won't
matter if the whole Commonwealth knows about Prism. We'll have such a lead in
research and exploration that any other company that wants to go into Prism
will
have to pay for the use of our knowledge, if only because it'll be cheaper
than
starting from scratch themselves. That goes for the government and the Church
as
well."
"And if we're found out?"
Machoka shrugged. "If by a competitor, we lose a great deal of money. If by
the
government or the Church, we may lose our freedom. Looked at from any angle,
Prism is a great risk."
"Risks hold fascination. Prism sounds fascinating to me, not risky."
"Your confidence again. May it stand you in good stead. Then you accept?"
"Of course I accept. Did you think I might refuse? I've never turned down a
company assignment yet."
"They told me this was how you'd react. I know about your attitude."
"There's nothing wrong with my attitude," Evan replied defensively.
"No? I was told that you're arrogant as hell."
"I am not arrogant. Just confident of my abilities."
"Well, that's what's needed here."
"I've already handled more than a thousand theoretical off‑world
problems during
the development of the Avilla software. I doubt that there's anything on Prism
that I haven't already dealt with in theory if not in practice. I'm sure I'll
be
able to isolate the problem and compose a solution for it."
"I hope so too, Orgell. I hope that this world doesn't present you with that
thousand‑and‑first problem, the one you haven't had to deal with