"Robert Heinlein - The Man Who Sold the Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

THE MAN WHO SOLD THE MOON


CHAPTER ONE


УYOUТVE GOT TO BE A BELIEVER!Ф

George Strong snorted at his partnerТs declaration. УDelos, why donТt you give up? YouТve been singing this tune for years. Maybe someday men will get to the Moon, though I doubt it. In any case, you and I will never live to see it. The loss of the power satellite washes the matter up for our generation.Ф
D. D. Harriman grunted. УWe wonТt see it if we sit on our fat behinds and donТt do anything to make it happen. But we can make it happen.Ф
УQuestion number one: how? Question number two: why?Ф
УСWhy?Т The man asks Сwhy.Т George, isnТt there anything in your soul but discounts, and dividends? DidnТt you ever sit with a girl on a soft summer night and stare up at the Moon and wonder what was there?Ф
УYeah, I did once. I caught a cold.Ф
Harriman asked the Almighty why he had been delivered into the hands of the Philistines. He then turned back to his partner. УI could tell you why, the real Сwhy,Т but you wouldnТt understand me. You want to know why in terms of cash, donТt you? You want to know how Harriman & Strong and Harriman Enterprises can show a profit, donТt you?Ф
УYes,Ф admitted Strong, Уand donТt give me any guff about tourist trade and fabulous lunar jewels. IТve had it.Ф
УYou ask me to show figures on a brand-new type of enterprise, knowing I canТt. ItТs like asking the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk to estimate how much money Curtiss-Wright Corporation would someday make out of building airplanes. IТll put it another way, You didnТt want us to go into plastic houses, did you? If you had had your way we would still be back in Kansas City, subdividing cow pastures and showing rentals.Ф
Strong shrugged.
"How much has New World Homes made to date?Ф
Strong looked absent-minded while exercising the talent he brought to the partnership. УUh . . . $172,946,004.62, after taxes, to the end of the last fiscal year. The running estimate to date isЧФ
УNever mind. What was our share in the take?Ф
УWell, uh, the partnership, exclusive of the piece you took personally and then sold to me later, has benefited from New World Homes during the same period by $1 3,010,437.20, ahead of personal taxes. Delos, this double taxation has got to stop. Penalizing thrift is a sure way to run this country straight intoЧФ
УForget it, forget it! How much have we made out of Skyblast Freight and Antipodes Transways?Ф
Strong told him.
УAnd yet I had to threaten you with bodily harm to get you to put up a dime to buy control of the injector patent. You said rockets were a passing fad.Ф
УWe were lucky,Ф objected Strong. УYou had no way of knowing that there would be a big uranium strike in Australia. Without it, the Skyways group would have left us in the red. For that matter New World Homes would have failed, too, if the roadtowns hadnТt come along and given us a market out from under local building codes.Ф
УNuts on both points. Fast transportation will pay; it always has. As for New World, when ten million families need new houses and we can sell Сem cheap, theyТll buy. They wonТt let building codes stop them, not permanently. We gambled on a certainty. Think back, George: what ventures have we lost money on and what ones have paid off? Everyone of my crack-brain ideas has made money, hasnТt it? And the only times weТve lost our ante was on conservative, blue-chip investments.Ф
УBut weТve made money on some conservative deals, too,Ф protested Strong.
УNot enough to pay for your yacht. Be fair about it, George; the Andes Development Company, the integrating pantograph patent, every one of my wildcat schemes IТve had to drag you intoЧand every one of them paid.Ф
УIТve had to sweat blood to make them pay,Ф Strong grumbled.
УThatТs why we are partners. I get a wildcat by the tail; you harness him and put him to work. Now we go to the MoonЧand youТll make it pay.Ф
УSpeak for yourself. IТm not going to the Moon.Ф
УI am.Ф
УHummph! Delos, granting that we have gotten rich by speculating on your hunches, itТs a steel-clad fact that if you keep on gambling you lose your shirt. ThereТs an old saw about the pitcher that went once too often to the well.Ф
УDamn it, GeorgeЧIТm going to the Moon! If you wonТt back me up, letТs liquidate and IТll do it alone.Ф
Strong drummed on his desk top. УNow, Delos, nobody said anything about not backing you up.Ф
УFish or cut bait. Now is the opportunity and my mindТs made up. IТm going to be the Man in the Moon.Ф
УWell . . . letТs get going. WeТll be late to the meeting.Ф
As they left their joint office, Strong, always penny conscious, was careful to switch off the light. Harriman had seen him do so a thousand times; this time he commented. УGeorge, how about a light switch that turns off automatically when you leave a room?Ф
УHmmЧbut suppose someone were left in the room?Ф
УWell. . . hitch it to stay on only when someone was in the roomЧkey the switch to the human bodyТs heat radiation, maybe.Ф
УToo expensive and too complicated.Ф
УNeednТt be. IТll turn the idea over to Ferguson to fiddle with. It should be no larger than the present light switch and cheap enough so that the power saved in a year will pay for it.Ф
УHow would it work?Ф asked Strong.
УHow should I know? IТm no engineer; thatТs for Ferguson and the other educated laddies.Ф
Strong objected, УItТs no good commercially. Switching off a light when you leave a room is a matter of temperament. IТve got it; you havenТt. If a man hasnТt got it, you canТt interest him in such a switch.Ф
УYou can if power continues to be rationed. There is a power shortage now; and there will be a bigger one.Ф
УJust temporary. This meeting will straighten it out.Ф
УGeorge, there is nothing in this world so permanent as a temporary emergency. The switch will sell.Ф
Strong took out a notebook and stylus. УIТll call Ferguson in about it tomorrow.Ф
Harriman forgot the matter, never to think of it again. They had reached the roof; he waved to a taxi, then turned to Strong. УHow much could we realize if we unloaded our holdings in Roadways and in Belt Transport CorporationЧyes, and in New World Homes?Ф