"Hogan, James P - The Genesis Machine p174-259" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hogan James P)

УFirst I knew about this,Ф Morelli said, shakii head, bemused. УI knew those two had somethir
but this. . .У
УThatТs exactly what iТm saying,Ф Clifford thun above the clamor. УItТll not simply СbombТ any poi Earth out of nowhere. .. . ItТll annihilate it! And. Earth, too . . . ItТll wipe out anything that corn side a thousand miles of this country. . . and the side will have no way of even knowing how doing it, let alone of stopping it. All their weapor their numbers count for nothing now. ThatТs hoТs
can smash this deadlock. ThatТs how you can~smash it once and for all!Ф
When a semblance of order had returned to the room, Foreshaw had a question. УDr. Clifford, what youТve just told us sounds incredible. You are certain that a device of this nature could become a reality?Ф
УQuite certain.Ф
УYou can see no fundamental reason why it couldnТt be built?Ф
УNone.Ф Clifford stood with his arms folded, composed and confident.
УWhat do you envisage it would take to do it?Ф Foreshaw asked.
УIt would require a large power source to provide focusing energyЧideally a fusion reactor. There would be a matter-beam generating system feeding a black hole sustained in a more powerful and modified version of the Sudbury GRASER. For specific target location and fire control weТd need a detector arrangement bigger and better than the Mark II. I envisage that the Mark III detector system would require three BIACs running in parallel for adequate data processing and control.Ф
УHow long?Ф Foreshaw inquired.
Clifford had evidently come prepared. Without any hesitation, he replied, УIf nothing was spared in making the requisite resources available, I estimate that the system could be operational in one year.Ф

The four scientists from Sudbury stayed overnight in Washington and went back to the Pentagon next morning to answer further questions. Then they returned to Massachusetts while an advisory committee, specially Convened by the President, examined the proposal and studied the report that Clifford had prepared. Ten days later they were summoned back to Washington
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to face the committee, restate the case, and a~ more questions. In the afternoon they met the dent.

Alexander George Sherman, President of the I. States, rose from his chair at the table in the House Cabinet Room and walked across to stai the window. He stayed there for a long time, co:
plating the scene outside, while he recapitulated in his mind the things he had learned during the] ous ten days. Behind him, still seated around the the four visitors from Sudbury, Vice President D Reyes, Defense Secretary William Foreshaw, anc cretary of State Melvin Chambers remained silet last the President pivoted on his heel and spoke 1 room from where he was standing, addressin words primarily to the four from 1SF.
УOur latest intelligence reports and strategic casts do not paint a cheerful picture. The initial slowly but surely passing to the East, and once a c point is reached, a major outbreak of hostilitie be inevitable. The only thing that would avert global war would be the granting of a long I diplomatic, territorial, and political concessions I West.Ф
УThat would be just the beginning,Ф Chambe marked. УOnce you set any precedents like thai simply get squeezed harder. The West would eitl slowly reduced to complete impotence, or forced t it out later anyway, but on less favorable terms.Ф
УHardly a long-term answer, then,Ф Peter U commented.
УPrecisely,Ф Chambers nodded. УAppeasem~ out.Ф
УI must make a decision now,Ф Sherman s~ them. УI have three choices open to me. FirstЧ
now, strike first, and strike hard while the balance is more or less even. The consequences of that would be catastrophic for the world whatever the final outcome, and IТm sure I donТt have to spell them out. SecondЧ I can do nothing. I can allow things to continue on their present course, in which case the end of free democracy as we understand it will be almost certain.Ф He moved a pace back toward the table. УThe third thing I can do is stake everything on this new weapon that will require a year to become a reality. But the world will not stop turning for our convenience. If I stake my bet that way, I naturally wouldnТt want to run any risk of anything getting out of control during that year, before it was time to collect the winnings. In other words IТd be obliged to make whatever concessions the other side demanded. At the end of that year, if the bet didnТt pay and the weapon turned out to be a dud, IТd have allowed the whole world situation to tip against us, irreversibly, and IТd have nothing to show for it. If that happened, things could only snowball for the worse after that.Ф He walked back to his chair, sat down and regarded the others soberly.
УThe third choice sounds like a big gamble,Ф he said. УWhat evidence can you offer me to justify my taking it?Ф
Silence reigned for a while. The circle of faces stared grimly at the table. At last, Clifford quietly supplied the answer. УYou have nothing whatsoever to lose by it.Ф
УHow so, Dr. Clifford?Ф Sherman asked.
УThe weapon can either work or not work,Ф Clifford replied. УIf it works, it can either be used or not used. If itТs used, it can either succeed or fail.Ф He swept his eyes round the table. УThe logical consequences of those statements are that there is nothing to lose. If it doesnТt work or isnТt used, the result is no different
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from that of choice two. If itТs used but fails, the result is no worse than the worst-case of choice one. Either way, the West loses in the long term. . . . The only alternative to that is if the weapon is used and succeeds, and the only way of making that a possibility is to select choice three.Ф

Clifford and his colleagues stayed that night in Washington while the President and his staff conferred. The next day they returned to the White House to meet Sherman, Reyes, Foreshaw, and Chambers in the Cabinet Room again.
УThe decision is Go,Ф Sherman informed them. УYou have first priority for whatever equipment, materials, personnel, funds, or other resources you need. Code name for the project is Jericho. It will commence at once. As I mentioned yesterday, we may be forced to make unpalatable decisions in the course of the next year or so; therefore our Western allies will have to be informed of the reasons.Ф
Even before the 1SF scientists had left the White House, some of the presidential advisers had already dubbed the new weapon the J-bomb.
On the plane back to Boston that night, CliffordТs mood was one of grim satisfaction. Aub, for once, seemed subdued and withdrawn.
УWhatТs the matter?Ф Clifford asked him. УItТs what youТve always said you wanted, isnТt itЧunlimited government funds and resources. Why doesnТt it taste so good now?Ф
Chapter 20

Once it had received official approval and been accorded highest priority, Jericho swung into motion with frightening speed. Home of the project was to be a place called Brunnermont, a complex of concrete and steel levels that went down for over a mile into solid rock beneath the Appalachians and which had originally been designed and built as a self-sufficient, bombproof survival center for VIPs and as a communications and command headquarters.
Here the thermonuclear power plant that had been designed to keep Brunnermont functioning for decades if need be was modified and pressed into service to feed the fearsome beam of concentrated matter into the new reactor. A level above the generators and the reactor, in a specially redesigned and sealed off top-security zone, the Mark III fire-control and direction system slowly began to take shape. Above that was installed a full-scale strategic command nerve center linked into the network of global surveillance, defense, strike and counterstrike systems, integrated command centers and war rooms of all the Western allied nations.
During the early months, Taiwan was invaded and Occupied without opposition from the West, apart from routine protests and denunciations. After a series of large-scale battles on the borders of India, appeals for Western support and intervention failed to produce any
decisive response. Encouraged by this demonstrat] apathy or indifference, political subversion and tion in that country rose to new heights of activit found many receptive ears among a people wh~ only impotence and betrayal beneath the idc preached by their own government and its fr Six months after the commencement of Jerich whole of India was engulfed in a bitter and s civil war. Hard-pressed at the front and harassed the rear, the border armies fell back to the Indus in the west and to Calcutta in the east. Predictab war had now become a Уstruggle for the liberati the oppressed peoples of India,Ф as the slogans of were once again shouted around the world. Air a on Indian cities became everyday news items; C2 burned under encircling laser siege-artillery; Bo Madras, and a score of other ports were blockad mine and submarine; famine and disease claimed dreds of thousands. The West did nothing.

The time came for those scientists from the In who had volunteered for and been accepted to on Jericho to bid farewell to Sudbury. With families they were moved into the residential sec the Brunnermont complex, where schooling, h( care, recreation, entertainment, and all the othe uisites of the modern style of living were pro They came to accept as normal ingredients in thei the discipline, the tight security measures and the lion from society that Brunnermont demanded. became a self-contained society-in-miniature of own, charged with the custody of the greatest sec all time, and sealed off from the world of pryin~ and ears by the electronically guarded three-mib perimeter zone, the Marine Corps and IF squads that flitted like phantoms among the gn
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