"James P. Hogan - Giants 4 - Entoverse" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hogan James P)

am I telling you for? You must get tired of people asking about them."
"Sometimes, Jerry. It depends on the people."
"There's a couple I know across in Silver Spring -- old friends -- with
this kid who's about five. Last time I was over there, he wanted to know what
planet Australians come from."
"What planet?"
Jerry nodded. "Yeah, see: Austr-alians. It was the way he heard it. He
figured they had to be from someplace else."
"Oh, I get it." Hunt grinned. "Smart kid."
"I never thought about it that way in over thirty years."
"Kids don't have the ruts yet that adults have carved into their minds.
They're born logical. Crooked thinking has to be taught."
"It doesn't work that way in your area, though -- science? That right?"
Jerry said.
"Oh, don't believe that myth. If anything, it's worse. You always have
to wait for a generation of entrenched authority to die off before anything
new happens. It's not like revolutions in your business. At least in politics
you can get rid of the obstructions yourself and move things along."
"But at least you always know you've got a job," Jerry pointed out.
"There is that side to it, I suppose," Hunt agreed.
Although still officially an employee of the CIA at Langley, Jerry had
been on extended leave for three months. With the residual Soviet-Western
rivalry transforming into economic competition, and the global development of
nuclear technology spelling an end to the dependence of advanced nations on
oil-rich, medieval dictator-states and sheikhdoms, the world had been on its
way to resolving the twentieth century's legacy of political absurdities even
before the first Ganymean contact. That had shaken things up enough, even
though it involved only a single shipload of time-stranded aliens. But after
the meeting with the Thuriens, immediately following that event, nobody knew
what the next ten years would hold in store. Few doubted, however, that there
was little in the realm of human affairs that would stand unaffected.
"Although, I don't know...with all those new worlds out there, you never
know what we might find," Hunt said. "It's your line of business that the
Ganymeans can't compete in, not mine. I wouldn't think of turning my badge in
just yet if I were you."
Jerry seemed unconvinced as he took another draft, but there was nothing
to make an issue over. "Let's hope you're right," he replied. After a pause he
went on. "So I guess it's all keeping you pretty busy over at Goddard, eh? I
hear you coming and going at all hours of the day and night."
"We're up to our ears there," Hunt agreed. He snorted lightly. "And the
funny thing is that at the beginning of the last century it was the scientists
who were talking about handing their badges in -- half of them, anyway --
because they didn't think there was anything worthwhile left to discover. So
maybe you can take some heart from that."
"Are you mixed up with that thing that's been in orbit up there for the
last couple of weeks?" Jerry asked. "I saw on the news that a bunch of 'em
from there were down at Goddard." A gigantic Thurien space vessel, named the
Vishnu by Terrans, after the Hindu deity that was able to cross the universe
in two strides, was currently visiting Earth, having brought delegations to
meet with representatives of various nations, institutions, corporations, and