"Stephen Kenson - Technobabel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kenson Stephen)

"The case against Renraku is more than just smoke and mirrors, David. There is
real cause to believe they've violated the concords of the Court and that
Lanier's involvement is the key to it. We've got a lead on something that
could blow the lid off this whole thing and implicate Renraku in serious
violations of the balance of power. It's the only explanation for what's been
happening."
Over the past year and a half, Renraku Computer Systems, one of the world's
three computer giants and a member of the Corporate Court, had gone from being
a slumbering giant to become a runaway juggernaut on the global mar-

ket. Renraku had been a powerful and prosperous company for years-one of the
top eight in the world to claim a position on the Court-but its methods had
been conservative and, most analysts thought, rather outdated.
That was before a twist of fate put Miles Lanier on the Renraku Board of
Directors. Lanier was a go-getter and an aggressive executive known for his
take-no-prisoners attitude toward business. His skill and cunning were well
known to Fuchi Industrial Electronics. Lanier had been Fuchi's chief of
internal security, the head of the company's most sensitive and important
security arrangements and the protector of its most vital information. That
is, until he had defected to Renraku two years ago.
After Lanier's defection, Renraku research and development suddenly began
producing state-of-the-art computer technology that was blowing their
competition away in the market. Their Matrix software and algorithms were
outselling Mitsuhama's by a good margin, and their computer hardware was
threatening Fuchi's dominance of the market, a first for Renraku.
The corp's security had also increased to truly paranoid levels. Industrial
espionage by the other corps, including Fuchi, had netted them some scraps of
useful R&D data on Renraku's latest developments, but gave them no clue about
where the corporation was getting its phenomenal new products: no names of
researchers or information on facilities turning out new technological
breakthroughs. Fuchi naturally suspected that Renraku was conducting datasteal
operations against them. But if they were, it was being done with such skill
and finesse that Fuchi could find no evidence of them whatsoever.
Renraku was on a roll and there seemed to be no stopping them. The
corporation's annual report showed that they had already surpassed Mitsuhama
in power and were quickly gaining on Fuchi's position as the world's Number
Two megacorp. Only the vast Saeder-Krupp empire was more powerful, and Hague
suspected mat even S-K's dragon CEO Lofwyr had his concerns about Renraku. And
that was why the Corporate Court was getting involved.

Not that the megacorporations had any problem with one of their number being
successful and making money. The Court existed solely to assure that the
various megacorporations might continue to do so. But the Corporate Court also
existed to make sure its members followed certain rules in their game of
global competition and profit-mongering. The megas had resources and influence
that could savage the whole planet unless a delicate balance of power was
maintained between them. The economic and military power to dictate terms to
entire nations could be devastating if the megacorps turned it on each other
in a global war that would benefit no one.
That was why the Court had established the Concords, secret agreements between