"Tim Lebbon - The Origin Of Truth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lebbon Tim)

going to be all right, he tried to impart. He knew she'd know he was lying,
but comfort was important. Civilization was important. Without routine and
hope, civilization would crumble.

He remembered the pictures from Rome, beamed in seconds before the cameras
were swamped and stripped and dismantled to their component atoms by the
nanos: a great cloud looming in the distance; a soup of all things organic,
metallic, plastic, historic, rock and water and air. The nanos took it all,
dismantled everything and spurted it across the land, reality's white noise.

Oh my God, Lucy-Anne had gasped, squeezing his hand, spilling a tear of red
wine from her glass. Surely they can do something about it?

They? Well, the scientists. The тАж But she had trailed off as the view jumped
further north, showing the whole horizon as an indistinct blur, the land and
air merged. Armageddon moved with the wind, the nanos flowing with the air and
crawling through the ground itself, so it was said.

"Doug, she really needs to pee."

He looked in the rearview mirror and saw Gemma rocking in his wife's grip. A
horn tooted, tires squealed, he glanced forward and slammed on his brakes just
as he heard the doom-laden crunch of metal and glass impacting. The accident
was several cars in front of them in the slow lane, a Mondeo twisted under the
tailgate of a big wagon. The wagon was still moving. Even as a terrible flame
licked from beneath the Mondeo's bonnet, and as the driver struggled to open a
door distorted shut, the wagon was still moving. Its driver knew that to stop
was to die, eventually.

"Oh Jesus," Lucy-Anne whispered, and Doug put his foot down on the gas. At
least something had changedтАФrubberneckers had altered their priorities, and
they now wanted to leave the scene as soon as possible. Maybe it was the
danger from fire, but more likely it was the heat of guilt.

"You can go on the floor in the back," Doug said. "You hear me, honey?"

"I can't pee on the floor," Gemma said in disgust. "It's horrible!"

"Do as Daddy says if you're really desperate. If not, hold on, and you can go
when we stop."

"When do we stop?" Doug asked, and wished he hadn't. He saw Lucy-Anne staring
at him but he kept facing forward.

"I don't know. What's the plan? Do we have one, other than leaving our home
like тАж like rats from тАж ?"

"Hey, come on, it was you as much as me! When they reported the first case in
ParisтАФ"