"Paul Levinson - A Medal For Harry (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Levinson Paul)

there, his political opponents whispered. But this rumor had
only increased the PM's public appeal.

Junichi Takahara -- also "Harry" to his close friends, a
coincidence that added to Harihoto's unease -- had come to power
two decades ago. A national hero, world-wide hero, because
he'd had the foresight, the good fortune, to speed the re-wiring
of his local Tokyo Prefecture before the 2047 earthquake hit.
The Mayor of Tokyo had become the personification of this
freedom from the throbbings of the earth; his smile was its
emblem. And he was equally adept at taking the pulse of
political events and riding them to perfection. The combination
had landed him in the Prime Minister's seat -- a seat from which
he seemed increasingly willing and able to drive the world.

Masazumi "Harry" Harihoto bowed deeply and sat down.

The PM nodded slightly. "Tell me, Dr. Harihoto, are you
surprised that we are not surprised by your finding?"

Tough call, Harry thought. To admit surprise might imply
some sort of disapproval on his part -- as if Harry thought that
the Prime Minister ought not know such things. On the other
hand, to say he was not surprised could give the arrogant
impression that Harry already knew the Prime Minister's
thoughts. "A bio-historian expects all sorts of possibilities,"
Harry tried a middle, non-committal course.

"Dammit!" The PM banged his hand on the table. "I want
honesty from you, not politeness. This courtesy equivocation is
the curse of our country, and it will be our undoing."

"Yes," Harry said carefully. "I understand."

"Please review for me, then, how you came to these
conclusions, and tell me how you feel about them -- not as a
scientist, but a citizen."

Harry recited the first part of his study. The careful
intelligence tests -- not the old Stanford-Binet IQ tests, but
new meta-cognitive ones designed by the Tokyo Institute at the
turn of the century -- the ones whose political agenda, every
psychometrician knew, was to maximize the Asiatic IQ advantage
that even the old Stanford-Binet tests had begun to uncover. And
then the special algorithmic retro-treatment of the old
1930-1940-1950 IQ scores to make them comparable to the current
scores. Followed by exhaustive scanning of current Japanese and
Euro-American genomes -- Suzie's specialty -- and comparison of
those with genomes available from the last century. And there
was no doubt as to the conclusion: "I'm sure we're dealing with