"Paul Levinson - Loose Ends 02 - Little Differences" - читать интересную книгу автора (Levinson Paul)

for Mars?

тАЬI'd love to,тАЭ Jeff said to Sam. тАЬLet me just check with the board of directors at home to make sure we
don't have any conflicting plans.тАЭ
 ****

I'm just rapping with my friends, Ron...

How many times had Jeff heard Nixon say that, or something similar, in the mirror imagisms he'd seen as
a kidтАФ"the mirrorim: more pixels per byte, the retina's delight"тАФNixon in stark vivid detail in new
productions and copies of holoscans and videos and movies made decades or more earlier? After JFK,
Nixon had been the 20th-century president the 21st century had held in greatest fascination. And with
good reason.

I'm just rapping with my friends, Ron ... Nixon to his Press Secretary, Ron Ziegler, who had come
upon the President talking to a small group of anti-war protestors at the Lincoln Memorial, in the early
hours of the National Day of Protest in Washington, five days after the slaughter of four students at Kent
State. Except the kids at the Lincoln Memorial were neither his friends, nor was Nixon тАЬrapping". He
was barely communicating with them at allтАФbabbling, instead, about college football scores, oblivious to
their anguish.

Nixon, with little or no Secret Service protection at that Lincoln Memorial before Ziegler had
arrivedтАФaccounts differed, but all agreed he had impulsively left or snuck out of the White House, bent,
perhaps, on explaining himself to whatever protestors he might encounter, or maybe just wanting to
spend a few minutes with Lincoln, but certainly without the usual Secret Service complement.

About as vulnerable as a president could be.

But that was still more than a year away...

тАЬJeff Harris?тАЭ

Jeff turned, and extended his hand. тАЬGood to see you again, George.тАЭ

George G. Landry had bushy black eyebrows and a big moustache that looked out of place to Jeff,
pasted on, but at the same time appropriate, even familiar. Then again, that's the way just about everyone
had looked to Jeff since the day he'd arrived in 1963, more than 20 years earlier than his team had
intended to send him, to stop the Challenger from exploding. Nothing about this world seemed in its
proper place to Jeff, yet it all seemed so well known to himтАФlike Jeff himself, when he looked in the
mirror. An historian's dream come to lifeтАФexcept he was the history now.

тАЬQuite a President,тАЭ George said, and looked up at Lincoln. тАЬDon't make them like that anymore, do
they.тАЭ

тАЬWith the rosy vision of hindsight they all look pretty good,тАЭ Jeff said.

тАЬWell, not all,тАЭ George said. тАЬI doubt our incumbent will come out of this presidency smelling like a rose.
You would agree, am I right?тАЭ

тАЬWho are you?тАЭ Jeff hadn't intended to be so blunt with Sam's friend, who had had some very interesting