"Michael McCollum - Duty, Honor, Planet" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCollum Michael)

will be in an alternating synchronous orbit with Beta-Nine, of course, and you will have prime
responsibility in the Northern Hemisphere during even watch periods and Southern Hemisphere during
the odd. Luckily, south of the equator there is only empty ocean between 100 and 120 West, so you'll
be able to get some rest.

"You are hereby directed to pay especially close attention to the situation around the US--Mexican
border..." Livingston looked up, the podium light casting shadows on his face. "Watch your ass on that
one, Fred. It is a tinderbox. The Mexicans are bound to try a raid between now and the Security
Council vote on Friday."

"I thought the vote would be Wednesday," Stassel said.
"Wouldn't bet on it if I were you, chap. Besides, I have Friday afternoon in the pool. So I can hope."

"How do you think the Council will vote, Livingston?"

"I'd say they will turn the resolution down flat. Too many people do not like the Yanks for it to pass.
They enjoy the sight of the Mex dwarf tweaking the Giant's nose, and they will vote against it just to keep
the pot boiling. However, to make sure, you can bet the politicians in Mexico City will try to score
another coup to intimidate the rest of the Council into voting their way. God knows it's easy enough to
do."

"And if the Mexicans keep it up?"

"Then it'll come to war quick enough. With Warren in the White House, it is practically preordained. He
barely scraped by last election with strong Ecocrat support. The Mex's are punching the Ecocrats right
where it hurts. Warren is going to have to act quickly or else lose his base of power. And if it comes to
war, you know what that will mean."

Stassel nodded.

It had started as an argument over import quotas on Mexican sugar beets. In the bad old days, nothing
would have come of it. The Mexicans would have complained to Washington, only to be ignored. A
storm of injured Latin pride would have boiled up in Mexico, but they would have been powerless to act.

However, the bad old days were long gone. Two things had occurred to permanently change the
balance of power in the world, and not necessarily for the best as far as the current situation was
concerned.

The first was the rise of the powerful Ecocrat lobby. Growing out of the environmental movement of the
late twentieth century, they were a power in every democracy in the world. In the US particularly, they
represented a large, powerful, and vocal voting bloc dedicated to the proposition that all things ecological
were sacred. They were one-issue voters, ready to kick politicians out of office en masse for the
slightest ideological impurity.

The second development was the formation of the UN Peace Enforcers following the twenty-day scare
of the Misfire War. The Peace Enforcers were a multinational force with a single mission: To stop any
aggressor who struck against any UN member state. Their unofficial motto was, "You start the war and
we'll finish it!"

In theory, any act of aggression by one nation against another would be met instantly by the orbital lasers