"Michael McCollum - Gibraltar earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCollum Michael)

BartokтАЩs expression was doleful as he shook his head. тАЬNone.тАЭ

тАЬThen weтАЩd best keep this under wraps until weтАЩve learned more.тАЭ

тАЬIs that wise? The newsers will cut us to pieces when they learn weтАЩve been holding out on them.тАЭ

тАЬThat canтАЩt be helped. Do you have any conception of what it will do to the body politic if they start
going to bed every night afraid theyтАЩll wake up dead in the morning?тАЭ

тАЬI think you are exaggerating, Madam Coordinator.тАЭ

тАЬI wish I were, Anton. You should read more. The surest way to bring about psychosis in the human
animal is to give him something to fear that he does not understand. I can cite you chapter and verse from
history if you like.тАЭ

Nadine Halstrom had begun her career as a professor of history and had only gotten into politics through
a fortuitous series of accidents. Her field of specialization had been the ultra-violent twentieth century. In
many ways, that century had been an aberration, a detour into mindless destructiveness. It had been an
era when the question of national survival had turned logic on its ear. How else to explain the fifty-year
stalemate that had dominated much of the last half of historyтАЩs bloodiest century? Eastern and western
power blocs had both threatened to annihilate their foes if attacked, all the while professing their devotion
to the cause of peace. For more than two generations, people had lived in fear of death raining down
from the skies and it had warped them. To think that the same thing could happen in her century sent a
shiver up her spine that had nothing to do with the temperature.

тАЬVery well,тАЭ Bartok replied, тАЬweтАЩll keep the alien a secret.тАЭ

тАЬHow do you propose to do that, Anton?тАЭ

Despite the lightness of her tone, it was obvious to the survey director that his job might well hinge on his
answer. He considered the problem for a few seconds while alternately puffing out his cheeks and
sucking them back in. It was a mannerism of which he was totally unaware.

тАЬStandard procedure calls for holding the alien in quarantine aboard High Station until the biologists can
clear him. Obviously, we cannot do that. High Station is too public for a secret of this magnitude to last
very long.тАЭ

тАЬYou arenтАЩt suggesting that we break quarantine!тАЭ

тАЬNo, of course not. What we need is someplace out of the way where we can perform the necessary
tests, somewhere we are able to control access.тАЭ

тАЬAny suggestions?тАЭ

тАЬWhat about PoleStar? The weather directorate owns it outright and there is virtually no traffic to and
from the habitat.тАЭ

Nadine Halstrom looked pensive, and then flashed a smile familiar to billions of holovision viewers.
тАЬHmmm, not bad ... not bad, at all! It is remote and in a conveniently difficult orbit for everything in the