"Niven, Larry - Flash Crowd" - читать интересную книгу автора (Niven Larry)

УOh, no. WeТve been in conference all night. We only broke up about twenty minutes ago. Damn Wash Evans anyway! Have you heardЧФ
УI heard some of it.Ф
УA couple of the directors want to fire him. Not unlike the ancient technique of using gasoline to put out a fire. There were some even wilder suggestions... . Have you seen a doctor?Ф
УIТm not hurt. Just bruised. . . and tired, and hungry, come to think of it. I lost my camera.Ф
УYouТre lucky you got out alive.Ф
ССI know.ТТ
George Bailey seemed to brace himself. УI hate to be the one to tell you. WeТre going to have to let you go, Jansen.Ф
УWhat? You mean fire me?Ф
УYah. Public pressure. I wonТt make it pretty for you. Wash EvansТs instant documentary has sort of torn things open. It seems you caused the mall riot. It would be nice if we could say we fired you for it.Ф
УButЧbut I didnТt!Ф
УYes, you did. Think about it.Ф Bailey wasnТt looking at him. УSo did I. C .B . A. may have to fire me too.Ф
УNowЧФ Jerrybeny stopped and started overЧФnow wait a minute. If youТre saying what I think youТre saying. . . . but what about freedom of the press?Ф
УWe talked about that, too.Ф
УI didnТt exaggerate what was happening. I reported aЧa disturbance. When it turned into a riot, I called it a riot. Did I lie about anything? Anything?Ф
УOh, in a way,Ф Bailey said in a tired voice. УYouТve got your choice about where to point that camera. You pointed it where there was fighting, didnТt you? And I picked out the most exciting scenes. When we both finished, it looked like a small riot. Fighting everywhere! Then everyone who wanted to be in the middle of a small riot came flicking in, just like Evans said, and in thirty seconds we had a large riot.
УYou know what somebody suggested? A time limit on news. A law against reporting anything until twenty-four hours after it happens. Can you imagine anything sillier? For ten thousand years the human race has been working to send news farther and faster, and now. . . . Oh, hell, Jansen, I donТt know about freedom of the press. But the riotТs still going on, and everyoneТs blaming you. YouТre fired.Ф
УThanks.Ф Jenybeny surged out of his chair on what felt like the last of his strength. Bailey moved just as fast, but by the time he got around the desk, Jeriyberry was inside a booth, dialing.
He stepped out into a warm black night. He felt sick and miserable and very tired. It was two in the morning. His paper suit was torn and crumpled and clammy.
George Bailey stepped out of the booth behind him.
УThought so. Now, Jansen, letТs talk sense.Ф
УHow did you know IТd be here?Ф
УI had to guess youТd come straight home. Jansen, you wonТt suffer for this. You may make money on it. C .B . A. wants an exclusive interview on the riot, your viewpoint. Thirty-five hundred bucks.Ф
УScrew that.Ф
УIn addition, thereТs two weeksТ severance pay and a stack of bonuses. We used a lot of your tape. And when this blows over, IТm sure weТll want you back.Ф
УBlows over, huh?Ф
УOh, it will. News gets stale awfully fast these days. I know. Jansen, why donТt you want thirty-five hundred bucks?Ф
УYouТd play me up as the man who started the mall riot. Make me more valuable.. . . Wait a minute. Who have you got in mind for the interview?Ф
УWho else?Ф
УWash Evans!Ф
УHeТs fair. YouТd get your say.Ф Bailey considered him. УLet me know if you change your mind. YouТd have a chance to defend yourself, and youТd get paid besides.Ф
УNo chance.Ф
УAll right.Ф Bailey went.
3

For Eric Jansen and his family, displacement booths came as a disaster.
At first he didnТt see it that way. He was twenty-eight (and Barry Jerome Jansen was three) when JumpShift, Inc., demonstrated the augmented tunnel diode effect on a lead brick. He watched it on television. He found the prospects exciting.
Eric Jansen had never worked for a salary. He wrote. Poetry and articles and a few short stories, highly polished, admired by a small circle of readers, sold at infrequent intervals to low-paying markets that he regarded as prestigious. His money came from inherited stocks. If he had invested in JumpShift thenЧbut millions could tell that sad story. It was too risky then.
He was thirty-one when commercial displacement booths began to be sold for cargo transport. He was not caught napping. Many did not believe that the magic could work until suddenly the phenomenon was changing their world. But Eric Jansen looked into the phenomenon very carefully.
He found that there was an inherent limitation on the augmented tunnel diode effect. Teleportation over a difference in altitude made for drastic temperature changes: a drop of seven degrees Fahrenheit for every mile upward, and vice versa, due to conservation of energy. Conservation of momentum, plus the rotation of the Earth, put a distance limit on lateral travel. A passenger flicking east would find himself kicked upward by the difference between his velocity and the EarthТs. Flicking west, he would be slapped down. North and south, he would be kicked sideways.
Cargo and passenger displacement booths were springing up in every city in America, but Eric Jansen knew that they would always be restricted to short distances. Even a ten-mile jump would be bumpy. A passenger flicking halfway around the equator would have to land runningЧat half a mile per second.
JumpShift stock was sky-high. Eric Jansen decided it must be overpriced.
He considered carefully, then made his move.
He sold all of his General Telephone stock. If anyone wanted to talk to someone, he would just go, wouldnТt he? A displacement booth took no longer than a phone call.
He tried to sell his General Motors, wisely, but everyone else wisely made the same decision, and the price fell like a dead bird. At least he got something back on the stock he owned in motorcycle and motorscooter companies. Later he regretted that. It developed that people rode motorcycles and scooters for fun. Now, with the streets virtually empty, they were buying more than ever.
Still, he had fluid cashЧand the opportunity to make a killing.
Airline stock had dropped with other forms of transportation. Before the general public could realize its mistake, Eric Jansen invested every dime in airlines and aircraft companies. The first displacement booths in any city were links to the airport. That lousy half-hour drive from the center of town,
the heavy taxi fare in, were gone forever. And the booths couldnТt compete with the airlines themselves!
Of course you still had to check in earlyЧand the planes took off only at specified times. .
What it amounted to was that plane travel was made easier, but shortdistance travel via displacement booth was infinitely easier (infinitelyЧtry dividing any ten-minute drive by zero). And planes still crashed. Cassettes had copped the entertainment market, so that television was mostly news these days; you didnТt have to go anywhere to find out what was happening. Just turn on the TV.
A plane flight wasnТt worth the hassle.