"Jerry Pournelle - High Justice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pournelle Jerry)

the family quarters yet? Make sure you do."
Franklin made a note on a scratch pad. "Computer's got the usual bugs," he said. "Had to plug some
problems through Santa Barbara-our communications satellite came in handy. Weather's held good,


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hotter than we expected so we get plenty of evaporation. Portland cement and magnesium production
are up twenty percent over predicted. ..."
"How'd the harbor work? Captain Anderson was worried."
"Rollo always worries that he's put one of those bergs a millimeter off. No sweat, and she's
melting fine in this sun. If I had four more I wouldn't have a water shortage. Bill, if it wasn't
for the sabotage and government pressure I'd be fine."
Adams shook his head. "Finances are close, Jeff. Which puts Meissner and some of the other backers
in a mood to cut their losses. The riots in Nigeria aren't helping them decide to sink more money
in Africa either. They may bail on us, Jeff."
Franklin whistled. "What happens then?"
Adams shook his head again. "Bad. The Old Man can't finance this deal alone, it's too big. We'll
come out all right if we get the plutonium production up, but the whole integrated agro-industrial
concept is on trial here. You know what happens if you're on your own better than I do. ..."
They were interrupted by a knock. Courtney Graves came into the room, her long blonde hair in a
tangled swirl, her white blouse soaked. "It's hot out there. Hello, Mr. Franklin."
"Hi, Courtney. . . . Look, Bill, if Farbenwerke and Krupp bail on us, we're dead. It takes about a
grand an acre to develop the farms, and sure, some of that's fixed cost we've already hacked, but
it's still about $750 an acre from here to the end."
"A hundred and sixty million dollars," Courtney said quickly before Adams could take out his
calculator. He never could do figures in his head. "But that's not the real problem, is it, Mr.
Franklin?"
Jefferson Franklin shook his head. "No. The chemical works, fertilizer production, electrolyzers-
everything was built modular, and we're just about to capacity with what we've got. We need the
new units the backers were sending in. I'm not even sure Nuclear General can recover the
investment if we can't finish the project. ... It all depended on the integration, power and heat
and water and everything phased in just right, and it takes a damn big scale for it to be
economical. ..."
"Instant industrialization," Courtney finished. "The only industry in this country. It's just got
to work! These people have nothing without us. ..."
"This is not a venture in altruism," Adams reminded her.
"It is for the World Mission Society," she retorted.
"We're trying," Franklin said. "When the World Court made South Africa turn Namibia loose, the
SA's were pretty generous by their lights. Gave Namibia twenty-four million bucks, that's about
forty dollars a head, just about the annual income. Loaned them another ten million on a long-term
low-interest deal. And that's all these people have got. They sunk every penny in Otjiwar, no
wonder they worry about Imoka. And look, even in the fertile parts of this country it takes fifty,
a hundred, sometimes two hundred acres to feed a man."
"How're you doing here?" Adams asked.
"Current production, we can feed ten people an acre. That's using two thousand gallons of water
per acre a day. We've also got enough power to make the fertilizers, and some chemicals and cement
for construction and export. I can feed the whole population of Namibia and still have surplus
cash crops to sell Israel ... I could before this mess started, anyway."