"John Ringo - Into the Looking Glass" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ringo John)

Crichton cringed at that. The Chief of Staff was going to tell whatever he said to somebody even higher
up. Probably the President. If he got it wrong . . .

"Right now this . . . event is not consonant with a nuclear attack, sir," the specialist said, firmly. "There is
no evidence of EMPor radiation. Nor . . ." He paused and then squared his shoulders. "Nor does it
appear to be an asteroid strike."

"A what?" the operations officer asked.

"Look," Crichton said, thinking fast. "Sir, you ever see a movie calledArmageddon ? OrAsteroid ?"

"That's science fiction, right?" the major scoffed. "I don't watch that sort of stuff."

"An asteroid probably wiped out the dinosaurs, sir," Crichton explained, trying not to sound as if he was
speaking to a child. "It's not science fiction, it could happen at any time."

"But we'd get warning, right?" the XO asked. "There's some sort of a group that watches for that sort of
thing. They thought one was headed this way a couple of years ago . . ."

"No, sir, we wouldn't," Crichton said, shaking his head. "Not unless we were extremely lucky.
Spacewatch can only scan about ten percent of the sky. An asteroid can come in from anywhere. But,
again, there's no evidence that it's an asteroid strike. Asteroids will pick up debris, lots of it and big
debris when you get a fireball like this, described as this one was which was that it seemed to be at
ground level. Chondritic meteors can do an airburst, that's probably what happened in Tunguska . . ."

"They teach this in NBC school?" the operations officer asked.

"No, sir, but there havebeen recognized impacts in the last ten years; this is real information," the
chemical specialist said. "Do you want it?"

"Go ahead, Specialist," the battalion commander said. "But your point is that this doesn't appear to be a
meteor."

"No, sir," he confirmed. "I've caught what I can from the news while I've been running around. There's a
big ball of dust over the explosion site and news helicopters have been staying away from it for safety
reasons. But they've noted that the damage path is damned near circular. Very unusual for a meteor."

"Why?" the XO asked.
The Specialist sighed. "Angles, sir."

"Sit, Crichton," the battalion commander said. "Then explain. This is all new to me, too."

"Thanks, sir," he replied, grabbing a chair, then holding his hands up like a ball. "This is the Earth, right?
For the damage to be circular it would have to have come in straight." He pointed towards where he'd
had his hand cupped, then pointed from the sides. "But a meteor can come in from any direction. It's
much more likely that it will come in at an angle. And if it hits," he clapped his hands together and then
fanned them out, "it's like throwing a rock into a mud puddle. Most of the mud splashes away from the
rock. Some splashes straight up. Some, a little, splashes back. They think the one that took out the
dinosaurs hit down in the Yucatan. 'Splashes' from it hit in Europe and up in the tundra. The plasma wave