"Dan Simmons - On K2 with Kanakaredes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Simmons Dan)

relaxed, but his eyes were flint. "I presume that if this bug climbed with us, that you'd hold
responsible for his safety and well-being," he said.
The secretary's head turned as smoothly as an owl's. "You presume correctly," she said.
"That would be our first concern. The safety of the Listeners is always our first concern."
Gary lowered his hands and shook his head. "Impossible. Above eight thousand meter
no one can help anyone."
"That's why they call that altitude the Death Zone," said Paul. He sounded angry.
Bright Moon ignored Paul and kept her gaze locked with Gary's. She had spent too man
decades steeped in power, negotiation, and political in-fighting not to know who our leade
was. "We can make the climb safer," she said. "Phones, CMGs on immediate call, uplinks
."
Gary was shaking his head again. "We do this climb without phones and medevac
capability from the mountain."
"That's absurd . . .," began the secretary of state.
Gary cut her off. "That's the way it is," he said. "That's what real mountaineers do in th
day and age. And what we don't do is come to this fucking obscenity of a restaurant." He
gestured toward the darkened Hillary Room to our right, the gesture including all the
revolving Top of the World. One of the marines blinked at Gary's obscenity.
Secretary Bright Moon did not blink. "All right, Mr. Sheridan. The phones and CMG
medevacs are not negotiable. I presume everything else is."
Gary said nothing for a minute. Finally, "I presume that if we say no, that you're going t
make our lives a living hell."
The secretary of state smiled ever so slightly. "I think that all of you will find that there wil
be no more visas for foreign climbs," she said. "Ever. And all of you may encounter
difficulties with your taxes soon. Especially you, Mr. Sheridan, since your corporate accoun
are so ... complicated."
Gary returned her smile. For an instant it seemed as if he were actually enjoying this.
"And if we said yes," he said slowly, almost drawling, "what's in it for us?"
Bright Moon nodded, and one of the lackeys to her left opened another dossier and slid
slick color photograph across the table toward us. Again all three of us leaned forward to
look. Paul frowned. It took me a minute to figure out what it wasтАФsome sort of reddish
shield volcano. Hawaii?
"Mars," Gary said softly. "Olympus Mons."
Secretary Bright Moon said, "It is more than twice as tall as Mount Everest."
Gary laughed easily. "Twice as tall? Shit, woman, Olympus Mons is more than three
times the height of EverestтАФmore than eighty-eight thousand feet high, three hundred an
thirty-five miles in diameter. The caldera is fifty-three miles wide. Christ, the outward
facing cliff ringing the bottom of the thing is taller than EverestтАФthirty-two thousand eigh
hundred feet, vertical with an overhang."
Bright Moon had finally blinked at the "Shit, woman"тАФI wondered wildly when the las
time had been that someone had spoken to this secretary of state like thatтАФbut now she
smiled.
Gary said, "So what? The Mars program is dead. We chickened out, just like with the
Apollo Program seventy-five years ago. Don't tell me that you're offering to send us there,
because we don't even have the technology to go back."
"The bugs do," said Secretary Bright Moon. "And if you agree to let the son of the
mantispid speaker climb K2 with you, the Listeners guarantee that they will transport you
Mars within twelve monthsтАФ evidently the transit time will be only two weeks in each
directionтАФand they'll outfit a mountain-climbing expedition up Olympus Mons for you.
Pressure suits, rebreathers, the whole nine yards."