"Marc Stiegler - David's Sling" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stiegler Marc)

beatтАФsomething it did more often now than before, some-
thing he should check ... He excised the thought from
his mind, removing it with surgical perfection, and reluc-
tantly met her gaze, contemplating her question, looking
beyond it to her problem.

Nell Carson was the problem, he decided. She never
took a moment to look at the bright side. Perhaps that
explained the drawn lines in her face. During the cam-
paign, the only objection the media had raised about Nell
was that she was too young. She had looked too young. No
one said that any longer. Mayfield sighed. "Why do you
always complain about our successes? You know we needed
that treaty. We had to get that treaty. Our position with
the public was slipping.' He shrugged. "We have to de-
pend on treaties, not weapons, if we're going to have a
chance of dealing with our domestic problems.'

Nell looked into his eyes- It seemed Jim could hear his
words echoing back to him, amplified and clarified by
Nell's implicit interpretation. She asked, "Who are you
trying to convince?"

Mayfleld stared at her in amazement, "I'm convincing
the public, of course." Her hawkish glare made him shiver.
"If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were a Republicani"

A tight smile crossed her face. ""Perhaps I should be."
She leaned over Jim's desk. "Don't you see the problem
with what you've done? Six months ago, you made the
agreement on Global Consequences of Nuclear War. There
you agreed that, above a certain level of nuclear war, the
radiation and climate effects of a war would destroy the
attacker, even if the defender didn't shoot back. Now you
put a limit on Ballistic Missile Defense. Either one of
these treaties, all by itself, is okay. But when combined,
they form a terrible danger. Don't you see how these
separate agreements interact?"
She paused in her speech. A stiff creak announced Earl's
attempt to shift his chair away from her.

She did not relent. "Winning an all out war now sounds
believable. Without any missile defenses, but with an agreed
threshold for nuclear suicide, the first side to launch its
missiles is protected from retaliationтАФbecause the first

8 Marc Stiegler

strike will deliver as many megatons of destruction as the
Earth can absorb. If the victim shoots back, he's destroy-