"Charles Stross - A Colder War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

time technical reconnaissance assets verified that
the Soviet air force has hard stand parking for only
one hundred and sixty of these aircraft, and
estimates of airframe production based on
photographs of the extent of the Tupolev bureau's
works indicate that total production to that date
was between sixty and one hundred and eighty
bombers.

Further analysis of photographic evidence from the
1964 parade suggests that a single group of
twenty aircraft in four formations of five made
repeated passes through the same airspace, the
main arc of their circuit lying outside visual
observation range of Moscow. This gave rise to the
erroneous capacity report of 1964 in which the first
strike delivery capability of the Soviet Union was
over-estimated by as much as three hundred
percent.

We must therefore take anything that they show
us in Red Square with a pinch of salt when
preparing force estimates. Quite possibly these
four servitors are all they've got. Then again, the
actual battalion strength may be considerably
higher.

Still photographic sequence
From very high altitude -- possibly in orbit -- an
eagle's eye view of a remote village in
mountainous country. Small huts huddle together
beneath a craggy outcrop; goats graze nearby.

In the second photograph, something has rolled
through the village leaving a trail of devastation.
The path is quite unlike the trail of damage left by
an artillery bombardment: something roughly four
metres wide has shaved the rocky plateau smooth,
wearing it down as if with a terrible heat. A corner
of a shack leans drunkenly, the other half sliced
away cleanly. White bones gleam faintly in the
track; no vultures descend to stab at the remains.

Voice-over
These images were taken very recently, on

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruiswi...ten/spaar/Charles%20Stross%20-%20A%20Colder%20War.htm (4 of 34)19-2-2006 17:13:54
A Colder War - a novelette by Charles Stross