"Charles Stross - Missile Gap" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

coastline. There are structures, straight lines! тАЬAnother ruined civilization?тАЭ He asks quietly.
тАЬMaybe, sir. Think anyone could survive in this weather?тАЭ The temperature has dropped another ten degrees
in the predawn chill, although the Ekranoplan is kept warm by the outflow of its two Kuznetsov aviation
reactors.
тАЬHah.тАЭ
Gagarin begins to sweep the northern coast when Major Suvurov stands up. тАЬSir! Over there!тАЭ
тАЬWhere?тАЭ Gagarin glances at him. Suvurov is quivering with anger, or shock, or something else. He, too, has
his binoculars out.
тАЬOver there! On the southern hillside.тАЭ
тАЬWhereтАУтАЭ He brings his binoculars to bear as the dawn light spills across the shattered stump of an immense
skyscraper.
There is a hillside behind it, a jagged rift where the land has risen up a hundred meters. It reeks of antiquity,
emphasized by the carvings in the headland. Here is what the expedition has been looking for all along, the
evidence that they are not alone.
тАЬMy God.тАЭ Misha swears, shocked into politically incorrect language.
тАЬMarx,тАЭ says Gagarin, studying the craggy features of the nearest head. тАЬIтАЩve seen this before, this sort of
thing. The Americans have a memorial like it. Mount Rushmore, they call it.тАЭ
тАЬDonтАЩt you mean Easter Island?тАЭ asks Misha. тАЬSculptures left by a vanished peopleтАжтАЭ
тАЬNonsense! Look there, isnтАЩt that Lenin? And Stalin, of course.тАЭ Even though the famous moustache is
cracked and half of it has fallen away from the cliff. тАЬBut whoтАЩs that next to them?тАЭ
Gagarin brings his binoculars to focus on the fourth head. Somehow it looks far less weathered than the
others, as if added as an afterthought, perhaps some kind of insane statement about the mental health of its
vanished builders. Both antennae have long since broken off, and one of the mandibles is damaged, but the
eyeless face is still recognizably unhuman. The insectile head stares eyelessly out across the frozen ocean,
an enigma on the edge of a devastated island continent. тАЬI think weтАЩve found the brother socialists,тАЭ he
mutters to Misha, his voice pitched low so that it wonтАЩt carry over the background noise on the flight deck.
тАЬAnd you know what? Something tells me we didnтАЩt want to.тАЭ




Chapter Sixteen: Anthropic Error
As the summer dry season grinds on, Maddy finds herself spending more time at JohnтАЩs
home-cum-laboratory, doing the cleaning and cooking for herself in addition to maintaining the lab books and
feeding the live specimens. During her afternoons visiting in the hospital she helps him write up his reports.
Losing his right hand has hit John hard: heтАЩs teaching himself to write again but his handwriting is slow and
childish.
She finds putting in extra hours at the lab preferable to the empty and uncomfortable silences back in the two
bedroom prefab she shares with Bob. Bob is away on field trips to outlying ranches and quarries half the time
and working late the other half. At least, he says heтАЩs working late. Maddy has her suspicions. He gets angry
if she isnтАЩt around to cook, and she gets angry right back at him when he expects her to clean, and theyтАЩve
stopped having sex. Their relationship is in fact going downhill rapidly, drying up and withering away in the
arid continental heat, until going to work in JohnтАЩs living room among the cages and glass vivaria and books
feels like taking refuge. She took to spending more time there, working late for real, and when Bob is away
she sleeps on the wicker settee in the dining room.
One day, more than a month later than expected, Doctor Smythe finally decides that John is well enough to
go home. Embarrassingly, sheтАЩs not there on the afternoon when heтАЩs finally discharged. Instead, sheтАЩs in the
living room, typing up a report on a sub-species of the turtle tree and its known parasites, when the screen
door bangs and the front door opens. тАЬMaddy?тАЭ
She squeaks before she can stop herself. тАЬJohn?тАЭ SheтАЩs out of the chair to help him with the battered