"Charles Stross - SEAQ And Destroy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

SEAQ and Destroy
Charles Stross
Historical note: this story was originally written in 1987. It was sold to There won't be War in
early 1988. However, it took rather a long time for that anthology to be published ... it finally
came out the week after the Moscow Putsch that toppled Mikhail Gorbachev and led to the
breakup of the USSR.
If that kind of thing annoys you, just pretend it's an "alternate history" story ...

Day 1
NewsBurst:11:43 G.M.T.
The Third World War began this morning with a Russian dawn raid on the City of
London. Bombs exploded all over the Docklands Enterprise Zone, disrupting the white-hot
core of European industrial asset-stripping; the follow-up raids involved extensive use of
lethal virus weapons and tactical assault units. Casualties included Larry Steinberg, a
systems analyst for BSF:
Video intercut:
Steinberg: "It was terrible. They must have infiltrated those time bombs weeks ago,
but there was no sign of them. They began going off at nine-thirteen this morning, bringing
down whole systems. One entire block just crumbled ... it was terrible, I tell you. We lost
SEAQ for starters and then it all went to hell. There were casualties everywhere ... I saw this
young dealer, she was crying and pulling her hair out over her colleague, he'd copped it but
bad, flat on the floor ... "
Voice-over:"Barclays de Stoat Fader is just one of the large financial houses to suffer
at the hands of the spetznaz assault this morning. Other large institutions affected include
Country NatWest and the European desks of Drexel Burnham.
"Casualty figures are high, possibly running into tens of thousands of city workers
and billions of ECU's of damage. Further video updates will follow."
Viral attack was largely confined to peripheral dealer desks where data throughput
was limited to those personnel who had time to play a pirated game of Strip Poker which was
being passed around. The virus was triggered by a date check, which suggests that the
assault has been prepared far in advance. The main network through which it was
disseminated appears to have been via SEAQ, the Stock Exchange Automated Quotations
system.
BSF have refused to comment on a rumour to the effect that the attack was planned
with the assistance of disgruntled employees sacked last year after a securities scandal
which led to the company being investigated by the MMC.
The Soviet Embassy in London was unavailable for comment. The US Treasury
Department is expected to make a statement later in the day.

NewsBurst:12:51 G.M.T.
Initial damage caused by the Soviet attack appears to have been limited, and the
main clearing banks are switching in their reserve and back-up capacity. About 30% of the
damaged dealer desks are up and running from back-ups, but the virus-infected optical discs
are still in quarantine with DTI investigators and S&Q Enterprises called in. The attack failed
to induce a massive slide, but Snake currencies are shaky and an unscheduled internal
adjustment has been announced for this afternoon. Interest rates have not yet been affected,
but announcements are expected hourly.
At 12:49 the European Currency Unit stood at 0.92 Roubles, down 23 Kopeks in just
three and a half hours. The U.S. dollar remained stable at 0.89 ECUs, three cents up on
yesterday.