"S. Andrew Swann - Zimmerman's Algorithm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Swann S Andrew)

from beyond the open door to his room.
". . . from the Treasury Department. While there was a federal warrant issued, there was no
notification of local authorities. Beyond those basic facts, neither the Treasury Department nor the Justice
Department have issued any comment. Attorney General Alexander Lloyd told the media in a press
conference today, quote, 'This entire episode is a tragic accident, and I take full responsibility for it.'
"Elsewhere in the Capital, there is growing sentiment in Congress for a full investigation of the
shooting."
The sound changed, and Gideon heard a different voice giving a sound bite. "It's clear here that some
segments of federal law enforcement have gotten out of control. We have a federal culture that is
completely without accountability. Congress abdicated its task of overseeing the executive branch when
President Rayburn was elected. . . "
Gideon closed his eyes and tried to tune out the news broadcast.
Not only had he gotten Rafe killed, he had done it before a national audience. It was ridiculous,
Congressional hearings? Christ, every problem D.C. had was because Congress was directly involved in
the city government. Congress was why the city couldn't afford new police cars, or more and better-trained
police officers. It was why the city government was constantly on the edge of bankruptcyтАФso much so
that the city offices didn't have basic things like paper clips or staplers.
The haggard D.C. police department was a direct consequence of federal control of the District budget,
and Chief ConroyтАФthe white knight from the West CoastтАФ couldn't do much about it.
Gideon wasn't one of the blacks who thought Conroy was part of some racial conspiracy, but he also
wasn't one who believed that Conroy was turning the force around single-handed. As far as Gideon was
concerned, as long as Congress was involved in city finances, nobody could.
The idea of a Congressional investigation of what happened came across as some kind of sick joke.
What they would probably find was that Rafe had died because some bureaucrat in the city government
couldn't afford toner for his fax machine, and never received the warrant from the Treasury Department.
But even as his consciousness slipped away again, he couldn't help thinking about the silencers.
 1.02 Sun.
Feb. 20

LYAKSANDRO Volynskji sprawled on the bed in his hotel room, remote in hand, flipping through
channels on the television. He flipped through half a dozen before he settled on the local public television
station to watch the News Hour. The Daedalus was still one of the leading news stories, along with calls
for a Congressional inquiry.
Volynskji frowned when he saw that one of the feature stories would be about Colonel Ramon and the
other men who had stolen the computer. He didn't like being reminded of that. Ramon didn't know his
name, or the people he worked for, but he had seen Volynskji's face, and that was bad enough.
Fifteen minutes into the news, the phone rang. Volynskji picked it up, saying, "Are our friends
listening?"
Volynskji was asking the caller how secure the phone lines were.
"As they always are," came the reply. If there was a possibility of a live tap on either of them, the caller
would have simply said "yes" and hung up. Fortunately, the response meant that they were secure from
everything but the government computers that filtered almost all electronic communications in this country.
They were safe as long as they avoided certain keywords. Volynskji put down the remote and picked up a
dog-eared computer printout. It was a highly classified list of words, ten pages long, three columns to a
page. On that list were words like "Daedalus," "Volynskji," "bomb," and the name of the organization
Volynskji worked for, the IUF, the International Unification Front.
As long as Volynskji and the caller avoided the words on this week's list, their conversation wouldn't be
flagged by any government computers.
"This is a mess," Volynskji said. "You insisted on using the Colonel rather than have me bring my own
people into the country. It is unlikely that we'll ever get another opportunity."