"Patrick Tilley - Amtrak 2 - First Family" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tilley Patrick)

ours at the Final Victory.

Amen

CHAPTER ONE

Deke Haywood stretched back in his chair, linked his hands above his
head and yawned cavernously. He squinted through one eye at the
digital time/date display on one of the battery of tv screens that
surrounded him: 17.20 hours, 14 November 2989. Another forty minutes
to go before Glen Wyler took over the watch. And another eleven years
to the end of the century: 3000 AD; the long-awaited moment when
according to the First Family - the Amtrak Federation was due to
repossess the blue-sky world. Deke couldn't see it happening, not in
his lifetime anyway. That particular dream, like so many of the
current operations, was badly behind schedule. Deke was careful to
keep his thoughts on the matter to himself. It did not pay to comment
on any shortfall in the Federation's performance. Like all Trackers,
Deke had been bludgeoned from birth by one, constantly reiterated,
fundamental truth - 'It is only people who fail; not the system'.

The desktop console that required Deke's attention while on duty was a
three-sided affair with twenty-four tv monitors ranged in two rows
around it. The monitors were linked to remote-controlled cameras
mounted overhead, on the top of the windowless watchtower.

These were the ever-watchful eyes of the way-station.

Through them, Deke and the other VidComm Techs kept the surrounding
area - known as the station precinct - under constant surveillance;
twenty-four hours a day; 365 days a year. Their purpose was to provide
early warning of a precinct incursion by hostiles; armed bands of Mutes
- the perpetual enemies of the Federation. It was not necessary to sit
glued to the




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screens. Each camera had an image analyser and was
programmed to react to a range of specific shapes and movements. It
knew what the area it covered looked like down to the last pebble and
if it saw anything on four or two legs or a rock or bush that had moved
out of place it alerted the duty crewman by means of an audiovisual
alarm.

Normally, Deke looked forward to his four-hour stint as Duty VidComm
Tech but today, the overground had failed to deliver the special kind