"Vernor Vinge - Rainbows End" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vinge Vernor)

Keiko was completely silent; even her crystals lost their mobility. YGBM. That was a bit of
science-fiction jargon from the turn of the century: You-Gotta-Believe-Me. That is, mind control. Weak,
social forms of YGBM drove all human history. For more than a hundred years, the goal of irresistible
persuasion had been a topic of academic study. For thirty years it had been a credible technological goal.
And for ten, some version of it had been feasible in well-controlled laboratory settings.

The crystals shifted; Alfred could tell that Keiko was looking at him. "Can this be true, Alfred?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so. My people have studied the report. G├╝nberk's luck was extraordinary, since this was
really a simultaneous test of two radical innovations. The honeyed-nougat compulsion was far more
precise than needed for a test of remote disease triggering. The perpetrators knew what they were
coding for тАФ consider the cloaking advertisement for nougats. My analysts think the enemy may be
capable of higher semantic control in as little as a year."

Keiko sighed. "Damn. All my life, I've fought the cults. I thought the great nations were beyond the most
monstrous evils... but this, this would make me wrong."
G├╝nberk nodded. "If we are right about these labs and if we fail to properly... deal... with them, that
could be the end of history. It could be the end of all the striving for good against evil that has ever been."
He shook himself, abruptly returning to the practical. "And yet we are reduced to working through this
damned rabbit person."

Alfred said gently, "I've studied Rabbit's track record, G├╝nberk. I think he can do what we need. One
way or another. He'll get us the inside information, or he'll create enough chaos тАФ not attributable to us
тАФ that any evil will be clearly visible. If the worst is true, we'll have evidence that we and China and even
the nonculpable parties in the U.S.A. can use to stamp this out." Suppression attacks on the territory of a
Great Power were rare, but there was precedent.

All three were silent for a moment, and the sounds of the festival afternoon swept around Vaz. It had
been so many years since his last visit to Barcelona... Finally, G├╝nberk gave a grudging nod. "I'll
recommend to my superiors that we proceed."

Across the table, Keiko's prismatic imagery shimmered and chimed. Mitsuri's background was in
sociology. Her analyst teams were heavily into psychology and social institutions тАФ much less diversified
than the teams working for Alfred, or G├╝nberk. But maybe she would come up with some alternative that
the other two had missed. Finally she spoke: "There are many decent people in the American intelligence
community. I don't like doing this behind their back. And yet, this is an extraordinary situation. I have
clearance to go ahead with Plan Rabbit тАФ " she paused " тАФ with one proviso. G├╝nberk fears that we've
erred in the direction of employing an incompetent. Alfred has studied Rabbit more, and thinks he's at
just the right level of talent. But what if you are both wrong?"

G├╝nberk started in surprise. "The devil!" he said. Alfred guessed that some very quick silent messaging
passed between the two.

The prisms seemed to nod. "Yes. What if Rabbit is significantly more competent than we think? In that
unlikely event, Rabbit might hijack the operation, or even ally with our hypothetical enemy. If we
proceed, we must develop abort-and-destroy plans to match Rabbit's progress. If he becomes the
greater threat, we must be prepared to talk to the Americans. Agreed?"

"Ja."