"Ian Watson - Caucus Winter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watson Ian)

keep a gold coat hanger for his Armani suit in the men's locker room? Forced air
descended from grills in the ceiling to vents in the floor. We showered in
streams of air; stepped through an airlock; and showered in air once again. By
now the number of particles of dirt per cubic meter ought to be down to about
one.

Then we went into the lab.

Modified scanning tunneling electron microscopes; monitor screens showing hugely
enlarged chips; liquid nitrogen coolers; chassis for motherboards with expansion
ports, keyboards, screens. Half a dozen other people clad like us were very
busy. Outi's software had been copied and squirted here so that no disk dust or
greasy fingerprints should accompany it.

Behold: the first motherboard was already in a chassis, being alpha-tested --
hastily, in the circumstances. Six hours to zero, plus or minus. When Newman
flicked his wrist, it was as if he was brandishing a whip.

Bill Turtle would be superhacker, batting for our side, trying to unpick the
locks on satellites and missile silos and stock exchange computers. Trying to
reach the stolen Motorola machine electronically, if he could.

No point in tiring ourselves out prematurely. Newman invited us to a late lunch
in the bar of the Trinity Centre, social hub of the Science Park.

A couple of armed soldiers escorted us there. Thus did Newman make an imposing
impression upon those of his business-suited peers who were at the Centre,
excitedly discussing the crisis. On TV a news program reported whatever
information was leaking out of America, in between mulling over international
repercussions, stock markets in chaos and such.

While we forked up lasagne and drank orange juice, Newman held forth about his
vision of a completely fragmented future world where North America would consist
of dozens of independent republics (and China and India likewise, et cetera),
and Britain of several free states, yet nonetheless the world would be benignly
linked by the 21st century evolution of the Net and the Web.

"Lapland will leave Finland," he told Outi, who retorted:

"Is Yugoslavia a fine example of your future world?"

"Oh, there'll be muck and bullets," he agreed.
"I think," said Outi, "that people are still animals and need enlightened
government. If this Caucus establishes a racist Nazi state, is that to be
tolerated.?"

"Where can enlightened government come from? Outer space? Though actually,"
Newman went on, "one nation will be immune to fragmentation: the Japanese.
Because of their customs and language they are like a hive entity."