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

"That's right-wing nationalist ideology," she said severely.

"Cool it," Tuttle begged her.

Here at last came word of a British government announcement: a statement in the
House of Commons by the Prime Minister. The total systems crash afflicting
America was due to use of a new generation computer by the secessionists...

Already the CAUC-US were being called secessionists, not terrorists, as though
they might succeed.

The science-suits were agog. Newman, with his armed entourage, basked in glory.

Almost, I hoped that Matsushima's quantum computer would crash. But of course
that would be a disaster.

The sun had long since set, though not yet over America. We were in our
cybernaut gear again. It wasn't practical to remove the prototype from the clean
environment, liquid nitrogen cooling system and all. We were linked up to the
big satellite dish outside. A cling-wrapped TV was downstairs with us, tuned
quietly to ongoing news which had replaced scheduled programming on one of the
channels. Cling-wrapped telephones, too; Bill Turtle had an open line to our
embassy in London, and Jock was talking to his superiors. Outi sat composedly.

Bill looked up, gray-faced.

"There's been a nuclear explosion thirty miles off the coast of Delaware. A
demonstration shot into the sea. The Caucus are threatening to hit Washington at
ten P.M. Greenwich time if the President doesn't concede."

An hour from now. Just an hour. Of course the President would already have left
Washington for a secure bunker.

"Sweet Jesus, they have control of some of our nukes. He'll decide by nine
forty-five, our time here."

"If he does surrender," Newman said blithely, choosing the word surrender with
relish, "we should carry on. The Caucus needn't know where the penetration's
coming from. Could be from Japan."

"What if they react to our activity by taking out Washington.? They hate the
place. Full of blacks. Home of the parasitical fascist Jewish government --"
"You're wasting time," Outi said.

To Outi's ears it must have sounded absurd that neo-Nazi white supremacists and
libertarians alike accused the federal U.S. government of being a fascist
conspiracy. I myself could understand -- just about. All to do with freedom. I
could almost agree with Outi that people shouldn't be allowed to have too much
freedom. Very likely she was remembering her trips home from school -- though if
her home city had become a red commune, terror of a different kind would surely