"David Weber - In the Navy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

that way. In fact, Mike was more than a little surprised by Simpson's analysis. Which, he thought, was
probably because the man had shown absolutely no ability or inclination to analyze the social and political
realities the transplanted Americans faced with the same acuity.
"In that case," Simpson said levelly, "it's time that you faced the implications. The military
implications."
Mike started to reply, but Simpson's raised hand stopped him. It wouldn't have, if it had been the
arrogant gesture of Management dismissing Labor from consideration. But to Mike's considerable
astonishment, it wasn't. It wasn't exactly a gesture of warmth, but it wasn't overtly discourteous or
dismissive, either.
"You've made your policies and political platform abundantly clear," Simpson said. "And you've
also made it abundantly clear that you intend to put the platform you ran on into effect. I won't pretend I
like that, any more that I'll pretend I . . . enjoyed the way you campaigned."
A core of anger glowed in his eyes, but, to his credit, he kept it out of his voice.
"I'll grant you the strength of your own convictions and your sincerity. I don't agree with you, and I
hope to hell your social policies don't turn into a complete and total disaster, but that's a fight I've already
lost. And I understand your position on the creation of a general . . . industrial infrastructure, for want of a
better term. It may surprise you to discover that I actually agree with you, to an extent. There's no way
the seventeenth century's ramshackle, top-down excuses for nation states could possibly hope to match
the sorts of technological innovations we could introduce, any more than the Soviet Union was able to
match the U.S.'s tech and industrial base back home. To match us, they'd have to become like us, and
we saw back home what happened to the Soviets when they tried to do that."
Mike gazed at the other man with carefully concealed surprise. He and his cabinet had never made
any particular secret of their commitment to spreading innovations as widely as possible, but he and his
inner circle had never explicitly made the argument Simpson just had. Partly that was to avoid tipping
their hand to any seventeenth-century opponent too stupid to see the sucker punch coming, but another
reason was that even some of his own cabinetтАФlike Quentin UnderwoodтАФwould have had conniption
fits if they'd realized just how much of his "secret technological advantages" he was willing to give away to
bring it about. And Mike had never expected John Chandler Simpson, of all people, to recognize what
he had in mind . . . or to acknowledge that his strategy made any sort of sense.
"Unfortunately," Simpson's chair creaked as he leaned back in it and folded his arms, "what
happened to the Soviets happened during a cold war. Whatever our proxies might have been doing
around the periphery, we weren't locked in a direct, life-or-death battlefield confrontation with them. But
that's precisely the position Gustav is in right now, and if Sweden goes down, so do we."
"I'm aware of that, too," Mike said. "That's why we organized an army under Frank Jackson in the
first place." He grimaced. "Not that sending up-timers out to get shot at is the most efficient imaginable
use of their knowledge and skills!"
"Exactly," Simpson said. If possible, the industrialist liked Frank Jackson even less than he liked
Mike Stearns, but once again, that seemed to be beside the point to him, and he leaned forward once
more, stabbing the tabletop with an emphatic finger. "As a matter of fact, it's the worst possible use of
their knowledge and skills. And sending them into the field, even with the advantages we can give them in
terms of modern weapons, is inevitably going to lead to casualties. And every casualty we suffer is going
to cost us irreplaceable 'knowledge capital.' "
"Are you suggesting that we refuse to risk any of our people and expect Gustav Adolf to foot the
entire bill while we just sit around?" Mike demanded. He couldn't quite believe he was having this
discussion in the first place, or, in the second, that it seemed Simpson had a brain, after all. The other
man certainly hadn't given any sign of it during the constitutional debate or his campaign for the
presidency!
"Of course we can't do that, either," Simpson replied. "But in the end, it's really going to come down
to how effective an army Gustav can raise and maintain in the field."
"Wait a minute. Wasn't your entire original argument that he doesn't have the money or the