"Dave Wolverton - Siren Song at Midnight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolverton Dave)

foodтАФwhat will you say to those poor in a generation, when the seas are dead and they have no air to
breathe?тАЭ

тАЬWhen I took office, even the trash fish that used to eat our turds had become extinct.тАЭ My father paced
the floor, moving so fast, speaking so fast, he almost gibbered, тАЬSo I committed thesin of hope. As
Director of Pacific Fisheries, I sought funds to resurrect extinct fishes and phytozoa, give the oceans time
to rebuild. But I received only promises of money. I tried to reduce the amount of plankton the Chinese
could harvest, but Director Nestor de la Luz told me to keep silent. He said the Chinese paid too well
and that we would have to let the harvests continue for another year. We were rebuilding after the war
with the Socialistas, and he said we needed money for the reconstruction, so money never came to me. It
took months and years before I realized I was only paid to be a figureheadтАФno one really wanted me to
restore the fisheries.тАЭ

тАЬIs that why you betrayed your species?тАЭ Se├▒or Bennett asked in a cutting voice. тАЬBecause you were
frustrated in your efforts to reduce the harvest? Because you wanted to be more than a figurehead?тАЭ He
was baiting my father, and I hated him for it.

тАЬNo!тАЭ my father said. тАЬEmotions had nothing to do with it. For years I enforced the quotas as best I
could, but when Nestor died and I took his place, I found that fisheries money hadnтАЩt been siphoned off
for reconstruction: it had been going into NestorтАЩs pockets all along! HeтАЩd stolen from us! And at the
same time, I learned that for years TorresтАЩ chimeras had begged us to halt the plankton harvests. The
Sirens were starving. Nestor had kept their pleas hiddenfearing that if people knew the truth, they might
protect the fisheries here, and it would cut into the income he earned from graft.

тАЬBut I knew that no one would care. We wouldnтАЩt stop the harvests, so I took the bribes from the
Chinese, just as all my predecessors had done, but instead of pocketing the money, I bought explosives!тАЭ

My fatherтАЩs eyes became wild. I wondered if heтАЩd been drugged for benefit of the viewers. He sat down
and then stood up again immediately and paced the room, back and forth, quicker than you would
believe possible.

тАЬTruly, I hoped to wake you all, but the explosions only dull your ears! You kill your own children. I pity
the poor who will not be able to eat or breathe or escape this planet. Someday they will remember me as
a hero for trying to stop this madness while we yet had something to save! We are a diseased branch on
the tree of life, and because of us, the whole tree will fall into ruin. I commit the sin of hope no more!тАЭ My
father began raving, and a curious light shone from his eyes. I donтАЩt think he saw the reporter any longer,
saw nothing but his own death, for he cursed the world.

Despite his confession, I did not believe he was guilty. I was angry with his accomplices and wondered
why the truly guilty party, the person who had trained the Sirens to use explosives, did not step forward.

All that night, I remembered my fatherтАЩs words, тАЬI will die before I reveal their names. I will die!тАЭ Was
that a plea? I wondered: Did he really want the mem-set so badly that he would almost announce it to the
world? I sat in my room, replayed the interview. The man in the holo, the convict, did not look like my
father. He did not look like some gentleman, nobly protecting men more wicked than himself. He looked
like a killer, eaten by guilt and rage, unrepentant for his murders, and as I watched him again and again,
pacing his cell like a leopard, I began to consider: My fatherтАЩs illness had made him passionate, a man
quickly moved by both joy and despair. He spent so much time walking in that dark abyss that I
wondered: Could some SirenтАЩs song at midnight, sung while my father was deep in despair and at his
most vulnerable, have drawn him to his destruction? If, at just the right moment, the Sirens pleaded for