"Arcady And Boris Strugatsky. Prisoners of Power" - читать интересную книгу автора

"Well, where should I throw you and your secrets? Out the window?"
"What an idiotic joke, massaraksh!" shouted Guy, waving his arms
wildly.
"So you don't want to be thrown out the window? Well, then stay here."
Mac carried Guy behind the screen and threw him down on Rada's bed. Guy
sat up, straightened his pajamas, and muttered: "Some joke."
Guy had cooled down too; he might as well save his anger for the
degens.
They set the table. Rada came in with a pot of soup. Behind her was Unc
Kaan with his precious flask. It alone, he assured everyone, protected him
from colds and a host of geriatric ailments. They sat down and started on
the soup. Unc drained a wine glass, took a deep breath, and began to talk
about his enemy. Shapshu, he said, had written an article about the function
of certain bones in some ancient lizard, and the entire article was based on
idiocy, contained nothing but idiocy, and was written for idiots.
As far as Unc Kaan was concerned, everyone was an idiot, including his
faculty colleagues and his assistants. And the students? The height of
idiocy. So the fate of paleontology was a foregone conclusion. Guy wasn't
particularly distressed - what use would it ever be to anyone? But Rada was
very fond of Unc and always grieved along with him when he complained about
his colleagues or the university's failure to supply funds for an
expedition.
Today the dinner conversation took a different turn. Rada, who had
heard everything from behind the screen, asked Unc how the degens differed
from normal people. Guy glowered at Maxim and asked Rada not to ruin their
appetites. He suggested that she read the literature on degens.
Unc declared that this literature was prepared for downright idiots;
that the people in the Department of Education believed everyone to be as
ignorant as themselves; that the degen problem was certainly not as simple
as the literature deliberately portrayed it. "Either we behave like cultured
people or like our brave but ignorant barracks officers." Unc drained
another glass of wine and launched into a theory now current in scientific
circles: the degens were nothing other than a new biological form that
evolved as a result of radiation exposure.
"The degens are dangerous - no doubt about that," said Unc, raising
his finger, "But they are far more dangerous than you think, Guy. They are
fighting for a place in this world, for the survival of their species, and
this struggle is not a question of social conditions. It will end only when
either the last man or the last de-gen-mutant leaves the arena of biological
history victorious. Khonti gold? Nonsense! Diversions against the ABM
network? Trivial. Look beyond the Blue Snake River, my friends. Yes, beyond
the Blue Snake River! That's where your real danger comes from. The prolific
colonies of humanoid monsters will come from down there to trample us, to
annihilate us! Guy, you are blind. And your commanders, too. You must fight
to save an entire civilization, not just one people, not simply our mothers
and children, but allall humanity!"
Guy became furious. He was hardly concerned, he said, with the fate of
humanity. He didn't believe this theory nonsense. If he was told that it was
possible to set the wild degens against Khonti, he would devote his whole
life to the task. Unc called him a blind fool. He said that the All-Powerful