"Simon Hawke - Timewars 3 - The Pimpernel Plot" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hawke Simon)

superhuman energy to complete his research. As time wore
on and results failed to appear, his budget was steadily whittled
away and his health began to decline. He began to grow derelict
in his academic responsibilities and the only reason he
was kept on was the value of his name and his relationship to
the dean. His fellow professors liked him, but they looked on
him with pity as a tragic case of burnout. Then, in his hundred
and fifty-second year, he developed the first working model of
the chronoplate.
When Mensinger died, fifteen years after he made time travel
a reality, his work was continued by his son, Albrecht. Unfortunately,
by this time, Albrecht was only able to refine his
father’s work. He no longer had control of the discovery. The
politicians had stepped in.
On June 15, 2460, the Committee for Temporal Intelligence
was formed. Agents of the committee, after careful training
and conditioning, began to travel back through time for the
purpose of conducting further research and testing of the apparatus.
In the beginning, many of these agents were lost in
transit trapped forever in a temporal limbo some government
official had nicknamed “the dead zone,” but those who returned
came back with often startling information. Historical
records had to be revised. Some legends turned out to have
been fact. Some facts turned out to have been legends. His

The Pimpernel Plot
torical events that previously lacked documentation were verified.
Other events were brought to light. The Theory of Genesis
was refuted and there followed a revolution in the Church,
which culminated in a radical proposal made by Cardinal
Consorti that agents be sent back through time to determine if
Christ actually arose after his crucifixion. A restraining order
was placed on the Committee for Temporal Intelligence to
prevent them from attempting such a thing and Cardinal
Consorti was excommunicated
On January 25, 2492, in a historic meeting which became
known as the Council of Nations, taking place in the capital of
the United Socialist States of South America, a proposal for an
“end to war in our time” was put forth by the chairman of the
Nippon Conglomerate Empire. Though Dr. Albrecht
Mensinger, invited to the council as a guest of honor, argued
passionately against the resolution, it was passed by an overwhelming
majority when he was unable to offer conclusive
proof that the past could be affected by actions taken by time
travelers from the present. The past, argued the members of
the scientific community invited to the conference, cannot be
changed. It had already happened. It was absolute.
On December 24, 2492, the Referee Corps was formed,
brought into existence by the Council of Nations as an
extranational arbitrating body with all power to stage and resolve