"Robert A. Heinlein - Sixth Column" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

"Somebody answer me!" commanded Ardmore. "What's happened
here?"
The man with the cigarette looked him over for the first time. "Who are
you?"
"Ardmore, major, intelligence. Who are you?"
"Calhoun, colonel in research."
"Very well, Colonel-I have an urgent message for your commanding
officer. Will you please have someone tell him that I am here and see to it
that I am taken to him?" He spoke with poorly controlled exasperation.
Calhoun shook his head. "Can't do it. He's dead." He seemed to derive
some sort of twisted pleasure from the announcement.
"Huh?"
"That's right-dead. They're all dead, all the rest. You see before you, my
dear Major, all that are left of the personnel of the Citadel-perhaps I should
say of the emergency research laboratory, department of defense, this being
in the nature of an official report." He smiled with half his face, while his eye
took in the handful of living men in the room.
Ardmore took a moment to comprehend the statement, then inquired,
"The PanAsians?"
"No. No, not the PanAsians. So far as I know, the enemy does not
suspect the existence of the Citadel. No, we did it ourselves-an experiment
that worked too well. Dr. Ledbetter was engaged in research in an attempt to
discover a means of-"
"Never mind that, Colonel. Whom does command revert to? I've got to
carry out my orders. "
"Command? Military command? Good Lord, man, we haven't had time
to think about that yet. Wait a moment."
 His eye roved around the room, counting noses. "Hm-m-m-I'm senior to
everyone here-and they are all here. I
suppose that makes me commanding officer."
"No line officers present?"
"No. All special commissions. That leaves me it. Go ahead with your
report."
Ardmore looked about at the faces of the half a dozen men in the room.
They were following the conversation with apathetic interest. Ardmore
worried to himself before replying over how to phrase the message. The
situation had changed; perhaps he should not deliver it at all.
"I was ordered," he said, picking his words, "to inform your general that
he was released from superior command. He was to operate independently
and prosecute the war against the invader according to his own judgment.
You see," he went on, "when I left Washington twelve hours ago we knew
they had us. This concentration of brain power in the Citadel was about the
only remaining possible military asset."
Calhoun nodded. "I see. A defunct government sends orders to a defunct
laboratory. Zero plus zero equals zero. It's all very funny if one only knew
when to laugh."
"Colonel!"
"Yes?"
"They are your orders now. What do you propose to do with them?"
"Do with them? What the hell is there to do? Six men against four