"James P. Hogan - Giants 3 - Giant's Star" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hogan James P)

running the surveillance, are not the same...'people,' or whatever. And the ones who are talking
to us don't want the other ones knowing about it." Hunt nodded, having figured that much out
already.
"I'll let Karen take it from there," Caldwell said and nodded in her direction.
Karen Heller leaned forward to rest her arms lightly along the edge of the table. "The
scientists at Bruno established fairly early on that they were indeed in contact with a Ganymean
civilization descended from migrants from Minerva," she said, speaking in carefully modulated
tones that rose and fell naturally and made listening easy. "They inhabit a planet called Thurien,
in the planetary system of the Giants' Star, or 'Gistar,' to use the contraction that seems to
have been adopted. While this was going on, UNSA in Washington referred the matter to the UN." She
paused to look over at Hunt, but he had no questions at that point. She went on, "A special
working party reporting to the Secretary General was
formed to debate the issue, and the ruling finally came out that a contact of this nature
was first and foremost a political and diplomatic affair. A decision was made that further
exchanges would be handled secretly by a small delegation of selected representatives of the
permanent-member nations of the Security Council. To preserve secrecy, no outsiders would be
informed or involved for the time being."
"I had to hold things right there when that ruling came down the line," Caldwell
interjected, looking at Hunt. "That was why I couldn't tell you about any of this before." Hunt
nodded. Now that it had been explained, at least he felt a little better on that score.
He was still far from completely happy, however. It sounded as if there had been a typical
bureaucratic overreaction to the whole thing. Playing safe was all very well up to a point, but
surely this supersecrecy was taking things too far. The thought of the UN keeping everybody out of
it apart from a handful of select individuals who had probably had few, if any, dealings with
Ganymeans was infuriating.
"They didn't want anybody else included?" he asked dubiously. "Not even a scientist or two-


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somebody who knows Ganymeans?"
"Especially not scientists," Caldwell said, but volunteered nothing further. The whole
thing was beginning to sound nonsensical.
"As a permanent member of the Council, the U.S.A. was informed from high up in the UN and
applied sufficient pressure to be represented on the delegation," Heller continued. "Norman and
myself were assigned that duty, and for most of the time since then we've been at Giordano Bruno,
participating in the exchange of signals that has been continuing with the Thuriens."
"You mean everything is being handled locally from there?" Hunt asked.
"Yes. The ban on communicating anything to do with it electronically is being strictly
adhered to. The people up there who know what's going on are all security-cleared and reliable."
"I see." Hunt sat back and braced his arms along the table in front of him. So far there
was a mystery and some reason for being uncomfortable, but nothing that had been said so far
explained what Heller and Pacey were doing in Houston. "So what's been going on?" he asked. "What
have you been talking to Thurien about?"
Heller motioned with her head to indicate a lockable document folder lying by her elbow.
"Complete transcripts of everything received and sent are in there," she told him. "Gregg has a
full set of copies, and since you'll no doubt be involved from now on, you'll be able to read them
for yourself shortly. To sum up, the first messages from Thurien asked for information about the
Shapieron-its condition, the well-being of its occupants, their experiences on Earth, and that