"William W Johnstone - Ashes 33 - Enemy in the Ashes (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Johnstone William W)

"You're forgetting our fields in Alaska," Claire said.

Atwa waved a dismissive hand. "Yes, you have enor-

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mous reserves, but your environmentalists have so far blocked you from
exploiting them to any degree."

Claire nodded grimly. The tree-huggers were the bane of her existence.
She'd been trying for years to get the Congress to let her open up the
fields to full production, but so far they'd resisted.

"So, how does El Farrar plan to take control of those oil fields?"
Claire asked. "They are under the protection of the UN."

"My organization is prepared to put fifty thousand of our best troops at
his disposal. He will use them to gain control of the oil fields and
oust the U.N. troops, which are very poorly disciplined."

"So, and then what?" Claire asked. "Ben Raines and his SUSA troops would
take them back in less time than it takes to tell it."

Atwa shook his head. "Not if you agree to help us."

"In what way could we help you?" Claire asked. "As much as I hate to
admit it, our troops have never been a match for the SUSA's."

"We don't need your troops," Atwa said. "We merely need fifty pounds or
so of the plutonium you have in storage."

"Plutonium?" Claire asked, puzzled. "You want to make an atom bomb?"

"No. We intend to place small amounts of the plutonium near all of the
oil wells, rigged to explode if our demands are not met. As you know,
plutonium is one of the dirtiest of all radioactive materials. If we set
the bombs off, it will contaminate the oil reserves for thousands of
years and make them unusable."

"But," Claire said, horrified, "that would throw the world back into the
Dark Ages."

"That is how we have been living in Afghanistan for

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decades," Atwa said, shrugging. "But I doubt it will come to that. Once