"Stephen Kraus - White Walls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kraus Stephen)

on Earth. There aren’t any contaminants or carcinogens or ionizing radiation. There
isn’t a particle in the air larger than a virus. I can’t even imagine going back out there
now. None of us can.”

He faced her again. He seemed to be smiling beneath his helmet. “You can get
dressed. I’m sorry if I alarmed you. You have an important part to play in our work.
I had to be sure of you.”

“Shut it off,” Jacobson said. He had to wait a minute until his voice was
steady. “Shut the damned thing off.”

Jacobson pushed back the chair at the end of the long table and stood up.
Meetings made him restless. “Questions?” he asked.

“Is anything happening with the microwave power proposal?”

Jacobson looked down the table toward a young dreadlocked project
manager. “Faultline Admin is still reviewing it; that’s as much as I know.”

“They’ve been reviewing it for three months. I haven’t had anything to work
on since July.”

Jacobson sighed. “I know.”

Alice Freeman, Jacobson’s assistant, raised her hand. “We’re down to six
real projects and some maintenance stuff. How are we going to keep this place
going?”

The rest of the staff murmured nervously.

Jacobson robbed his forehead. Alice was right. Contracts hadn’t been coming
in at the usual rate. Something was changing outside, there was some subtle,
incomprehensible shift in the Chaos.

“We’ve been through this before,” Jacobson said. “The director always sees
the trends, keeps us positioned, keeps us independent. He’s been doing it for ten
years.”

“You’re putting a lot of faith in someone whose face none of us have ever
seen,” Alice muttered.

“What’s he planning now? Do you know?”

Jacobson looked up. He wasn’t sure who had asked. It could have been any
of the dozen nervous faces around the table. None of them, even the recent arrivals,
could conceive of a life outside, in the chaos beyond the white walls. Jacobson least
of all.

“The director hasn’t confided in me —”