"David Langford - Cube Root" - читать интересную книгу автора (Langford David)

right wrist.
"I can smell something funny. Chemical," Tregennis said, an
unaccustomed look of concentration on his face.
Spratt sniffed horribly. "Hey, you're right. Don't suppose they're -- "
"You can expect to smell some odd things right after a burst," said
Faulkner rapidly. "Reaction products in the air. And the r/a flash can
scramble your nerves, like Mike's comm screen. We call it synaesthesia in the
trade. It'll pass off." He rapped it out confidently. Keep them calm. Gray,
who had been sniffing too, murmured almost at once that whatever he had smelt
("funny...chemical...lighter-fuel and lemon" was dying away. The others
agreed.
_Important note. At least five men claimed to detect an odd smell about
nine minutes from zero. Should be investigated further_.
"Immediate deaths resulting from burst," Gray intoned.
"None," said Mackin wearily.
"One if he doesn't shut his gob," Lewdown muttered.
"Subsequent casualties resulting from delayed effects..."
It was Faulkner who first saw the change, and Lewdown who first moaned,
"Oh my God -- " He did not add a quip or sneer. In the dying light it was hard
at first to be sure. Eventually, though, checking and doublechecking in the
harsh glare of Land-Rover headlamps, they had to admit that the faintly tinted
wristbands had darkened, every one, almost to black.
"You can fill in that 'delayed effects' box now," said Mackin with
surprising mildness. It sounded almost like relief.
Checked against the comparator strip with its continuous spectrum from
smoky transparency to pure jet, the bands were darker by a safe margin than
the zone marked _prognosis 0% negative_.
****
It was night, but no one wanted to click off the friendly lamps.
"Zombies," Mackin could be heard saying to himself. "We're zombies."
That was the name they'd given to r/a contaminated refugees in the 1978 Scrum
Half exercise. Bodmin Moor was supposed to be a Safe Dispersal Zone, in
between the fallout paths of nuclear strikes on Falmouth and Plymouth assumed
in the 1980 exercise, Square Leg.
"Maybe they're taking out the forces just when we're scattered for Cube
Root," Faulkner said. "God, remember what I was saying about satellite eyes?
What a...coincidence."
"Waste an N on us lot? You've got to be joking," said Spratt.
"If they've taken out the whole country..." That was Patel, who tended
to worry about his large family.




Page 3
 "We'd have seen more bursts flashing over the horizon," said Lewdown
with the air of one who explains to a five-year-old.
Gray leant forward nervously, glancing at the withdrawn Mackin. Almost,
Faulkner expected him to raise his hand before speaking. "Suppose it's all
just bad luck, a Rung 18 thing, 'spectacular show of force' on bits of waste