"01 - Armageddon, the Musical (b)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rankin Robert)

Do or die

And here's the guy

We've all been waiting for

He's the man with the most

The heavenly host

The holiest ghost

In the cosmic drama

And here he is

The shah of showbiz

The Dalai . . . Dalai . . . Dalai

Dalai . . . Lama.'

'A catchy little number, I think you will agree.' The musical director raised his violet mohawk from the keyboard and smiled hopefully towards Gloria Mundi.

'It's crap,' she replied, 'but I suppose it will have to do.'

'There's another verse . . .'

'Have the Lamarettes rehearse it and I'll get back to you later.' Gloria turned upon her seven-inch heel and strode off across the studio floor. The musical director

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watched her depart. Certain words formed upon his pale blue lips, but they are better left unrecorded.

The Nemesis studio was by far and away the most lavish that any the Big Three stations possessed. Nemesis was the most successful gameshow in pre-recorded history.

The original formula had been conceived as long ago as the 1950s, possibly even earlier. But it held together now as well as it ever did. Take one charismatic host, several thinly-clad lovelies and a star prize. Then add a never-ending stream of contestants, willing to debase themselves in the holy cause of avarice. Stir well and serve weekly.

No matter what variations the whim of fashion dic­tated, the original formula never failed. But with Nemesis it had been brought to its apotheosis.

Nemesis had its genesis in the closing years of the twentieth century. These were pretty grim times, by any reckoning. Toxic pollution had finally succeeded in dis­solving the ozone layer, the natural barrier that shielded the planet from the adverse effects of the sun's ultra-violet rays. This triggered some very unpleasant changes in the Earth's eco-system. Crops failed and sun-bathing became a pastime for the suicidally inclined. Doomsday looked very much to be on the cards.

Plans had existed for years to construct vast under­ground food and medico synthesisation plants. But suc­cessive governments, daunted by the costs, had each in turn quietly shelved them. Now, with public unrest run­ning hand in hand with spiralling inflation, it was quite out of the question.

However, there is nothing like a good war or natural catastrophe to bring out the religion in people. And while the governments were growing bankrupt, the major

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churches of the day suddenly found that they had standing room only and that their coffers, so long empty, now brimmed to overflowing. Hence the underground plants, which synthesised food and medical products from waste and probed deeply into the Earth's core to tap new sources of mineral wealth, came to be built by the Big Three.