"Kim Stanley Robinson - Mars 2 - Blue Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

No. It was going to take direct action, as in the drowning of Burroughs, as in
all the acts of sabotage that had set the stage for the revolution. Without
those the revolution wouldn't even have begun, or if it had it would have been
crushed immediately, as in 2061.
"Yeah yeah. We'd better call a meeting then," Peter said, looking as annoyed
at her as she felt at him.
"Yeah yeah," Ann said heavily. Meetings. But they had their uses; people could
assume they meant something, while the real work went on elsewhere.
"I'll try to set one up," Peter said. She had gotten his attention at last,
she saw; but there was an unpleasant look on his face, as if he had been
threatened. "Before things get out of hand."
"Things are already out of hand," she told him, and cut the connection.
She checked the news on the various channels, Manga-lavid, the Reds' private
nets, the Terran summaries. Though Pavonis and the elevator were now the focus
of everyone on Mars, the physical convergence on the volcano was only partial.
It appeared to her that there were more Red guerrilla units on Pavonis than
the green units of Free Mars and their allies; but it was hard to be sure.
Kasei and the most radical wing of the Reds, called the Kakaze ("fire wind"),
had recently occupied the north rim of Pavonis, taking over the train station
and tent at Lastflow. The Reds Ann had traveled with, most of them from the
old Red mainstream, discussed moving around the rim and joining the Kakaze,
but decided in the end to stay in east Pavonis. Ann observed this discussion
silently but was glad at the result, as she wanted to keep her distance from
Kasei and Dao and their crowd. She was pleased to stay in east Pavonis.
Many Free Mars troops were staying there as well, moving out of their cars
into the abandoned warehouses. East Pavonis was becoming a major concentration
of revolutionary groups of all kinds; and a couple days after her arrival, Ann
went in and walked over compacted regolith to one of the biggest warehouses in
the tent, to take part in a general strategy session.
The meeting went about as she expected. Nadia was at the center of the
discussion, and it was useless talking to Nadia now. Ann just sat on a chair
against the back wall, watching the rest of them circle the situation. They
did not want to say what Peter had already admitted to her in private: there
was no way to get UNTA off the space elevator.
Before they conceded that they were going to try to talk the problem out of
existence.
Late in the meeting, Sax Russell came over to sit by her side.
"A space elevator," he said. "It could be ... used."
Ann was not the least bit comfortable talking to Sax. She knew that he had
suffered brain damage at the hands of UNTA security, and had taken a treatment
that had changed his personality; but somehow this had not helped at all. It
only made things very strange, in that sometimes he seemed to her to be the
same old Sax, as familiar as a much-hated brother; while at other times he did
indeed seem like a completely different person, inhabiting Sax's body. These
two contrary impressions oscillated rapidly, even sometimes coexisted; just
before joining her, as he had talked with Nadia and Art, he had looked like a
stranger, a dapper old man with a piercing glare, talking in Sax's voice and
Sax's old style. Now as he sat next to her, she could see that the changes to
his face were utterly superficial. But though he looked familiar the stranger
was now inside him-for here was a man who halted and jerked as he delved