"S_Fowler_Wright_First_Move" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wright S Fowler)

First Move

by S. Fowler Wright

USA "Inside" magazine
1963





Chapter 1

The President laid a fat fore-finger on the map. It covered Lichtenburg, and about ten miles of surrounding country.

"We will use," he said, "one of the smallest bombs, both because we are of merciful minds, and because it is a frugal


wisdom. We must not forget that what we spare will become ours. This is the area which we shall destroy."

His finger rose as he spoke, and his pencil circled a space of about three hundred square miles, containing a population of about two million people.

The Chancellor asked: "You think this war really necessary?"

"I should hardly call it a war. There will be the one bomb, and surrender in the next hour. Can you think that they would prefer two?"

"It would be irrational."

And after that, there will be a great spoil. They will not be an exhausted nation, as were those who suffered defeat under the older methods of conflict - slow, cruel and stupid. They will not be like - shall we say - the Germany of 1945, unfit to export anything but their own diseases. They will pay a rich tribute in corn and cattle, and the manufactures in which they excel, and our people will thrive. We may even be able to give permission for selected women to have four children instead of three.

The chancellor said nothing to that, for, though he did not like the idea of the destruction of the people and property of a friendly nation, it was an argument of great force. With the standard of living, and the shortened hours of industry which now prevailed, it had become absolutely necessary to penalise those who had unlicensed children, and yet, with the popular perversity which all statesmen have cause to dread, many resented a compulsory restriction, even though the previous fertility of the nation had been little more than was now the result of an admirable control. . . . And, as they both knew, there were the elections in May, and the party of reaction had been gaining in popularity to an alarming degree.

The President was not content to observe that he had silenced his colleague. He wished to be sure that he had his active support, for he had learnt how valuable it could be, He went on: "If you see any objection I may have overlooked, I rely on you to tell me without reserve. There is none whose opinion I esteem more."

That might be true. But the Chancellor did not think his reason for hesitation to be such as the President would approve, or would cause him to alter his decision. Still, it should not be withheld.

"If I seem to hesitate," he said, "it is only because we have had such cordial relations with Polasia during recent years. It will be an attack with no pretext at all."

The President laughed his relief: "It is not more than that? Then you can put it out of your mind? When it is done. we can find pretexts enough, which their government will not be alive to deny. . . . And you must not forget that it is only under such circumstances that an attack can be safely made. If they had suspicion, or we had raised cause of complaint, they might be as quick, or quicker, than we."

"That is true, though Polasia is supposed to have given up the manufacture of bombs two years ago, as a gesture to lead the world."

"Which they still may not have done, though I think they did. . . . Perhaps you fear that Alicia may be there? You must call her home. You could find a reason for that?"

"Oh, no! She is at Eastburg, where her husband is ill. She will be safe enough. . . . I can see no flaw in your plan at all."

The last words were said in a tone which cleared the President's mind of the disquieting doubt which had intruded a moment before. He felt that he would have his chancellor's co-operation, as had been the case in the political plots and trickeries of the previous twenty years. It was a support that he would have been sorry to lose, though at any sign of disloyalty, he would have been ruthless to clear his path. But, in fact, he had gone too far he had found something (it might have been thought difficult) at which his colleague's conscience rebelled.

The two men parted with no diminution of cordiality, but, as the Chancellor entered his waiting car, he thought: "It is a monstrous project - monstrous almost beyond belief. But can I stop it?"