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"Examine it!" Pell snapped. "That message came from some kind of a spaceship,
and I want to know exactly where it is. I thought you already had plates of
the whole damn solar system."
"Not quite that much," the man said stubbornly. "And nobody was looking for
this particular emission source. Unless it turns up serendipitously we're out
of luck. So we'll need to organize a search-"
The Lessons of History
Our nation, which successively endured the tyranny of Spain, the United
States, Japan and then the
United States again for many years, is now said to be a free and equal state,
with all the rights of every other member of the General Assembly. But do we
have them? We have been denied a seat on the Security Council. We have been
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refused our request to make Tagalog one of the official languages of the
United Nations. Our delegate has been given posts on only the most menial
committees of the General Assembly, and no Filipino has ever been appointed to
high office in the
UN bureaucracy. And now we are told that our delegate will not even be
permitted to take part in questioning the witnesses in the present emergency
session.
It is time to make a stand. The forthcoming summit meetings on trade and human
rights issues with the United States, Japan and the People's Republic will be
the place to do this. If we are not to be given the status we deserve, we can
retaliate. It is our right to do so, and it is our duty.
-Manila Herald
file:///F|/rah/Frederik%20Pohl/Pohl,%20Frederik...haton%202%20-%20The%20Siege%
20Of%20Eternity.txt (76 of 126) [1/15/03 6:27:07 PM]
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"Fine," said the deputy director. "See to it. What about you,
General?"-looking at the man from the space agency. "If we find this thing,
can we bring any of the space-based weaponry to bear on it?"
"Maybe yes, maybe no," the man said, and went into a lengthy explanation of
why that would depend on where it was and, also, on whether or not the damn
things would still fire after decades of neglect. "But the warsats aren't in
optimum position for that purpose. You ordered us to redeploy them to protect
Starlab, if you recall."
"And what position would be optimum?" the D.D. said fretfully- he too was
paying the price for all those wakeup pills.
"Again, that depends on where it is. Those weapons were meant to be used
primarily against other-
nation assets and ground-launched missiles, not for targets that can be
millions of kilometers away." The general coughed. "Excuse me, but I have to
ask you this. Are you sure you're going to want us to fire on this
extraterrestrial vessel?"
"That decision will be made when we have to make it; what I want now is to
know what our options are." Pell checked the notes on his popup. "Let's talk
about security," he said. "We assume the
Scarecrows are monitoring all our broadcasts again, so we want to make sure
nothing goes out to the public about using the orbital weaponry. God knows
what kinds of armaments these people might have, so if it does come to pulling
the trigger, we want to shoot first and we don't want them warned in advance."
He paused, looking at Hilda, who had her hand up.
"It's the bugs, Deputy Director," she said. "I've been talking to Colonel
Makalanos. There's another security problem there. Remember what the returned
people told us? They said they knew everything the people on Earth wearing
bugs knew."
The D.D. turned to the electronics man. He was calm. "We haven't detected any
transmissions from them. Besides which, what would they be going to transmit
anyway? The bugs don't have a chance to pick up much information while they're
on a shelf in the lab."
"Then make damn sure nobody accidentally gives them any," the deputy director
ordered. "No conversation inside the lab, especially gossiping about what goes
on here. Is that what you wanted, Hilda?"
The Siege of Eternity 197
"Up to a point, sir. Colonel Makalanos called my attention to another possible
problem. The one they call Dopey may be bugged, too-so as to communicate with
the ones that don't talk, if nothing else."
"Ah," said Deputy Director Pell, sinking back in his chair. "Now, that's a
problem." He looked around the table. "Recommendations?"
"Yank the damn things out of 'em," growled the man from the Pentagon.
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Hilda spoke up. "I think not. If we did that, then Dopey couldn't communicate
with the other two things. Besides, who would take the bug out of the one who
knows how? If we have to make sure he isn't transmitting, it would be easier
to kill him outright."
Pell stared at her. "Is that your recommendation?"
"No, sir! Only to take precautions. We can just keep them ignorant. But there
are two bugs still in place-General Martin Delasquez in Florida and Commander
James Lin in China."
The man from the State Department came alive. "Right! Can I pass this along to
their embassies?"
"Just the fact that they may be broadcasting to the Scarecrows, yes. Make them
an offer: if they bring the subjects here we'll have the bugs taken out; if
not, they should at least take maximum precautions to keep either of them from
knowing anything that might be useful to the Scarecrows."
The man from State made a note, and then looked up. "One other thing. Your
agent in Ukraine has caused us a bit of trouble by-"
"I know what our agent in Ukraine did," Pell said irritably. "Can't we just
apologize?"
"We already have, of course. They may want more."
"More what?"
The man from State looked ill at ease. "Well, they've suggested informally
that we return him and the woman to Kiev for possible trial. . . ."
Hilda caught her breath, but before she could speak, Pell answered for her.
"Not a chance."
"Well," said the man from State, "we may want to keep that option open, you
know. There's all this trouble from the little countries in the UN. They're
even talking about conducting hearings in the
General Assembly."
"Since when do we give a damn what they do in the UN?" Hilda demanded, but the
deputy director shook his head. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]