Read Online Revolution Business by Charles Stross - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Charles Stross
Ads: Link
but if you're right and it's a technology, then it's not a monopoly anymore."
"Uh." Huw took a mouthful of coffee. "What's your reasoning?"
"Well. You're the one who just told me you thought our ability was artificial? And we've established that someone else-let's take your door into a vacuum realm as a given-has a way of moving stuff between time lines-yes, I'm going to take the idea that we're in a bunch of parallel universes that branch off each other as a given. New Britain really rubs your nose in it-and I think if they can just open a door then we have to admit that what the Clan can do? The postal corvée? Is a joke."
Miriam closed her eyes for a moment. "The Council are so not going to want to hear this. And it's not the worst of it."
"There's more?" Huw stared at her, fascinated. Have you figured out the other thing?…
"Okay, let's speculate wildly. There are other people out there who can travel between parallel worlds. They're better at it than us, and they know what they're doing. That's really bad, right there, but not necessarily fatal. However… we've been pointedly ignoring, all along, the fact that what we do isn't magical. It's not unique. It's like, after 1945, the government pretended for a few years that making nuclear weapons was some kind of big secret. Then the Russians got the bomb, and the Brits, and the Chinese, and before you can blink we're worrying about the North Koreans, or the Iranians. What the Clan Council needs to worry about is the US government-who they've spent the past few decades systematically getting mad at them-and who now know we exist. What do you think?"
"But we don't know how the world-walking mechanism works. It's got to take them time-"
Miriam took another mouthful of coffee. "They've had seven or eight months, Huw. That's how long it's been since Matthias went over the wall. And there's"-she paused, as if considering her words-"stuff that's happened, stuff that will turn hunting us down into a screaming crash priority, higher than al Qaida, higher than the Iraq occupation. They've got to be throwing money at…" She trailed off.
"I don't think they'll have got anywhere yet." Huw reached for the coffee pot again, emptying the dregs into their mugs. "It takes time to organize a research project and they'll be doing it under conditions of complete secrecy."
"Yes, but they've already got the big national laboratories. And if they've got captive Clan members they're starting from where the Clan stood, as of forty-eight hours ago. And they could have started months ago! It all depends on whether the problem they're trying to crack is a hard one or an easy one. If we've got some kind of mechanism that lets us do this, then it's designed to replicate, and there's got to be some sort of control system wired into our brains-are you telling me nobody has put bits of a Clan member under an electron microscope before to look for anomalies?"
"You've met enough of your cousins by now. How many brain surgeons did you spot?" Huw looked defensive. "It wasn't a high priority."
"Well it is, now. Because if they can figure out what makes us world-walk, they're probably halfway to mass-producing it. Given they've got scouts in the Gruinmarkt-"
"They've got what?" Huw sat bolt-upright.
"Eh." Miriam cocked her head to one side. "Forget I said that?"
"Sure… can I finish your sentence?"
"Um…"
"Right now, any scouts they can send our way are going to be riding piggyback. Lightning Child knows how they're making the couriers cooperate, but nothing would surprise me: The current administration are so Machiavellian they make Prince Egon like a White House intern. But what you're speculating about is how long we've got until there's a large-scale incursion." Her expression made him look for other words. "Invasion. Is that what you're thinking?"
Miriam nodded. "I- No, we-have got to talk to Angbard, and fast. Whatever the prince has been up to back, uh, home"-he spotted the moment's
"Uh." Huw took a mouthful of coffee. "What's your reasoning?"
"Well. You're the one who just told me you thought our ability was artificial? And we've established that someone else-let's take your door into a vacuum realm as a given-has a way of moving stuff between time lines-yes, I'm going to take the idea that we're in a bunch of parallel universes that branch off each other as a given. New Britain really rubs your nose in it-and I think if they can just open a door then we have to admit that what the Clan can do? The postal corvée? Is a joke."
Miriam closed her eyes for a moment. "The Council are so not going to want to hear this. And it's not the worst of it."
"There's more?" Huw stared at her, fascinated. Have you figured out the other thing?…
"Okay, let's speculate wildly. There are other people out there who can travel between parallel worlds. They're better at it than us, and they know what they're doing. That's really bad, right there, but not necessarily fatal. However… we've been pointedly ignoring, all along, the fact that what we do isn't magical. It's not unique. It's like, after 1945, the government pretended for a few years that making nuclear weapons was some kind of big secret. Then the Russians got the bomb, and the Brits, and the Chinese, and before you can blink we're worrying about the North Koreans, or the Iranians. What the Clan Council needs to worry about is the US government-who they've spent the past few decades systematically getting mad at them-and who now know we exist. What do you think?"
"But we don't know how the world-walking mechanism works. It's got to take them time-"
Miriam took another mouthful of coffee. "They've had seven or eight months, Huw. That's how long it's been since Matthias went over the wall. And there's"-she paused, as if considering her words-"stuff that's happened, stuff that will turn hunting us down into a screaming crash priority, higher than al Qaida, higher than the Iraq occupation. They've got to be throwing money at…" She trailed off.
"I don't think they'll have got anywhere yet." Huw reached for the coffee pot again, emptying the dregs into their mugs. "It takes time to organize a research project and they'll be doing it under conditions of complete secrecy."
"Yes, but they've already got the big national laboratories. And if they've got captive Clan members they're starting from where the Clan stood, as of forty-eight hours ago. And they could have started months ago! It all depends on whether the problem they're trying to crack is a hard one or an easy one. If we've got some kind of mechanism that lets us do this, then it's designed to replicate, and there's got to be some sort of control system wired into our brains-are you telling me nobody has put bits of a Clan member under an electron microscope before to look for anomalies?"
"You've met enough of your cousins by now. How many brain surgeons did you spot?" Huw looked defensive. "It wasn't a high priority."
"Well it is, now. Because if they can figure out what makes us world-walk, they're probably halfway to mass-producing it. Given they've got scouts in the Gruinmarkt-"
"They've got what?" Huw sat bolt-upright.
"Eh." Miriam cocked her head to one side. "Forget I said that?"
"Sure… can I finish your sentence?"
"Um…"
"Right now, any scouts they can send our way are going to be riding piggyback. Lightning Child knows how they're making the couriers cooperate, but nothing would surprise me: The current administration are so Machiavellian they make Prince Egon like a White House intern. But what you're speculating about is how long we've got until there's a large-scale incursion." Her expression made him look for other words. "Invasion. Is that what you're thinking?"
Miriam nodded. "I- No, we-have got to talk to Angbard, and fast. Whatever the prince has been up to back, uh, home"-he spotted the moment's
Similar Books
