The Lagrangists. Mack Reynolds

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СКАЧАТЬ of the United States of the Americas. It has spawned other important projects such as the space tug and SPSs. The Yankees were slower than the originators of the idea of the Lagrange Five Project hoped for, but they are now in full swing. At the rate they are going, their Island One will be in operation within a comparatively few months.”

      “And how does this apply to us?”

      “We have made our second mistake in our battle for men’s minds, as some call it. For the first few years, we were far beyond the Americans and the other imperialist nations. But in 1965 that idiot Brezhnev ordered that our lunar landing program be stretched out because of the cost.”

      Simonov knew of the argument as to Brezhnev’s place in Soviet history. He hoped his sigh would not place him in either camp.

      Mendeleev grunted contempt. “Colonel, there are two hundred men and women in the Soviet Complex who need not worry about calling a member of the Central Committee an idiot. I am one of them. I am a member of the Academy of Sciences. At any rate, we pressed ahead with our plans for Lunagrad, a permanent moon base.” He shook his head, as though in despair. “But the Americans, with their newly developed space shuttles, went in to the L5 project, under the leadership of their brilliant Professor George R. Casey. They set up their temporary moon base with some two hundred men to operate it, assembled a mass-driver, and began to lob raw materials to Lagrange Five, where they are being processed there in space by another some 1,800 scientists, technicians and laborers, and now Island One, their first space colony, is practically finished.”

      “While we are still largely devoting our efforts to a permanent, large sized moon settlement, eh?”

      “Until now, yes.”

      “As I say, I’m a layman. What is the advantage of this Island One over a permanent moon base? It would seem to me…”

      Academician Mendeleev shook his head strongly, his second chin wobbling. “There are various advantages to the American space colonies. For one thing, the availability of energy. The moon has a 14-day night, therefore there is a serious problem of obtaining energy at our chosen sites. Convenient, low-cost solar power is curtailed because of the fact that energy storage over a 14-day period is extremely expensive. On the moon one is wiser to rely on nuclear power, so one loses one of the principal advantages of working in space. Second, the moon is a more expensive destination than Lagrange Five or Four. To reach the moon, you must first fight Earth’s gravity. You have to take it as it comes, and you can never cut it off. Even to get higher gravity than that is a lot more complicated and expensive on the surface of Luna than it is in free space where you can simply rotate a vessel to get any gravity you want.”

      “So the Americans have stolen a march on us.”

      “Yes. And this we cannot allow. We must be the first to begin beaming plentiful power from space to Earth. That nation that dominates space and begins to beam what amounts to nearly free power to Earth, will dominate the world. The battle of men’s minds will have been won, and he who is behind will never catch up. If we cannot be first to do so, we must at least be almost simultaneous. We might even accept being a few months behind the Yankees, but four years is out of the question. We have begun a crash program to build our own space shuttles and space tugs. We are devoting all efforts to it. We are driving ahead in all other fields involved. But we are desperate for time, Comrade Colonel.”

      Ilya Simonov looked at the other warily. He said, “I fail to see my connection with this matter. I was ordered back from Greater Washington, where my duties are involved in… the usual matters of my ministry. But not even my ultimate superior could tell me why I was to report to you.”

      The other cleared his throat unhappily and took up a paper from his desk and held it for a moment.

      He said flatly, “Colonel Simonov, you are known to be the top, shall we say, ‘hatchetman’, to use the American idiom…”

      “Chinese,” Simonov muttered under his breath, and without enthusiasm.

      “…in all the Chrezvychainaya Komissiya.”

      “It’s a reputation I never sought,” the espionage ace said emptily.

      The academician ignored him and went on. “Your orders in this assignment come directly from Number One.” He extended his paper. “There are only three persons in the Soviet Complex who know your assignment. Nubmer, myself; and you. If you are exposed, you will be disowned. You are—to be blunt—expendable.”

      Ilya Simonov looked at the paper stolidly. He had never before seen the signature of the supreme head of his country.

      He said, “Yes, Comrade Mendeleev, you have been given complete control of my activities. What are my orders?”

      “To sabotage the Lagrange Five Project by whatever means you find expedient.”

      The academician retrieved the letter of command from the ultimate head of the Party to Ilya Simonov, struck a match, lit the paper, allowed it largely to burn away in his hand, then dropped it into the ashtray on his desk and stirred up the ashes with a stylo.

      CHAPTER FOUR

      International Diversified Industries, Incorporated, had a long history.

      These days, it was one of the largest multinational conglomerates in the world, despite humble beginnings. These days, among other properties, Diversified owned the Bahama Islands, lock, stock and British, including the government; and it ran them like a feudal fief.

      It seems that back in the middle ages a patriotic society was formed by Sicilians under the rule of the hated French. They adopted a slogan, Morte ale Francia Italia anela. But even after the French were expelled, the secret society continued. Centuries later some of them, poverty stricken, emigrated to America. At first they didn’t prosper but with the advent of Prohibition, these valiant desperadoes largely took over production and distribution of illegal alcoholic beverages. They made millions. When the 18th Amendment was repealed, they moved into other fields, some of them almost legitimate. They were wealthy enough now to send their children and grandchildren to universities. They continued to become increasingly more legitimate, moving into resorts, restaurants, nightclubs. In States where gambling was legal they opened casinos—in Reno and Las Vegas, for instance. And they began to expand into other countries. As a group of families with overlapping interests, they were actually one of the nation’s first multinational conglomerates. Sometimes they had set-backs, as when Castro ran them out of Cuba, but largely they prospered unbelievably. Meanwhile, the old Prohibition elements—the ‘mustache Petes’—died away and a new generation, highly prosperous, highly educated, socially acceptable, took over. And they expanded.

      They took over the Bahamas. In the old days, there used to be the term ‘sin city’ which applied to such towns as Panama City, Port Said, Tangier. The families thought big: they created a ‘sin country’. In the Bahamas one could buy any vice, any financial service for that matter, that he could afford. The banking system that prevailed made Switzerland’s numbered accounts and other banking dodges look most innocent.

      The families continued to branch out, continued to prosper, until they became one of the wealthiest corporations on Earth, but they never forgot the original motto which had brought them together.

      The initials of Morte ala Francia Italia anela! spell MAFIA.

      Sophia Anastasis was briskly businesslike in her opulent office in the penthouse of the International Diversified Industries, Incorporated Building in central Manhattan. She looked at the two studious, early-middle-aged СКАЧАТЬ