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- Джон Уиндем
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- Стр. 18/223
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At
least
the
United
States
Government
took
the
suggestion
seriously
enough
to
deny
emphatically
that
it
controlled
any
satellites
designed
to
conduct
biological
warfare
directly
upon
human
beings
.
One
or
two
minor
nations
,
whom
no
one
suspected
of
controlling
any
satellites
at
all
,
hastened
to
make
similar
declarations
.
Other
,
and
major
,
powers
did
not
,
In
the
face
of
this
ominous
reticence
,
the
public
began
demanding
to
know
why
the
United
States
had
neglected
to
prepare
for
a
form
of
warfare
which
others
were
ready
to
use
—
and
just
what
did
"
directly
"
mean
.
At
this
point
all
parties
tacitly
gave
up
denying
or
confirming
anything
about
satellites
,
and
an
intensified
effort
was
made
to
divert
the
public
interest
to
the
no
less
important
,
but
far
less
acrimonious
,
matter
of
food
scarcity
.
The
laws
of
supply
and
demand
should
have
enabled
the
more
enterprising
to
organize
commodity
monopolies
,
but
the
world
at
large
had
become
antagonistic
to
declared
monopolies
.
The
interlaced
-
company
system
,
however
,
really
worked
very
smoothly
without
anything
so
imputable
as
Articles
of
Federation
.
The
general
public
heard
scarcely
anything
of
such
little
difficulties
within
the
pattern
as
had
to
he
unsnarled
from
time
to
time
.
Hardly
anyone
heard
of
even
the
existence
of
one
Umberto
Christoforo
Palanguez
,
for
instance
.
I
heard
of
him
myself
only
years
later
in
the
course
of
my
work
.
Umberto
was
of
assorted
Latin
descent
,
and
by
profession
a
pilot
.
His
first
appearance
as
a
possibly
disruptive
spanner
in
the
neat
machinery
of
the
edible
-
oil
interests
occurred
when
he
walked
into
the
offices
of
the
Arctic
&
European
Fish
Oil
Company
and
produced
a
bottle
of
pale
pink
oil
in
which
he
proposed
to
interest
them
.
Arctic
&
European
analyzed
the
sample
.
The
first
thing
they
discovered
about
it
was
that
it
was
not
a
fish
oil
:
it
was
vegetable
,
though
they
could
not
identify
the
source
.
The
second
revelation
was
that
it
made
most
of
their
best
fish
oils
look
like
grease
-
box
fillers
.
Alarmed
at
the
effect
this
potent
oil
would
have
on
their
trade
,
Arctic
&
European
summoned
Umberto
and
questioned
him
at
length
.
He
was
not
communicative
.
He
told
them
that
the
oil
came
from
Russia
(
which
still
hid
behind
a
curtain
of
suspicion
and
secrecy
)
and
that
for
an
enormous
sum
of
money
he
would
endeavor
to
fly
out
the
seeds
.
Terms
were
agreed
on
,
and
then
Umberto
vanished
.
Arctic
&
European
had
not
at
first
connected
the
appearance
of
the
triffids
with
Umberto
,
and
the
police
of
several
countries
went
on
keeping
an
eye
open
for
him
on
the
company
’
s
behalf
for
several
years
.
It
was
not
until
some
investigator
produced
a
specimen
of
triffid
oil
for
their
inspection
that
they
realized
that
it
corresponded
exactly
with
the
sam
-
pie
Umberso
had
shown
them
,
and
that
it
was
the
seeds
of
the
triffid
be
had
set
out
to
bring
.
What
happened
to
Umberto
himself
will
never
be
definitely
known
.
