In the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street, Mr Cedric Lazenby, the PrimeMinister, sat at the head of the table and looked at his assembled Cabinetwithout any noticeable pleasure. The expression on his face was definitelygloomy, which in a way afforded him a certain relief. He was beginning tothink that it was only in the privacy of his Cabinet Meetings that he couldrelax his face into an unhappy expression, and could abandon that lookwhich he presented usually to the world, of a wise and contented1 optim-ism which had served him so well in the various crises of political life.
He looked round at Gordon Chetwynd, who was frowning, at Sir GeorgePackham who was obviously worrying, thinking, and wondering as usual,at the military imperturbability2 of Colonel Munro, at Air Marshal Ken-wood, a tight-lipped man who did not trouble to conceal3 his profound dis-trust of politicians. There was also Admiral Blunt, a large formidable man,who tapped his fingers on the table and bided4 his time until his momentshould come.
‘It is not too good,’ the Air Marshal was saying. ‘One has to admit it. Fourof our planes hi-jacked within the last week. Flew ’em to Milan. Turnedthe passengers out, and flew them on somewhere else. Actually Africa.
Had pilots waiting there. Black men.’
‘Black Power,’ said Colonel Munro thoughtfully.
‘Or Red Power?’ suggested Lazenby. ‘I feel, you know, that all our diffi-culties might stem from Russian indoctrination. If one could get into touchwith the Russians–I really think a personal visit at top level–’
‘You stick where you are, Prime Minister,’ said Admiral Blunt. ‘Don’t youstart arseing around with the Russkies again. All they want at present is tokeep out of all this mess. They haven’t had as much trouble there withtheir students as most of us have. All they mind about is keeping an eye onthe Chinese to see what they’ll be up to next.’
‘I do think that personal influence–’
‘You stay here and look after your own country,’ said Admiral Blunt.
True to his name, and as was his wont5, he said it bluntly.
‘Hadn’t we better hear– have a proper report of what’s actually beenhappening?’ Gordon Chetwynd looked towards Colonel Munro.
‘Want facts? Quite right. They’re all pretty unpalatable. I presume youwant, not particulars of what’s been happening here so much, as the gen-eral world situation?’
‘Quite so.’
‘Well, in France the Marshal’s in hospital still. Two bullets in his arm.
Hell’s going on in political circles. Large tracts6 of the country are held bywhat they call the Youth Power troops.’
‘You mean they’ve got arms?’ said Gordon Chetwynd in a horrifiedvoice.
‘They’ve got a hell of a lot,’ said the Colonel. ‘I don’t know really wherethey’ve got them from. There are certain ideas as to that. A large consign-ment was sent from Sweden to West Africa.’
‘What’s that got to do with it?’ said Mr Lazenby. ‘Who cares? Let themhave all the arms they want in West Africa. They can go on shooting eachother.’
‘Well, there’s something a little curious about it as far as our Intelligencereports go. Here is a list of the armaments that were sent to West Africa.
The interesting thing is they were sent there, but they were sent out again.
They were accepted, delivery was acknowledged, payment may or maynot have been made, but they were sent out of the country again beforefive days had passed. They were sent out, re-routed elsewhere.’
‘But what’s the idea of that?’
‘The idea seems to be,’ said Munro, ‘that they were never really intendedfor West Africa. Payments were made and they were sent on somewhereelse. It seems possible that they went on from Africa to the Near East. Tothe Persian Gulf8, to Greece and to Turkey. Also, a consignment9 of planeswas sent to Egypt. From Egypt they were sent to India, from India theywere sent to Russia.’
‘I thought they were sent from Russia.’
‘–And from Russia they went to Prague. The whole thing’s mad.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Sir George, ‘one wonders–’
‘Somewhere there seems to be some central organization which is dir-ecting the supplies of various things. Planes, armaments, bombs, both ex-plosive and those that are used in germ warfare10. All these consignmentsare moving in unexpected directions. They are delivered by various cross-country routes to trouble-spots, and used by leaders and regiments–if youlike to call them that–of the Youth Power. They mostly go to the leaders ofyoung guerrilla movements, professed11 anarchists12 who preach anarchy13,and accept–though one doubts if they ever pay for–some of the latest mostup-to-date models.’
‘Do you mean to say we’re facing something like war on a world scale?’
Cedric Lazenby was shocked.
The mild man with the Asiatic face who sat lower down at the table, andhad not yet spoken, lifted up his face with the Mongolian smile, and said:
‘That is what one is now forced to believe. Our observations tell us–’
Lazenby interrupted.
‘You’ll have to stop observing. UNO will have to take arms itself and putall this down.’
The quiet face remained unmoved.
‘That would be against our principles,’ he said.
Colonel Munro raised his voice and went on with his summing up.
‘There’s fighting in some parts of every country. South-East Asia claimedIndependence long ago and there are four, five different divisions ofpower in South America, Cuba, Peru, Guatemala and so on. As for theUnited States, you know Washington was practically burned out–the Westis overrun with Youth Power Armed Forces–Chicago is under Martial15 Law.
You know about Sam Cortman? Shot last night on the steps of the Amer-ican Embassy here.’
‘He was to attend here today,’ said Lazenby. ‘He was going to have givenus his views of the situation.’
‘I don’t suppose that would have helped much,’ said Colonel Munro.
‘Quite a nice chap–but hardly a live wire.’
‘But who’s behind all this?’ Lazenby’s voice rose fretfully.
‘It could be the Russians, of course–’ He looked hopeful. He still envis-aged himself flying to Moscow.
Colonel Munro shook his head. ‘Doubt it,’ he said.
‘A personal appeal,’ said Lazenby. His face brightened with hope. ‘Anentirely new sphere of influence. The Chinese…?’
‘Nor the Chinese,’ said Colonel Munro. ‘But you know there’s been a bigrevival in Neo-Fascism in Germany.’
‘You don’t really think the Germans could possibly…’
‘I don’t think they’re behind all this necessarily, but when you say pos-sibly–yes, I think possibly they easily could. They’ve done it before, youknow. Prepared things years before, planned them, everything ready,waiting for the word GO. Good planners, very good planners. Staff workexcellent. I admire them, you know. Can’t help it.’
‘But Germany seemed to be so peaceful and well run.’
‘Yes, of course it is up to a point. But do you realize, South America ispractically alive with Germans, with young Neo-Fascists, and they’ve got abig Youth Federation16 there. Call themselves the Super-Aryans, or some-thing of that kind. You know, a bit of the old stuff still, swastikas and sa-lutes, and someone who’s running it, called the Young Wotan or the YoungSiegfried or something like that. Lot of Aryan nonsense.’
There was a knock on the door and the secretary entered.
‘Professor Eckstein is here, sir.’
‘We’d better have him in,’ said Cedric Lazenby. ‘After all, if anyone cantell us what our latest research weapons are, he’s the man. We may havesomething up our sleeve that can soon put an end to all this nonsense.’ Be-sides being a professional traveller to foreign parts in the r?le of peace-maker, Mr Lazenby had an incurable17 fund of optimism seldom justified18 byresults.
‘We could do with a good secret weapon,’ said the Air Marshal hope-fully.
Professor Eckstein, considered by many to be Britain’s top scientist,when you first looked at him seemed supremely19 unimportant. He was asmall man with old-fashioned mutton-chop whiskers and an asthmaticcough. He had the manner of one anxious to apologize for his existence.
He made noises like ‘ah’, ‘hrrumph’, ‘mrrh’, blew his nose, coughed asth-matically again and shook hands in a shy manner, as he was introduced tothose present. A good many of them he already knew and these he greetedwith nervous nods of the head. He sat down on the chair indicated andlooked round him vaguely20. He raised a hand to his mouth and began tobite his nails.
‘The heads of the Services are here,’ said Sir George Packham. ‘We arevery anxious to have your opinion as to what can be done.’
‘Oh,’ said Professor Eckstein, ‘done? Yes, yes, done?’
There was a silence.
‘The world is fast passing into a state of anarchy,’ said Sir George.
‘Seems so, doesn’t it? At least, from what I read in the paper. Not that Itrust to that. Really, the things journalists think up. Never any accuracy intheir statements.’
‘I understand you’ve made some most important discoveries lately, Pro-fessor,’ said Cedric Lazenby encouragingly.
‘Ah yes, so we have. So we have.’ Professor Eckstein cheered up a little.
‘Got a lot of very nasty chemical warfare fixed21 up. If we ever wanted it.
Germ warfare, you know, biological stuff, gas laid on through normal gasoutlets, air pollution and poisoning of water supplies. Yes, if you wanted it,I suppose we could kill half the population of England given about threedays to do it in.’ He rubbed his hands. ‘That what you want?’
‘No, no indeed. Oh dear, of course not.’ Mr Lazenby looked horrified7.
‘Well, that’s what I mean, you know. It’s not a question of not havingenough lethal22 weapons. We’ve got too much. Everything we’ve got is toolethal. The difficulty would be in keeping anybody alive, even ourselves.
Eh? All the people at the top, you know. Well–us, for instance.’ He gave awheezy, happy little chuckle23.
‘But that isn’t what we want,’ Mr Lazenby insisted.
‘It’s not a question of what you want, it’s a question of what we’ve got.
Everything we’ve got is terrifically lethal. If you want everybody underthirty wiped off the map, I expect you could do it. Mind you, you’d have totake a lot of the older ones as well. It’s difficult to segregate24 one lot fromthe other, you know. Personally, I should be against that. We’ve got somevery good young Research fellows. Bloody-minded, but clever.’
‘What’s gone wrong with the world?’ asked Kenwood suddenly.
‘That’s the point,’ said Professor Eckstein. ‘We don’t know. We don’tknow up at our place in spite of all we do know about this, that and theother. We know a bit more about the moon nowadays, we know a lotabout biology, we can transplant hearts and livers; brains, too, soon, I ex-pect, though I don’t know how that’ll work out. But we don’t know who isdoing this. Somebody is, you know. It’s a sort of high-powered backgroundstuff. Oh yes, we’ve got it cropping up in different ways. You know, crimerings, drug rings, all that sort of thing. A high-powered lot, directed by afew good, shrewd brains behind the scenes. We’ve had it going on in thiscountry or that country, occasionally on a European scale. But it’s going abit further now, other side of the globe–Southern Hemisphere. Down tothe Antarctic Circle before we’ve finished, I expect.’ He appeared to bepleased with his diagnosis25.
‘People of ill-will–’
‘Well, you could put it like that. Ill-will for ill-will’s sake or ill-will for thesake of money or power. Difficult, you know, to get at the point of it all.
The poor dogs- bodies themselves don’t know. They want violence andthey like violence. They don’t like the world, they don’t like our material-istic attitude. They don’t like a lot of our nasty ways of making money,they don’t like a lot of the fiddles26 we do. They don’t like seeing poverty.
They want a better world. Well, you could make a better world, perhaps, ifyou thought about it long enough. But the trouble is, if you insist on takingaway something first, you’ve got to put something back in its place. Naturewon’t have a vacuum–an old saying, but true. Dash it all, it’s like a hearttransplant. You take one heart away but you’ve got to put another onethere. One that works. And you’ve got to arrange about the heart you’regoing to put there before you take away the faulty heart that somebody’sgot at present. Matter of fact, I think a lot of those things are better leftalone altogether, but nobody would listen to me, I suppose. And anywayit’s not my subject.’
‘A gas?’ suggested Colonel Munro.
Professor Eckstein brightened.
‘Oh, we’ve got all sorts of gases in stock. Mind you, some of them arereasonably harmless. Mild deterrents27, shall we say. We’ve got all those.’ Hebeamed like a complacent28 hardware dealer29.
‘Nuclear weapons?’ suggested Mr Lazenby.
‘Don’t you monkey with that! You don’t want a radio-active England, doyou, or a radio-active continent, for that matter?’
‘So you can’t help us,’ said Colonel Munro.
‘Not until somebody’s found out a bit more about all this,’ said ProfessorEckstein. ‘Well, I’m sorry. But I must impress upon you that most of thethings we’re working on nowadays are dangerous.’ He stressed the word.
‘Really dangerous.’
He looked at them anxiously, as a nervous uncle might look at a groupof children left with a box of matches to play with, and who might quiteeasily set the house on fire.
‘Well, thank you, Professor Eckstein,’ said Mr Lazenby. He did not soundparticularly thankful.
The Professor gathering30 correctly that he was released, smiled all roundand trotted31 out of the room.
Mr Lazenby hardly waited for the door to close before venting32 his feel-ings.
‘All alike, these scientists,’ he said bitterly. ‘Never any practical good.
Never come up with anything sensible. All they can do is split the atom–and then tell us not to mess about with it!’
‘Just as well if we never had,’ said Admiral Blunt, again bluntly. ‘Whatwe want is something homely33 and domestic like a kind of selectiveweedkiller which would–’ He paused abruptly34. ‘Now what the devil–?’
‘Yes, Admiral?’ said the Prime Minister politely.
‘Nothing–just reminded me of something. Can’t remember what–’
The Prime Minister sighed.
‘Any more scientific experts waiting on the mat?’ asked Gordon Chet-wynd, glancing hopefully at his wristwatch.
‘Old Pikeaway is here, I believe,’ said Lazenby. ‘Got a picture–or a draw-ing–or a map or something or other he wants us to look at–’
‘What’s it all about?’
‘I don’t know. It seems to be all bubbles,’ said Mr Lazenby vaguely.
‘Bubbles? Why bubbles?’
‘I’ve no idea. Well,’ he sighed, ‘we’d better have a look at it.’
‘Horsham’s here, too–’
‘He may have something new to tell us,’ said Chetwynd.
Colonel Pikeaway stumped35 in. He was supporting a rolled-up burdenwhich with Horsham’s aid was unrolled and which with some difficultywas propped36 up so that those sitting round the table could look at it.
‘Not exactly drawn37 to scale yet, but it gives you a rough idea,’ said Col-onel Pikeaway.
‘What does it mean, if anything?’
‘Bubbles?’ murmured Sir George. An idea came to him. ‘Is it a gas? Anew gas?’
‘You’d better deliver the lecture, Horsham,’ said Pikeaway. ‘You knowthe general idea.’
‘I only know what I’ve been told. It’s a rough diagram of an associationof world control.’
‘By whom?’
‘By groups who own or control the sources of power–the raw materialsof power.’
‘And the letters of the alphabet?’
‘Stand for a person or a code name for a special group. They are inter-secting circles that by now cover the globe.
‘That circle marked “A” stands for armaments. Someone, or some groupis in control of armaments. All types of armaments. Explosives, guns,rifles. All over the world armaments are being produced according toplan, dispatched ostensibly to under- developed nations, backward na-tions, nations at war. But they don’t remain where they are sent. They arere- routed almost immediately elsewhere. To guerrilla warfare in theSouth American Continent–to rioting and fighting in the USA–to Depots38 ofBlack Power–to various countries in Europe.
‘“D” represents drugs–a network of suppliers run them from various de-pots and stockpiles. All kinds of drugs, from the more harmless varietiesup to the true killers39. The headquarters seem likely to be situated40 in theLevant, and to pass out through Turkey, Pakistan, India and Central Asia.’
‘They make money out of it?’
‘Enormous sums of money. But it’s more than just an association ofPushers. It has a more sinister41 side to it. It’s being used to finish off theweaklings amongst the young, shall we say, to make them complete slaves.
Slaves so that they cannot live and exist or do jobs for their employerswithout a supply of drugs.’
Kenwood whistled.
‘That’s a bad show, isn’t it? Don’t you know at all who those Drug Push-ers are?’
‘Some of them, yes. But only the lesser42 fry. Not the real controllers. Drugheadquarters are, so far as we can judge, in Central Asia and the Levant.
They get delivered from there in the tyres of cars, in cement, in concrete,in all kinds of machinery43 and industrial goods. They’re delivered all overthe world and passed on as ordinary trade goods to where they are meantto go.
‘“F” stands for finance. Money! A money spider’s web in the centre of itall. You’ll have to go to Mr Robinson to tell you about money. According toa memo44 here, money is coming very largely from America and there’s alsoa headquarters in Bavaria. There’s a vast reserve in South Africa, based ongold and diamonds. Most of the money is going to South America. One ofthe principal controllers, if I may so put it, of money, is a very powerfuland talented woman. She’s old now: must be near to death. But she is stillstrong and active. Her name was Charlotte Krapp. Her father owned thevast Krapp yards in Germany. She was a financial genius herself and oper-ated in Wall Street. She accumulated fortune after fortune by investmentsin all parts of the world. She owns transport, she owns machinery, sheowns industrial concerns. All these things. She lives in a vast castle in Bav-aria–from there she directs a flow of money to different parts of the globe.
‘“S” represents science–the new knowledge of chemical and biologicalwarfare– Various young scientists have defected– There is a nucleus45 ofthem in the US, we believe, vowed46 and dedicated47 to the cause of anarchy.’
‘Fighting for anarchy? A contradiction in terms. Can there be such athing?’
‘You believe in anarchy if you are young. You want a new world, and tobegin with you must pull down the old one–just as you pull down a housebefore you build a new one to replace it. But if you don’t know where youare going, if you don’t know where you are being lured48 to go, or evenpushed to go, what will the new world be like, and where will the believ-ers be when they get it? Some of them slaves, some of them blinded byhate, some by violence and sadism, both preached and practised. Some ofthem–and God help those–still idealistic, still believing as people did inFrance at the time of the French Revolution that that revolution wouldbring prosperity, peace, happiness, contentment to its people.’
‘And what are we doing about all this? What are we proposing to doabout it?’ It was Admiral Blunt who spoke14.
‘What are we doing about it? All that we can. I assure you, all you whoare here, we are doing all that we can. We have people working for us inevery country. We have agents, inquirers, those who gather information,and bring it back here–’
THE RING
F Big Charlotte — Bavaria
A Eric Olafsson — Sweden, Industrialist49, ArmamentsD Said to go by the name of Demetrios — Smyrna, DrugsS Dr Sarolensky — Colorado, USA, Physicist- Chemist.
Suspicion only
J — A woman. Goes by Code name of Juanita. Said to bedangerous. No knowledge of her real name.
‘Which is very necessary,’ said Colonel Pikeaway. ‘First we’ve got toknow–know who’s who, who’s with us and who’s against us. And after thatwe’ve got to see what, if anything, can be done.’
‘Our name for this diagram is The Ring. Here’s a list of what we knowabout the Ring leaders. Those with a query50 mean that we know only thename they go by–or alternatively we only suspect that they are the oneswe want.’
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
contented
|
|
| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
imperturbability
|
|
| n.冷静；沉着 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
conceal
|
|
| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
bided
|
|
| v.等待，停留( bide的过去式 )；居住；等待；面临 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
wont
|
|
| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
tracts
|
|
| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
horrified
|
|
| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
gulf
|
|
| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
consignment
|
|
| n.寄售；发货；委托；交运货物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
warfare
|
|
| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
professed
|
|
| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
anarchists
|
|
| 无政府主义者( anarchist的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
anarchy
|
|
| n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
martial
|
|
| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
federation
|
|
| n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
incurable
|
|
| adj.不能医治的，不能矫正的，无救的；n.不治的病人，无救的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
justified
|
|
| a.正当的，有理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
supremely
|
|
| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
vaguely
|
|
| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
lethal
|
|
| adj.致死的；毁灭性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
chuckle
|
|
| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
segregate
|
|
| adj.分离的，被隔离的；vt.使分离，使隔离 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
diagnosis
|
|
| n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
fiddles
|
|
| n.小提琴( fiddle的名词复数 )；欺诈；（需要运用手指功夫的）细巧活动；当第二把手v.伪造( fiddle的第三人称单数 )；篡改；骗取；修理或稍作改动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
deterrents
|
|
| 制止物( deterrent的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
complacent
|
|
| adj.自满的；自鸣得意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
dealer
|
|
| n.商人，贩子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
gathering
|
|
| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
trotted
|
|
| 小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
venting
|
|
| 消除； 泄去； 排去； 通风 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
homely
|
|
| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
abruptly
|
|
| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
stumped
|
|
| 僵直地行走，跺步行走( stump的过去式和过去分词 )； 把（某人）难住； 使为难； （选举前）在某一地区作政治性巡回演说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
propped
|
|
| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
depots
|
|
| 仓库( depot的名词复数 )； 火车站； 车库； 军需库 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
killers
|
|
| 凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
situated
|
|
| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
sinister
|
|
| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
lesser
|
|
| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
machinery
|
|
| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
memo
|
|
| n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
nucleus
|
|
| n.核，核心，原子核 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
vowed
|
|
| 起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
dedicated
|
|
| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
lured
|
|
| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
industrialist
|
|
| n.工业家，实业家 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
query
|
|
| n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |