《Atomic 》作者：- Henry Kuttner【EPUB】

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A NOVELET OF THE FUTURE ATOMIC By HENRY KUTTNER What nuclear war may do to the world we know is a closed book to mankind — but heres what coming eras may bring CHAPTER I The Eye THE alarm went off just after midnight. The red signal showed emergency. But it was alwaysemergency at first. We all knew that. Ever since the arachnid tribe in the Chicago Ring hadmutated wed known better than to take chances. That time the human race had very nearly goneunder. Not many people knew how close wed been to extinction. But I knew. Everybody inBiological Control Labs knew. To anyone who lived before the Three-Hour War such things wouldhave sounded incredible. Even to us now they sound hard to believe. But we know. There are four hundred and three Rings scattered all over the world and every one of them ispotentially deadly. Our Lab was north of what had been Yonkers and was a deserted ruinous wilderness now. Theatomic bomb of six years ago hadnt hit Yonkers of course. What it struck was New York. Theradiation spread far enough to wipe out Yonkers and the towns beyond it and inland as far asWhite Plains—but everyone who lived through the Three-Hour War knows what the bomb did in theNew York area. The war ended incredibly fast. But what lingered afterward made the real danger the time-bombthat may quite easily lead to the wiping out of our whole civilization. We dont know yet. Allwe can do is keep the Labs going and the planes out watching. Thats the menace—the mutations. It was familiar stuff to me. I recorded the televised report on the office ticker punched afew buttons and turned around to look at Bob Davidson the new hand. Hed been here for twoweeks mostly learning the ropes. My assistant Williams was due for a vacation and I hadabout decided to take young Davidson on as a substitute. quotWant to go out and look it over Davequot I asked. quotSure. Thats a red alarm isnt it Emergencyquot I pulled a mike forward. quotSend up relief menquot I ordered quotand wake Williams to take over. Get the recon copter ready.Red flight.quot Then I turned to Davidson. quotItll be routinequot I told him quotunless something unexpected happens. Not much data yet. Thesky-scanners showed a cave-in and some activity around it. May be nothing but we cant takechances.