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weapons beat their smart weapons at a rate of a hundred to one. Or better. We developed nonlethal technology, lasers and ignition killers and chemicals that turn tarmac roads into rivers of oil slush. These weapons were very costly. The Russian designersOrgonev, for onereplied in their usual fashion. What technology and money do for the United States, brute force has always done for the Russians. They concentrated on high-yield weapons. Twenty-five megatons. Fifty. A hundred. Once you have the plutonium bomb trigger, size and yield are open-ended." He smiled a death's head grin. "Just add tritium and stir. It's possible that's what you saw them planting in Hudson Bay almost a year ago to the day. But why? Surely they wouldn't have gone to all that trouble to kill some poor damned Inuits and a hell of a lot of fish. What are they up to? And no matter what they're up to, what has gone wrong, if indeed it has?" |
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Anna was stunned into silence. She and Jake had done a feature for the New York Times Magazine on the children of Chernobyl, children with leukemia, some with severe birth defects. Farm animals had suffered the same fate. Anna knew. She had seen the half-living babies, held them, photographed them. |
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"It's all true, Mrs. Neville," Bolton said urgently. "In at least one Inuit family, the parents and all the children have died, and the flying doctor and his wife who made the discovery are contaminated. There are others. Maritime Command is searching the waters up there and they've found several patches of lethal concentration. The fish and seabirds and the shore mammals are all affected. The Inuit are eating food, fish and game, that is killing them." |
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Anna's revulsion and pity had overcome her antagonism. "How long has Ottawa known about the contamination? And can anything be done medically for these people?" |
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Colonel Duquesne said heavily, "Time for blame comes later, Mrs. Neville. The problem is that we still aren't positive what the source of the plutonium is. Maritime Command has |
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