Forever Begins Tomorrow by Bruce Coville Page B

she plopped into one of the “ice-cream parlor” chairs to read it.
    Hap latched on to the new issue of his favorite magazine, Popular Technology , which had a great-looking cover story on ten ways to soup up an electric dune buggy. Right up my alley! he thought, momentarily forgetting that Dr. Hwa’s ban on the gang using any island vehicles was still in force.
    Hap’s father began leafing through the newspapers. Since the electronic shield created to secure the research being done on Anza-bora made it virtually impossible for unauthorized electronic transmissions to leave—or reach—the island, the weekly arrival of the news had become something of a ritual moment in Henry Swenson’s life.
    The brief tranquility of the scene was shattered when both Hap’s parents cried out in disgust at the same time.
    â€œLook at this!” said Mrs. Swenson angrily. She was holding up a sheet of paper marked with several large blotches. “Just look at it!”
    â€œWhat is it?” asked Hap.
    â€œA copy of my last letter to your aunt Sarah. She sent it back to show me how they censored it.” She threw the page onto the table as if it offended her to touch it.
    â€œWhy did they do that?” asked Hap.
    â€œSecurity,” said his father, “The government doesn’t much care what comes onto the island. But everything leaving it gets read by some jamoke in Washington before it goes on to its final destination.”
    â€œWhy?” asked Hap again.
    â€œTo make sure it doesn’t give away too much information. If they think something might give a clue to what’s going on here—out it goes! Sometimes they get a little overzealous.”
    â€œWell, I say it’s nonsense!” snapped Mrs. Swenson. “You’d think I was a spy or something.”
    â€œI wish it was nonsense,” said Henry Swenson. “But considering what’s going on out there, I think it might be justified.” When his wife started to object, he thrust the newspaper he had been reading in her direction. “Take a look at this. We’ll be lucky if the fools don’t blow us to kingdom come before the year is over!”
    Hap rose to read over his mother’s shoulder. It was hard to tell who his father was talking about when he said “fools” in that tone of voice, since he thought all members of the “Nuclear Club” were less than sane.
    Hap felt his stomach knot up as he scanned the headline: SOUTH AMERICAN CONSORTIUM BREAKS OFF TALKS WITH UNIFIED KOREA—NEGOTIATORS EXPRESS CONCERN OVER ESCALATING HOSTILITY.
    He sank slowly back into his seat. Moments like this sometimes made him think artificial intelligence might not be such a bad idea, after all. No matter how powerful a computer got, it probably couldn’t do much worse than mankind was doing on its own. And it might do a whole lot better.
    The darkening world situation seemed to dominate every conversation on the island for the next several days. An unpleasant tension settled over the scientists and their families as they wondered how close the two sides in the current conflict had come to taking a step from which there might be no return.
    â€œIf they actually do start a war, it could drag in dozens of other countries as well,” said Dr. Phillips glumly one night at dinner.
    From the look on his face he immediately regretted the words. It was not his desire to frighten his children.
    But Roger and Rachel didn’t need their father to tell them that even if the other nations of the world stayed out of things, the kind of nuclear battle the two countries involved might start could end up destroying the world’s ecology for everyone , warmongers and peacemakers alike.
    Rachel found herself lying awake at night wondering if the supply plane would ever come again—or if the outside world would blow itself to smithereens, leaving them stranded on Anza-bora with no word of