Timeline - Michael Crichton [194]
“I am about to show you,” he said, “our plans for cultural tourism sites around the world. I will concentrate on one in France, but we have many others, as well. In every case, we turn over the site to the government of that country. But we own the surrounding territory, which means we will own the hotels and restaurants and shops, the entire apparatus of tourism. To say nothing of the books and films and guides and costumes and toys and all the rest. Tourists will spend ten dollars to get into the site. But they’ll spend five hundred dollars in living expenses outside it. All that will be controlled by us.” He smiled. “To make sure that it is executed tastefully, of course.”
A graph came up behind him.
“We estimate that each site will generate in excess of two billion dollars a year, including merchandising. We estimate that total company revenues will exceed one hundred billion dollars annually by the second decade of the coming century. That is one reason for making your commitment to us.
“The other reason is more important. Under the guise of tourism, we are in effect building an intellectual brand name. Such brand names now exist for software, for example. But none exist for history. And yet history is the most powerful intellectual tool society possesses. Let us be clear. History is not a dispassionate record of dead events. Nor is it a playground for scholars to indulge their trivial disputes.
“The purpose of history is to explain the present—to say why the world around us is the way it is. History tells us what is important in our world, and how it came to be. It tells us why the things we value are the things we should value. And it tells us what is to be ignored, or discarded. That is true power—profound power. The power to define a whole society.
“The future lies in the past—in whoever controls the past. Such control has never before been possible. Now, it is. We at ITC want to assist our clients in the shaping of the world in which we all live and work and consume. And in doing so, I believe we will have your full and wholehearted support.”
There was no applause, just stunned silence. That was the way it always was. It took them a while to realize what he was saying. “Thanks for your attention,” Doniger said, and strode off the stage.
:
“This better be good,” Doniger said. “I don’t like to cut a session like that short.”
“It’s important,” Gordon said. They were walking down the corridor, toward the machine room.
“They’re back?”
“Yes. We got the shields working, and three of them are back.”
“When?”
“About fifteen minutes ago.”
“And?”
“They’ve been through a lot. One of them is pretty badly injured and will need hospitalization. The other two are okay.”
“So? What’s the problem?”
They went through a door.
“They want to know,” Gordon said, “why they weren’t told ITC’s plans.”
“Because it’s none of their business,” Doniger said.
“They risked their lives—”
“They volunteered.”
“But they—”
“Oh, fuck them,” Doniger said. “What is all this sudden concern? Who cares? They’re a bunch of historians—they’re all going to be out of a job, anyway, unless they work for me.”
Gordon didn’t answer. He was looking over Doniger’s shoulder. Doniger slowly turned.
Johnston was standing there, and the girl, who now had her hair hacked short, and one of the men. They were dirty, ragged and covered in blood. They were standing by a video monitor, which showed the auditorium. The executives were now leaving the auditorium, the stage empty. But they must have heard the speech, or at least part of it.
“Well,” Doniger said, suddenly smiling, “I’m very glad you are back.”
“So are we,” Johnston said. But he didn’t smile.
No one spoke.
They just stared at him.
“Oh, fuck you people,” he said. He turned to Gordon. “Why did you bring me here? Because the historians are upset? This is the future, whether they like it or not. I don’t have time for this shit. I have a company to run.”
But