Keller shook his head. How could you reason with a man like that? You couldn’t. Jasmine wound him up like some demented killing toy and set him loose to do her dirty work. She used money, not to mention her sexual favors, like a carrot to entice a mule into her bidding. You didn’t take a stick to a beast like Santos. He would turn around and rip your arm off if you tried it. The man was an animal, with the morals of a cat. Pure evil, not a whit of guilt, a sociopath.
Still and all, Santos was necessary. CyberNation had to go forward. Whatever means were necessary were justified. Just as abolitionists of a century and a half past had broken immoral laws to help the slaves, so would those engaged in the fight to bring CyberNation to life be revered as freedom fighters decades from now. Living on the cutting edge was risky, but it had to be done-for the greater good. If a few men had to suffer so that mankind
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whole would progress … was this not how it had I since before the beginning of history?
It was.
man like Jay Gridley, even if he couldn’t be per1 to your side of the argument, could be outmaneu- could be defeated, using the tools that would lly be society’s redemption. Deep in his heart, he would admit it or not, Gridley knew that the rales, the old ways, had to move aside. Progress on. It always had, and if you stood in its path, got run over, that was the way of it. The question i not if, but when. The choice was between evolution I revolution. Even Gridley would admit to that. He was Revolution, a status quoist, but he had not always been clined. Neither, for that matter, had the country. Had Mhe United States of America been born of revolution, ; against outmoded laws? Could they not see that such ; would come again? That the fast wheel was some; better than the slow one? pie who were comfortable had a selective kind of s. They saw what they wanted to see, and ignored things they did not wish to notice. Like a horse with
i on, they had no vision save straight ahead. ‘Now and again, somebody had to come by and pull the e’s blinders off, cut his traces, and slap him on the Run free, my friend! The future awaits you out
drone of the big jet engines lulled him. Here he , on a craft bigger than the ships that had crossed the ; from Europe to open up the Americas, a flying vessel : was so big and so heavy that no one on Earth would taken a bet that it could fly, even a hundred years 3. The jet could travel thousands of miles without re- ng, cover a distance in a few hours that would have the wind-blown sailors months in their wooden with canvas sail. The electronics in this bird would lie the minds of the creators of Univac. You didn’t back from such wonders. The future ran only one
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way, and the next revolution was not going to be in machines, but in knowledge. The global community would be one, together, able to reach out and touch each other faster than thought itself.
Once that happened, men like Santos would be superfluous. They could be quietly eliminated. The strongest man could be brought low by a bullet to the head. The hand that pulled the trigger need not be any stronger than that of a child. As the mammoths had fallen before the technology of the spear and fire, so, too, would men like Santos, who flexed their muscles instead of their brains, eventually join the ranks of the extinct beasts who were strong, but stupid.
The mind was more powerful. Brain won over brawn.
At least in theory. Given his recent experience with Santos, Keller realized there was going to be a transition period before the thugs and mugs went the way of the dodo. And during that period, it would be smart to stay out of the way of the brutes as they flailed about in their death throes. Yes, indeed.
Wathington, D.C.
In bed next to Saji, both of them reading, Jay sighed.
“What?”
“This biz with this guy,” he said. “I feel like somehow I’m missing something I shouldn’t.”
She put her book down and looked at him. “Oh?”
“Yeah. There’s something, some kind of, I don’t know, familiar feel to the traps and touches. Like die Fuji thing. Why appear as an old Thai? Why come and sit next to me and then give it away like that?”
“He knows you’re part Thai,” she said. “He’s playing with your head.”
“Yeah, yeah, but something is weird about it. I feel as if I should know this guy.”
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: sat quietly for a moment. Then said, “What else is
ring you?”
e? Nothing. Work is all.”
; said, “Are you sure?”
: I’m sure.” He looked at her. “What are you get- |at?”
I short time passed before she spoke. Then she said, I you really ready to get married?” ; blinked. The question that had been on his mind for sounded terrifying when it came from her. “How
ask that? Of course I am!” ay.”
it-are you having second thoughts?” sighed. “Yes.”
it? Really?” He sat up straighter. His gut churned , sudden cold, as if he’d swallowed a cup of liquid
“Why?” ifou know the Four Noble Truths,” she said.
shrugged. “Yeah. There’s suffering in the world. e’s a reason for this suffering. There’s an end to it. e’s a way to learn how to end it, using the Eightfold
”
lose enough. And the Eightfold path?”
: is this, a bedtime quiz?” shrugged. “You asked.”
ay, we’re talking, ah-right understanding, right ng, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right, .effort. Lemme see, ah, right mindfulness, and-don’t 1 me, I got it-right concentration.” “Yes. And the Middle Path is the way many of us seek- enlightenment choose. Staying away from the exes.”
)kay. So? What’s this got to do with you having sec- *