“Oh, please ,” said Salvo in angry exasperation. “You should know better. History has shown that mankind is incapable of that. Humans are intrinsically destructive, unable to control violent impulses or the desire to choose evil over good.”
“Humans are not good,” Brigid replied calmly. “Nor are they evil.”
“But you believe the barons and the villes are.”
She shook her head. “Not really. Classifying behaviors or laws as simply good and evil does not even qualify as empty semantics. From your viewpoint, the set of values you espouse is not only necessary but benevolent.”
Salvo raised an eyebrow. “You sound like you agree with me.”
“No,” she answered, “I don’t.”
“Why?”
“There is no balance, no equilibrium in this society. Historically, civilizations rose, attained high states of technological advancement, then fell into ruin. Then, after a period of recovery, civilizations advanced again. A continuous, natural cycle. Something opposed this cycle, and civilization was pushed back on all fronts. It’s an unnatural opposition, a subtle process of preventing the restoration of balance.”
Salvo looked intrigued. “Go on,” he urged.
“It’s been close to two hundred years since the holocaust. With the sheer volume of prenuke tech that survived in this country alone, the rebuilding process should have been relatively swift.”
“You’re not factoring in all the other variables of environmental and geologic changes.”
“Even factoring in all the negativesrad hot spots, hellzones, high infant-mortality ratesI calculated the world should have reached a level comparable to the 1920s or 1930s at least two generations ago.”
“Your point being?”
Brigid lifted her hands, palm upward. “There can be only one explanation. Someone or something is deliberately preventing our development. Because what we have in the villes is minimal” she paused “and it’s as though it’s not even ours butsomething on loan.”
Salvo gave her a sharp look. “You seem to have devoted a great deal of thought to this.”
Brigid smiled. “Only for the last six hours.”
Salvo nodded in understanding. “Ah. How much did you learn from the Dulce file?”
“Not nearly enough. What is the Archon Directive?”
“It’s the Directorate now, and has been for a very long time. One hundred and ninety-eight years, to be precise.”
“Since January 21, 2001?”
Salvo laughed in genuine enjoyment. “No wonder Kane had the hots for you. Beautiful and very bright. Unfortunately not beautiful enough and too goddamn bright.”
She coughed, trying to cover the sudden quaver in her voice. “Was Kane involved in my arrest?”
“Knowingly, you mean?”
“Yes.”
“Would it make the prospect of your execution easier to endure if you knew Kane had been used?”
“It would.”
“Then you may go to your death never knowing if he betrayed you or not. Part of the penalty phase of your sentence.”
Wryly Brigid replied, “The sentence is death. Isn’t that penalty enough?”
“No,” replied Salvo tersely. “I’ll offer you a bargain, though. Tell me who your Preservationist cohorts are, and I’ll tell you the truth about Kane.”
“I’ll ask him myself.”
“You’ll never see him again. He has a new set of priorities now, and you don’t even qualify as a footnote.”
“You really hate him, don’t you?”
Salvo’s eyes widened in momentary surprise. “What makes you think that?”
“Body language. The timbre of your voice changes, too, every time you say his name.”
For a long moment, Salvo glared darkly at her, his lips working as if he were preparing to spit at her. Then he threw back his head and laughed. “By God, you are the prettiest and most perceptive insurgent I’ve ever arrested. You’re right, Baptiste. I hate him.”
“Tell me why. I promise it won’t make my execution easier to face.”
Salvo grinned, folding his arms over his chest and leaning one shoulder against the door. “A lot of reasons, some of which are purely instinctive, I guess. Maybe he’s my yin to his yang, or vice versa. A more tangible reason is that my father and his father were enemies.”
“Is nursing old grudges a family tradition?”
Gravely, Salvo answered, “If you are a Magistrate, family tradition and family honor is all-important. Our entire discipline is based on it.”
“Kane doesn’t seem to like you very much, but he doesn’t appear to be carrying an enmity from the last generation.”