Chapter 43 Chapter Thirteen

For six months, Marlowe didn't seem to be letting up until today.He is now lying in the sunroom of his new house, enjoying the sunbath naked, and from time to time he spreads his two strong brown arms, stretches back and forth, and retracts his strong muscles accordingly. Encore Jair stood beside Marlowe, put a cigar into his mouth, lit him again, then lit one himself, and said to Marlowe, "You must be exhausted!" Now, maybe you should take a good rest for a while." "Maybe, Jer, but I'd rather go to the City Council and rest. I'm going to get a City Council seat, and you're going to do me a favor."

Jere raised his eyebrows, and said, "You want to run for city councilor, how could you involve me?" "It's a matter of course. Number one, you're a seasoned politician; number two, you've been kicked out of the cabinet by Joran Suet, a guy who'd rather lose an eye than see me as a Listed MP. You don't think I stand a chance, do you?" "The chances are not great," agrees the former education minister, "because you're Smirno." "According to the law, this is not a problem. I have a general education on the base." "Well, come to think of it, what does deep-rooted prejudice have to do with the law? But what do your own people say? That James Dull, what does he think?"

"Almost a year ago, he persuaded me to run for city council." Marlowe replied smoothly, "But I am stronger than him now, and he can't help me anyway. This person has no depth , specifically bluffing, but he's only going to be offensive. I'm going to win pretty, and I'm going to need your help." "Joran Suet is the shrewdest politician on this planet, and he will definitely sing against you. I don't dare to say that I can win against him, and don't think he won't make cruel moves, murder, use All kinds of despicable and shameless means against you."

"But I have money." "It's helpful, but it's a lot of money to pay off prejudice—you ugly Smirnone." "I can drop a lot of money." "In that case, I'll think about it carefully. But let's talk about it first, and then don't bite me back, saying that I encouraged you to squat in this muddy water—who is here?" Marlowe twitched the corner of his mouth. "I think it's Joran Sueter. He's early. But I can understand, because I've been playing hide-and-seek with him for a month. Listen, Jer , you go to the next room and wait, turn down the volume of the speaker, I want you to listen to our conversation."

After speaking, Marlowe kicked the door open with bare feet, and drove Jere to the next door.Then he got up again, put on his silk nightgown, and adjusted the artificial daylight to normal intensity. The mayor's confidential secretary walked in with a straight face, and the serious-looking butler tiptoed behind him to close the door. As Marlowe put on his belt, he said, "Sit, please sit down." Sett grinned reluctantly, and chose a chair that looked very comfortable, but he was only sitting on the edge of the chair, and his whole body seemed to be still tense.As soon as he opened his mouth, he said to Marlowe, "If you put forward your conditions now, we can get to the point right away."

"What conditions?" "Do you want to grind slowly? Well, let me start from the beginning. For example, what did you do in Corell? The report you handed in is incomplete." "I gave it to you a few months ago, and you seemed satisfied at the time." "Yes," said Seth, stroking his forehead thoughtfully with a finger, "but everything you've done since then has been interesting. We know a lot about what you're going on, Marlowe, we know How many factories are you building, why are you rushing to do it, and how much is it costing you in total. And this palatial building where you live now—”

He looked around, but without any admiration, and then continued: "You spent many times my annual salary on this building. In addition, you also spent a lot of money to break into the high society of the base." Quite a lot of money." "So? What does that mean, except that you have hired a lot of good detectives?" "This shows that your wealth has skyrocketed a lot during this year, and this fact means that there are many possibilities—for example, when you were in Corell, many things happened that we don't know about. .Where did your money come from?"

"My dear Seth, you don't think I'm going to tell you the truth." "of course not." "I knew you wouldn't, but I want to tell you the truth—the money all came from the treasury of Leader Corell." Seth couldn't help blinking his eyes. Marlowe continued with a smile, "You must be sorry, but the money I've made is completely legal. I'm a peddler, and I made a deal with the leader and sold him a lot of Ornaments, wrought iron and chromite as the price. According to the harsh contract I signed with the base, 50% of the profits belong to me. When I pay the income tax at the end of the year, I will give the other half to the government, which is The duty of every good citizen."

"In your report, there is no mention of any trade agreements." "But there was no mention of what I had for breakfast that day, or the name of my mistress at the time, or any other irrelevant details." Go - to paraphrase your own - you want me to keep my eyes open, I promise I never squint. You want me to investigate what happened to the missing Base Space Merchant, and I never hear or What do you see; you want me to find out if Corell has nuclear power. I have mentioned in the report that the leader's bodyguard is equipped with nuclear guns. I have not seen any other signs. What I saw The nuclear gun is a relic of the empire, it may not be used for a long time, it is just a decoration.

"The above-mentioned things, I act according to orders, but other than that, I have always been an independent businessman. According to the law of the base, the businessman can develop new markets as much as possible and get half of the profits from them. What are you doing? Against what? I really don't understand." Seth carefully turned his gaze to the wall, barely suppressing his anger and said: "According to the general practice, while promoting trade, merchants should also help the base to preach." "I obey the law, not the convention." "There are times when convention outweighs the law."

"Then you go to court and sue me for breach of custom." Seth raised his melancholy eyes that were sunken in his eye sockets: "You are a Smirnian after all, and naturalization and education don't seem to be able to change your appearance. Listen carefully, and let me understand—— "This matter has nothing to do with money or the market. The science carried forward by the great Hari Seldon proves that the future Galactic Empire depends on us to build. For this sacred mission, we all have no hesitation. And what we have Religion is an indispensable tool to achieve this goal. Using this religion, when the Four Kingdoms have enough power to smash the base, we can make them submit. This religion can be said to be the most powerful means of controlling other worlds. History Can't find a more effective way than it. "And the main reason why we develop trade and reward merchants is to be able to preach more quickly and effectively, so as to ensure that the new technological systems we export to other worlds can be under our thorough and direct control." At this point, Seth stopped to take a breath, and Marlowe took the opportunity to say softly: "I know these theories, I understand them all." "Do you understand? This is really unexpected. With that said, of course you should understand what you are doing - like trying to make trade independent; Small things; putting our interstellar policy in the hands of Mammon; and disassociating nuclear power from the religion that controls it—your actions amount to a total repudiation of a policy that the Al Qaeda has successfully implemented for a century, and will eventually overthrow it altogether. " "In fact, it is time to overthrow it," Marlowe said lightly, "because this policy has become outdated and has become dangerous and unworkable. Even if our religion has succeeded in controlling the Four Kingdoms, there are few in the outer rim of the galaxy." Other worlds accept this religion. When we took control of these kingdoms, there were quite a few people who went into exile to other worlds. God knows how hard they will try to spread this history, accusing Sepher Harding of using the priesthood with the people. Superstitions overthrowing and depriving the monarch of his authority. If this is not enough, the 'Askon Incident' twenty years ago is a more obvious example. Today, every ruler on the outer rim of the galaxy, Du would rather die than let the priests from the base enter the country. "I don't think Corell, or any other world, should be forced to accept what I know they don't want. That's wrong, Seth. If they're dangerous because they have nuclear power, then we trade It is far better to establish a close friendship with them than to rule them by an unreliable religion, because the latter relies on alien mysterious powers, which is tantamount to a hated hegemony. , it will collapse completely. In the end, nothing will remain but never-ending fear and hatred." But Seth said in a sarcastic tone: "That's very good, then, back to our original topic, what are the conditions you put forward? What benefits do you want to give up your point of view and accept my idea? " "You think I'm going to betray my faith?" "Why not?" Sete replied sternly, "Isn't your business just doing business?" "I will only sell it if it is profitable." Marlowe was not angry at all: "Is there any way you can make me earn more than I am now?" "You can keep 75% of your net profit instead of 50% today." Marlowe sneered a few times, and then said: "This is indeed a very favorable condition, but according to your practice, the trade volume will be reduced to much lower than one-tenth of today's, you have to find some better terms .” "You also get a seat on city council." "I'm going to be elected anyway, it doesn't matter if you help or not. Even if you want to drag me down, it won't change the fact." Seth's body twitched suddenly, and he clenched his fist: "Besides, you can avoid a prison sentence. Otherwise, I can let you stay in prison for twenty years. You take this Take it into consideration." "It doesn't count. What crime can you threaten me with?" "How about murder?" "Murder who?" asked Marlowe contemptuously. Seth's voice became shrill, but the volume did not increase: "Murder a priest of Anacreon who worked for the base." "Really? What evidence do you have?" The mayor's confidential secretary leaned forward and said, "Marlowe, I'm not bluffing. Our preparations for evidence collection have been completed. As long as I sign the last document, the base will sue the chief merchant Hopper Ma. Lowe's case will be established. You deliberately abandoned a citizen of the base to be tortured to death at the hands of a foreign mob. Marlowe, you have only five seconds to decide whether to compromise. Personally , I would rather you ignore it, because it is safer to turn you into a suspicious ally than to turn you into a dead enemy." Marlowe said solemnly: "Then I will let you do what you want." "Great!" Seth laughed wildly, "Actually, the mayor asked me to try to fight with you first, not my own intention. You should also notice that I didn't try very hard to persuade you." After finishing speaking He turned and left. Encore Jair came in again, and Marlowe looked up at him and said, "Did you hear everything he said?" Jieer paced back and forth: "Since I knew this venomous snake, I have never seen him lose his temper like this." "Well, what do you think?" "Well, let me tell you that the foreign policy of using religion to gain dominance is deeply rooted in his head, but I think his ultimate goal is not religion. I was kicked out of the mayor's cabinet, It’s because I pointed this out, so I don’t need to say more about this matter, right?” "Never mind, and what, in your opinion, are those non-religious purposes?" Jere's tone became more serious: "Well, he is not stupid, so he must have seen that our religious policy is bankrupt. Because in the past seventy years, this religion has hardly helped us conquer any world. Therefore, He obviously wanted to use religion for his own purposes. "The original starting point of religion is to appeal to feelings and beliefs, but if religion is used as a weapon, it is a very dangerous one, because no one can guarantee that this weapon will not injure the user in turn. Over the past 100 years Over the years, these rituals and myths that we have developed have become more sacred, more traditional, more deeply rooted. In a way, it has escaped our control." "How do you say that?" Marlowe asked, "Don't stop, I want to know what you think." "This -- suppose a person, an ambitious person, wants to use religion against us instead of helping us." "You mean Seth..." "You guessed it, I'm talking about him. Listen, buddy, if he can mobilize the clergy at all levels on the planets under the base to rebel against the base under the guise of orthodoxy, will we be able to handle it? He will make himself a The leader of those who are devout, wage a war against the heretics - for example, with you as their representative, so that in the end he may be king. In short, as Harding once said: 'The nuclear gun is very good weapons, but it is a pity that we cannot distinguish between friend and foe.'” Marlowe slapped his bare thigh hard, and said, "Okay, Jer, send me to the city council, and I'll fight him hard." Jair was silent for a while, and then he said meaningfully: "Maybe it can't be done. He just said that you caused a priest to be lynched. What is going on? It can't be true, can it?" " "It can be said to be true." Marlowe replied indifferently. Jieer couldn't help but gnawed: "Does he have any real evidence?" "He should have." Marlowe hesitated, and then added: "Jam Dull worked for him from the beginning to the end, but neither of them knew that I had noticed. The thing he said Things, Duer is a witness at the scene." Jere shook his head: "Oh—this is bad." "Oops? What's so bad? According to the laws of the base, it is illegal for that priest to go to that planet. He was obviously used as a bait by the Currier government, whether he voluntarily or not. Based on legal common sense, I There was no choice but to take one course of action - and that course of action was 100 percent legal. If he did sue me, it would be a public embarrassment." Encore Jair shook his head again: "No, Marlowe, you have overlooked a very important point. I told you that he will use any kind of despicable and shameless means. His purpose is not to convict you, he I also know that there is no way to do it, but his real attempt is to destroy your position in the hearts of the masses. You heard what he said just now: Sometimes, the power of convention will exceed the law. Naturally, you can walk out of the court in a big way, But let it be known that you have thrown a priest to a savage mob, and your reputation will be ruined. "The masses will admit that what you have done is perfectly legal, even reasonable, but in their eyes you will become a coward, a heartless beast, a monster with a heart of stone, and you will always be It is impossible to elect a listed member. What's worse, you know? Because you are not a native of the base, they can also use a referendum to revoke your citizenship, so that you will also lose your qualification as a merchant chief. You Think about it, can Seth be satisfied with this?" Marlowe frowned tightly: "I see!" "Little boy," said Jair, "I'll still be on your side, but I'm afraid I won't be able to help you much. You're in big trouble now, and they're going to get rid of you first."