The meeting was delayed for twenty-four hours, giving Ben Caxton a chance to catch up, hear the story of his week of disappearance, and "grow closer" to the visitor from Mars.Mike realized that Jill and Ben were "water brothers", so after consulting Jill's opinion, he solemnly offered water to Ben.
Jill briefly narrated what happened, and Ben pondered for a long time after listening to it. An uneasy emotion troubled him: Jill and Mike were so close that he felt very distressed.A week of amnesia, walking like a dead body, changed his bachelor attitude; as soon as he found an opportunity to be alone with Jill, he proposed again.
Jill looked away. "Please, Ben."
"Why not? I have a steady job and I'm in good health—or I'll be in good health after I get rid of the truth potion they've injected... Since the drug is still in me, I'm There is an urge to tell the truth. I love you. I want to marry you and rub your tired feet. Am I too old? Or are you planning to marry someone else?"
"No, neither! Dear Ben...Ben, I love you. But don't ask me now, I have...responsibility."
He couldn't make her change her mind.
Finally, he finally realized that the visitor from Mars was not his competition.Mike was Jill's patient, and the patient was like her child to the nurse, and the nurse's husband had to accept that fact—accept it and love it.If Jill didn't have that quality in her that made her a nurse, he wouldn't be in love with her.He didn't love Jill for the way her ass rose and fell as she walked, or for the sensuality she could see from the other direction—he wasn't one of those teenage girls who were only interested in breasts.No, it was she who he loved.
Since she was the one who asked him to come in behind the patients, he couldn't be so stupidly jealous!Mike is a good boy, as innocent and ignorant as Jill described.
Besides, he didn't give Jill a bed of roses; a journalist's wife had to suffer a lot.He may be away from home frequently, for weeks at a time, and work irregular hours.If Jill nags about it, he won't be happy.But Jill doesn't nag.
Having figured it all out, Ben wholeheartedly accepted Mike's water.
Jubal also needed the extra day to plan the deployment. "Ben, when you dumped this shit on me, I told Jill I wouldn't lift a finger for this kid's so-called 'rights.' Now I've changed my mind. We can't let the government Get such a large fortune from Mike."
"Anyway, I can't give it to this session!"
"Or any one. The next one will be worse. Ben, you underestimated Joe Douglas."
"He's a despicable politician with low moral standards just for the job!"
"That's right. And he can't even read decimals to six. But he's also a conscientious world leader, and we don't deserve such a noble leader. It'd be fun playing poker with him...he promises not Deceitful, sure enough to grin and hand out money. Yes, he's a jerk--a good jerk all over the place. He's pretty fair."
"Jubbal, the more I hear the more I don't understand the goddamn thing. You tell me you're almost sure Douglas got me killed... It's not that far off the truth! You've tried your best to get me alive Come out, God knows how grateful I am! But it was Douglas who was behind it, and you really expect me to forget it? I'm alive, but it's definitely not because of his help—he's dying to see me die."
"I guess so. But, yes, that's what I thought—forget it."
"I don't fucking quit!"
"Then you are too stupid. You can't prove anything. Also, you don't need to be grateful to me. I won't let you use this high hat to overwhelm me. I didn't do this for you."
"what?"
"I did it for a little girl who was about to run off into battle, and probably lose her life; I did it because she was my guest, and I had to act for her parents for a while; I did it because she was Courageous but ignorant, she should not be allowed to play with fire and burn herself. But you are different, my cynical and criminal friend, you know what fire is like. If you step carelessly into a fire pit, I have What qualifications do you have to interfere with your karma?"
"Mm... well, if there is karma, you've got a foot in my karma. So, Jubal, you can go to hell."
"The causal thing is still an open question. The last time I heard the determinists and the libertarians were tied in the fourth quarter. Anyway, no matter who wins, someone is willing to sleep in the gutter I didn't mean to bother. Doing good is like curing hemophilia—the real cure is making hemophiliacs bleed to death...before they make more hemophiliacs."
"You can sterilize them."
"You want me to play God? But we digress. Douglas isn't trying to have you murdered."
"Who said this?"
"The ever-right Jubal Harshaw said it from the navel of his all-powerful authority. Boy, which jailer beat a prisoner to death, and if the sheriff had heard of it beforehand, do you think they would have allowed it? Possibility Smaller than winning the Mark Six lottery. The best they can do is close their eyes after it happens, lest it escalate and overturn their minivan. Murder has never been the policy of this country.”
"I've investigated several murders, you can read the background material."
Jubal waved his hand, "All I'm saying is that it's not a policy. Murders happen all the time. There's the ones that get publicity, and the ones that get beaten to death and don't make it to the eighth page, but it's It was never a policy. You live because it's not Joe Douglas policy. They emptied you out, squeezed them clean, and could have disposed of you later, like flushed down a toilet It’s as easy as killing dead rats. But the boss doesn’t like them being so rough, if his subordinates do this and he finds out again, those people will lose their jobs, and maybe even be imprisoned.”
Jubal stopped to take a sip of water. "Those scoundrels are not the Praetorians who have the right to choose Caesar, they are just their tools. So, who do you want to be Caesar? Joe who doesn't like to solve problems in court? His beliefs are rooted in the past Well, back then the country hadn't become part of a multilingual empire... Don't like Douglas who can't stand murder? Maybe you want to kick him out - we can do that, we can sell him now Do you want to kick him out and get another secretary general from somewhere where life is cheap and murder is traditional? If you do, Ben, the next nosy reporter walks down a dark alley , what will happen to him?"
Ben Caxton didn't answer.
"As I said earlier, the Secret Service is just a tool. Anyone who likes to do dirty work can buy it anywhere if they have the money. If you take away Douglas's majority, that kind of dirty work will probably get worse." Dirty, have you thought about it?"
"Jubbal, do you mean I shouldn't criticize the government?"
"Oh no. The gadflies are necessary. But before throwing the old scoundrels down, it's better to see what the new scoundrels look like. Democracy is a poor system, the only good thing about it is that it's better than any other Seven times higher. And its biggest downside is that the leader mirrors the electorate exactly, no more and no less—that is, to a very low degree. But what do you expect? So, look at Douglas, well Come to think of it, he's ignorant, stupid, selfish, just like his fellow Americans, but a notch or two above average. After that, look at the next guy who comes in after he's gone."
"The difference is minimal."
"There's always a difference! It's the difference between 'bad' and 'worse'. Much more important than the difference between 'good' and 'better.'"
"So what? What do you want me to do?"
"Don't do anything," Harshaw replied. "I'll direct the scene myself. We'll make a deal, and I hope you don't criticize Joe Douglas over it, and perhaps praise him for his 'true statesmanship.'" restraint—'"
"I'm about to throw up!"
"Follow with your hat. I'll tell you what I'm going to do. The first rule of thumb when riding a tiger is to hold on to its ears."
"Stop being a mystery. What do you say?"
"Stop being a fool and listen up. Mike is unlucky enough to have more wealth than he could dream of... Add to that a political-legal precedent and he can gain a lot of political power. Still The precedent is so ludicrous that it's never seen before. I'm not interested in the 'real prince' nonsense and I don't think the wealth is 'his'; he didn't create it. Even He earned it, and 'property' is not a natural, obvious concept, and most people get it wrong."
"What?"
"Ownership is a sophistical abstraction, a mysterious relationship. God knows how complicated our legal theorists have complicated this myth. I never dreamed it could be so subtle until I got into this Martian trouble. There is no ownership of anything ... including their own bodies."
"Wait, Jubal. Even animals have property, and the Martians aren't animals yet; they're a civilization, with their own cities and stuff like that."
"That's right. 'A fox has a hole, and a bird has a nest.' No one understands the concept of 'mine and yours' better than a watchdog. But Martians are different. Everything is managed by countless older citizens— - is 'ghost' to you, my friend - in common. Martians have no title unless you can call it 'property' as well."
"I said, Jubal, what happened to those 'spiritual elders'?"
"Want to hear the official version?"
"No, I want to hear your opinion."
"I think that's pious nonsense, just right for fertilizing a lawn—a superstition that's been baked into that kid's head so early that he can't possibly break free."
"According to Jill, she seems to believe it."
"I say it as if I believe it, too. It's just polite. One of my dearest friends believes in astrology; I don't mean to offend her. There are things that seem unbelievable to me, From knocking on the table to communicate with the dead to the fact that our own children are better than others, but humans have the ability to believe them. This ability is simply unfathomable. In my opinion, belief is intellectual laziness. There are still people who believe that as long as Pray for rain yourself, and the dynamics of the universe can be thrown aside. Mike's belief in 'spiritual old' is no more irrational than this."
"Well, Jubal, I have to admit, I'm not sure about immortality either. But I'm glad Grandpa's ghost isn't here to tell me what to do. He's quite a grumpy old wretch."
"Mine is the same. I'm the same. But why should we deprive a citizen of his rights just because he died? Where I grew up,--there's something sparkly about it." .Maybe our Mike boy can't own anything at all, because the 'spiritual elders' already have everything. So I can't explain to him how he owns millions of shares in the company, plus Lai Drives and all kinds of movable property and securities. The original owner is dead of course-useless, can't convince him; this makes them "spiritual elders", and Mike will not be concerned about "spiritual elders" My son is gesticulating."
"Well...damn, he has no capacity for action."
"Of course. He can't control property, because he doesn't believe in the myth of property any more than I believe in his ghost. Ben, all Mike has is his toothbrush—and doesn't know he owns it. What if If you take the toothbrush away, he will think it must be authorized by the 'Ling Lao'." Jubal shrugged, "He has no capacity, so I will not allow others to test his capacity. Otherwise, you can see it at a glance. who will be appointed as his guardian."
"Hmph! Douglas, or one of his puppets."
"Are you sure, Ben? Think of the people in the High Court, the people who have been appointed guardians of the people."
"Hmm...you might be right."
"If we really want to reach that point, the child may not live long. Of course, he may live a long life in a beautiful garden, but escaping is guaranteed to be much more difficult than Bethesda Hospital."
"What are you going to do?"
"The power that the child possesses in name is too dangerous, so we have to give it away.
"How can you give away so much money?"
"Not by us, that would affect the balance of power. Any such attempt would invite a test of his conduct. So we must let the tiger run as fast as he can, and hold him by the ears for our lives. Ben, I'll give you a rough idea of my plans later... and then you'll have to pull out your teeth and poke holes in me. Not legal; the legal ambiguities are drafted by Douglas' legal I'll check it when it's done. I want you to smell its political viability. Well, now I'll tell you what we're going to do—"
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