Again, Lisa had to refrain from what she wanted to say. She had to keep Ben in the front of her thoughts, no matter what provocations he threw at her. “Actually, that’s not the issue I had in mind.” She put her own glass on the table beside her. “Are you aware, Mr. Ready, that the UN government has been arresting shimps and holding them incommunicado?” Ready stopped his rim-rubbing. Anger flashed momentarily on his face, then an icy calm descended. “May I ask, Ms. Jiang, who told you this?”
History crashed through Lisa’s mind. Of course, the existence of victims must be denied The Holocaust was a Jewish hoax. Slavery was good for the African. Here there would be no escape, however. “I’ll need your pad to answer that question,” she baited him.
“My pad?”
“Yes. Or are you afraid?”
“Afraid? Of what?” Ready scoffed at the suggestion. “Your accusation is absurd. The government can’t arrest citizens and conceal their whereabouts. Even shimps.”
Even shimps. How many people said it, thinking it was an enlightened attitude? “I’m not asking you to believe me, Mr. Ready.” Despite herself, Lisa couldn’t resist a grin. “Believe yourself. You keep telling us how foolish the government is. How we can’t trust it. Well, do you believe your own words or don’t you?”
Ready tried several replies before, lips tight, conceding the skirmish and turning to his pad. He quickly made the same discoveries Lisa had made earlier; the only difference was this time the pad went blank and silent when he ordered it to divulge the information.
A cold fury condensed on the man’s features. That the pad wouldn’t tell him what he wanted was obviously too much for him to accept. More than it had been for her, even.
Lisa knew she shouldn’t say it, but did anyway. “Ready to join in the protest?”
Her host turned back to her. He practically spoke through clenched teeth, as though he wished he could bite his words in half. “I agree this is highly irregular, to say the least.” He added, “It would seem worth investigating.”
“Investigating?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “The question is, what do you intend to do about it?”
“Do about it?” Ready looked at her in incomprehension.
Lisa mentally pinched herself as hard as she could. “If there was ever prime material for the Voice of Reason, this is it. A perfect example of government acting like it can do whatever it wants, and get away with it.” And you know it.
The way her host looked away, she knew he did.
“I suppose…” Ready fingered his chin thoughtfully. “I could fit it into my next show. You’re right: we can’t allow the government to get away with hiding what it’s doing with shimps from the people. Who knows what deals are being cooked up behind our backs?”
It took a moment for Lisa to ingest the words. When she did, all the could do was form her lips and emit a silent, “What?!”
She got no further, for Ready had already stood to dismissal. “Yes, I think I will make use of this new outrage. I can’t believe I didn’t think of the angle myself: they’re only pretending to finally be doing the right thing, while they’re really screwing us. It’s the ultimate con job.”
The bot was beside him again. “I want to thank you for bringing this to my attention, Ms. Jiang. I assure you, I will find an appropriate way of expressing my gratitude. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a show to prepare for.”
To her own chagrin, she accepted the handshake. A moment later the bot was showing her the door; and she was doing nothing to stop it…
She sat on the side of bed, her head cradled in her hands. Periodically, she ran her fingers through her straight, black hair, pulling it hard at the roots.
If Julia L’uboleng had stepped into the room right this moment, pointed a gun at her and pulled the trigger, she could not say it wasn’t justice. All you’ve done is stick your nose in where nobody wanted it, and all that’s come of it is more misery. She was starting to understand how a certain character out of cartoon history, who walked around with a black cloud following him everywhere and bringing ruinous luck to all he encountered, including himself, must have felt. Everyone she’d touched was worse off than before she walked into their lives and messed up working, if less than ideal, arrangements. The only good thing that could be said was that at least she’d suffered too, if losing a couple of jobs amounted to a measure of suffering compared to what she’d inflicted.
And the worst thing is, all I’ve tried to do is the right thing. Somewhere, malicious gods had to be laughing at her. That was the only possible explanation.
Sure, that’s right: it isn’t your fault. It’s God’s will. Destiny. Karma.
It was hard to believe that all her efforts should backfire so completely and spectacularly by accident. It did seem as though she were fighting some perverse law of nature, which said that the evil accomplished was in direct proportion to the good attempted. Or something like that. What was that phrase they used to use? Murphy’s Law? No, Murphy was supposed to be an optimist. So who—it didn’t matter.
So, maybe I should try evil. No, somehow she was sure that wouldn’t work either. Ready’s tactics could not possibly lead to good end, however perverse the Universe was. Murphy’s Law, or whatever it was, was not symmetric. In fact, that was part of the law, now that she recalled.
Or was it? Lisa sat up straight suddenly, her head slipping through her fingers.
“It’s a free society; the Readys don’t prosper unless people want what they’re selling. People filled with love don’t buy hate.”
“But if hate is being shoved down their throats, day and night…”
“Try telling them that.”
“Maybe nobody has—”
She was breathing too fast. She squelched her thoughts long enough to make tea, and sat down at the kitchen table with long, contemplative sips. Oh, how she wished Ben were here! He would know exactly what to do, she was sure.
“…Nobody I know ever heard of Reed Ready and the Voice of Reason until the Strike, although he must have been living in some little hole in the net somewhere.”
So what was stopping her? If Reed Ready and his Voice of Reason could come from nowhere to being heard by millions, why not hers? If he could use the net to poison minds, why couldn’t she use it to cleanse them?
Who are you fooling? It’s always easier to sell hate than love. Or even simple tolerance. People enjoy hating too much.
Maybe that was because they hadn’t been shown the consequences of hating yet. The German people enjoyed it too, until they were shown the pictures from the concentration camps. Maybe if the people of Earth were to see the dead end of the road they were being led down—if enough of them saw, and understood, then maybe: they might slow history down, slow it down just enough to keep hope alive. Enough of them, working together or even alone, might divert, distract, and delay the inevitable long enough to raise the possibility of postponing it even further. Long enough to get a movement going. Then, perhaps—perhaps they would postpone it forever.
And if it did happen, it would have to start with one person. Someone, somewhere. A desperation that no amount of defeat was able to prevent it from trying again.