"Damn it, this sucker is evil."
A snake’s eyes would look warmer than his. "Understand this: We’re fighting for our survival here. Extinction is null-value. You can have all the moral crises you want when the war is won."
"It should be suppressed. The technology. If it’s used, it’ll just help bring about ..."
He wasn’t listening.
I’d worked for the government long enough to know when I was wasting my breath. So I shut up.
When the captain left with the bippy, Shriver still remained, looking ironically after him. "People get the kind of future they deserve," he observed.
"But that’s what I’m saying. Gevorkian came back from the future in order to help bring it about. That means that time isn’t deterministic." Maybe I was getting a little weepy. I’d had a rough day. "The other guy said there was a lot riding on this operation. They didn’t know how it was going to turn out. They didn’t know."
Shriver grunted, not at all interested.
I plowed ahead unheeding. "If it’s not deterministic–if they’re working so hard to bring it about–then all our effort isn’t futile at all. This future can be prevented."
Shriver looked up at last. There was a strangely triumphant gleam in his eye. He flashed that roguish ain’t-this-fun grin of his, and said, "I don’t know about you, but some of us are working like hell to achieve it."
With a jaunty wink, he was gone.