Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 64357 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64357 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
He pulls a white kerchief from his pocket and staunches the bleeding, not skipping a beat.
“You liked her, Arthur. You liked what we chose for you. You were happy. Are happy. And you’re happy because people made a good choice for you. We made a good choice for you. You’ve been a loyal soldier all your life, but it is time that you understood where your blessings come from. The Artifice scarred you. We gave you reason to live again.”
The arrogance is astounding, though maybe it should not be. Lance always was a reckless bastard who thought more about himself than anybody else. We can’t blame him for what happened to him. A rebel artillery shell took his ability to walk. But his being where a rebel artillery shell happened to land, that was an act of disobedience in the first place.
“You tampered with the Artifice,” I repeat. “The penalty for that is death.”
“And the penalty for you telling anybody what we did is you losing your pretty little pregnant bride. She’ll be removed from your home and sent back to hers, and that is best case scenario. The baby will be classed as an aberration, and very possibly destroyed. Don’t forget, the Artifice is ruthless. It does not care about what we want, or what we love. If the infant is not supposed to exist, the Artifice will not allow it to.”
I want to punch him again, but there is a limit to how many times one can hit a man in a wheelchair. I look for someone else to beat, but I see expressions of fear on all of their faces. They have not come here to gloat. They have come here with trepidation, as well they should. I may have fallen into their trap, but they know what they have caught remains dangerous. I am not their victim, but they may very well shortly become mine.
“What do you want?”
“I want you to know what you owe your happiness to. I want you to stop living in this blind, blinkered way, where you think everything is handed to you because you are faithful. I want you to understand that Artifice or not, mankind has always been its own salvation. You have been rooting through good society for weeks now, Arthur. It has to stop.”
“Oh. Alright. So we’re just being outright blasphemous now, are we?”
“The Artifice was never meant to be a religion,” he says. “You turned it into one. You, and men like you. It was a tool, but we elevated it into a god. It’s time we took responsibility for ourselves again. It’s time we thought for ourselves. Fought for ourselves…”
I thought Lance had done something dumb for his own amusement, and because he thought he was better than everyone. But that is not what is going on at all. What he just said… the thought for ourselves, fought for ourselves part… that is a rebel slogan.
The very heart of our government has been infiltrated. Our upper echelons have been invaded. The enemy is inside the walls of my very home.
“What do you want?” I repeat the question, gritting it out between my teeth.
“I want you to join us, and I want you to act in the interest of mankind, not machine kind.”
He means he wants me to follow his orders, rather than the Artifice’s orders. He wants me to become a traitor to the entire enterprise of society as we know it. And he thinks my wife and my unborn child are enough leverage.
“I need to think about this,” I say.
“Of course. Take all the time you need.” Lance waves his hand. “I will need you to perform a mission tomorrow, though.”
“What kind of mission?”
Lance smiles at me. “We’re going to turn the Artifice off. Once and for all.”
He’s insane.
I nod, turn on my heel, and walk out of the room. As I walk, I wonder if they will let me go. If they were smart, they’d shoot me in the back of the head as I leave.
The bullet never comes.
They are far too arrogant. They’re not afraid of what I will do when I walk out of here. They’re so absolutely convinced that they are sufficient steps ahead they don’t need to worry about me.
There is nobody I can trust now. It suddenly makes complete sense how Soma has been flooding the aristocratic set. The rebels have been making us stupid and compliant. They have been shipping their ideology into the very core of our society for years. And now I will have to pay the price.
The house feels quiet as I step into it.
Then I hear a ragged, gurgling breath that immediately snaps me out of this dark sanctum and to a bright and terrible place a long way away. I would know the sound of someone dying anywhere.