those engaged in the fight to bring CyberNation to life be revered as freedom fighters decades from now. Living on the cutting edge was risky, but it had to be done — for the greater good. If a few men had to suffer so that mankind as a whole would progress… was this not how it had been since before the beginning of history?
Yes. It was.
A man like Jay Gridley, even if he couldn’t be persuaded to your side of the argument, could be outmaneuvered, could be defeated, using the tools that would eventually be society’s redemption. Deep in his heart, whether he would admit it or not, Gridley knew that the old rules, the old ways, had to move aside. Progress marched on. It always had, and if you stood in its path, you got run over, that was the way of it. The question was not if, but when. The choice was between evolution and revolution. Even Gridley would admit to that. He was for evolution, a status quoist, but he had not always been so inclined. Neither, for that matter, had the country. Had not the United States of America been born of revolution, guns against outmoded laws? Could they not see that such cycles would come again? That the fast wheel was sometimes better than the slow one?
People who were comfortable had a selective kind of blindness. They saw what they wanted to see, and ignored the things they did not wish to notice. Like a horse with blinders on, they had no vision save straight ahead.
Now and again, somebody had to come by and pull the horse’s blinders off, cut his traces, and slap him on the rump. Run free, my friend! The future awaits you out there!
The drone of the big jet engines lulled him. Here he was, on a craft bigger than the ships that had crossed the seas from Europe to open up the Americas, a flying vessel that was so big and so heavy that no one on Earth would have taken a bet that it could fly, even a hundred years ago. The jet could travel thousands of miles without re-fueling, cover a distance in a few hours that would have taken the wind-blown sailors months in their wooden ships with canvas sail. The electronics in this bird would boggle the minds of the creators of Univac. You didn’t turn back from such wonders. The future ran only one way, and the next revolution was not going to be in machines, but in knowledge. The global community would be one, together, able to reach out and touch each other faster than thought itself.
Once that happened, men like Santos would be superfluous. They could be quietly eliminated. The strongest man could be brought low by a bullet to the head. The hand that pulled the trigger need not be any stronger than that of a child. As the mammoths had fallen before the technology of the spear and fire, so, too, would men like Santos, who flexed their muscles instead of their brains, eventually join the ranks of the extinct beasts who were strong, but stupid.
The mind was more powerful. Brain won over brawn.
At least in theory. Given his recent experience with Santos, Keller realized there was going to be a transition period before the thugs and mugs went the way of the dodo. And during that period, it would be smart to stay out of the way of the brutes as they flailed about in their death throes. Yes, indeed.
In bed next to Saji, both of them reading, Jay sighed. “What?”
“This biz with this guy,” he said. “I feel like somehow I’m missing something I shouldn’t.”
She put her book down and looked at him. “Oh?”
“Yeah. There’s something, some kind of, I don’t know, familiar feel to the traps and touches. Like the Fuji thing. Why appear as an old Thai? Why come and sit next to me and then give it away like that?”
“He knows you’re part Thai,” she said. “He’s playing with your head.”
“Yeah, yeah, but something is weird about it. I feel as if I should know this guy.”
She sat quietly for a moment. Then said, “What else is bothering you?”
“Me? Nothing. Work is all.”
She said, “Are you sure?”
“Sure I’m sure.” He looked at her. “What are you getting at?”
A short time passed before she spoke. Then she said, “Are you really ready to get married?”
He blinked. The question that had been on his mind for weeks sounded terrifying when it came from her. “How can you ask that? Of course I am!”
“Okay.”
“What — are you having second thoughts?”
She sighed. “Yes.”
“What? Really?” He sat up straighter. His gut churned with sudden cold, as if he’d swallowed a cup of liquid nitrogen. “Why?”
“You know the Four Noble Truths,” she said.
He shrugged. “Yeah. There’s suffering in the world. There’s a reason for this suffering. There’s an end to it. There’s a way to learn how to end it, using the Eightfold path.”
“Close enough. And the Eightfold path?”
“What is this, a bedtime quiz?”
She shrugged. “You asked.”
“Okay, we’re talking, ah — right understanding, right thinking, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right, uh, effort. Lemme see, ah, right mindfulness, and — don’t tell me, I got it — right concentration.”
“Yes. And the Middle Path is the way many of us seeking enlightenment choose. Staying away from the extremes.”
“Okay. So? What’s this got to do with you having second thoughts about us?”
“I fear that my desire for you is sometimes too strong,” she said. “That having a desire this powerful, that being so attached to it, will ultimately be the cause of suffering. Not
“Listen, I’ve tried to plug into this, but I’ve never really understood it. What does that mean?”
She smiled at him. “Admission of ignorance is the first step on the road to wisdom.”
“Yeah, right.”
“It’s not that we can’t be together, married, and happy. Each moment should be what it is, and there is much joy to be found in each moment. But the idea is to not be attached to that, not to want the joy so much that you can’t experience it. You can… get in your own way. You can spend all your time trying to live for the future, full of expectation, or living in the past, full of nostalgia. Either will cause suffering, because you can have neither. The past is gone, the future never arrives.”
“So are you saying you don’t want to get married?”
“No, idiot, you’re not listening. I do. Maybe too much, that’s all I’m saying. I don’t want to make you responsible for my happiness, because if I do, sooner or later, I’ll be disappointed and unhappy.”
“That’s real comforting, sweetie.”
“It’s the truth. Reaching outside yourself for happiness is the big cause for suffering. I want to stand next to you, but not depend on your shadow to protect me from the sun. Suppose I put all my life into you, into us. And it works great, you give me back all I give you and more.”
“Sounds right to me. What’s the problem?”
“You change your mind in ten years, decide you don’t want to be here.”
“I won’t—”
“Okay, better example — you get hit by a bus in six months. You don’t have the choice to stay or go, your number is up.”
“Are you saying you don’t want to miss me if I get hit by a bus?”
“No. I’m saying that I want to be happy on my own, so that what I bring to us is real and true. Marriage is a partnership. If I don’t come to the table with my half, it’s not fair to either of us.”
He shook his head. He really didn’t understand. She was worried that she might want him too much? How was that a bad thing? His fear was that he would lose something of himself by marrying her. That was different.
Wasn’t it?
He felt her hand slide across his leg. “Whoa. What have we here?”
“The moment, Jay. No past, no future, just right now.”
He grinned. Okay. He could deal with that. Oh, yeah. Definitely.
But it bothered him that she was worried about the marriage thing. Given how he had felt lately, that
