Page 105 - SurprisingTruthFinal

Nicholas Boothman
foundation of the old corruption! And now you want
to legislate the lie? You want to be the Chief Architect
of the Fiction Mandate?”
“It's the only way to restart the engine without
letting the old despots back in!” Henry said.
“It is despotism by another name!” Vincent
interjected. “You replace the comfort of ignorance with
the comfort of a programmed lie. You become the
ultimate liar, Henry. The dictator of perception.”
Lina pointed at the ruined servers. "We were
building a world where people found their own
courage. You are building a world where a computer
tells them when and how much to lie to survive. That
is worse than the original sin, because you are doing it
in the name of the Truth Collective!"
Henry knew he was losing them. He was losing his
mission, his identity, everything.
Before he could mount a defence, his old satellite
phone, the untraceable burner he kept hidden,
screamed to life with an emergency, encrypted alert. It
was a global broadcast, the kind Lina used to
coordinate mass leaks.
Lina read the scrolling text first, her eyes wide with
shock.
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