Page 142 - TruthAboutLyingFinal

The Truth About Lying
“That’s not Verax.”
“No,” Henry said. “It’s mercy.” Jinji stared at him.
Then she understood.
“No.”
“Jinji.”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“We built a system that can’t move unless every sentence is pure. People are going to die because nobody can say a clean enough thing.”
“So we change the wording.”
“There isn’t time.”
“We request emergency authority.”
“There isn’t time.”
“We do not teach Verax to tolerate lies.”
Henry pointed at the screen.
“Then Sector A freezes while honest people tell the truth about why they couldn’t save it.”
Jinji stood.
“That is not fair.”
“No,” Henry said. “But it’s true.”
She flinched.
They stared at each other across the glow of the monitors.
Finally Jinji whispered, “What are you asking me to build?”
142