Page 150 - TruthAboutLyingFinalAmazon15

The Truth About Lying
pretense of humanitarian effort, had been annihilated by the
Truth Mandate.
The communication was taking place over the UN's
emergency channel, but the protocol had changed. The
leaders of the Nuclear Powers weren't negotiating; they were
confessing.
They weren't just bound by the law; they were bound by
the same biological override that had silenced the
playgrounds. Even in the Situation Room, surrounded by
generals and security, President Bailey Matthews wore a
secure comms-link on her wrist. That link was tied to the
grid. If she tried to bluff, if she tried to use the old "Strategic
Ambiguity," the Gag would hit her just as hard as it hit a
cheating spouse.
Diplomacy, the art of the polite lie, was dead. The screen
flickered to life, connecting the White House Situation Room
directly to the Kremlin.
The President stared at the blinking light. In the old
world, she would have threatened fire and fury. Today, her
throat tightened just thinking about it. She had to speak the
raw, suicidal truth.
President Matthews sat at the head of the long table. On
the screens: Maps. Red dots moving across the Pacific.
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