Page 157 - TruthAboutLyingFinal

Nicholas Boothman
“I did.”
“And now?”
Henry looked at the servers. The monitors. The map of Sector A returning to stable. The Verax alerts. The thumb drive with Cerulean’s sins. Logan’s green-lit patch. Vincent’s collar still absent. Jinji’s hands curled into fists at her sides.
“Now I don’t know how to live inside what I built.”
That stopped her.
He continued.
“Pure Verax freezes the world. The Palliative corrupts it. Both are true.”
Claire’s anger softened into grief. “So what are you going to do?” Henry looked at Logan.
Then Jinji.
Then Vincent.
Then his sister.
“We decide with our eyes open,” he said. “No pretending this is still purity. No pretending a necessary lie stops being a lie. No secret expansion unless all of us agree. And no one gets to hide from the cost.”
Jinji laughed bitterly.
“A conspiracy of truth-tellers.” “No,” Vincent said softly. Everyone looked at him.
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