Page 49 - TruthAboutLyingFinal

Nicholas Boothman
“Everything awful starts as a choice with benefits,” Jinji said. “Cheaper insurance if you wear it. Faster loans if you verify. Priority hiring. Faster airport clearance. Verified honesty badges. Safer dating.”
Henry saw it at once.
Not because he was a technologist.
Because he had sold worse things with better slogans. “You make not wearing it look suspicious,” he said. “Exactly.”
“And then people ask for it.”
“They demand it.”
“From employees,” he said.
“Partners.”
“Politicians.”
“Children.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
Jinji sat back.
“You don’t need everyone wearing it. You just need enough people wearing it that nobody knows who can lie anymore.”
Henry said nothing.
“The old world runs on confidence,” she said. “Not truth. Confidence. The belief that everyone else is playing the same game. Verax breaks that.”
Vincent looked from Jinji to Henry. “Verax?”
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