Page 94 - SurprisingTruthFinal

The Surprising Truth About Lying
"The price of integrity was freezing people to
death!" Henry shot back, exhaustion turning into
desperate anger. "I gave them a way to prioritize a 20%
risk of failure over a 100% certainty of death. That's not
a lie; that's the only functional definition of survival!"
"It's a statistical cushion," Vincent murmured
without opening his eyes. "And cushions always
encourage the fall. You taught them how to ignore the
alarm again. That is the fundamental sin of the old
world."
Henry knew he couldn't win the ideological fight.
He had traded philosophy for physics. He grabbed his
jacket. "I need to see it. I need to see what my Palliative
bought us."
He left the cold community center and walked into
a city that was eerily moving again. The difference
from the paralyzing silence of the last few days was
immediate and chilling. People were moving, but they
were moving with extreme, careful isolation.
The central distribution street, usually a hub of
desperate trade, was populated by figures moving
along the very edges of the sidewalk. They didn't look
at each other. They didn't speak.
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