27. transparency

[alexanderofny]

[If you happen to be near a phone late Friday night, you might an unexpected second call from Veidt, who begins it with a standard lord-what-fools-these-mortals-be sigh.]Hello again, Mayfield. This is Adrian Veidt

Comments

[kleptophile]

You know that kinda shit never works, right?

I dunno exactly how killing a few million people stopped all war to begin with, but it's not gonna last long.

[He doesn't actually sound that perturbed. For one, he's a demon; for another, it's all simply too abstract, and happened in a world that's not his own. It's well beyond his scope of significant empathy. He doesn't approve, but he doesn't feel any personal investment in the news.]

[alexanderofny]

It stopped because they were too terrified to do otherwise.

[kleptophile]

Oh, yeah, that'll stand the test of time. People can't even get that upset over wars that happened fifty years ago unless they were in 'em. Ones with higher death tolls than that.

Unless that peace of yours last longer than the lives of everyone you killed for it, it probably wasn't worth it.

[alexanderofny]

It was... it was bought time. That's all.

[putmeinstitches]

I can do you one better.

I've killed a few people over the years for one reason or another, but the last one was...let's say he was important.

His death was the first step toward the end of the world, and I knew it. But I don't regret it, not one bit. I'd do it again if I had to.

It's funny. Sounds like you got off clean, while I've been punished for what I did for the past couple hundred years, but you're the one who's guilt-ridden.

[alexanderofny]

[snappish]

I wasn't aware this was a competition.

[putmeinstitches]

Temper, temper!

I'm just wondering where the difference between us lies. What could make you feel so terrible for killing -- how many was it? -- to prevent war, while I'd end my world in a heartbeat?