Part 39 (1/2)

'I've got to call you something, friend. What's on your credit card?'

'I don't have a credit card, Bat.'

'Uh-huh... then let's stick with plain ”Zookeeper”. You catching this, Mrs Rey? And your contribution to our vox populi vox populi tonight is?' tonight is?'

'I have a question. And the law obliges me to be accountable.'

'Ask your question, Zookeeper.'

'By what law do you interpret laws?'

'...Traditionally, lawyers have cornered that particular market.'

'I refer to personal laws.'

'...er, you'd better run that one past me again.'

'Personal laws that dictate your conduct in given situations. Principles.'

'Principles? Sure, we all have principles. Except politicians, media moguls, albino conger eels, my ex-wife and some of our more regular callers.'

'And these laws underscore what you do?'

'I guess... never have affairs with women who have less to lose than you do. Don't jump red lights, at least not if there's a cop waiting. Support gifted buskers. Never vote for anyone crooked enough to claim they are honest. Acquire wealth, pursue happiness. Don't take the handicapped parking s.p.a.ce. Is that enough?'

'Do your rules include the preservation of human life?'

'Zookeeper, you're not climbing onto a born-again soap-box on my show, are you?'

'I've never been on a soap-box, Bat. I wish to ask, how do you know what to do when your one law contradicts another?'

'Like?'

'Tomorrow morning, driving home, you see a hit-and-run accident. The victim is a young girl your daughter's age. She requires medical treatment, and will die within minutes if she doesn't get it.'

'I'd deliver her to the nearest hospital.'

'Would you jump red lights?'

'Yeah, if it wouldn't cause another accident.'

'And would you park in the disabled s.p.a.ce at the hospital?'

'Sure, if necessary. Wouldn't you?'

'I've never driven an automobile, Bat. Would you agree to be her medical fee guarantor?'

'How's that?'

'The hospital is a private clinic for the very rich. The doctors need a signature on a form to guarantee that you will pay medical costs of the emergency surgery, in the event that n.o.body else pays. These could run to tens of thousands of dollars.'

'I'd have to check my position here.'

'The position is straightforward. In the time it takes for another ambulance to come and take her to a city hospital, the girl will die from internal haemorrhaging in the lobby.'

'Why are you asking me this?'

'Two principles are contradicting each other: preserve life, and acquire wealth. How do you know what to do?'

'It's a dilemma. If you knew what to do, it wouldn't be a dilemma. You choose one of the options, make your bed and lie in it. Laws may help you hack through the jungle, but no law changes the fact you're in a jungle. I don't think there is a law of laws.'

'I knew I could rely on you, Bat.'

'Huh? Rely on me for what?'

'May I be accountable, Bat?'

'Uh... sure, why not?'

'Hey, Zookeeper, you still there?'

'Yes, Bat. I was uploading some buried files.'

'What files?'

'EyeSat 46SC was designed to track hurricanes from the Caribbean to the States on the Gulf of Mexico. It was later modified to combat drug trafficking, and fitted with the most powerful terrestrial-facing electronlens ever sent into s.p.a.ce.'

'I'm definitely missing something here. Where is your treatise on practical ethics?'

'Twelve hours ago I altered its...o...b..t towards the Gulf Coast of Texas. Its sub-optic imaging spectrum was indeed formidable. I could read the name on a yacht anch.o.r.ed off Padre Island, I could see a scuba diver ten metres down, I could follow a Napoleon fish hiding in the coral. I scrolled north by north-west. A tanker had hit a reef off Laguna Madre. Crude oil spilt through the gash in the hull. Seagulls, black and s.h.i.+ning, lay in piles on the sh.o.r.e.'

'Yeah, we know about the Gomez Gomez spill. You a tree-hugger?' spill. You a tree-hugger?'

'I've never considered myself in those terms, Bat.'

'Uh-huh... go on.'

'A coastal road led into Xanadu, south of Corpus Christi. A row of chrome motorbikes. The streets were deserted, dogs lay in shady back yards. Green lawns, hissing sprinklers, revolving rainbows. A woman on a hammock was reading the Book of Exodus.'

'You could see all this by satellite?'

'That's correct, Bat.'

'And which chapter was she on?'

'The tenth. I carried on scrolling. An industrial zone. The workers lolled in the entrances to workshops during their lunch-hour. A gla.s.s office block on the very edge of town, on the roof a teenage girl sunbathed in the nude.'

'Hey! And a fuse blew in your microlens?'