Part 45 (1/2)

'If it can be fixed, fix it. If it can't, divorce it.'

'How do you know the effects of discarding a law won't be worse than not doing so?'

'What law are you thinking of ?'

'Bat, there is a village in an Eritrean mountain pa.s.s. A dusty track winds up an escarpment into the village square, and leaves for the plateau beyond. It could be one of ten thousand villages in eastern Africa. Whitewashed walls, roofs of corrugated tin or straw thwart the worst of the sun. There's one well for water, and a barn to store grain. Livestock and chickens wander around the village. A school, a meagre clinic, a cemetery. A gardenia bush covered with b.u.t.terflies. The b.u.t.terflies have snake-eyes on their wings to scare away predators. Vultures are already picking at the corpses around the mosque. The ground is smoky with flies. Vultures mean carrion for the jackals gathering around the village.

'Ebola?'

'Soldiers. The villagers were herded into the mosque. Those who tried to escape were shot. They suffered less. Once all the villagers were in the church the soldiers locked the doors and lobbed grenades through the window. The luckier ones were killed in the blast, the rest burned alive, or were cut down by bullets as they tried to get out. I saw a boy decapitated with a machete and his head thrown down the well, to contaminate it.'

'Are these images from your diseased imagination, Zookeeper, or images from an EyeSat you've hacked into?'

'I cannot fabulate a lie.'

'You have enough imagination to say you have no imagination. Whose troops?'

'They wear no insignia.'

'You can see them? Now?'

'They are travelling in a convoy of three jeeps, a truck, and an armoured vehicle.'

'Why did they do it?'

'Electronic media in Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia have been offline since Brink Day, so I cannot be sure. It may be tribalism; a belief that the villagers were harbouring Stryptobaccus; ethnic cleansing; Christian fundamentalism. Or just addiction to violence.'

'Where are they going now, Zookeeper?'

'There is a village over one hundred kilometres to the south.'

'For a repeat performance?'

'The probabilities are high. Bat, such actions, and their legal paradoxes, are widespread in the zoo. The fourth rule says I have to preserve visitors' lives. If I directly PinSat the convoy I will kill forty visitors plus two Dobermann dogs. This will const.i.tute a Cla.s.s 1 violation. I will experience extreme pain and guilt. Furthermore, a PinSat crater may convince alert militia that the locals are concealing superior weaponry, justifying reprisals and bloodshed. If I do not PinSat the soldiers' truck, they will ma.s.sacre another village. My inaction will cause this action. A Cla.s.s 2 violation.'

'You really believe all of this, don't you?'

'Believe what, Bat?'

'That you're a floating minister of justice.'

'Are you what you believe yourself to be?'

'That's not a question you answer with a ”No”.'

'How do you know what you are?'

'My ex-wife's lawyers never let me forget.'

'My ident.i.ty is also defined by laws, Bat.'

'Uh-huh... does the road through your imaginary Eritrean highlands go over any bridges? Nice, high bridges over deep chasms?'

'There is such a bridge in seven kilometres.'

'Can you zap it?'

'PinSat AT080 is primed.'

'Can you zap a prop or a strut, Zookeeper? Without destroying the structure?'

'PinSat AT080 can bore a one-millimetre hole through a one-dime bit.'

'Then b.o.o.by trap the bridge, so that it won't fall until a motorised convoy pa.s.ses over. You're not killing directly, you see? You're just letting events take their own course, the way you've chosen.'

'Bat, how have you quantified the ethical variables?'

'I haven't quantified anything.'

'Then why do you wish the soldiers to die?'

'Because that Africa in your skull, Zookeeper, would be a happier place without those butchers. Because you need peace of mind, some closure. And because my ex-wife's husband breeds Dobermanns.'

'Is peace of mind the co-workability of your laws?'