A Moral Dilemma
The Black Void - Episode 5456
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That is what a highly excited Taymur tells me when he returns. Though he
does not mention it, I imagine that they must have stolen a vehicle as
well as the uniforms and weapons, one capable of handling the rough
tracks that pass for roads in these parts. We are quite some distance
from the facility, after all, and I doubt that they could have made it so
far through the desert on foot.
Taymur has hardly finished his account when the village chief arrives. He wants me to talk to the women and persuade them that they must leave at once. He thinks that they will be more likely to listen to me, given that I have much more in common with them than anyone else does. And of course I speak better English than the other villagers. I can understand the villagers' point of view. They are afraid that the fugitives might be tracked here, and if the village had given them shelter then everyone would be in big trouble. At the very least, they would lose the trade with the facility on which they depend. [1895] They had been running a risk when they took me in, but at least the route by which I arrived had made it very unlikely that the facility could track me here. "Have you thought this through?" I ask the chief. "They are likely to say that, if you let me stay, then why not them. Also I'd rather that they didn't learn about me. If they do leave, and are subsequently captured, they might let slip that I am here." "I'm afraid that it's too late to keep your presence here a secret from them," the chief says. "Some idiot already told them all about you, before I came on the scene. I'm hoping that you can persuade them that it wouldn't be safe for them to stay here, for them as much as for us. I don't wish to have to use force. I wouldn't want that, even if they weren't armed."
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JH
10/13/2008 1:40:04 PM
Extending Enabled
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