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“Red sky at night, shepherds delight,” she whispered. She had been watching the early evening news. The usual headlines had appeared; another failure by world leaders to agree on environmental treaties; more conflicts in small developing countries that Tim couldn’t place on the map; several murders on the local news. The last report caught the young Tim’s attention.
“Mom, why do people kill each other?”
“I don’t know my love. I suppose their minds don’t work properly.” She gave him a confused smile.
“How do you mean?” Tim came over to sit by her on the sofa.
“Well, some people’s minds cannot always see the difference between right and wrong.”
“You mean like my mind sometimes forgets my right and left?” Tim’s mother giggled.
“Yes darling, a bit like that – yes.”
“Can we fix them?”
“Their minds you mean?”
“Yeah.”
“Not yet darling, no. Not yet.”
“Can’t we just explain to them what’s right and wrong?”
“Usually no. If your mind works properly you should just know what is right and what is wrong. If there is any doubt, then it’s usually wrong.”
Tim was no longer sure he could let this happen. If there’s any doubt, then it’s usually wrong. Tim had plenty of doubt right now but at what point did the subtleties of the greater good overrule the basic rules of right and wrong? He still wasn’t sure he could live with this. Nausea was beginning to grow in his stomach. Since the word had first come to him that drunken night in the union two years ago, terrorist, he couldn’t escape from feeling like one. Would his mother have agreed that this was the only thing left they could do to save the planet from the blind fools intent on looking ‘ahead’ to a future of space exploration and not seeing what was happening around them? Surely there were other ways? Tim couldn’t believe it had taken him this long to see. It was like he’d been under some kind of spell for the last two years. A spell that Aide had put him under. It wasn’t until Tim had planted the bomb on the apparatus, not until that cube was no-longer in his possession that he’d broken the spell. But what could he do now? He could never get into the apparatus room alone.
Knock, knock, knock.