Revolt in 2100 Read Online Free Page A

case-"
    "Out of the question!"
    "Just for example, I said. Sister Judith isn't available right now; she is confined to her cell. But-"
    "Huh? She's been arrested? " I thought wildly of the Question and what Zeb had said about the inquisitors.
    "No, no, no! She isn't even locked in. She's been told to stay there, that's all, with prayer and bread-and-water as company. They are purifying her heart and instructing her in her spiritual duties. When she sees things in their true light, her lot will be drawn again-and this time she won't faint and make an adolescent fool of herself."
    I pushed back my first reaction and tried to think about it calmly. "No," I said. "Judith will never do it. Not if she stays in her cell forever."
    "So? I wouldn't be too sure. They can be very persuasive. How would you like to be prayed over in relays? But assume that she does see the light, just so that I can finish my story."
    "Zeb, how do you know about this?"
    "Sheol, man! I've been here going on three years. Do you think I wouldn't be hooked into the grapevine? You were worried about her-and making yourself a tiresome nuisance if I may say so. So I asked the birdies. But to continue. She sees the light, her lot is drawn, she performs her holy service to the Prophet. After that she is called once a week like the rest and her lot is drawn maybe once a month or less. Inside of a year-unless the Prophet finds some very exceptional beauty in her soul-they stop putting her name among the lots entirely. But it isn't necessary to wait that long, although it is more discreet."
    "The whole thing is shameful!"
    "Really? I imagine King Solomon had to use some such system; he had even more women on his neck than the Holy One has. Thereafter, if you can come to some mutual understanding with the Virgin involved, it is just a case of following well known customs. There is a present to be made to the Eldest Sister, and to be renewed as circumstances dictate. There are some palms to be brushed-I can tell you which ones. And this great pile of masonry has lots of dark back stairs in it. With all customs duly observed, there is no reason why, almost any night I have the watch and you don't, you should not find something warm and cuddly in your bed."
    I was about to explode at the calloused way he put it when my mind went off at a tangent. "Zeb-now I know you are telling an untruth. You were just pulling my leg, admit it. There is an eye and an ear somewhere in our room. Why, even if I tried to find them and cut them out, I'd simply have the security watch banging on the door in three minutes."
    "So what? There is an eye and an ear in every room in the place. You ignore them."
    I simply let my mouth sag open.
    "Ignore them," he went on. "Look, John, a little casual fornication is no threat to the Church-treason and heresy are. It will simply be entered in your dossier and nothing will be said about it-unless they catch you in something really important later, in which case they might use it to hang you instead of preferring the real charges. Old son, they like to have such peccadilloes in the files; it increases security. They are probably uneasy about you; you are too perfect; such men are dangerous. Which is probably why you've never been cleared for higher study."
    I tried to straighten out in my mind the implied cross purposes, the wheels within wheels, and gave up. "I just don't get it. Look, Zeb, all this doesn't have anything to do with me . . . or with Judith. But I know what I've got to do. Somehow I've got to get her out of here."
    "Hmm . . . a mighty strait gate, old son."
    "I've got to."
    "Well . . . I'd like to help you. I suppose I could get a message to her," he added doubtfully.
    I caught his arm. "Would you, Zeb?"
    He sighed. "I wish you would wait. No, that wouldn't help, seeing the romantic notions in your mind. But it is risky now. Plenty risky, seeing that she is under discipline by order of the Prophet. You'd look funny staring down the table