Twenty Seven Years

  Chapter 364 A choice

   "It's really different, it's just...is this difference important?" Lieutenant Colonel Brian glanced at Joseph, who was silent, and continued to talk about his doubts.

"Of course it's important. One is to politely talk about cooperation and exchange benefits, and the other is to tell him that we have the ability to kill him at any time and threaten him to do things for us. These represent two completely different ways of getting along. The result is also very different." Virak said.

"Holding is absolutely impossible. In the eyes of people like him, holding him is tantamount to pushing him to Francois' side, forcing him and Francois to form an indestructible alliance." Joseph shook his head. Determined the route, "If you want to start, you must talk about cooperation, give him enough benefits, or absorb him into the Equality Association."

   "...Okay." Verak followed the route specified by Joseph to solve the newly generated problems, "Next, we will discuss the second link. If we must reach a cooperation with Arthur, then the only way to reach cooperation is—"

  Lieutenant Colonel Brian interjected: "It is impossible for that kind of person to join the Equality Association. If coercion doesn't work, the only way to go is to lure them."

Verak thought the same way in his heart, and was about to speak, but after Lieutenant Colonel Brian finished speaking so firmly before him, he remembered his own experience again: "...have you ever contacted him? It helps Does he know anything about the Equality Association? Has he been invited to join the Equality Association? If he does enter the Equality Association, can you let go of your prejudices?"

  Joseph, Adel, Brian, and Ross focused their gazes on Verak in a daze.

   Keating sat upright, and the corners of his mouth slightly raised when he heard Veraker's question.

   "...No, I..." Lieutenant Colonel Brian said.

   "How do you know it won't work if you haven't tried it? Since we don't know at all, how can we have the qualifications to judge that a person will make a wrong choice so easily?" Verak scanned the crowd.

Adel didn't know about Veraker's experience at first, but after he joined the Equality Council, he heard it mentioned by others, so he knew that he had fallen into the same situation as Arthur in a certain sense: "I understand what you mean, but this person is not Similarly, you should know a little about his background, his behavior, and his personality, and we don't just give someone a chance, let alone such a dangerous person."

"I also understand what you mean, and at the same time, it is very clear that even if we invite, Arthur is willing to join, the possibility of being willing to join is very small, and it is easy to cause danger, but—" Verak didn't know what he wanted to say next. It is objectively correct.

   "Keep talking." Keating encouraged him.

Seeing Keating beside him, Verak felt much relieved: "But when it comes to the threat to the Equality Association, in the eyes of Morais and the others, I posed a much greater hidden danger than Arthur, but they He still accepted me and trusted me unconditionally. Later, I often think of and admire Morais for making such a decision, because I probably don’t have such a broad mind and courage, which I undoubtedly want to learn from him of."

   "You mean, no matter what the result is, we have to make such an attempt?" Joseph wanted Verac to make it clear.

"I... think so." Verak decided to express it bravely, regardless of whether his thoughts were wrong or right, "Should the Equality Society give up and give up helping others without doing anything, even if the other party was once ours? enemy."

"Heh..." After fighting on the battlefield all year round, Joseph felt that Verac's idea was somewhat naive, "Do you have any specific ideas? For example, how to spread the idea of ​​the Equality Society to him? How to invite him? Yes, how can you be sure that he is sincere? He calls you a comrade, do you dare to say that you will tell the details and plans of the Equality Society without reservation? Human hearts are very complicated, and you can’t play with this kind of idea Their."

   "Hmm." Verak fully agrees with these concerns of Joseph, which are the reasons why he was worried about whether to express his thoughts just now. "These are all problems. Whether we should accept others for the sake of equality is still open to debate."

Lieutenant Colonel Brian's eyes changed subtly. He originally had great expectations for Veraker and Keating, but he didn't expect them to come up with such a funny idea: "I don't think it's necessary to be involved in this matter." Don’t talk about how many encounters we have encountered in marching and fighting, just talk about the Equality Society. Haven’t you experienced it before? I remember the incident with Dunman, it was because the Equality Society believed in others too much, so it was given to others The opportunity for a stabbing in the back resulted in hundreds of deaths..."

  Verak's heart seemed to be tightened, and he looked at Lieutenant Colonel Brian.

  After Lieutenant Colonel Brian saw the indescribable look in Veraker's eyes, he was subconsciously speechless.

   "Brian." Joseph reminded Brian.

   "Yes." Lieutenant Colonel Brian, who came back to his senses, closed his mouth.

"You're right." Verak calmed down, "I was responsible for the Dunman substation. The reason why so many comrades sacrificed was because I underestimated some people's ambitions and overestimated some people's ambitions." Sincerity and the pursuit of equality. At least Arthur should try it. I also know that there are many problems that need to be solved. I don’t even know whether it is right or wrong, but I think I have to say it anyway Come out, even if you want to give up, it must be a decision made after our careful discussion, rather than erasing more possibilities for a person so easily."

   "Comrade Veraker, time is pressing now, we..." Adel, Joseph, and Brian had the same idea, that is, there is no need to thoroughly implement the concept of equality, and there is no need to bet a hundred percent of danger for one point of hope.

"I support Verac's idea." After listening to the discussion of several people with a smile, Keating pointed at Adel jokingly, "Verak will not be the last beneficiary of this concept, and Arthur will not be his first. A person who is so persistent. Don’t forget the situation you were in at the beginning, who brought you in against all odds.”

  Adel plug.

  He used to be the warden of Verak Prison, and he lost his job because Verak escaped from prison, but later when he wanted to unite and join the Equality Association, Verak still believed him.

   But Van Verac held the same idea as he does now, thinking that he might be a spy deliberately released by the government, and that he was plotting something wrong, so he would not be where he is today.

"Both of you have one thing to be sure of. First, we cannot be sure that a person will not change without trying. If we do this, then do I think that this person will not be able to join our Equality Association? Can we mark this person as our enemy and kill him? Second, trying is risky, and the risk is extremely high. If we want to help others, we must also take the risk into consideration, and we cannot give The safety of tens of thousands of people is in question." Keating officially came forward, "Do you have any objections to these two points?"

   "No." Veraker himself considered the risk, and he didn't want to give Arthur a chance anyway, so he completely agreed with Keating's words.

   "No." Joseph nodded.

"Okay. If we want to solve the first point, we must either thoroughly implement the concept of equality, or we introduce delimiting rules, which clearly indicate who can pull and who can choose not to pull. Of course, this is a later story. We are now I don’t have time to study this rule, so I’ll start with the second point to propose a solution, and let everyone see if it’s acceptable.” Keating balanced the two sides, and made the truth as simple and understandable as possible, “No one agrees with the two points. Dissent, we will first discuss the feasibility from the second point of risk. If we can find a way to avoid risks, we will pull them. It must be the result of our hard work.”

   "Yes." Joseph agreed.

   He wouldn't mind at all if there was a safe way to try and pull Arthur.

   "Okay." Verak didn't want everyone to take such a big risk, and the best way is to do what we can.

   "It's nothing more than doing it if you can, and forgetting if you can't, right?" Ross said, "We don't need to argue about this matter, just do our best."

"Hope you don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to recklessly give Arthur a chance, but I've been through something like that and I know what it means to a person if that one percent is actually one hundred percent. Verac noticed that Joseph and Brian were a little displeased just now, and deliberately explained his thoughts to them.

"Understood." Joseph put on a smile, "It is because we have been fighting for so many years that we have formed a vigilant mentality. This mentality has inadvertently conflicted with the concept of equality. In fact, when I think about it carefully, I can feel that you are This kind of idea is precious. What happened to Arthur may not be possible, but you have once again made me deeply feel the tolerance of the Equality Society. There is no force, organization or individual in this world that is as advanced, brave and tenacious as you It is also tolerant. I have all these points at the same time, and I can persist in implementing it. I admire it from the bottom of my heart.”

  Lieutenant Colonel Brian followed Joseph's words to re-evaluate Verac and Keating.

  At first, he thought that Veraker didn't understand the danger, and he proposed such an irresponsible idea just for some ideal and moral sense in his heart.

   But the discussion later found that Veraker has a deeper understanding of risks than he does. Instead of floating in the air to touch the clouds, he wants to embrace the sky while keeping his feet on the ground, looking for a balance between reality and ideals.

"Sorry, I misunderstood you just now. What I said may have hurt you." Lieutenant Colonel Brian is a very straightforward person who will not hide anything. After realizing that Veraker is not as childish and ridiculous as he imagined Then, I sincerely apologized.

"No, no, that incident did happen, and it really sounded the alarm. There is no need to list it as a taboo. It is irresponsible to bury and escape." Verak didn't take it seriously, "And you just now It is a timely reminder that such a disastrous failure has already occurred, and if we want to stick to something in similar incidents, we must be very cautious, not only considering this individual, but also considering the tens of thousands of people behind us."

   "Yes! This is not a personal matter. It has something to do with everyone's safety, so we have to take everything into consideration!" Rose felt that Verak's last sentence was very good.

Keating clarified the matter and said with satisfaction: "Then let's move on to discuss new issues. If you want to pull Arthur, how to spread the idea of ​​equality to him, and how to invite him, he refuses and agrees. How should we deal with each other?"

  Verak mentioned his new idea: "We can place our people next to him, and not so directly create some opportunities for him to understand the concept of equality in depth, to see his reaction and changes."

   "I have a question about this. The Equality Association has been doing publicity work for a long time. Arthur should have no shortage of opportunities to learn about it. If he was really interested, he should have joined us long ago?" Adel said.

  He went back to Laize because he saw the leaflet of the Equality Association and got books such as "On Equality". After reading it, he directly decided to find the Equality Association instead of waiting for the Equality Association to find himself.

"Not necessarily, like me." Joseph took himself as an example, "I have seen those things of the Equality Association more or less before, but before you came to see me, before you matched me with the Equality Association, I also I don’t have a clear idea. To put it simply, besides the idea itself, other factors are also important, and some people just need to be pushed.”

   "Yes." Keating said, "This kind of situation is not uncommon, so such a test is necessary."

"The key is not to be so direct. The people we put in hint him and create opportunities for him to contact. Even if Arthur doesn't like it, he won't doubt it. If we like it, we will take advantage of the situation and increase our efforts." Verak continued. "If it's really possible, make an invitation, and if he agrees, then join in, but we won't confide so easily, and we must contact him with reservations."

"I think if he really comes in, we can also spread some fake news, such as telling him that he plans to assassinate Francois tomorrow, and then we can see if Francois has leaked the secret by seeing Francois' reaction the next day ’ Rose suggested.

"Oh." Joseph smiled disdainfully, "Arthur's brain is not as flexible as you think, otherwise François would not let Maguire take him seriously and pull him up. He can go to today , part of the reason is that he is easy to be controlled, and although I am not as stupid as him, because of my civilian background and no interest relationship with other forces, I was able to let Francois put down his doubts. To put it more directly, it is Certain shortcomings of me and Arthur are exactly what Francois values."

  (end of this chapter)