Y. A Chameleons Colour - Part 2 of 3

Mysko excused himself and followed the guard. He was led to a small
office where a phone sat off the hook. He picked it up.

"Agent Mysko."

"What's taking so long Mysko." It was the Director.

"It's complicated sir. The Lady Grey is trying to talk him out of the
process now but he seems reluctant. He's very fragile at this
point."

"How long will he last?"

"I suspect." Said Mysko, swallowing hard. "Only so long as we keep him
preoccupied."

"What are you thinking man." The director shouted. "You lock him down
immediately and call in an invasive therapy unit."

"I don't think we should do that yet sir." Said Mysko fast. "Something
has affected the conditioning and we need to know what."

"Mysko." Said the director. "Are you trying to prove something?"

"No sir."

"That man has been working for nearly two years in the office of our
enemy's armed forces, it is essential we have the information locked in
his head. That is your number one priority Mysko, the information, and
there is no number two priority. I am ordering you to drug him
immediately and call in invasive therapy."

"Yes sir."

"Call me as soon as you have the information Mysko."

"Yes sir."

The line clicked dead. Mysko stood still holding the receiver to his
ear, thinking.

He poked his head in the door to see the lady Grey and Stanley Tierson
talking quietly. "I need to speak to you." He said.

"Can it wait?"

"No. Now please."

She excused herself to Stanley and followed Mysko to the room across
the hall where she sat down on the bed. "What?"

Mysko paced around the room. "You need to tell me how well you knew
him."

"I told you already. I knew him well."

"I think there's more to it than that."

She looked up at him.

"If there is I have to know."

"He needed the money." She said. "He volunteered for the mission
because he really needed the money. I? doctored his evaluation to make
sure he got it."

"What was the problem?"

"A lack of faith. His support for the Meritocracy was not certain. It
is a small thing but they would have turned him down. What is all this
about John? Who was on the phone?"

"If he doesn't come round there will be an investigation, you'll be
found out."

"I know."

Mysko said nothing for a moment and then opened the door and said
loudly. "The director was on the phone. I've bought us some time but
not much. You're to try and talk him back."

The Lady Grey looked at the guard outside and then back to Mysko,
realising he was covering for her. She mouthed the words "thank you"
and walked silently back into the room. Mysko waited a moment and then
followed.

"Sorry about that Stanley." Said the lady.

Stanley Tierson nodded and looked at Mysko who watched from the corner
of the room as before.

"Stanley." Said the lady. "I want you to think about this before you
answer, can you explain to us your dislike for the meritocracy."

Stanley Tierson answered immediately. "It is unfair."

The lady looked at Mysko and motioned him to answer.

"I believe that a Meritocracy is the only political system that makes
sense." Said Mysko. "Because it is the only one that values society
over the individual, whilst still rewarding the individual."

"But the individual is society." Stanley replied. "If the individual
thrives then society thrives."

"And so the individual is given the opportunity," said Mysko,
"according to his merit."

"Such a system will only ever be as good as the method by which a man
are judged."

"It will never be perfect it is true." Said Mysko, and then paused.
"You believe you were misjudged?"

"I believe millions are."

Mysko looked at the Lady Grey, she motioned him on. "And you
specifically."

"That is not the point."

Mysko pulled himself a chair off the stack and placed it at the foot of
the bed. "You know Mr Tierson, I believed that I was judged unduly
harshly." He said. "So I worked hard to prove my worth and I was
promoted."

"Then you were lucky, but that is still not the point."

"Then what is?"

"That the system is inherently unfair. Even if you are judged
fortunately you can still be held back by the Intention Check, you are
a the whim of your own unconscious mind, and who can control how he
really feels?"

"The Intention Check is reliable and accurate, it is perfectly
fair."

"Have you ever failed one?"

"No."

"No. Neither has any other key personnel. Only those who pass are given
the privilege of judging its value, the rest of us are at their mercy.
The system relies on it too much, it is a self perpetuating
inequity."

"You think we should let Lendian sympathisers into positions of
command."

"I think you should remember that people are people, not animals, we
are not slave to our every feeling and there is more to loyalty than
blind trust."

"There are plenty of non-sensitive positions where people can still be
of value. Besides, Lendia also uses the Intention Check."

"But what of the lame and the sick who are of no value to the system.
Their fate is the reason why the meritocracy is merely a system, not a
society. Because it will not care for its weak."

"But the world is poor." Said Mysko. "We cannot afford to carry dead
weight."

"But they have a right."

"Why? Who gives them this right?"

"It is a fundamental human right."

"There is nothing fundamental about it." He said. "It is not enshrined
anywhere, it is not obviously in the nature of man. It is something you
happen to believe that others do not."

Stanley Tierson leaned forward closer to Mysko and said. "Do you really
want to live in a world where the poor are left to die in the street
with no help at all?"

"No." Said Mysko, aware that he had been put on the defensive. "I would
love to live in a world where everyone is looked after no matter how
dire their circumstances, but I do not. We cannot afford to. The planet
cannot afford to. The race is weak and only by accentuating the strong
and allowing them to flourish can we survive."

"Like the Lady Grey here?"

"Yes like the Lady here." The Lady looked on unconcerned. "She has been
picked out as capable and intelligent and given that title. Doors have
opened for her that might otherwise have been closed. It is valuable
that are brightest and our best are pushed forwards."

"And she gets the riches and the easy life."

"She deserves that."

"Maybe she deserves it but she hasn't earned it."

Mysko felt his anger quicken. "We must reward our elite, or there would
be no motivation to excel. Big? is stronger for the Lady Grey being a
Lady."

"No." Said Tierson. "Big? is weaker for the favouritism shown
her."

Mysko stood up sharply, sending the plastic chair skidding across the
room behind him. "I'm sorry." He said. "I cannot have this argument
with a man who supports a war mongering nation."

Stanley Tierson remained calm, secure in his beliefs. "Lendia makes the
war because it believes in the rights of all people to freedom, we do
not just care about our own."

"And how free are the people you kill?"

"It is a lesser evil than standing by and tolerating this repressive
regime."

"So you will make war." Mysko was leaning forward on the bed and nearly
shouting the words. "Till Lendia no longer exists and the city of Big?
and I and the Lady and everybody else no longer exist. You will destroy
the world to free it."

The lady looked at Mysko and motioned him down with her hands. "I think
we'd better take a break." She said.

They walked outside and back into the room opposite.

"You want to tell me why I just did that." Said Mysko, still
angry.

"The philosophy, if you get the philosophy then everything else will
follow, it was better if you played the bad cop."

"I thought we couldn't leave him alone?"

"I need you to get me an Intention Check."

"Why."

"Because the philosophy will not come, I think the Lendians have
somehow strengthened the conditioning we gave him four years ago. It is
possible they were trying to turn him, perhaps use him as a counter
agent."

"What will an Intention Check tell you? This is a process designed to
defraud it."

"It is a placebo." She said

Mysko looked at her, not understanding. "I can have one here in a few
minutes."

She smiled and thanked him.

"You'd better get back in there."

The Lady Grey walked back into the room. Mysko walked up the hallway to
where he had previously used the phone, more aware than the Lady of
what a counter agent meant, Stanley Tierson's mind had become territory
in a war and was being torn apart like a battle field.