20.8

“Max, have you read the Bible?”

“What do you think?” Max responded sarcastically.

Who’d had time to read the Bible?

Well… you had time.

You just never had the slightest inclination.

“What about the Koran?”

“No.”

“The Torah?”

“Never heard of it.”

“Max, have you heard of the holy Vedas?”

Mate…

“You’re just proving my point! This is the problem! The fanatics who know all this stuff will tear me apart!”

Shard smiled.

“Not if you keep it simple.”

Max saw himself in the witness-box, having to defend the use of words he didn’t even understand. Aware of his discomfort, Shard continued.

“Max, you were chosen not because you are so special, but because you are so typical. No one would expect you to know these things. You are no zealot! You are simply a pawn in an experiment to throw an average human being into the ether and see what he comes down with.”

No more talking.

No more crying.

Nothing you see will be destroyed.

“That’s the problem…” Max said ruefully.

“What problem?”

“At the end of the day – people will be asked to believe what I came down with.”

“Not necessarily.”

“It looks to me a bit like… you set me up, and they’re going to tear me down.”

“Max, it won’t work out that way.”

“It always works out like that doesn’t it?”