[…]Hey, I’ve got an idea! You know what I just thought of? It’s terrific! After all, you’re able not just to warm people with your ray at a distance, but to burn them too. You can even turn a stone into dust — you demonstrated that once. So what you should do is burn up the perpetrators of terrorist acts. Burn up the priests — along with all the demonic forces. You were telling me. I remember writing it down: ‘With my Ray I shall take but a moment to burn up the murk of age-old dogma. Stand not between the people and God …’ And so forth.
You remember those words of yours?”
—“Yes, I do.”
“Then what are you waiting for? Why don’t you burn them up? After all, you said that…”
—“I was talking about dogmas. I would never dare burn up people with my ray.”
“Even the masterminds behind acts of terrorism?”
—“Even with them I would not dare.”
“Why not?”
—“Think about what you are saying, Vladimir.”
“What’s there to think about? Everyone knows the terrorism masterminds and their accessories need to be destroyed, right away.
—“Armies of various countries have already been mobilized to this end. Special forces. People are dying. Their efforts are to no avail. They will never find and never destroy the real masterminds. They will never be able to stop terrorism that way.”
“All the more reason. If you can pinpoint and burn up the masterminds and their accessories in a flash, then do it. Burn them up!”
—“Vladimir, perhaps you might give some thought to — you might determine — just who are the masterminds’ accessories, and how many of them there are?”
“Well, sure, I could think about that. Only I doubt I’ll be able to come up with an answer. If you know who, tell me their names.”
—“Very well. One of the accessories to terrorism is none other than you, Vladimir — along with your neighbors, friends and acquaintances.”
“What? What are you saying, Anastasia? As for myself, and my friends too, I’m absolutely certain that we are not accessories.”
—“The lifestyle of most people, Vladimir, is fertile soil for terror, disease and all sorts of catastrophes. Is not someone who works in a factory producing machine guns and cartridges an accessory to killings?”
“If they manufacture weapons, well, maybe, indirectly but you were talking about me. And I don’t work in an arms factory.”
—“But you smoke, Vladimir.”
“Well, yes. But what’s that got to do with it?”
—“Smoking is harmful, hence it follows that you are terrorizing your own body”
“My own…? But we were talking about terrorizing other people…”
—“Why bring up other people right off? Everyone should carefully examine his own lifestyle. Especially those who live in cities. Do people who ride in motor cars not know what deadly gas their motor car is polluting the air with? Do people who live in large buildings divided up into a whole lot of flats not know that it is harmful and dangerous to live in these apartments? The way life is organized in big cities is aimed at destroying Man and disorienting Man in respect to natural space. The majority of people who live that way — they are the ones who are accessories to terrorism.”
“Well, let’s say you’re right. But now many are beginning to understand, and they’re going to change their lifestyle. So help people, burn up the masterminds of terrorism with that ray of yours.”
—“Vladimir, in order to carry out your request, I would have to charge my ray with a great deal of malicious energy capable of destroying Man.”
“So, what of it? Go ahead and do it. After all, this Man is a mastermind of terrorism.”
—“I understand that. But before I can aim malicious energy at another, I would need to concentrate and produce in myself a large amount of this energy. Afterward it can inject itself into me again or be scattered in particles among other people. Yes, I can destroy the High Priest, but his program will continue to operate. And evil will find another priest, and he will be even stronger than the one I destroyed.[…]
The Ringing Cedars series. Book 6: The Book of Kin, Chapter “A need to think“,
written in Russian by Vladimir Megré and edited in English by Dr. Leonid Sharashkin.
English translation by John Woodsworth.
