Corrupting Dr. Nice by John Kessel Page B

assault rifles."
    "Once all you invaders are gone we'll destroy those rifles, and fling the pieces into the desert."
    Halam laughed.
    "Why do you laugh?"
    "You remind me of something the inventor of these weapons said. He was an immigrant to a country in the future, a place called the United States."
    "What do I care about this mythical country?"
    "It was an important place. It lasted a couple hundred years."
    "Israel has lasted a thousand. It will be here long after you have been driven away."
    "Perhaps. Anyway, this inventor said his family emigrated 'so they could worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, and prevent others from doing the same.'" Halam finished the last of his locusts. "Better hold onto those rifles, Simon" he said. "You'll need them."
    A chant arose from the crowd as the Scholars mounted a rally. The Capernaum pitcher, a lanky Syrian who advertised his freeborn status with an impressive black beard, had already worn himself out and was lobbing gopherballs. The Jerusalem batter took a furious cut at a pitch, popping a high fly into foul territory outside first. The first baseman, a look of terror on his face, circled under it for what seemed like a full minute, then muffed the catch. The crowd cheered. Halam set down the empty paper dish and leaned forward. “Don’t overswing!” he shouted.
    "There's nothing in the Torah against virtual reality," he said to Simon. "Or about microwaves, or radio , or electricity. These things are just machines. They don't have any moral content."
    "You are worse than the Romans. You force your blasphemous images into everything."
    "We call it advertising."
    "'Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord.' Yet your women talk openly in public, and wear scandalous clothing, and fornicate. They should be stoned."
    "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
    Simon clenched his fists and glared at the ball field. "Yes, he said that. But he left us. You stole him away."
    "Save your money, take a tour to an unburned M-U. He's still there. Or visit the future. We've got several versions."
    "Yeshu is everywhere but here, where he's needed the most."
    "Why do you think he went? If he had stayed here he would be dead."
    "His death would have been our victory. In his name we would have ripped Herod from his throne, stuck Pilate's head on a pike, and swept the Romans into the sea."
    "My understanding is that he did not advocate violence. Perhaps you disagreed with him on this?"
    Simon said nothing. He was acting as hysterical as Jephthah.
    "Has something gone wrong?" Halam asked.
    The zealot looked up at the Temple again before answering. "My superiors at the hotel have been treating me as if I'm the only employee there. The sent me up to a room today where one of your tourists had some kind of demonic lizard."
    "You sure it wasn't a VR setup?"
    "I could smell it."
    "It was probably an iguana. Is that all that's bothering you?"
    Simon looked him in the eye. "I don't know where my son is."
    Halam sighed. This was more personal information than any one of the revolutionaries had ever trusted him with, and he didn't much like it. "You want my help?"
    "What I want is for you all to leave." There was more weariness than rage in Simon's voice.
    "Understand this," Halam said. "Your supporters in the future hired me because I like Jerusalem, but I think they're as deluded as you are. Even if you throw the corporations out, the time travelers will be here. I can give you self rule, but not keep them away forever."
    "What good is self rule if you tear us apart? Your drugs and your music and your games?"
    "Simon, your faith is immortal. But you can't stop change."
    A foul ball screamed off the bat, curling right at them. Simon, oblivious, would have been beaned had not Halam surged up and snagged it. Simon looked befuddled. Halam sat back down, tossed the ball up and caught it. "Hey, how about that! I've never caught one before in my whole life! All right