Free Visions of Liberty by Martin H. Greenberg, Mark Tier Page B

going to do it under adverse conditions, like a racehorse carrying extra weight, but Rebecca had not asked to die and Esther's child has not asked to be born, so in a way we were all running handicapped.
    In a moment of clarity, I realized that it just meant that we had to try harder. If we were already saved, then it was only right that God wanted a little extra effort in return, whether it was dying with grace or struggling to save people who placed so very many restrictions on their savior.
    Somewhere along the drive back, I took the wallet from my pocket and threw it into the dark forest along the road.
     
     

A Reception at the Anarchist Embassy
by Brad Linaweaver
    "He's the most conservative man you'll ever meet."
    The speaker was an attractive woman, although Special Agent Palmer didn't approve of her surgically implanted third eye that regarded him from an otherwise placid brow. He couldn't get used to these modern fashions, preferring instead an old-fashioned girl with a wedding ring in her navel.
    Giving one of her breasts a friendly squeeze (and grateful that there were only two of them) he turned his attention to the gentleman in question. The man certainly stood out in the crowd.
    "I had a professor like him once," said Palmer. "He probably thinks the world went to hell in the twenty-third century."
    She laughed. "You're almost right but try the twenty-first."
    He was surprised. "So tell me, Bretygne, why do I need to converse with this genuine eccentric?"
    "Because," she breathed into his ear while returning his friendly squeeze at a lower altitude, "he will provide invaluable assistance when we exchange pleasantries with the ambassador. You see, your crazy Mr. Konski is actually a fan of that old man's books."
    In all the miserable time he'd spent on the self-styled anarchist planet Lysander, Palmer had not learned that Konski read any contemporaries. He pulled his forelock, the usual method of expressing thanks to a comrade. The Lady Bretygne Lamarr always did her homework.
    "You'll put in a good word for me in your report?" she teased him.
    "Why bother? They never read mine but settle for the oral briefing. Now you, my dear, they actually read."
    "Flattery has always been your strongest suit." With that, she kicked off on her disc and scooted in the direction of the Amazing Conservative Man.
    Palmer wasn't lazy enough to use a disc in low gravity. With a hop and a jump he was right next to her. Admittedly that sort of calisthenics was discouraged but he was good at it and hadn't knocked anyone over yet.
    Professor Bernard Astaroth greeted them with a broad smile. "My darling girl," he said to Bretygne, squeezing her other breast (which fine point was noted by Palmer's acute skills at espionage).
    "Allow me to introduce Diplomat First Class Palmer, attached to the United States of Earth." She got that out in one breath.
    "No first name?" quizzed the professor.
    "I'm not partial to them."
    Bretygne laughed for him and the professor kept the conversation going with, "I understand that we both enjoy Lady Lamarr's way with words."
    "You're too kind," she replied, switching on a phase-three blush in her normally pale cheeks.
    "She tells me you're a writer."
    "Yes, on aestheto-politics with a heavy emphasis on history."
    "Orthodox?" asked Palmer, eyebrows raised.
    "Would we be here together tonight if I were?" The professor smiled.
    Bretygne thought it politic to change the subject. "Palmer spent a full quarter on Lysander."
    "Before or after the insurrection?" asked Astaroth.
    Palmer shook his head. "There was no insurrection, no civil war. It was one of their stupid property disputes."
    "That evaporated a whole continent?" The professor was incredulous.
    "You'd think they would have given up on anarchy after that, but no," said Palmer. "One of the idiots said he had a natural right to protect his property line against intruders. Then he evaporated a six-year-old girl who wandered onto his land. Instead of