"Words," the simulacrum said, "are weapons."

"Can't you say anything to him?" I asked the simulacrum. "All you did was debate with him."

The simulacrum shook his head no.

"Of course it can't do anything," Pris said. "Because it argues fair, like we did in school. That's the way they debated back in the middle of the last century. Barrows doesn't argue fair, and there's no audience to catch him. Right, Mr. Lincoln?"

The simulacrum did not respond, but its smile seemed - to me - to become even sadder, and its face longer and more lined with care.

"Things are worse now than they used to be," Maury said.

But, I thought, we still have to do something.

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