"You do?"
"The same thing everybody always says. If I let him do it, then I have to let everybody else do it."
"Really?"
"If Zeck's noncompliance or whatever it is gets him sent home, then pretty soon you'll have a lot more kids being noncompliant. So they can go home, too."
"Would you be one of those?" asked Graff.
"I think your school is a waste of time," said Dink. "But I believe in the war. I'm not a pacifist, I'm just anti-incompetence."
"But you see, I wasn't going to make that argument," said Graff. "Because I already know the answer. If the only way a kid can go home is acting like Zeck and being treated like Zeck, there's not a kid in this school who'd do it."
"You don't know that."
"But I do," said Graff. "Remember, you were all tested and observed. Not just for logic, memory, spatial relationships, verbal ability, but also character attributes. Quick decision-making. Ability to grasp the whole of a situation. The ability to get along well with other people."
"So how the hell did Zeck get here in the first place?"
"Zeck is brilliant at getting along with people," said Graff. "When he wants to."
Dink didn't believe it.
"Zeck can handle even megalomaniacal sociopaths and keep them from harming other people. He's a natural peacemaker in a human community, Dink. It's his best gift."
"That's just kuso," said Dink. "Everybody hated him right from the start."
"Because he wanted you to. He's getting exactly what he wants, right now. Including you coming here to talk to me. All exactly what he wants."
"I don't think so," said Dink.
"That's because you don't know the thing that I was debating with myself about telling you."
"So tell me."
"No," said Graff. "The side arguing for discretion won, and I won't tell."
Dink ignored the obfuscation. Graff wanted him to beg. Instead, Dink thought about what Graff had said about Zeck's abilities. Had Zeck somehow been playing him? Him and everybody else?
"Why?" asked Dink. "Why would he deliberately alienate everybody?"
"Because nobody hated him enough," said Graff. "He needed to be so hated that we gave up on him and sent him home."
"I think you give him credit for more plans than he actually has," said Dink. "He didn't know what would happen."
"I didn't say his plan was conscious. He just wants to go home. He believes he has to go home."
"Why?"
"I can't tell you."
"Why not?"
"Because I can't trust you."
"If I say I won't repeat a story, I won't repeat it."
"Oh, I know you can be discreet. I just don't think I can trust you to do the job that needs doing."