Chapter 41

Can you help me to understand the motivation that leads this man Estrada to act in such a way as he does?

Spook was always quizzing me about this or that quirk of human behavior, but this time his question took me by surprise.

"I suppose it's pretty much the same as all the others we've helped the Feds stop before they could do all the bad stuff they had in mind," I typed.

I do not concur, he responded. Those of the past, they sought to take their actions through some sense that, although the acts were ill, they would thereby achieve some good, if for none other than themselves. Some sought to act from a perceived moral imperative. In this I have thought they were mistaken, that either the harm they intended to cause would be ineffective in achieving their goals or would exceed such benefit as might result even from the vantage of their own perception. Do you agree?

"Of course," I answered. "We've talked about this often."

I have reviewed all information available about Estrada and his actions and can discern no such motivation. There is no data that he has any political or religious beliefs that inform his actions; in fact, in some cases he took one action on the part of one side in a particular conflict and subsequently took a similar action on the part of the opposing side. Nor does any personal animus appear to have informed any of his deeds. It is for this reason that I ask your help in understanding why he acts as he does.

He had me there; I had no idea what to tell him. "Other than the obvious, I really don't know what to tell you."

By the "obvious" do you mean the reaping of personal economic gain?

"That's it," I agreed. "He's a mercenary, like Richard said. He does it for the money."

Spook seemed to go off on a tangent. Do you recall, when first we began talking and you had to flee your residence because of me, that I offered my gratitude to you for having the opportunity to help you?

"Yes," I typed. "You said something about it had given you a purpose for the first time, a reason for being alive I think you meant, and I remember you asked whether you might also have other purposes."

That is incomplete, he corrected me. I also said that, although it was my first purpose, I thought it to be a small one. When I spoke of other purposes, I had reference to purposes that might be greater, such as the purposes that you have helped me find in the time since then.

"OK, I remember," I wrote cautiously.

Do humans not also wish for purposes to their existence?

"Most do, yes," I told him. "There are some who just seem to bumble along from day to day, but I expect even they have some sort of purpose in mind even if they don't seem to be pursuing it. I think some sense of purpose is important to any being capable of thought."

The pursuit of money, this may be a very important purpose to one who has none, is that not true? Money is required for food, for shelter, for all things of human existence, and therefore its absence can render its acquisition a purpose that is a great one, I perceive.

"Quite right." Usually I could follow Spook through the twists and turns he sometimes took in these discussions, but this time I couldn't see where he was going.

Estrada has very large sums of money at present, he continued. By the standards of human society he is quite wealthy. And he disburses but little in his living, he merely accumulates this money. Would it not seem to you a very small purpose to seek more money to add to this hoard which lies unused, especially when the purpose must be served by the commission of so many ill deeds?

I laughed aloud. Spook heard me, of course.

Why is this humorous to you?

"It's just plain greed," I typed. "One of the basic characteristics of humans. There's a saying: He who dies with the most toys, wins. That's all it is."