I was stymied for an instant. I had expected him to say that I must know that he was incapable of committing such an error and I must pardon him despite the misguided rulings of the courts. Then I thought of something else.
"You show symptoms of being a habitual criminal, Coleman. I think you deserve life."
Coleman cocked his head thoughtfully, concerned. "That seems rather extreme, Warden."
"You would suggest a shorter sentence?"
"If it were my place to choose, yes. A few years, perhaps. But life—no, I think not."
I threw up my hands. You don't often see somebody do that, but I did. I couldn't figure him. Coleman had wealth and power as a councilman in the real world, but I had thought somehow he wanted to escape to a Dream world. Yet he didn't want to be in for life, the way Paulson and Horbit did.
There seemed to be no point or profit in what he had told me that morning, nothing in it for him.
Unless—
Unless what he said was literally true.
I stood up. My knees wanted to quit halfway up, but I made it. "This," I said, "is a difficult decision for me, sir. Would you make yourself comfortable here for a time, Councilman?"