Frustration mounted in Channing and exploded. "You're all a bunch of gullible fools!" he cried. "Letting them pull the wool over your eyes like that. The only one with any sense is Mrs. Delacourt."
State crimsoned. "That's enough, Channing. If I were your wife, I would choose the copy."
Ellen shook her head firmly.
"In that case," Qui Dor said, "we might as well eliminate the second Bryan Channing. You are quite sure, Mrs. Channing?"
"Oh, yes."
"I don't believe my wife had anything to do with it," Channing blurted. "Maybe this isn't Ellen at all. Maybe she's a copy." Prove it, he told himself wearily. Go ahead and try to prove it.
Qui Dor ignored him. "Let me tell you in advance," he said, "that the elimination of a copy extends beyond the merely physical. When the second Channing disappears, so will your memory of him. You will remember that any individual, any object—created by me or not—is merely a collocation of qualities perceived by you, the people aware of the object. To destroy the object is to destroy the collocation of qualities within your minds—past, present, and future."
In spite of himself, Channing was interested. "But according to the British Empiricists, God's awareness was the constant conserver...."
"We of Targoff are atheists. We have no God-memory, no constant conserver. But why debate it a priori. Watch."