“He stiffened and said with great dignity, "I am a natural scientist. We are accustomed to dealing with shit.”

“A miscalculation is not negligence, nor prudence a crime. I am a scientist. I base my action or inaction upon probability and evidence. There is a reason we call science a discipline! Inferior minds bolt or build pyres to roast the witches in their midst!”

“Awaale cursed softly, but he was smiling. "I am only saying God might have sent me for the little one--not for you.""That makes more sense," I replied. "I was going to kill her, Awaale. The gun was an inch from her head and I was pulling the trigger...""But you did not.""No. I saw he was feeding, and I panicked.""Ah, you mean you were meant to save him.""I am not meant to save anyone!" I snapped. I was suddenly very angry. "I am here to serve the doctor, who's here to serve... to serve science, and that's all. That's all.""Oh, walaalo." He sighed. "You are more pirate than I ever was.”

“But if I'm it, the last of my kind, the last page of human history, like hell I'm going to let the story end this way. I may be the last one, but I am the one still standing. I am the one turning to face the faceless hunter in the woods on an abandoned highway. I am the one not running but facing. Because if I am the last one, then I am humanity. And if this is humanity's last war, then I am the battlefield.”

“What of men? I can't think of anything more banal. I have no doubt — no doubt whatsoever — that once it has obtained the means to do so, the species will wipe itself off the face of the earth. There is no mystery to it; it is our nature. Oh, one might delve into the particulars, but really, what can we say about the species that invented murder? What can we say?”

“I do not mean to mock or ridicule your life's work, for in one way at least it mimics my own: We have dedicated our lives to the pursuit of phantoms. The difference is the nature of those phantoms. Mine exist between other men's ears; yours live solely between your own.”

“That's a stupid question,' said Malachi. 'Because he didn't warn him. He didn't warn anyone.''No, it's a philosophical question,' Kearns corrected him. 'Which makes it useless, not stupid.”