“I might have kissed her here," said Pellinore Warthrop to himself--the fugitive, the prisoner. "I do not remember.”

“I was woefully ignorant in the social graces. I was being raised, after all, by Pellinore Warthrop.”

“Our fathers had bequeathed us nothing but memories. A fire had stripped me of all tangible tokens, save my little hat; Alistair Warthrop had taken most of what had belonged to Pellinore. What remained of them was simply us, and when we departed, so would they. We were the tablets upon which their lives were writ.”

“Dr. Warthrop chopped off my finger with a butcher knife.”

“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.”

“Is it any wonder the power this man held over me - this man who did not run from his demons like most of us do, but embraced them as his own, clutching them to his heart in a choke-hold grip. He did not try to escape them by denying them or drugging them or bargaining with them. He met them where they lived, in the secret place most of us keep hidden. Warthrop was Warthrop down to the marrow of his bones, for his demons defined him; they breathed the breath of life into him; and without them, he would go down, as most of us do, into the purgatorial fog of a life unrealized.”

“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?”