“The consensus seemed to be that if really large numbers of men were sent to storm the mountain, then enough might survive the rocks to take the citadel. This is essentially the basis of all military thinking.”

“What are men to rocks and mountains?”

“What did I really think fifteen years ago? A nonbeliever, I felt guilty in the midst of all those believers. And since it seemed to me that they were in the right, I decided to believe, as you might decide to take an aspirin: It can't hurt and you might get better.”

“Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks and mountains?”

“The world was large, so large. Bigger than it had been before. Family, too, a bigger word. That felt like a good thing. An essential thing. There was power in numbers.”

“At 13:57 local time, a low yield nuclear warhead exploded in the city of Chongjin, North Korea.A long standing military target. Chongjin is home to some 532,000 men, women, and children.This city has survived a number of wars. It will not survive this.But her people will.As 13:57 and .00001 microseconds, half a million Koreans seemed to materialize on a hilltop 35 miles away from the blast.They were carried there . . . One at a time, sometimes two . . . At a hair's breadth short of the speed of light . . . By one man . . .The Flash. The Fastest Man Alive.”