The air crackled with rivalry and the potential for swift backstabbing. Geoffrey hadn’t sensed anything like… — Alastair Reynolds

She worked quickly, but not because she considered the commission beneath her. It was simply the way she always approached her art. Preparation, forethought, hours of meditation, then an explosion of swift and decisive action, like the quick and merciful descent of a sword. Execution, in every sense of the word.

“I worry that it’s me they’re really after.”

“You don’t exist. At the risk of wounding your ego, not everyone in the known universe is obsessed with you and your secret history.”

We have been clever, and on occasion we have been foolish. For smart monkeys, we can, when the mood takes us, be exceedingly stupid. But it was cleverness that brought us to this point, and it is only cleverness that will serve us from now on.

We have no time for anything else.