Proteus Unbound

“I think I’ll have a sign made for that far wall,” said Bey at last.

“Indeed?”

“Yes. It will say, ‘If you have nothing to do, please don’t do it here’.”

He had achieved his objective, but his little inside voice would not keep quiet. Too easy, it said, much too easy. When a difficult goal is achieved with no effort, it’s time to be suspicious.

“Did you do what I asked you to?”

“As much as I could. Have you ever tried to brief your boss, without telling her what’s going on?”

“A hundred times. It’s the first rule of self-preservation.”

“Hormones are everything, Turpin,” she said to the bird on her shoulder. “Brains are nice, and looks are nice, and logic’s even nicer; but hormones run the show. For everyone, even for me and you.”

War was senseless. And yet war came creeping steadily closer.

They saw every event through the distorting lens of their own paranoia.

He was still young enough to hate looking like a fool more than anything in the world.