“I’m sorry I touched your doll,” Olivia said. “I had no idea how important Thorakks was to you.” Silence, as… — Neal Stephenson

“I notice you’re not referring to him as ‘the little fucker’ anymore,” said Corvallis.

“Okay, okay, he stopped being a little fucker when he raised an army of twelve hundred high-level characters and deployed them in battle array around his projected route of advance,” Richard admitted. “I have to admit I was wondering why he was taking so long to move away from that cave. I didn’t reckon that he was going to set the whole thing up like Sherman’s march to the sea.”

“Did you notice his leapfrogging cavalry screens?”

“Yes, I fucking noticed them.”

He had found an image of one of the big Western-style business hotels along the waterfront: one of those places where it was possible to be a white person without attracting one’s own personal Stonehenge of cataleptic, openmouthed gapers.

“Costello has been after Jones for a long time,” Olivia guessed. “He takes pride in his work, or used to. Jones got the better of him more than once…”

“He is just your type,” Uncle Meng said gently. “Please do try not to fuck him.”

“How come it’s okay for James Bond?”