Richard Morgan

Culture is like a smog. To live within it, you must breathe some of it in and, inevitably, be contaminated.

Anyone who bar-codes their employees isn’t likely to be the forgiving type, and the reflex of long-held obedience through hierarchy is usually enough to overcome fear of a combat death. That’s how you fight wars, after all—with soldiers who are more afraid of stepping out of line than they are of dying on the battlefield.

I paused and set down my glass, searching for the fine edge of deceit that always lies right up against the truth.

The essence of control is to remain hidden from view, is it not?

Money doesn’t automatically mean taste.

The past is relevant only as data.

“The human eye is a wonderful device,” I quoted from Poems and Other Prevarications absently. “With a little effort, it can fail to see even the most glaring injustice.”

Whatever world it is, whatever you’ve done there for better or worse, you always leave the same way.

Alone.

Like Bancroft, MacIntyre had been a man of power, and like all men of power, when he talked of prices worth paying, you could be sure of one thing.

Someone else was paying.

Naturally these penalties were applicable only to private citizens, not military commanders or government executives. The powerful are jealous of their toys.