When all the good ideas have been expended, I quoted to myself, one might as well try a bad one. - Matt Hughes

"He began to dream the dreams that always seduce a tyrant: powers beyond powers, worlds at his feet, whole realms bowing to his whims."
"And the dreams occluded his faculties," I said. "It was ever thus, we may be thankful, else tyrants would never fall."

In any case”—he gestured at the car—“this vehicle has achieved a state of permanent inanimation.

My intent was to spot not only Massim Shar’s cut-out but the other member of his criminal coterie who would be there to watch our transaction. There might even be a watcher to watch the watcher, trust being a commodity in short supply among the lawless.”