Never felt so alive as you did after you came out of a battle in one piece. And if you were dead? You wouldn’t feel that... - Steve Perry

He had thought about it. Mostly, after the fantasies, he had let it go. It was done, history. No point in bumping into the furniture while looking back over your shoulder.

He understood the phenomenon, of how almost dying made you appreciate what life had to offer. And it was a potent drug, that feeling. Battle was not glorious. But surviving it? That was.

There were, in Ferret’s experience, two kinds of law: one law ruled the poor, an altogether different one more gently guided the rich.