Like young men from the dawn of time, I decided to choose the risk of death over certain humiliation. - Ben Aaronovitch

This is a terrible work," I said. "Why did you do it?"
"The usual reasons," said the Magister. "I told myself it was piety and duty to the Church, but a thousand years of contemplation will batter down the doors of one's own delusions.

Upstairs, MOLA’s offices had the same open-plan cubicle based workspace that has been the delight of code monkeys and low-level paper pushers since one time and motion consultant said to another, “Hey, you know, I don’t think we’ve really dehumanized these white collar drones enough.”

Anything that can go wrong with armed men in the light can go twice as wrong in the dark.