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religion is deliberately misused as a label for greedy sons of bitches whose real objective is wealth and power.
when was the last time someone falling in love listened to good advice?
It didn’t bring Grace back, but I believed that somewhere—maybe in Valhalla—her warrior’s soul approved.
“Tell me, ‘I told you so,’ again and I’ll smother you in your sleep.”
“I thought that doohickey could find anything.” “One of these days I’ll have Bug explain to you how computers work.
He thinks the chain of evidence is holy writ.”
“vetted by Vox”
“I did, and I got the usual ‘we’ll look into it’ reply, which translates as ‘ignore the rantings of the crazy lady.’”
except for a father she almost never saw,
If you’re going to ambush someone, don’t make a speech first. It’s a rookie mistake.
In the dojo and in the movies the victim of a wristlock does a nice flip through the air. In the real world his wrist turns way too fast to act as a lever for his body, which means that the forearm bones explode inside his arm.
His scream rose into the ultrasonic.
Rudy wondered how Bug’s mood would change if the Internet crashed.
“‘Treeware’?” “Paper. Actual we’re-so-last-century printed documents. Someone in meatspace actually swiped the physical records as well. That’s stuff we can do when we bring our A-game.
“Well … not vetted for dating you, but I could look into that.”
You ever get off your ass and go out to have a real night off, I’ll pay for dinner for both of you.”
Maybe she just wants to see things burn.”
“You may not want to hear this—I know things are kind of weird between you two—but your dad will be proud of you.”
“Stirred, not shaken,”
A perfect martini should be stirred gently for thirty seconds, then chilled properly and served stingingly dry and cold.
I’m not a cheap date, Sebastian, but they had me at the crème brûlée.”
he speaks like a college professor one minute and a dockworker the next.”
the price tag is a big ‘fuck you’ to anyone who can’t afford it, and much more so to those who can almost afford it.”
“If that’s cosmetic surgery, I’ll marry her doctor.” “No. Just bloody good genes and a refusal to age like ordinary mortals. I don’t know how old she is, but she has to be in her sixties.”
“I am filled with useless trivia. I’d clean the hell up on Jeopardy!
beyond the tension that’s been going on since—oh, I don’t know, Moses parted the fucking Red Sea,
Jerry didn’t have any pets. I suspect he wasn’t allowed to.
The first was a rain of fire and ash that filled the streets of the new city.
The wicked need no help in hardening their own hearts. They are defiant in their iniquity.”
I’m a big believer in the adage of eating breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.
So, I’m kind of a whack-job. That’s not a news flash to anyone.
perpetually eager to take it to the bad guys in ugly and brutally efficient ways.
“Just fine. I’m down here doing my fucking nails.”
her father was in one of the more ferocious departments of government service,
Range scores plummeted when she was on-deck.
“Why do you practice with a handgun?” She almost sighed. This was one of the Chief ’s ritual questions. “To save my life and the lives of those in my charge.” “How do you accomplish this?” “By hitting what I aim at with focus, speed, and commitment.”
Shake hands with the grip. Snug but comfortable. Get to know the weight. Fit the handle into the vee formed by the thumb and index finger of the shooting hand as high as possible on the backstrap. Your strong hand holds and fires; your weak hand completes the grip and supports.
Breath control minimizes body movement and that in turn reduces handgun movement.
Squeeze the trigger in a natural and continuous way. Never jerk the trigger.
Follow through. Apply the shooting fundamentals continuously. Sloppy is dead. Let the process keep you alive.
We don’t worry about ‘almost’ any more than we worry about any other distraction. Combat purifies thinking.”
Why is it you only have a sense of humor when things are really bad?
Grace was slim and fit and was known throughout the counterterrorism community as the Iron Maiden.
If you try to make sense out of that you’ll hurt yourself.”
Prebble hadn’t supplied any cookies. Church looked almost wistful.
Says what he fucking means and doesn’t give a rat’s ass what anybody thinks.”
“People talk about all the billions that were lost, but money is never ‘lost.’ It is like energy—it continues to exist in one form or another.
“They want to break the bones of their enemies and suck out the marrow.
Only witches and sorcerers conjure with names.
“It is the nature of free will. If we humans have free will, and faith in the face of doubt suggests that we do, then it comes from God. Otherwise no one would be responsible for anything that they do, and that includes acts of charity and kindness as well as acts of evil.”
