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Suicide bombers are easy to spot. They give out all kinds of tell-tale signs. Mostly because they’re nervous. By definition they’re all first-timers.
Look, don’t see, listen, don’t hear. The more you engage, the longer you survive.
Most handguns miss. Maybe not on the range, with ear defenders and eye protection and time and calm and nothing at stake. But in the real world, with panic and stress and the shakes and a thumping heart, handguns are all about luck, good or bad. Mine and hers. If she missed, she wouldn’t get a second shot.
Truth is, it’s smarter to run. The best fight is the one you don’t have.
One was an official notice prohibiting something called subway surfing. There was a black and white illustration of a guy clamped like a starfish on the outside of a subway car’s door. Apparently the older stock on the New York system had toe boards under the doors, designed to bridge part of the gap between the car and the platform, and small rain gutters above the doors, designed to stop dripping water getting in. I knew the new R142As had neither feature. My crazy co-rider had told me so. But with the older cars it was possible to wait on the platform until the doors closed, and then jam
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If you take political candidates as a population sample, then the United States is a Third World country. Everyone grows up poor, running water is a luxury, shoes are rare, a square meal is cause for jubilant celebration.
Great champions in their day, but they’re old men now and they come from a whole different era. Time moves on. The game changes. You understand what I’m telling you?’ I said, ‘No.’ ‘We’ve seen your record. You were hot shit back in prehistory. But this is a new world now. You’re out of your depth.’ I turned and glanced at the door. ‘Is Browning still out there? Or did he dump me?’ ‘Who is Browning?’ ‘The guy who delivered me here. Sansom’s guy.’ ‘He’s gone. And his name isn’t Browning. You’re a babe in the woods.’
‘The British wrote the book over a hundred years ago, about operations in Afghanistan. Because of their empire. They said, when contemplating an offensive, the very first thing you must plan is your inevitable retreat. And they said, you must save the last bullet for yourself, because you do not want to be taken alive, especially by the women.
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, just roll to your rifle and blow out your brains, and go to your God like a soldier.
Legends had grown up around it. The Soviets were said to have asked for condoms, and in an attempt to impress and intimidate, they had specified that they should be eighteen inches long. The U.S. had duly shipped them, in cartons stamped Size: Medium.
they lied to me. First about Berlin, and they’re still lying to me now. They claim to be mother and daughter. But I don’t believe them. The alleged daughter is the cutest thing you ever saw. The alleged mother fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch.
it. Mechanical failure happens. But I wasn’t about to bet on four mechanical failures happening all at once, for the same reason I don’t buy lottery tickets. Optimism is good. Blind faith is not.
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in his shoes. Then when you start criticizing him, you’re a mile away and he’s got to run after you in his socks.
He moved his hand onward and stopped it behind my passport. He asked, ‘Why is it expired?’ I said, ‘Because no one can make time stand still.’
‘I liked the look of it.’ ‘With the pink sleeve? Bullshit.’ I said nothing. He said, ‘You like the colour pink?’ ‘In the right place.’ ‘What place would that be?’ ‘A place you haven’t been in a long time.’
I was alone and I had the dart gun in my hands. I guessed they had heard the noises and assumed I was getting smacked around. I guessed they hadn’t expected me back so soon, or at all. Lee asked, ‘What happened?’ I said, ‘They fell asleep.’ ‘How?’ ‘I guess my conversation bored them.’
you don’t have to get hurt either. You can just move on, and tell Lila you never saw me.’ ‘But that wouldn’t be true.’ ‘Don’t be a slave to the truth, Leonid. Sometimes the truth hurts. Sometimes it bites you right in the ass.’
‘You’re sick,’ I said. ‘You’re also dead. You know that? Like you just stepped out in the road. The truck hasn’t hit you yet, but it’s going to.’ ‘Are you the truck?’ ‘You bet your ass.’
‘Wise up, Reacher. That was the whole point of sending you the package. They want to make you mad and suck you in. They can’t find you. So they want you to come find them.’ ‘Which I will.’ ‘Your future plans are your business. But you need to take care. You need to understand. Because this has been their tactic for two hundred years. That’s why their abuse was always within earshot of the front lines. They wanted to bring out the rescue parties. Or provoke revenge attacks. They wanted a never-ending supply of prisoners. Ask the British. Or the Russians.’
Latin motto Si vis pacem para bellum. If you wish for peace, prepare for war.
‘We’re running out of patience. And you’re missing one important factor.’ ‘Which is?’ ‘Whatever intellectual gifts you have, they’re hardly likely to be unique. In fact they’re probably fairly ordinary. Which means that if you figured it out, we can figure it out too. Which means your continued existence would become surplus to requirements.’ ‘So go ahead,’ I said. ‘Figure it out.’
