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Okay, Martin thought, I can’t fly, but I can fall whenever I want.
It was now a map not only of reliable high-speed data access but also of the places where Martin had God-like powers over time and space. That shouldn’t have felt limiting, but it did.
“Magic! It must be some kind of trick! Let’s beat him until he tells us the secret,” hopefully they would yell, “Magic! I’ve heard of that! I’ve never seen it in person, though!” The trick was finding a time and place where the next sentence wouldn’t be “Let’s burn him!”
It was only a precaution. He made the Escape button, but he hoped to never use it. As it happened, he used it within forty-eight hours.
Powerlessness didn’t seem so bad when you only saw it in other people.
His former supervisor smiled the smile equivalent of a middle finger. “Well,
On one side the horizon was nothing but clouds and sea. On the other, the horizon was all gentle rolling hills and trees. Martin would have found it all very restful, if he hadn’t known he was so utterly screwed.
Martin looked up into her mammoth eyes. They looked sad. The look in her eyes said that she would not enjoy hurting Martin, and she would not enjoy it soon.
That’s gotta be worth dinner and a bed.” The innkeeper smiled. “If you can show me something that will persuade me to give you free food and a bed that isn’t you smashing an oak table with one blow, I will indeed be amazed.”
Phillip walked over to the corner where a cooking pot hung over a small fire. It was a medium-sized room with stone walls, simple furnishings, and exposed rafters. It was a room imbued with the kind of simplicity that the rich could afford and the poor saved up to get rid of.
“Now, your most important question. ‘What have I done to you?’ The answer, Martin, is that I tried to talk you out of making a fool of yourself, and watched you do it anyway. Then I traipsed through the woods in the dark, gathered your belongings, and snuck you back into town.
“Even with our powers, we can’t do anything worse to food than have it be cooked by Pete.
“Yes. We consider correctly answering the question ‘Do you accept the training?’ to be part of the training. Get that question wrong, and you fail the training.”
“Excellent! You have pleased me, my apprentice! Well done! I’m delighted at the prospect of all the marvelous things you’re not going to say in the future! You know, the less you talk, the more people assume that what you’re not saying is important.”
“It didn’t even occur to me.” “Dumb and decent can often look the same.
A voice from across the street called out. “Hey! Hey you!” Martin had never, in his life, had a sentence that started with “hey you” end in a way that made him happy.
The advantage that religion has over magic or science is that man’s inability to understand is built into the system, so if an explanation is confusing or unsatisfying, it strengthens the point.”
Nobody has all the answers, because all the best answers generate more questions. The way I see it, religion is no more inherently evil than science is. It’s just a matter of who’s using it and how, and
The best way I’ve ever summed up the war as I see it is that one side, our side, sees a foul as being against the rules, and if you do it too many times you have to be removed. The other side, Jimmy’s side, sees fouls as things you’re allowed to get caught doing several times, and if you don’t, you aren’t trying hard enough.”
No, the guy these people know as Merlin doesn’t want to warn people that they can’t do things. He wants to remind them that they can’t do things. He wants people to try to go through an arch and run into an invisible wall.
Just remember, the only way anybody ever profits from an encounter with Jimmy is if Jimmy doesn’t care enough to bother to prevent it.”
I’ve given them this castle because a wealthy king doesn’t start wars out of greed. I made them legends because a living legend doesn’t kill out of jealousy.”
“That’s a big part of why I hate him. If he were wrong about everything I could just dismiss him as a moron, but he’s not. He’s smart, probably smarter than I am, so I have to take him seriously.”
It’s amazing how quickly we get used to weirdness when it’s our own weirdness.
It would have been quite idyllic, if not for all the corpses.
One of the Germans had a Palm Treo that looked like it was designed by a committee of lowest bidders.
“Do you think he can do it?” Gwen asked. Phillip smiled. “His job is to draw attention to himself and get into trouble. I don’t think he’s capable of not doing it.”
“There’s more to innovation than just putting other people’s ideas together like LEGO bricks.”
