Dark Pattern (The Naturalist, #4)

by Andrew Mayne

Generally, I find it a good idea to wait a day or so before forming an opinion about a crisis, because the first twenty-four hours are usually filled with bullshit speculation by reporters paid by news channels to fill the air with baseless observations while the internet is taken over by people who prefer to speak first and think last.

“Protocols are ideals. They’re things we aspire to.” I throw in an analogy that Jillian gave me when I explained the situation. “They’re not enchanted proclamations from the Ministry of Magic that can’t be broken. We break them all the time. I’m sure there’s some protocol here that says I shouldn’t interrupt you, but here I am, interrupting you.”

If I taught physicians, I think my first test would be the one I use in my own lab: “Is it clean enough that you’d lick it?” Ask yourself that about your hands the next time you leave the bathroom.

Any system can be corrupted as long as people will pretend it’s not their problem.”

“Think about that, Teddy. Someone probably stood right where we are standing right now. Literally right here. It’s the highest point in the area. Someone stood here twenty-one thousand years ago and looked up at the sky like we are right now. And they probably asked, ‘What is my place in all this?’ They had to feel so tiny and yet strangely important all at the same time. What is my place in all this? What’s yours?”