The Old Man

by Thomas Perry

“Lasst ihn los,”

“San Bernardino County has a lot of space where you can fire a weapon legally. It’s the biggest county in the whole country. It’s got more area than Connecticut, Delaware, and New Jersey combined.

Hard to kill

He repeated the names to himself. He had memorized them when Harper had said them, but wondered which was which. Now, hearing the man say them, he could tell the names were false. It was always like that. Each bit of information was a reward for great effort, one ring closer to the center of the circle. But there never seemed to be a ring where the information was true. It was only truer than the information in the last ring.

Totally the matrix, or Q?

“But what was his mistake?” “No mistake,” said Goddard. “The method doesn’t require a mistake. It just requires that one person be different from another. And we all are.”

When the rental agent looked up from his desk and saw him, Julian saw the man’s face lose its look of expectancy and go flat and expressionless. Julian ignored the man’s involuntary reaction, signed the agreement, and took the keys.

Racism, in other words

ironic.

This isn’t irony, it’s understatement

Changing—even being a person who was amenable to change—was confusing.

The plural’s perennial problem

As afternoon arrived he took the grate off each vent, hood, or heating fixture. He took apart the smoke detectors, thermostats, and sound system speakers. He spent time opening the television set and cable box, looking for parts that didn’t belong. He found nothing in the apartment that was not as it should be.

Like a speed freak, o! The Adrenalin of paranoia

in civil wars it was difficult to know who all the players really were, and which side they might be on tomorrow.