And as we should all know by now, anytime you predict failure you have an excellent chance of being right.

And as we should all know by now, anytime you predict failure you have an excellent chance of being right.

Feeling - what authentic human fun!

But what could I do? Be stupid for a while? I wasn't sure I knew how, even after so many years of careful observation.

A reasonable being might think that he and I could find some common ground; have a cup of coffee and compare our Passengers, exchange trade talk and chitchat about dismemberment techniques. But no: Doakes wanted me dead. And I found it difficult to share his point of view.

The students we saw were all bright, attractive, and polite, and the teachers all seemed to be smart and dedicated, and I began to appreciate the benefits of a private school education. If only I'd had the opportunity to attend a place like this, who knows what I might have become? Perhaps instead of a mere blood-spatter analyst who slunk away at night to kill without conscience, I could have become a doctor, or a physicist, or even a senator who slunk away at night to kill without conscience. It was terribly sad to think of all my wasted potential.

I enjoyed watching good-looking idiots looking at each other. A great spectator sport.