The cruelty of fate is that I must travel with the people I hate when the people I love are dead behind me.

I smirk as Peter misses again. I can't help myself. "Hey, Peter," I say, " Remember what a target is?

I came here so that no one else would die. I came here to protect as many people as I could. And I care more about Tobias's safety than anyone else's. So why am I here, if he's here? What's the point?

And sometimes, if you want the truth, you have to demand it.

So you're her brother? Says Linn. I guess we know who got the good genes.

No one's perfect," I whisper. "It doesn't work that way. One bad thing goes away, and another bad thing replaces it." I traded cowardice for cruelty; I traded weakness for ferocity.

The official strategy is defensive pessimism, always.