And in the end, that is the thing a person can always refuse, even at the very edge of death: not always survival, which is not always in our power, but the truth, which, if we are stubborn enough, we can insist upon with our very last conscious act.

Chapter 4 — Record

I was not going to die as merely a victim.

That was the thought, clear and cold, that cut through the shock and the pain.

If I was going to die on this rug, I was going to take them with me.

So I did the only thing I could do.

I let my eyes roll back.

I let my body go completely limp, and I let my left arm fall hidden beneath me, out of their sight.