They will feel sorry for me.

For having to deal with you.” She had an answer for everything.

That was what chilled me most, standing there.

Every avenue I might take, every authority I might summon, they had already prepared a story for, a plausible, sympathetic, pre-loaded lie.

They had thought it through completely.

They had, they believed, closed every exit.

And they had, very nearly.

I want to be fair to the completeness of what they had built.