"You are wrong, my very dear Inspector. It was never true, even in the moment you were born—but still less is it true now, and in this place. All that has happened has happened because you had to be who you are. Everything Jones has done, and Keene and Pakhet. Everything Smith attempted and every one of the lies Zagreus wove, and all of Hunter’s long and endless game. Every jot and tittle of what has been: all for this. Otherwise it wouldn’t work." The red eye of the cigarette brightens. Eyebrows rise. "Who are you now, that you were not before? And what does the answer mean? Hmmm?"