'' i 'd rather not do it that way unless we have absolutely no other choice , '' the old man replied . '' zakath 's the kind of man who 's very likely to grow testy if he 's thwarted , and i do n't want to have to creep around dodging his soldiers . it takes too much time and it 's dangerous

'' the gold you know comes to you solid and tame . you do n't see its rage in the pits below . it boils and burns and lashes out . it destroys almost anything it touches . the boss makes us battle it with smashing boxes and fire and devil water . things more awful , sometimes , than the gold

thaddeus sat alone for no more than a few moments before a young and smartly dressed youth joined him . the boy was no more than twenty-three and had long , flowing brown locks and perfect skin . his suit was immaculate and he reeked of french cologne . it was cornelius smithson , his supposed best friend . '' are you packed and ready , thaddeus

you might be surprised to discover that there is a perfectly reasonable physical candidate for a complex living network that existed from the very beginning -- and still exists today -- that would qualify as a highly evolved state of -lrb- seemingly -rrb- pure consciousness that we might have devolved from . i refer , of course , to bacteria and archaebacteria , which i will collectively call bacteria -- or microbes -- for convenience . microbes meet all the criteria for a non-rule-based
network