“You’ll notice that the Intrepid’s inertial dampeners don’t work as well in crisis situations, Dahl remembered Jenkins telling them. The ship could do hairpin turns and loop-de-loops any other time and you’d never notice. But whenever there’s a dramatic event, there goes your footing.””
“That as far as I can tell,” Jenkins said, “it’s not actually a very good show.””
“Elton John doesn’t have a child and a career based on audiences believing he’s a straight man.””
“operations, trying to get things straight. He now had so much metal in his pelvis that he carried a TSA Notification Card just to get on an airplane. Despite the lingering disability, he’d gone back to full-time in April. He sat back down again. “I found Brett Givens working as a sign man for a real estate dealership over in Edina,” he said. “He drives a pickup, goes around putting up signs, or taking them down.” Lucas knew Givens: “Better than working at the chop shop.” “Yeah. Anyway, he says Cory is definitely back, because he saw him up in Cambridge last week, at Kenyon’s. He said Cory didn’t see him, because he ducked out”
“This guy was beyond lucky. He was Midas with a better attorney, or the owner of a Monkey’s Paw version 2.0, or Richard Cory on Prozac.””
“It’s messed up that the most rational explanation for what does go on in this ship is that a television show intrudes on our reality and warps it. But that’s not the worst thing about it.” “Jesus Christ,” Finn said. “If that’s not the worst thing, what is?” “That as far as I can tell,” Jenkins said, “it’s not actually a very good show.””
“The ME’s investigator and the crime-scene people began consulting about the removal of Peck’s body. The investigator told Virgil, “She didn’t eat him much, but she did crush his head like an English walnut.” Jenkins””
“You’d need a retarded jury not to convict.” “What’s your point?” Jenkins asked.””
“Jenkins, listen to me,” Dahl said, leaning in. “There’s no way to hide from this. There’s no way to run from it. There’s no way to avoid fate. If the Narrative exists”
“DEL, SHRAKE, AND JENKINS watched Lucas make notes, and five minutes later call Carver. Carver came up on the phone almost instantly. He said, “Yeah.” “This is Davenport, the cop that’s been following you around.” “How’d you get this number?” “I’m a cop,” Lucas said. “I need to talk to you. I need to talk to you right away, and somewhere private, where Dannon and Grant aren’t around.” “I don’t think I want to do that,” Carver said, and the line went dead. “Well, shit,” Lucas said. “You’re a smooth talker,” Del said. “I wonder if he’s got a smartphone,” Lucas said. He sent a text: “Six executed in Afghanistan. Want to hear the governor talking about it on TV? Take the call.” He sent it, and got back “delivered” a second later. Ten seconds after that, Carver took the second voice call and said, “What kind of bullshit is this?” “You know what kind of bullshit it is. It’s Leavenworth bullshit,” Lucas said. “Now, you need to take a little time off this afternoon, go out for a cup of coffee. There’s an obscure Caribou Coffee a couple miles from Grant’s house. Give me a time.” After a moment of silence, Carver said, “Three o’clock.””
“When the bureaucratic details were handled, they broke up. Del, Shrake, and Jenkins followed him back to his office, where they talked some more about the surveillance aspects. A tech would put a tracking bug on Carver’s vehicle, and Del would try to get one on Dannon’s, if he could do it without being seen. “The big question is: Is he gonna talk, or is he gonna stonewall, or is he gonna shoot, or is he gonna run?” Jenkins said. “That’s four questions,” Shrake said. “It irritates me that you can’t count.””
“In Jenkins’s personal lexicon, the Geheime Staatspolizei comprised the BCA’s top management. It was also the proper name of the German Gestapo, though he probably wasn’t pronouncing it correctly”
“According to various studies (ex. John Mailer's “Penicillin: Medicine’s Wartime.” Illinois Periodicals Online at Northern Illinois University, 2011), by war's end, the use of penicillin was cited in the saving of perhaps two million lives – one of those lives could be your father, grandfather, or great-grandfather – which ultimately means you might owe your life to the work of Fleming and the others which developed penicillin during the war.””
“When they think about Christian history, most modern Westerners follow the book of Acts in concentrating on the church’s expansion west, through Greece and the Mediterranean world, and on to Rome. But while some early Christians were indeed moving west, many other believers”
“The world’s first Christian kingdom was Osrhoene, beyond the eastern borders of the Roman Empire, with its capital at Edessa: its king accepted Christianity around 200.15 That regime did not last long, but neighboring Armenia made this the official religion around the year 300 and retains the faith until the present day.””
“Oh, bullshit,” Jenkins said. “You do it because you like it, because you get that feeling in your balls like you’re in a falling elevator, and you like it. We all like it. We get all grim and warriored-up about it, but the bottom line is, we like it.” “That’s somewhat true,” Shrake admitted. “That’s why Davenport does it: it’s better than money,” Jenkins said. “You guys bum me out sometimes,” Virgil said.””
“Every time I’m inside a Dillard’s I can’t help comparing it to Macy’s. On the whole, Dillard’s strikes me a little like a JC Penny that knows somebody. But I wasn’t there for the décor or the grand piano playing all by itself near the escalators, or the sad-eyed woman trying desperately to get people to sign up for their personalized American Express card.””
“There’s nothing in the world like junk food on a road trip. It’s the ultimate affirmation of freedom. Though unhealthy and a leading source of heartburn, for that brief few minutes it’s just you and your pie and a million miles behind you, with the promise of more miles and more pie to come. And there’s nothing anyone can do about it.””