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I need you to be clever, Bean. I need you to think of solutions to problems we haven't seen yet. I want you to try things that no one has ever tried b...more

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Bean could see the hunger in their eyes. Not the regular hunger, for food, but the real hunger, the deep hunger, for family, for love, for belonging.

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O my son Absalom,' Bean said softly, knowing for the first time the kind of anguish that could tear such words from a man’s mouth. 'my son, my son Abs...more

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I'm not stupid!" In Bean's experience, that was a sentence never uttered except to prove its own inaccuracy.

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The Buggers have finally, finally learned that we humans value each and every individual human life... But they've learned this lesson just in time fo...more

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Achilles might be a good papa to the family, but he was also a killer, and he never forgives.Poke knew that, though. Bean warned her, and she knew it,...more

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Because these fools always look up for power. People above you, they never want to share power with you. Why you look to them? They give you nothing. ...more

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Aw, Poke, you poor, kind, decent, stupid girl. You saved me and I let you down.

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And then he thought: Is this how idiots rationalize their stupidity to themselves?

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I want to be the kind of boy you are, thought Bean. But I don’t want to go through what you’ve been through to get there.

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Do you know why Satan is so angry all the time? Because whenever he works a particularly clever bit of mischief God uses it to serve his own Rigteous ...more

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I would carry some of it if I could, Bean said silently. Like I did today, you can turn it over to me and I’ll do it, if I can. You don’t have to do t...more

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Besides," said Suriyawong. "This was not a rescue operation.""What was it, target practice? Chinese skeet?""An offer of transportation to an invited g...more

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How much time? Not as much as I had yesterday.

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And were you punished? No. Why? Because you were rich.""Money and talent aren't the same thing.""That’s because you can inherit money that was earned ...more