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Book: The Churn
Quotes of Book: The Churn
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  1. James S.A. Corey _ The Churn

    New job?" he asked. "New job," Burton said. "I know you and Erich grew up together. Is this going to be a problem for you?" "Nope," Timmy said, slipping the gun into his pocket. There hadn't even been a pause. "You're sure?" "Sure, I'm sure. I get it. They've got him in the system now. If they get him too, there's all kinds of things he compromises. If they can't get him, nothing gets compromised, and I'm the only guy who can get close to him without him seeing it coming." "Yes." "So I kill him for you," Timmy said. He could have been saying, So I'll pick up dinner on my way. There was no bravado in it. Burton sat, tilted his head. The friendly smile and the empty eyes met him. "All right, I'm curious," Burton said. "Did you game this? This was your plan?" "Shit no, chief," Timmy said. "This here's just happy coincidence.
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  2. James S.A. Corey _ The Churn

    Even in the first morning after the catastrophe began, security teams were calling on Liev's underlings, sweeping them up for questioning. Some, they held. Others, they released. Burton had no way of knowing which of those who had been set free had cut deals with security and which had been lucky enough to slip through the net. It hardly mattered. That branch of the business had been compromised, and so it would die.
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  3. James S.A. Corey _ The Churn

    Very few people stood wholly for the law or wholly against it, and so for them the catastrophe of the churn was an annoyance to be avoided or endured or else a titillation on the newsfeeds. That it was a question of life and death for other people spoke in its favor as entertainment.
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  4. James S.A. Corey _ The Churn

    She pulled a sheer yellow scarf over her hair, swathed her neck, and tied it at her sternum, the ironic echo of her old hijab.
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  5. James S.A. Corey _ The Churn

    As soon as he took his chair, the waitress came over, her eyebrows raised, as if he were a new customer. He waved her away. There was something about sitting at an empty table in full view of hungry men and women that Burton enjoyed. What you want, I can take or I can leave, it said. All I want is to keep your options for myself. Erich and Oestra sat. "That boy," Burton said, letting the words take on an affected drawl, "is some piece of work." "Yeah," Oestra said. "He's good at what he does," Erich said. "He'll get better." Burton was quiet for a long moment. A man at the front door pointed an angry finger toward Burton's table, demanding something of the waitress. She took the stranger's hand and pushed it down. The angry man left. Burton watched him go. If he didn't know any better, this wasn't the place for him.
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  6. James S.A. Corey _ The Churn

    I don't know," he said. "But I've known Timmy since forever, yeah? He doesn't do anything unless there's a reason." "Well," Burton replied, pulling the word out to two syllables. "If it's since forever, I guess that makes it all right.
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  7. James S.A. Corey _ The Churn

    Anyone who had not had his determination, ruthlessness, and luck deserved pretty much whatever shit he handed to them.
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  8. James S.A. Corey _ The Churn

    The catastrophe began four days later. Quietly, and with near-military precision, the city opened a contract with Star Helix security. Soldiers from across the globe arrived in small groups and sat through debriefings. The plan to end the criminal networks operating in Baltimore would be announced after the fact, or at least after the first wave. The thought, widely lauded by the self-congratulatory minds in administration, was to take the criminal element by surprise. In catching them flat-footed, the security teams could cripple their networks, break their power, and restore peace and the rule of law.
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  9. James S.A. Corey _ The Churn

    Everywhere, all through the city, space was at a premium. Extended families lived in decaying apartments designed for half as many. Men and women who couldn't escape the cramped space spent their days at the screens of their terminals, watching newsfeeds and dramas and pornography and living on the textured protein and enriched rice of basic.
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  10. James S.A. Corey _ The Churn

    Will you be back?" Lydia said. She hadn't meant to, because she knew in her heart, in her bones, and deeper than that what the answer was. Timmy smiled at her for the last time. I take it back, she thought. Kill him. Kill the boy. Kill everyone else in the world. Shoot babies in the head and dance on their bodies. Any atrocity, any evil, is justified if it keeps you from leaving me.
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  11. James S.A. Corey _ The Churn

    Burton's misfortune was to be born where and when he was, in a city of scars and vice, in an age when the division in the popular mind was between living on government-funded basic support or having an actual profession and money of your own.
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  12. James S.A. Corey _ The Churn

    Baltimore was Earth writ small, crowded and bored. Its citizens were caught between the dismal life of basic and the barriers of class, race, and opportunity, vicious competition and limited resources, that kept all but the most driven from a profession and actual currency.
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