I can at least comfort myself with the idea that whatever Ive done Ive helped to nail a lie, and Im coming to think that lying is among the worst of all human failings. Next to actual killing. And experience has made us almost equally good at both of them. I have killed many people and seen many more killed on my orders, Jogajong said. It is what must be paid to buy what we want. What weve been told we want, by liars more skilled than ourselves.

John Kilian Houston Brunner