Governments, nations, borders, they're all surface, they always have been. The real structure underlying it all is money, and the institutions which control it. Finance houses, banks, organised crime; if you drill down deep enough, it's all the same. Money has no nationality, no allegiance. While nations rise and fall, it remains the same. It's the most powerful polity of all.

The Line was not so much a mode of transport, more a lifestyle choice.

He had thought that apart from the obvious signifiers of architecture and weather and language, all European cities were much the same, but Paris had proved him wrong. It was quite unlike anywhere else he had ever lived.

Admitting to fear was not something which came easily to him. He had been schooled, from almost as soon as he could walk, to be capable. Fearing something meant doubting his own capability. Fear was the first step towards failure.

Everything is simple, in theory.