*Sometimes, admittedly, for a given value of ‘never’.

“They didn’t recognize that the machine had stopped, that the world was ripe for change, that it was time, in fact, to spend more time with their family in case they ended up spending it with their ancestors.”

“- didn’t know when they’d gone too far, didn’t care that they’d made too many enemies, didn’t read the signs, didn’t know when to walk away after embezzling a moderate and acceptable amount of cash.

“It was regrettable how many rulers of the city had been inhumed by the men in black because they didn’t recognize a chance when they saw it,

“But there was no helping some people.

“And they couldn’t kill a man incapable of defending himself (although a man worth more that AM$10,000 a year was considered automatically capable of defending himself or at least of employing people who were).

And they had to give the target a chance.

“An Assassin, a real Assassin, had to look like one—black clothes, hood, boots, and all. If they could wear any clothes, any disguise, then what could anyone do but spend all day sitting in a small room with a loaded crossbow pointed at the door?

Fin.