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Tom counted down from fifteen. In those fifteen seconds he apologised to Vic, Sophia, and Angela, his parents, and to a God he did not believe in for all his sins. Once again, he had volunteered, but this time, he had volunteered his life. By reducing the impact, he might save the deputy secretary’s life, but not his own.
It occurred to him briefly that his whole life had been an attempt at redemption. He wanted to redeem his parents from a long past tragedy he had no hope of controlling, influencing, or predicting and he wanted to redeem himself for the guilt of surviving when the rest of his family died. At this moment Tom recognised for the first time that his life had been lived to the tune of guilt.
A group of SSAs stormed the room, shouting, “CRASH, CRASH, CRASH!”
“People,” on
