(slow, desperate voice) You asked me a question, and I feel that it is finally right for me to answer it. They’re not coming. They never have, they never will. That’s the truth. We’ve holed up here for eighteen days not because there was ever any hope for us, but because, because… because I felt that there was hope for the others, in our sacrifice. And as the jaws of death are clamping down around us, I only feel that it’s right that I admit that to you. Of all the falsehoods in the universe, you finally got a little bit of truth. And I know what you’ll say to me, this whole ordeal that we put ourselves through, it was all for nothing. It was just something that I thrust ourselves into to engorge my ego. And to a certain extent, you’re right. I holed us up here, expecting that what did happen would happen, and it was utterly irresponsible of me to behave in such a manner. You gave me your lives, and I still used them in the game, and… you have every right, I’d say, to let me go. Because they’re not coming. I don’t care how many times you put in the frequency. They’re not coming. The entire point was not that we would live. Each day we studied the maps. Each day we gauged the reaction of the populace, and we knew that the walls were closing around us. That we had to do a brash gambit for any of this to have any chance of success. So, a few contingents were sequestered, and most of them, ourselves included, were to be dummies. That was the whole point. A couple, just a couple, would actually be carrying out real missions. All the rest of us… we were simply here to buy time. To draw the others away. And we’ve done that remarkably. There’s nothing more I can really say. I can go on diatribes about how this was all about some greater cause, but no matter what I say this is all going to feel hollow in the moment. Because why wouldn’t it. Now, all of us… yes I said all of us, because that included me… all of us are going to be staring death in his eyes. And… and we’re only starting to realize what that means. It’s so easy to risk our lives, your lives in my case, when our own demise feels distant. I mean, we can feel, palpably, the risk, but it’s not so great as to overwhelm us. But now, now with only eighteen of us left, and practically guaranteed doom tomorrow, it feels different. Feels different, and it’s why I feel okay saying any of this in the first place. I don’t know if I went back that I’d do anything different. Because no doubt the operation’s going to be a success now. The entire city’s going to be riled up. All searching for us, not them. It’s no doubt that finally, finally, he will be dead. And so will we. And so I start telling myself, I think to myself that all of this was for nothing. And then another part of my mind demands to know how I can say that. Even here at the end, with only a few more seconds to go, how can I say that all of this was for nothing? Because it was for what it was, and, even though at many points it was traumatic, terrible, and every bit of my body quaked in pain, even though all of that was true, it was so very often beautiful. So do with me what you will. I’ll protest if you try and throw me out. But at the same time I will understand. An evil such as the one I have prosecuted upon you cannot be forgiven easily, and maybe it should not be forgiven at all.