Daemon Quotes
"A pioneer in the $40 billion computer game industry, Sobol was the architect of CyberStorm’s bestselling online games Over the Rhine and The Gate."
"Because there was no logical scenario in which he would emerge from this alive."
"Who was buying all these two-hundred-dollar copper saucepans, anyway?"
"I’ll let your illustrious leader fill you in."
"The only killings down here were made in real estate."
"It’s conceivable that someone with the right passwords could have activated this switch from anywhere in the world."
"The fact that he could effortlessly beat the shit out of this kid sprang unbidden into his mind."
"Forget the fact that I was the one who advised Hadi to shut that system down."
"Because I’m dead, you can’t arrest me. More importantly: You can’t stop me."
"The DJ cranked up the music again, and the party moved on."
"That might actually be a premeditated killing. Was it wrong to hope so?"
"What are you going to tell them about my sudden disappearance?"
"You’re not my enemy. However, it is vital that my work continue. I will do what I must in self-defense."
"Playing a prerecorded message over a phone line is easy. The Daemon could manage the sequence and schedule the calls based on what it reads in the news."
"The only daemon I’m worried about is the Unix variety."
"It’s about a cult opening a gate to the Abyss and releasing a demon that lays waste to the world."
"What if I told you I know who the killer is?"
"Your murder case is all over the headlines. Look, there’s you."
"I design relational database management systems."
"If running the winch doesn’t do anything, why bother to send a spoofed e-mail to have someone run it?"
"It acts like a distributed AI agent—which would make sense if Matthew Sobol designed it."
"It’s a collection of specific rules searching for recognizable patterns or events. Very basic. Nonetheless, very potent."
"He didn’t have to. He could plan for multiple contingencies and then observe what actually occurs."
"The Internet is not a single system. It consists of hundreds of millions of individual computer systems linked with a common protocol."
"This matches Guerner’s account and his injuries."
"The problem is the ultrawideband signals emanating from the house."
"I think we’ve established that there’s no power in the house."
"They’re willing to sacrifice you to find out what I’m capable of."
"This is all an elaborate technological trick. A logic tree with weaponry."
"You guided him here. Are you NSA or a Fed? Or neither? We shall see..."
"The entire population of ten thousand South Sea islanders now lived on a narrow band of sand and palm trees ringing the island..."
"Everything has consequences in this world—as in the real one."
"The night clerk was a fresh-faced, conspicuously Caucasian kid."
"I’m investigating something big with the bureau."
"I’m not surprised it knew your name, but I am surprised it spoke your name—particularly since I didn’t hear it."
"If I got locked in a cell and news of my capture is sent through the wrong e-mail server, I’m as good as dead."
"He was confident he’d get past any roadblocks, but what then?"
"If someone cut the pumps, Sebeck figured the ducks would be dead inside of six hours."
"It was a multicolored puddle. He took one last look around, then opened the garage door."
"You received high scores on your IQ test, Mr. Moze-ly. You are well regarded by your peers."
"His was a perverse caricature of the American Dream."
"You’re scheduled for release today. That why they transfer you down here?"
"He was paid next to nothing. Why did he care?"
"The news organizations use data systems to prioritize, track, and prepare stories."
"Early on, evolution branched into two distinct paths: independent organisms—those that exist on their own in the natural world—and parasites—organisms that live on other organisms. And it was, by far, the parasites that proved the more successful of the two branches."
"Sexual reproduction exists solely as a means to defeat parasites. By mixing male and female genes, sex produces offspring not exactly like either the male or female—making each generation different from the last, and presenting a moving target to intruders intent on compromising this system."
"You have no way of knowing who is responsible. My Daemon can teach almost anyone to defeat network security—especially from an existing network account."
"Russ, someone managed a coordinated global attack that not only stole rights to our worldwide network, but they did it months ago without raising a single alarm. They didn’t leave a trace."
"I don’t think our systems were breached. Not from the outside. I think it’s an inside job."
"By now you’re beginning to realize that you no longer control your network and that your backups are damaged beyond repair."
"If you attempt to do anything other than ignore my Daemon, it will destroy your company."
"The Daemon will sip your corporate blood, but it will not be fatal. More importantly, the Daemon will keep other parasites out of your system, strengthening your immunity and ensuring that the corporate host continues to survive."
"I hope you and my Daemon can peacefully coexist. I think you’ll find that, as the years roll by, you’ll be glad indeed that you didn’t try to defy it—especially as you take market share from those companies that did defy it."
"I’m guilty of this much: being a bad husband and a worse father. I’m guilty of having an affair and of being too egotistical to realize I was being set up."
"Yes. That’s the whole point. It was designed to be far-fetched."
"I’m not asking anyone to believe anything. To be honest, even I wouldn’t believe me."
"Oh, I blame some people. But their time will come."
"Keep them entertained, Anji. Keep them busy and distracted. That’s your purpose, isn’t it?"
"At his funeral he said he would destroy me. Those were his exact words. And that’s exactly what he did."
"The Daemon doesn’t hack systems. It hacks society."
"I, Peter Sebeck, accept the Daemon. And I am ready to face the consequences."
"I didn’t kill anyone, Laura. I committed adultery, but I didn’t do those other things."
"In essence Sobol is using the GPS system to convert the Earth into one big game map. We’re all in his game now."
"If we can hack our way into one of these objects, we should be able to see into the Daemon’s dimension."
"You weren’t easy to find. You ran off from that foster home. Can’t say I blame you."
"The government outsourced our background checks?"
"A meaningful existence. Living long, boring lives, milked each day by salesmen. Livestock for a permanent ruling class."
"We’re about to have a serious industrial accident here. Prearranged cover story."
"Fires don’t generally run around. I should have guessed Sobol would have more than one criterion."
"Hell of a time to realize that! Just fucking beautiful!"
"The assumptions upon which our civilization is based are no longer valid."
"The Daemon isn’t attacking us, Nat. This is a struggle between two artificial organisms. The Daemon is just a new species of corporation."
"The old social order is dissolving, Nat. It happens every few centuries."
"If the Daemon triumphs, tens of millions will die. If it fails, billions will die, and we will fall back to a seventeenth-century agrarian economy."
"I suspect that democracy is not viable in a technologically advanced society. Free people wield too much ability to destroy."
"You want to destroy the Daemon—but you offer nothing in its place."
"The only thing I care about is the Daemon’s goal."