"We were a subculture, business people in transit, growing old in planes and airports. We were versed in percentages, safety records, in the humor of flaming death."
The Island: Chapter 1, p. 6

"[Owen's] pain was radiant, almost otherworldly. He seemed to be in touch with grief,as if it were a layer of his being he'd learned how to tap."
The Island: Chapter 2, p. 19

"What's next?"
"Istanbul, Ankara, Beirut, Karachi."
"What do you do on these trips?"
"Policy updates, we call them. In effect I review the political and economic situation of the country in question."
The Island: Chapter 2, p. 33

"We scuffled. No clean blows. She took a run at me once with a kitchen thing."
"What for?"
"She found out I went to bed with a friend of hers. It led to words."
The Island: Chapter 3, p. 67

"The body was found at the edge of a village called...