"I wanna be able to say I was scared for my life or they were gonna do somethin' to me to make me regret it if I didn't, and I can't even say that," Reno said, his words snowballing on ahead while he tried damn hard not to look as desperate to quit speaking as he felt. "It was all I was, is all. Wanted outta the slums, so I joined the Turks. Expected it to be dirty. Just turned out to be dirtier than anyone thought it was gonna be. And then it got worse, and worse, and it was like pullin' the rug out from underfoot, zoto. There was a war and there were terrorists and there were deserters and worse, and all I cared about was that we were Turks, and that was what Turks did."

Deep, deep pull of scotch, now.

"All I ever had to be proud of."