strode over to a display case, withdrawing a revolver from its mount. “This, my friend, is a Colt Peacemaker. Custer carried this weapon, though he left it in his tent at Little Big Horn. Amazing piece of engineering. We go from banging rocks to make fire to building this.

“Beauty. It’s why I love humanity and why I will save it.”

482 replenished my Scotch as I finished it. “You show your love of humanity by its slaughter.”

“I’ve built an ark. I’m saving what can be saved! Of course, our new world’ll need others of vision and strength. You and your colleagues’ve thinned my ranks of Tin Men. That’s left me in the need of able humans in my employ.”

He smiled at me, hands opened wide to offer me Heaven and earth.

I s...

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