Authority

The Southern Reach called the last expedition the twelfth, but Control had counted the rings, and it was actually the thirty-eighth iteration, including six “eleventh” expeditions.

What kind of psycho gave a kid a gun, even unloaded? This was the thought that occurred now. Perhaps the kind of psycho who wouldn’t mind coming out of retirement at his remote cabin to work for Central again as the Voice, to run his own grandson.

the end of their conversation, for no good reason, he told a joke. “What’s brown and sticky?”
“I know that one,” the Voice said. “A stick.”
“A turd.”
Click.