Phil saw a fat man and his lean wife at Nathalie's stand. The Belgian woman ditched her MBA halfway through and joined their company because she wanted to, "Have some fun for once." Scamming people day in and day out? That was fun? He gave it some thought. With the MBA she would've been able to scam folks too, and at a higher level.

He inhaled deeply. The cigarette smoke irritated his lungs, but he was way past caring. Annoying children ran around screaming their little heads off and he wanted to strangle all of them. All at once, preferably. Perhaps with a very long chainsaw ...

He felt something stir within him all of a sudden, just as he stepped on his cigarette. Was it because he'd skipped lunch? He looked at the fat man and his wife and he thought, that's me over there. That's my wife.

Nausea overcame him like molasses of terror. He stood transfixed, in oversized, red shoes, as the husband and wife walked away. Only the wife seemed to be smiling.

"Hey, Nathalie. Who were those people?"

Nathalie was busy removing some gunk from her teeth. "Huh?"

"The guys you just scammed. Who were they?"

She plopped her finger out of her mouth. "Scammed! I didn't scam anybody. In fact, I helped them. Gave them the name of that scientist I was telling you about the other day."

"Wasn't he a scammer too? Only with an office downtown and all?"

"No," said Nathalie curtly. "He's a serious man. Serious and clever."

Phil didn't feel well. Phil? Was that his name? Suddenly he was not so sure ...

It was dark.

Inside the sack the scent of myrrh and cinnamon had made him nauseous. Was it worth it, really? Wasn't this a bit much, just to visit that pompous Roman?

The perfume was sure to win him over. It hadn't failed her yet. The way to a man's heart is via his nostrils. Anippe, his wet nurse, assured Phil that the fragrance could make even Ra fall in love with him.

Him? Was that right? Phil ... The name didn't seem right.

It was dark.

He opened his eyes to see the gorgeous creature before him, bubbles rushing upward from its head towards the surface. He wrapped his tentacles around the lovely creature's hand ...

Did he have tentacles? All this water around him—was it usually like this?

It was dark.

Phil slowly nodded his head and admired his own calligraphy. Most of the principles, and reasonings, contained in this volume, were published in a work in three volumes, called A Treatise of Human Nature: a work which the Author had projected before he left College, and which he wrote and published not long after. Why, yes. It sounded quite alright, didn't it? God, he was talented.

The world would remember the name of Phil—

Wait, was it really 'Phil'? Wasn't it something beginning with a D?

It was dark.

Phil opened his eyes and there was Barlow, gasping. "Well?" said the scientist. "How was it?"