Fink Quotes

“Jaron, stop," Fink said. "We have a problem."
I turned back to see his face poke down from the hole through which I'd entered the cavern. In what little light he held, I saw how grim his expression was.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"How many steps have you taken?"
"I don't know. You never said to count them!"
"Sorry. I was supposed to tell you that."
"I don't know how many steps, Fink. Does it matter?"
"I'll ask." He disappeared for a moment; then I saw this face again. "Yes, it matters a lot. Could you have gone twelve steps?"
"Yes. Or maybe thirteen."
"No, at thirteen steps, you'd be dead already. Is it twelve steps?"
I closed my eyes and tried to estimate the count. "Yes, maybe. Are these real instructions?"
"I'm telling you what Levitimas said to me. But he mumbles."
"I'M not mumbling, Fink. Tell me what to do!"
"Jump."
"Jump where? To what?"
"I don't know."
"Fink, do I jump straight ahead or turn and jump? Do I jump up or down?
"Yes, try that."
I cursed and didn't care if he heard me. "Nothing is ahead of me, Fink."
"You don't know that. Jump!"
"If you're wrong about this, I'll kill you."
"If I'm wrong, the jump will kill you first.”
― Jennifer A. Nielsen, The Shattered Castle

“I'm sorry, she thought. But she said nothing. I can't save you or anybody else from being dark. She thought of Frank. I wonder if he's dead yet. Said the wrong things; spoke out of line. No, she thought. Somehow he likes Japs. Maybe he identifies with them because they're ugly. She had always told Frank that he was ugly. Large pores. Big nose. Her own skin was finely knit, unusually so. Did he fall dead without me? A fink is a finch, a form of bird. And they say birds die.”
― Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle