"It's not torture," Philip says. "We're altered, and it's an intense upbringing, but we're raised with care and devotion. The Director is incapable of cruelty. It can only work for the best outcome for the planet. The people in the program who raise the Historians are screened. They're all kind, just firm." They weren't parents but they were something like family. "And we're not trying to save something."

Philip sits down in the sand, stretching his legs out and into the water. "We're trying to save everything. We only have another couple of centuries at most before the whole planet will become completely uninhabitable. Even the Shelters wouldn't be able to withstand it, as the atmosphere is stripped away." He looks out at the water. "I would do it a thousand times over to change the past and stop it all ever happening."