Boone gulped and swallowed. He spoke to The Hat. 'You said the Highway to Eternity?' That is not what I said. I said the Highway of Eternity. 'Small difference,' Boone told him. Not so small as you might think.

'It is a net,' said Horseface, 'useful for the fishing of the universe.' Enid crinkled up her face, staring at what he called a net. It was a flimsy thing and …

'This is the core of the galaxy,' Horseface said. 'This is the very center of everything there is. A huge black hole eating up the galaxy. The end of everythin…

Perversity, she thought. Could that have been what happened to the human race - a willing perversity that set at naught all human values which had been so hard…