"Can't," she said, almost immediately. "Almost all of my friends are in it, somehow. All my family. The guy I love. My kid. The only way to get all the way away from it all would be to move far, far away. Start a new life. Become someone else."

Claire closed her eyes for a second, then opened them again.

"I kind of tried once, too. The move to Manhattan and all that. But all the old business came looking, just the same. It'll keep coming, one way or another, until it gets finished."