"Well, this place isn't hell," Boyd says. "There's a general lack of flames, and that shit -- " Indicating the observation window. " -- it don't count. That's not what the preachers say. Hellfire isn't explosions, because a flame requires oxygen."

And that's very calm.

"And this place isn't heaven, either, by any account, because you have to be dead to go to heaven. I'm not dead. Sounds like you aren't, either. When you're dead, you go to one place or the other. So by the religion I came up from, there oughtn't to be dead folks here at all. The going theory is that God don't stand for that shit. So either -- " Boyd's pontificating now, gesturing with the hand with the glass, pointer finger waving. " -- either those who've said the dead walk this place are mistaken, if we're being generous about it, or those religious beliefs -- "

And now Boyd's grinning, and there's no joy in it at all.

"Are a load of shit."