"When disinclined to give into his arrogance I was consigliere to the worst warlord in our recent history. Civilized behavior must be preserved where it can when it comes to our species." Even when he was not talking about himself, Shockwave was talking about himself.

Then, Emma struck home and the observations she made were the diamond hard truth. That made Shockwave rankle even as they sat in this tenuous headspace of his.

"One significant disadvantage of being biomechanical," Shockwave said slowly, "Is that like any machine with the right sort of finesse we can be reprogrammed."