"Your words tell me you think I kill without justice," Evandau says, his eyes back to the barrel and his fingers tracing a deep scoring that may compromise the weapon's usefulness. "I kill to protect. I kill to survive. And, in this war, I kill to save others the servitude that it forces them into when it corrupts their minds."

Next is the stock of the gun, requiring an inspection before he can determine how best to clean and restore it. "I don't kill simply to kill. That is the perversion of the enemy."