“That’s why I’m ordering it. To the Japanese, it’s worth too much money to kill the last one. So either I eat it, or the Japanese are going to eat it, but there is no version of reality where our kids will live in a world with bluefin tuna.”

The man glared at Knight. “So we might as well dance on their graves?”

“It’s simple math. I take no joy in the fact that certain animals don’t have a place in the world we’re creating, but I also know not to pick fights that are already lost. A man should never draw a line he can’t hold.”

“How about rhinos? What does your math tell you about them?”

Knight shook his head. “Trust me, you don’t want to hear my opinion on that.”

“And what happens if we can’t even save the flagship species like pandas and tigers?” the Afrikaner pressed. “What chance do the snakes and fish have when they’re on the brink? You can only lose so many species before humans are next to go. At some point, a line has to be drawn.”

Knight could sense the man’s passion and sincerity and respected his commitment even though it was ill placed. Everything was numbers to Knight, and unlike people, numbers didn’t lie.

“Whatever lines we draw don’t matter,” Knight countered. “The new middle class in China is larger than the US population, and they want the shit that we have: cars, luxury goods, tuna. We hunted and ate nearly every wild creature we had hundreds of years ago. Why do you think there is a lion on the coat of arms in England? Because there used to be lions before we killed them all. Europe, North America—they used to have more lions and rhinos than Africa. We just got to ours first. Africa’s wild game happens to be the last stuff on the menu, and now we get all fucking righteous about saving the animals.”

“This is about saving our planet. Our home. Don’t you see that?”

The waiter returned, setting the fresh plate of bluefin in front of Knight. Knight took a nonchalant bite as the other man watched, looking viscerally inclined to knock him out.

Knight spoke through his mouthful of endangered fish. “Earth won’t last forever. On a long enough timeline, we’re all gonna get smoked by an asteroid anyway.”

The South African knocked back his beer, then seized Knight’s bottle of Sapporo and emptied the rest into his glass. “Do you know all rhino horn really is?”

Knight had heard it a thousand times, and beat him to the punch line.