Initiation Ceremony

"Yes, I want to know," said Brennan.
"Know what, exactly?" whispered the figure.
Brennan's face scrunched up in concentration, trying to visualize the game to its end, and hoping he hadn't blown it already; until finally he fell back on the first and last resort, which is the truth:
"It doesn't matter," said Brennan, "the answer is still yes."

A little meditation on intellectual honesty: whatever is true is true, and I want to know the truth no matter how unpleasant it seems to my primate brain.