"On second thought," grumbled Javert, apparently not quite listening, "dying sounds like a decidedly more pleasant option. Or, at the very least, crashing. If we could overpower what nurses are here and perhaps distract the driver - "

He lapsed into half-audible muttering directed at a nonexistent cravat, his posture relaxing somewhat from ramrod-straight to imperceptibly less ramrod-straight. It seemed he had, for the moment, accepted the inevitability of the bus ride.

Of course, that was because the bus hadn't actually begun to move yet.