An Understanding (I)

What a fucking situation. We’re all stuck here like perfect gentlemen, taking out a couple papers, sniffing at them, paraphrasing a section or two, lifting a limp wrist, then folding them over and starting on the next - these are the pathetic things we’ve become. The whole gang’s here, and the Kid, who’s looking more and more like he’s a thing working for the other side , one of their experiments at “equalizing”, some freak even by their standards. But there’s nothing to prove that. He’s a puny one, to say the least, and could easily be understood to be a suped-up Mant - yet still, all the rest are listening to him, to the creaks of his bony and insipid little jaw. Even Rob and Tony, who could crush his head between their thighs without a single flex, sit on either side of him like dobermans, looking down at him, squaring their chests. What a fucking situation.