"We won't be heard here," he says with confidence, then reconsiders.

"And if we are, it's by the type who would find out anyway, anywhere you'd choose to go. So you can drop that pretty chrome mask you're trying to keep on, along with all those ambitious lies you're making up, and start talking. Now."

He says it casually enough. He leans against the wall and crosses his arms, pleasantly attentive.