"God, that sounds like something you'd want to take a baseball bat to in the first five minutes. Maybe you could reprogram them and use them as morale-crushing weapons against the opposition."

He nods. "Great. So what exactly do you do here, besides set up different empires to fall and get replaced by other awful leaders?"

He makes a note of the mental health coverage. Maybe it's about time he looks into that. Just in case.

He shakes his head. She's still convinced Stacy was testing her, that it was all on her. Naturally. He supposes it's comforting that some egocentrism doesn't change.

He jerks his wrist, surprised. "Um, Howard. Yours?"

He hopes it's something he can pronounce. If not the little marble's getting called Shooter.