Billy took the bottle back, trying not to listen. He didn't take a drink, or even look at the bottle. When Mike went for the closet, Billy returned to his post by the door. Waiting further instruction.

But try as he might, there were cracks in that wall he'd built that he couldn't quite patch. The smallest trickle of panic started to leak out and he started putting things together. Mike's words. The bat. The interrogation. The towel...no, Mike had it to clean up the blood. That's all. But this man, were his crimes really worth this treatment? Even to someone like Mike?

The mission. It was a mission. Mike wasn't his friend, he was the mission. A very bad man, reporting to an even worse man. When this was over, they'd both be locked up. Shut it off and don't think about it.