[It isn't as if he hasn't ever heard Van sound concerned for him before--but it's rare enough he's always taken aback when it does happen. Which is good, in a way, as it gives him space to think about just what the hell it is he's doing that's worried his cousin so much.]

Not unless asking him what his motives were is "meddling". No--just wanted to know how much shit I'm liable to be in for not thinking he did us a favor.

[It won't stop him from speaking out. But it will let him prepare for the consequences of doing so.

Hopefully this time they won't cost him anything so valuable as his eyes.]

...Right, well, there's the pretty opportunity to show how much they've rehabilitated a mass murderer, I suppose. [He tries for some kind of humor. Not working.] It's--fuck.

He's such a zealot, Van. It breaks my heart to listen to him--to think of what they were doing here, and seven years without a response from anyone who could stop it--but it narrowed him so much, you can hear it, and--I--

[He trails off into flustered, miserable silence.]