Trying to keep it from too unreasonable.
Instead of talking right away, Ashlyn started fiddling with a salt shaker, long enough for Norm to wonder whether he’d have to needle her a little again. He liked her well enough, but… well, she was a former Coexister, and he used to be a Peep. That was always going to be a thing, no matter how much they were both supposed to pretend now how all of that old competitive crap was also in a mass grave.
She got to the point eventually, though. “They’re not checking out that door,” Ashelyn told him. “You remember? The one with all the locks on it? From the tunnel?”
“Sure, I do.” Norm frowned. “That doesn’t sound like procedure. They sent in a reaction squad, right?”
“Oh, yeah, they went in twenty minutes after we got back aboveground. Full squad, heavy weapons, hardwired comms. The F-SOBs don’t mess around with their gear.”
“It’d be nice if more of that trickled down to us,” Norm muttered. “I’m qualified on all that stuff. — Anyway, what happened then?”