Tobias? Oh, he’s fine. Perfectly fine. Nothing wrong at all. Why do you ask?
…
“Yessir.” Buckley paused. “What do we do if they start surrendering, Boss?”
Tobias thought that was the funniest thing he had ever heard, but you tried not to laugh, these days. Too many people started, and never stopped. “We’ll figure it out then.” A thought occurred to him. “We’ll be busting out the prisoners soon, won’t we? They’ll have ideas.” Maybe just one giggle? No, still too risky, dammit. “Oh, I bet they will!”
The look on Buckley’s face was enough to make Tobias wonder if he had giggled anyway. “Right. So, hey, Boss: should we be looking for a communications room, or something? Check in with home that way? Get a chance to talk with everybody?”
The corporal seemed to be a little off right now, but that was still a great question. “Keep an eye out, but the people here probably didn’t have one. They were hiding, remember? Hiding from the War and just wanting to be left alone.” Tobias scowled. “Until the Red Imperials came. Then it didn’t matter what anybody wanted.”
