Adam nodded a little. He understood connections forged that way. It bound him to Elle, along with other things, in ways he couldn't make his Peter understand, after the things she'd done. But there in the coldness of that place, both of them prisoners of her father, they had needed one another, too. And now that he was out...he had no idea what that meant.

"Parkman here...well. He's not actively hunting us down, obviously, but he does keep protecting all the wrong people against those of us trying to make a better world for our kind, where we don't have to live in fear. He is something of a thorn in my side." Bastard kept protecting Bob. From his own father, even. What sort of son did that? Besides his, obviously. Sometimes he really thought his former friends had ruined this generation completely.