revenge, as a means to a greater goal, etcetera. And, spiritually, it just makes me feel good – sort of recharges the battery, you know?”

“I don’t.” Marcus replied. It had begun to occur to him that there was to be no appealing to his captor’s sense of humanity or rationality, and in some sense that liberated the conversation. “So, you just like being a sociopath? That’s your thing?”

“That’s a bit overly-simplistic but, yes, I am a sociopath by definition. There’s a long story behind that, which I won’t bore you with, but I will tell you that I was in the military for 40 years. I fought in several wars, and I mean really fought – not in some support capacity. I have bled and killed, and have nearly been killed. I was a proficient agent of carnage and I enjoyed that. They used me like a grenade. When a plan went to hell, they could always throw Bern into the fray to a somewhat predictable end.”

Bernie paused there, but it was not a contemplative pause. He picked up his forceps and a polishing rag he used to re-wipe the already pristine surface, habitually, almost like unloading and reloading a gun. To Marcus, it felt like part of the story he was telling, rather than an intermission. “When I came home and retired” Bernie continued. “I felt like so many other vets – like I had no home to return to. I was a stranger to everyone I had known. I was marginalized and unemployable, not only because I did not have a relatable resume for the top-tier positions and because there was too much competition for the lower-tier, but also because there was no legitimate market for the skills I possessed. Even when I did get jobs, they were always short-lived. The festering sense of being unfulfilled and feeling unappreciated would inevitably drive me to resentment and surliness, which would lead to my firing after lashing out in some way. Eventually, I stopped looking for those sorts of jobs and started looking for more off-the-grid work. If you do enough of that and do it well, you start to make a name for yourself and the jobs come to you.” He paused, his frozen, furrowed expression emerged as he searched for the original question. “So yes, in a vacuum, I am a sociopath, but I’m also a professional. And, while this particular undertaking is not directly a money-making one, I am honing my craft and investing in my mental health.