Tony's breathy puh said what it needed to about the way he felt she was taking the whole thing with a relative lack of gravitas, even though he knew it used to be exactly the way he would have handled his response years ago. Too much fear and sincerity had set in since then.

"I wouldn't say no to a whiskey," he said, not so easily just spilling. It was his information, and he might yet have a need to have kept it close to his chest. He had Peter to worry about, if things spiraled.

"I don't know you or your qualifications here," he added.