Charlie has a point, Ned thinks. He isn't as experienced with kidnappers (present company aside), but wasn't that the cliche? The mad scientist or evil wizard or criminal mastermind always showed up in person for a good gloat, to monologue and say cutting things that cut deep at the hero's vulnerabilities but ultimately revealed some crucial detail that led to their downfall.

That isn't happening, here. The men behind the curtain are staying there. And it makes them all the more ominous - the facelessness, the absence.

"Gloating would be better," he says, darkly. "At least then we'd know for sure who we were dealing with."