"Of course," Ned says, nodding his understanding. Need to know basis. He should have realized that is how things would work. That that would be the safest, both for Charlie and the people he worked for. It's all so intricate, so unlike any of the jobs that he had worked over the years (and there had been a fair few of them).

"Mustache Pete?" Is that a phrase he should know? Somehow he expects that Charlie isn't just talking about a guy named Pete who happened to have a particularly remarkable mustache. Charlie might be ignorant about the future and uneasy about that, but in some ways Ned is just as ignorant, in the opposite direction. There are phrases and pieces of information that Charlie takes for granted that are completely foreign to Ned.

He has another drink of the bubblegum mix and thinks that the taste isn't so bad, once you start to get used to it. He's at that perfect buzz point, now, feeling loose-limbed and flushed in the face and less worried about the future, about things that are past his control.