We’re in the hands of infinite power and infinite sadism. - Larry Niven

Jesus Pietro was worried. The Sons of Earth, if they got this far, would go straight to the vivarium to free their compatriots. But if Matthew Keller was his own agent...
If the ghost of Alpha Plateau was not a rebel, but a thing with its own unpredictable purpose...
Jesus Pietro worried.

...sometimes the only way to call attention to bad construction was to set fire to the building.

He was shaking. A mass verbal attack can do that to a man, can smash his self-respect and set up doubts which remain for hours or days or forever. There are well-developed verbal techniques for many to use against one. You never let the victim speak without interruption; never let him finish a sentence. You interrupt each other so that he can’t quite catch the drift of your arguments, and then he can’t find the flaws. He forgets his rebuttal points because he’s not allowed to put them into words. His only defense is to walk out. If, instead, you throw him out…