Something's off. There's a full minute of nothing, no fresh scrawl on the page. John almost considers trying again. He's not sure how these things work, and maybe the message didn't go through.

But there it is, finally, and it's... perfectly bland. And perfectly polite, which is more than can be said for the messages before it. Maybe he's being overly suspicious. Maybe she's just cowed, trying to step back in line.

Is it? I was under the impression it wouldn't be, given that I'm just another leader whom the people "don't want".