One thing was sure: Richard was terrible at hiding the truth, and the last drop of it was pulled out of his tormented psyche despite his efforts; it came out in painful, somewhat inarticulate blobs as Jack attacked the matter from all sides, placing strategic questions at the critical points of the story, to eliminate the possibility of any important details being left out. After he squeezed the whole truth out of his friend, like one would get the last glob of toothpaste from an almost empty tube, he seemed content with the results, and pondered deep in thought for a while. He had that preoccupied look on his face, the one he got when he was planning something, which was exactly what Richard dreaded.

“We're not doing anything about this, you hear me?” he tried to jump in front of his friend's speeding train of thought, but he knew his efforts were wasted, because once Jack made up his mind, very few things in the universe were capable of changing it. His mother's disapproval was one of them, and Richard grabbed onto that unlikely straw with the despair of a drowning person.

“Think how upset your mother would be if she found out we broke into the factory at a time like this! We can't do that to her, dude!” he told Jack, responsibly.

“She wouldn't be more upset than your dad!” Jack replied, giving his friend a long, probing look. “I'm proud of you, Snake. I didn't think you had it in you, man! How long have you been sneaking into the factory?” his probing stare continued to poke around in Richard's mind, in search of juicy details.

“Long enough to know that it has become unrecognizable,” Jack frowned. “I still can't figure out how everything is still working, it's like the plant is smart enough to avoid interfering with any of the vital components.”

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