"I know," Hickey says, as he takes a few steps closer to Sveta. There's something gentle in his tone. It's a calculated gentleness, deployed entirely to keep her on his side, but it's sincere enough that the fakery could be overlooked.

"But there wasn't much I could do during all of that. There wasn't much any of us can do. So I did what I could, focusing on me and my friends."