"Shame you couldn't warn them," she said softly. No ill-intent behind it, just a touch of wistfulness at how it all came to be. "You'd think ... you know, you'd think if you guys could have done so much damage, that you'd have better leverage. That you could have argued it as, either we get to set terms, or we will do damage, and try to stop us when we know all of this and can bring you down."

She couldn't figure out if that was cynical, or just pragmatic, really.