"It was a reasonable question!" Neil objects, a smile and laugh on his mouth. And it is, he thinks. Everything's such a mess of time sometimes; the last person from the 1970s he met was his own age, but then he gets thinking of how old he might have been in the 1970s, and it all goes a bit sideways.

But, Christ, that does put it a little bit in perspective. They're hardly very far apart in actual age, closer than he and Guy--but then, through the mess of Darrow and the onward march of time, it's put that gap back in place.

"Well, you're younger than my father, so that's really the most important part."