Eventually, inevitably, Michael's attention settles on the relative newcomer at their table. He'd been on Gale's case for quite some time about his illegitimate son, urging him to bring him into the fold, but he'd half-expected nothing to ever come of it.

Very little of worth ever came from Gale, after all.

From what he can tell, though, he's at least managed to produce a clever son, one who's already outperforming his father. Michael wonders about Daniel's mother, and if the boy inherited his brains from her side of the family. Then again, she'd been willing to carry one of Gale Shurley's offspring to term, so she couldn't be that smart.

"Tell me, Daniel: what is it you're studying? I've only heard the basics."

Mostly he'd heard that Daniel was a good kid, and his brothers all but pleading with him to be nice to him. What kind of monster did they take him for?