God, where to start? Claudia thought back over her time Outside, memories she'd tried not to visit for almost a decade now. Before she realized it, she heard herself saying, "...all those homeless people." The Deck had no such thing.

"The--ignorant violence they visit on each other." Drive-by shootings. She'd actually witnessed one, window shopping downtown. It was only by a miracle she'd avoided being detained for witness questioning. "Drug addicts, alcoholics, degenerates who seem not to care for their situation, just...eke their way through life, somehow."

Unconsciously, she shivered, then took another healthy dose of Scotch. Looking over at Ben, she asked seriously, "How can individuals...live like that?" A Diamond born and bred, she'd never known poverty, or the lack of, well, anything. Recalling such things firmly kept in the forefront of her mind the absolute absurdity of her mother's asinine schemes and other nonsense.