"A few requirements in advance: please no muck pits, no undercover assignments where I'll need to be utterly pious, and no suicide missions." This isn't a pact deal, after all: if things look utterly dire, you'll be on your own, Ellis, and he'd prefer to make a as clean an exit as possible.

He says this primly— proudly— in the face of that smile Ellis is wearing, wanting to be sure they've set all the figurative cards in place before reaching a proper accord.