There's an absurdity to it that is outright baffling—that Petrana, who would be cross with him for using her more familiar name in this conversation, would impart such an insight to this woman. That Petrana would believe that of him in the first place. That maybe it's true, that it could (would it?), and he has to be told it now.

Not the kind of baffling that casts immediate doubt, but flushes anger through him with a suddenness that stalls any verbal reply for a moment, that is visible if one is looking for it.

"And all the while, a division full of rifters, certain in these findings, aren't the first in line for your procedure," comes out steady, and no louder than anything else he's said, no special inflection, and yet somehow is transparently furious. "Her life matters to me. Her existence. It matters more to me than your work to you."

There is a skipped thing, a change in what he might have said before he settles on, "You had no right to put this on her."