"Sure. No problem," Billy said easily. He'd listened to it all, trying to hide how deep it cut. He wanted to tell Mark everything. That he'd been young and stupid. That he didn't have a lawyer look over the contract before he signed it. That legally, there wasn't much he could do. That he was trying to fight them, but there wasn't much he could do. That they rewrote his songs and changed the music. That he'd written things that would fit in right here in Alphabet City but they insisted on washing it all until it would have mass appeal. He wanted to tell Mark all of this and more, but he couldn't. So he swallowed it down. And it came out in his tone, turning it sour.

"You really think that's how it is?" Billy asked, sounding rather defeated. "That all of this is his choice? What I've heard, just you know, through rumors and internal gossip, is that he's not all that happy. That the reason they moved him here, so far from HQ is that he was getting restless and not giving the big wigs what they wanted." That wasn't exactly the truth. It was also a move to help keep him hidden since people were sniffing around and trying to dig out his identity. As far as company records showed, Billy really was just a personal assistant to Higgins, and they were out here to recruit new talent.