Jerry’s style as a leader never ran to the standard sicko cult practices of public chew-outs and group humiliations. Jerry rarely raised his voice to anyone, and even in the Troupe’s formal powwows, he rarely said anything beyond short summaries and a few measured words of praise. However, Jerry truly excelled at mysterious private conferences. Before the fight, he’d never called Jane in for one of his heavy private head-to-head sessions. But she had seen him quietly take people aside—even the Troupe’s hard-bitten core people, like Carol or Greg or Ellen Mae—and she’d seen them emerge an hour or so later, looking shaken and serious and kind of square-shouldered and glowing-eyed.