Framework wrote:
It would be like Clark to beat himself up over their deaths.
I think he would, too, but not because he felt responsible for them. Remember, he was a 20-21 year old college student when he was kidnapped, imprisoned, and tortured. He's obviously mentally stronger than most, but he was still very young when all this happened and there is no way he'd come out of this without being permanently traumatized. I would imagine he's either been conditioned not to talk (maybe Trask beat him more when he tried or else he is doing it out of defiance if everything he said was just turned around or used against him) or he's figured out that anyone who does try to talk to him ends up dead. He's learned to withdraw as a way to stay alive.
Kathy (who carefully walked out between two parked cars today and thought, "If I were Trask, there'd be a bus."
My only problem with his death so early in the story is that he can't be tortured himself in proportion to what he's done to Clark. The characters may not seek revenge, but we readers sure want it!)
