Machinations and clandestine meetings under streetlamps in the dead of night, please, do go on!

John Hardy may be the only nonhuman in the bunch (?), but the idea of people meeting to play games with lives is almost more eerie when done by our own kind. That said, Mr. Hardy is one terrifying gentleman. The way his attitudes towards humanity as a species mirror that of the others' towards the people they're betting on was nicely done.