"Now why would I do that, when there are so many more interesting ways to get in trouble here?"

The remark is drier than it could be, Elias still taking in the full scope of the nature of the place. It would be easy to take their assignments and assume an easygoing nature of their captors. But Elias would be a poor student of the world, never mind one attendant to the entire twentieth century, to not recognize something so thoroughly authoritarian at its roots.