contact bridged only by the narrowest questions — "Tiny has to ask very specific…"

Two men from opposite ends of the world manage a kind of contact only by shrinking the channel to its narrowest possible width: Gately can't follow Ewell at all and covers it with a cool stare, and the exchange works only when Ewell asks one very specific question and gets one short specific answer back. Understanding is not achieved so much as routed around, the gap between them bridged by patience and precision rather than any real meeting, which is the closest thing to communication the scene allows two people this unlike.