asking, between only the two of them

Across a whole night of nations and doctrines and the chasm of language and value, Marathe keeps trying to reach the one man on the shelf with him — stripping away O.N.A.N. and the A.F.R. to ask person-to-person, "between only us," whether Steeply is actually understanding. The plea is the human residue under all the geopolitics: two sealed operatives, each a disguise to the other, and the recurring reach to make contact "between only us" before the sun comes up and the personae close back over them. (The politics of the exchange stays nationalism-onan's.)