looked at, not into; shouted at, not acknowledged — "When Orin had tried to kick…" · S1
When Orin had tried to kick his way out was when he’d recognized that the Subject was looking at his eyes rather than into them as previously.
Context
The interrogation renders the theme's central gap as physical fact: Orin sealed inside a giant tumbler, in full view, shouting, and met with a steady gaze that registers his eyes as surfaces rather than as windows onto anyone in there. "Looking at his eyes rather than into them" is the exact difference between being handled and being met — the same head/body sorting the novel opened on — now weaponized, the Subject deliberately declining to acknowledge that anything he says or is comes from a person worth answering.