the Crocodiles

White Flag's AA old-timers — the "old ruined grim calm longtimers" whom less senior members call the Crocodiles, clustered with "hideous turd-like cigars in one corner of the Provident cafeteria" (p. 354), "stone-faced chieftains who rule by some unspoken shamanistic fiat"; their decades of sobriety are what Gately half-fears and half-reveres.