His already round eyes go slightly wider at her flippant and admittedly cutting words. She's right, of course, that's not in question... things have gone to hell in the Districts lately, and had been well on their way for some time, and Linden is painfully familiar with the hollow cheeks and eyes characteristic of 6's factory workers, pale as ghosts despite living in the desert.

"I want to take my Tributes to 6," he says in an undertone. "That's one of the biggest differences between the new Games and the old ones... when we were in the Arena, it actually felt like something was at stake. When I won, we got more water rations and they built a library in 6. I felt like I'd done something to help them. To the new Tributes, 'them' is just a vague concept, faceless masses that are elsewhere."