That'll make for some interesting times, won't it? Eddie is doing a good job at proving to Mike that he knows what he's doing, but might just be getting a false-positive on the whole pushing-around thing. Generally speaking, Mike comes across as a nice guy who'll put up with a lot from people. And so far, they're in a situation where Mike's unlikely to transform into a proverbial Immovable Object, but it's happened before when people thought he was someone they could roll over; a few of those people are even in unmarked graves somewhere in the Hindu Kush. There's little chance that Eddie's in any danger of that, but it makes for an interesting little dance of exploration and deception. While surrounded by ants!

Mike has been examining the candles, too. They seem to be of uniform height and construction, but several have been burned partway down and then put back into the box.

"Looks like whoever used these things didn't need 'em for very long. Just short visits. Need a match?"

He has a partly-used matchbook from one of his MRE packs, and he takes it out of his pocket.