This is what you get when you have readers. It says something about my frame of mind that I read it rather more darkly than you wrote it.

Speaking as a Very Smart Person, my perception of Mac, a Very Very Very Smart person, is that in spite of everything, he will always be inclined to underestimate how stupid people can be. Hence, he expects betrayal (the attempt to pull him over the edge), but not a lethal level of sloppiness (Félix loses his grip) (in more ways than one).

That makes a whole lot of sense; also, I just always expect them* to lose their damn grip because physics is a bitch and adrenaline makes people sloppy.

Your ego should be well inflated, because you did a job to be proud of.

*You know. People dangling in narratives.