"Experiment? What experiment?"
"Not sure, but they just documented our actions, clearly recording how we killed Mih. Whatever experiment they are doing, we have now become his test subjects."
At this point, Charles's mind was flooded with the image of the half-faced assistant chef who had died. Had he... failed the experiment?
"Do you think... these guys could have been transformed by the Foundation?"
Richard's guess sparked a lightbulb moment in Charles's mind, the previous records of Experiment 096 surfacing in his thoughts.
The Foundation had an experimentee put on 096 and observed the changes.
If that scenario were nested into their current situation, then the one who just died was the experimentee, and they were playing the role of 096. With that, everything connected.
Why would they send in their own kind, why were other monsters being held opposite them, and it also explained why they hadn't killed themselves.