Bram carried the compass in a sealed packet small enough to fit inside his coat. He kept it in his hands instead.
The independent contact had arranged the visit after speaking with Corin Dast’s family. They would meet him in the ground-floor sitting room of a relative’s house. Tessa could witness the transfer if she remained only as long as the family wished. No one had agreed to receive the whole expedition team, a reporter or an apology prepared for distribution afterward.
Bram read those conditions again at the corner before they approached.
“You don’t have to explain them to me twice,” Tessa said.
“I know.”
“You can still ask me to stop you if you start saying something you didn’t mean to say.”
He looked down at the packet. “If I make it sound like the threat made the decision for me.”
“I can ask you to be precise. I can’t decide what they should hear.”
