The chair beside Eli was empty when Bram entered. He started toward it because it belonged to the side of the room where he knew people. The woman at the other end of the table pointed to a chair opposite hers.
“There.”
Bram changed direction. Sera remained near the window with her copies. The maintenance envoy sat between two representatives, close enough to translate without becoming the person every question had to pass through. A jug of water stood within everyone’s reach. No one had arranged the room to make the conversation easy.
The neutral building had once stored tools for several neighboring workshops. Its current users had cleared the table but left the cabinets locked. Eli could hear work continuing through an inner wall. The people meeting Bram had chosen a place they could leave without going through his friends.
The woman who had indicated the chair wore a support around one wrist. Eli did not ask whether the transport had caused it. She gave the name she wanted used for the account, then specified that it was not to appear in the public version.
“Why did you deliver restrained passengers?” she asked.
Bram looked at the record in front of him. “My family was threatened.”
