Juno set the clock where the contributors could see it.
It was an ordinary spring clock, borrowed from the room where the summit’s interpreters rested between sessions. Its ticking disappeared whenever anyone spoke. Eli liked that about it. The interval would pass whether the people at the table agreed with its consequences or not.
No one would feed an anchor during this exercise. Wooden markers stood for operators, weighted sacks for prepared equipment, and shaded strips for the reserve contributions already accepted at the sites. The numbers beside them came from actual offers. Juno had crossed out the last conditional total before the observers arrived.
A hunter stopped at the doorway and asked whether declining yesterday had removed his invitation to watch.
“There’s a seat,” the independent commander said.
He sat near the exit. Eli moved a tool case from beneath the chair without asking him to explain anything else.
The first site operator arrived with a folded correction. Her replacement would pass through a checkpoint whose guards had changed since the previous survey. She could confirm the road beyond it, but not the time a party carrying unfamiliar regulator pieces would spend there.
Juno opened the fold and put the uncertain interval beside the route.
