Afterwards there is a bad ten minutes where everybody is still standing there and nobody knows whether to leave, and Deacon holds up both completed reports over his head like a man showing a ticket.

DeaconCountersigned. Both of them. In front of you. If anybody wants to argue with a number this week, argue with that.

He is not triumphant. He looks tired and four years younger and slightly sick, and he hands the reports to Halvard without being asked.

HalvardI will mark them as not coerced. I am not convinced they are not, and I am marking them that way anyway, and you should know it costs me something.