Friday's final event briefing ended at six with every volunteer assigned, each keyholder confirmed, plus no archive case blocking an accessible route. I checked the room once more before walking toward the exhibition café where Nina plus Thea waited separately. Event competence could not prepare me for a conversation where no arrangement would remove every risk.
Nina occupied the café table nearest the open entrance toward the public residency hall. Thea sat opposite with her portfolio beside the chair, leaving the third seat between them angled toward neither woman.
I approached the waiting table only after both women had noticed my arrival. Nina pointed toward the third chair without offering the hand she normally placed between us.
"Before anybody begins, nobody is on trial," Nina said, keeping her voice steady above the café noise, "we are not proving who deserves Kofi."
