Marcus got the federal notice at 2pm.
He walked directly to the library.
He knocked.
He waited a beat longer than usual.
He entered.
Kendrick and Damian were on opposite sides of the table.
Marcus noticed the distance.
He noticed it was chosen rather than maintained.
The specific quality of two people who had made a decision about proximity and were comfortable with what they had decided.
He did not comment.
He put the federal review filing on the table.
Both of them read it.
Marcus watched them read.
He had been doing that for weeks now — watching two people read the same document and calibrating what it meant by how they read it.
Damian read faster.
Finished first.
Set it down.
"Federal review means national scrutiny," he said.
"Yes."
Kendrick finished.
Set his copy down.
"Victor escalated to the federal level."
Marcus: "Yes."
