Liam exited the lift with the unmistakable aura of a man about to become somebody else's administrative problem.
He rolled a flathead screwdriver between his fingers as the old lift doors slid shut behind him, leaving him alone in a narrow corridor lit by dormant ether strips that had awakened one after another at his approach.
Arik was trapped in a meeting with Cassian and several carefully selected ministers, attempting to understand the present administrative structure of Nuria.
Cassian had apparently come close to tears when Arik displayed more interest in departmental authority, regional governance, and public expenditure than in the imperial engineering archives.
He had even promised to kiss Gabriel and Damian for raising Goliath's incarnation into a man who voluntarily read budget reports.
Liam hoped someone recorded it.
The security team would catch up with him in approximately five minutes, assuming they continued using the ordinary lifts.
