JULIAN 

The message came through Marcus.

I want to note this specifically because Thomas had my number. Had always had my number, the private one, the one that did not appear in any corporate directory, the one I had given no one but that existed in Thomas's possession the way most things did: quietly, without explanation, as a particular and specific demonstration of what Thomas considered basic operational awareness. He could have called. He never called directly when a message would accomplish the same thing with the additional and particular quality of the medium itself being the first communication, the specific and deliberate quality of a summons that arrives through...