JULIAN

I set the phone on the desk.

I looked at the window for a long time. Not at anything specific. At the city in the particular and unseeing way of a man whose attention had left the room and was doing work elsewhere, who was looking at a surface while the relevant work was happening at a depth that did not require the eyes.

The shape of it.

The complaint was Bridget. The complaint was Bridget and Mercer and money and preparation and the specific and preemptive quality of a first move made before the opponent's position was fully established. That was the surface layer and it was familiar....