All three men nodded, their eyes downcast.
“I didn’t hear that,” Filburt said. “Bill, do you agree?”
Bill squirmed in his chair and looked at the table. “Yes.”
“Jason, do you agree?”
Jason whispered, “Yes.”
“Professor Schmidt?”
“Yes.”
Filburt paced back and forth a few more times to get his temper under control. He reminded himself that they had to focus on the tasks ahead of them, not this latest folly. It felt like hours to the others sweating at the table by the time he sat down. Paul looked especially uncomfortable.
Filburt exhaled loudly and, with a dull thump, louder than he’d planned, brought both hands down on either side of the documents in front of him. “All right. Jason, after this meeting you and I will talk about your discussion with Harith. Right now, we still have a
