She had been in the morning brief four times before this one and each time had felt incrementally less like being observed and incrementally more like being included, which was a distinction that mattered considerably more than it probably should have.
Today was different from all four previous occasions.
She noticed it the moment she came into the boardroom and found the seat to Valdris's immediate right unoccupied. It was Colt's usual position and Colt's materials were there but Colt himself was standing further along the table in conversation with Gerald. The seat to Valdris's right was the seat from which the room was most visible, from which every face could be seen and read, and from which a participant was most visible in return. It was the seat that said something specific about
