Henry Green spoke first. In front of him were several copies of what looked like a bound report.

“Thank you, gentlemen, for coming in today. As I mentioned yesterday, Statistical Solutions LLC has decided to exercise its option to terminate its consultancy agreement with LifeDeals, Incorporated, as of close of business today, March third, 2011. In doing so, we are acting without prejudice, and we adhere to the articles of our initial agreement—”

“Yes, yes, blah, blah, blah,” Edmund said, interrupting Henry rudely. “We get it, Henry, you’re reading us the legal fine print so we think twice about suing you for incompetence. ‘If our information is useless, don’t blame us.’ Now, let’s play a game. Hands up, who in this room’s a lawyer? You?” Edmund asked, pointing quickly at Tom. Tom stared back at Edmund and didn’t flinch. “Don’t think so,” Edmund commented with a snicker. “How about you two?” Edmund gestured toward the two men dressed in shirts and ties. “Wrong again. Looks to me like a couple of accountants.”

“Mr. Mathews, I am trying to do this as painlessly and professionally as I can. Yes, I have asked our legal representation to join us, as you have so astutely observed—”

“He’s calling me Mr. Mathews now,” Edmund said, swinging around to address Russell. “He’s definitely been talking to his lawyers.”

“Okay, Edmund, that’s enough,” Russell mumbled. He was tired of making excuses for Edmund when he blew up in public like this. It was like traveling around town with a rebellious and obnoxious teenager.

In fact, Russell and Edmund had discussed whether they should bring their own lawyer to the meeting. Russell contended that if each side lawyered up, it was more than likely that the meeting would be aborted before it began. One lawyer would speak, the other would object, and LifeDeals and Statistical Solutions would be advised to leave the matter to their legal representation. What Russell had not anticipated was that Edmund saw red the moment he spotted Statistical Solutions’ legal counsel, who stood out from the others like a sore thumb. On edge from everything that was going on, Edmund took the man’s presence as a personal affront.

“If I may make a suggestion,” Russell said. “We came here this morning for the report that you promised. Let’s deal with the legal issues of our relationship after the fact.”

“Okay, Russell, thank you,” Henry said, glancing at Edmund, who appeared reasonably composed. Well, you won’t look so composed in five minutes, Henry thought. “We’ll proceed with our presentation. There’s a copy of our termination letter in the packets we’ll give you at the end of the meeting, as well as a completely nonprejudicial note from our legal department reiterating the reasonable scope of our services, which is what I was trying to do a few minutes ago. But I appreciate you’re eager to hear the results. I want to assure you that we had our best people working on this. Isabel Lee, whom you met and who is unable to join us today, put in a solid shift on this. So did Tom Graham, who graduated two years ago from MIT. . . .”