She pointed up at one of the old skyscrapers of the Central Business District, a modernist edifice made of steel and local limestone. It was the Royal Petroleum Building, the one he had seen the eagle roosting in that morning. Donny had been there before, maybe fifteen years earlier, for document review on a big commercial case. This had been the company’s US headquarters then, before they relocated to Houston. But walking up now was the first time he really noticed that the building was made out of fossils. You could see them there in the exterior limestone as you waited at the door, the first secure door Donny had seen in the whole city.

“What do you keep in here?” said Donny, watching the security protocols.

“The secret history of the world,” she said.

“Now you sound like Joyce,” said Donny.

Percy smiled. “I’m probably repeating her,” she said. “Because this is her project more than anyone’s. You can ask her about it yourself.”

29

As he saw her standing there in the tall doorway, which made her look tall, too, even though she was not, Donny felt the shudder, and shut it down as quickly as he could.

“Hello, Donny,” said Joyce. She smiled as she sized him up, revealing the lines in her face, lines that had been etched by more than smiles. She still had the freckles on her brown skin, and some new spots where the sun had taken its toll. And yet the age only made her more beautiful. Maybe because he knew some of the story behind how it had been earned.

“Joyce,” he said.

She proffered no embrace, nor even a handshake.

“I guess you heard I was coming,” he said.

“I was the one who proposed we shoot you on sight,” she said. “But I got outvoted.” It was hard to tell if she was joking.

Donny looked at Percy, whose face suggested it was true.

“We compromised on the cage,” said Percy. “A little shock treatment to help open your mind.”

“Percy thinks we can turn you,” said Joyce, raising her eyebrows. “I told her we can probably educate you, but that you are too mired in the world that’s dying to be able to come unstuck.”

“I just think we should be able to work out a deal,” said Donny.

“Exactly what I’m talking about,” said Joyce. “So we have come up with a new plan. I talked with the other members of the Council and they agree.”

“What’s that?” said Percy.

“There will be no negotiations. But we are going to have a rehearing of the case against Ms. Hamilton-Green’s trust. As long as Donny here agrees on behalf of his client that whatever decision we come up with after we hear his side will be enforceable in any jurisdiction.”

“I can’t agree to that. I don’t have the authority.”