There were people in the building at ten to nine.
James came up the back stairs and there was a queue at the coffee machine on the second-floor landing, four of them, and one was a screener he knew by sight and three of them were wearing lanyards that had been printed on Friday. Somebody had put a laminated sheet on the wall of the briefing room that said INTAKE 01 — ORIENTATION with a fortnight of dates under it.
One of them stepped out of his way and said "Morning, Mr Ganner," and James said morning back, and kept going, and that was the whole of it.
Nobody needed him.
---
Maeve had the strategy room set up and did not look at him when she asked.
"Did you spend them?"
"No."
"James."
"I know."
"Fifteen. You've had ten since Floor 27 and you got five more off thirty." She turned round. "That's most of a level sitting in a box."
