Chapter 23: Perry Takes the Floor

The hearing lasted thirty-eight minutes.

I know because I counted. Not the minutes — I don't count minutes, my brain doesn't work like that — but I tracked it in the incremental way I track everything I can't directly measure: the number of times Ares Drummond uncapped and recapped his pen (eleven), the number of times Zeus Calloway shifted his weight in the chairman's seat (twice, which meant he was more rattled than he wanted to look), the number of times Anna touched the counter-filing she'd placed on the table in front of her (zero, which meant she was trying very hard to appear like she didn't need it).

Thirty-eight minutes.