The tension in the air thickened slowly but inevitably, like a thunderstorm that you can't see on the horizon but that your body can feel - in the tingle of your temples, in the metallic taste in your mouth. It hung over the deck of the snow-white yacht like a dense blanket, woven of misunderstandings, resentments, and old family debts. It smelled of salt, overheated wood, and sweat - expensive, corporate, gathered in endless boardrooms.

They were silent - as they always were in moments when there was actually a lot to say, but it was better to say nothing. The line between candor and self-sabotage was always dangerously thin here. Roman sat reclined in the shade of the awning, staring absently beyond the horizon, where the blue of the sea merged with the sky-a perfect, cold-blooded symmetry in which there was neither drama nor hysteria. Just silence. Just emptiness. His glasses slid slowly down the bridge of his nose-he took his time fixing them, until finally he reached up lazily, lips slightly curled, and still, with a careless gesture, put them back on. His hand froze in the air for a second, as if wondering why he needed to see, hear, participate in this at all.

Turning his head, he looked around at the others. Everyone was in their positions, as in a chess game, where every move had been thought out in advance, but no one could predict exactly who would make the final point.

Shiv stood apart as usual, tense as a taut string. Kendal frowned, rubbing his chin, ambition and abyss struggling in him. Connor was saying something quietly to one of the attendants, perhaps trying to convince them of a new political idea, another illusion of influence.

The sun was beating at its zenith, cruel and blatant. It burned through every false gesture to the bone. The deck felt like it was melting. Even the water in the pool seemed too still - dead. Roman finally sat up. Abruptly, as if casting off an invisible weight. He ran the palm of his hand through his hair, down the back of his neck, and struggled to squeeze out a wry half-smile.