The master of ceremonies had been conducting sessions of this nature for fifty years.
He had seen negotiations where both sides wanted an agreement and only needed the format to reach it. He had seen sessions where one party arrived with the decision already made and the protocol was merely the mechanism for putting it on record. And he had seen… less often, but often enough to know the category when it appeared in front of him, sessions where the hall was a battlefield with chairs and courtesy forms instead of weapons.
Where every procedural exchange carried weight that the words themselves didn't show, and where the people in the room were simultaneously conducting two separate conversations, only one of which was audible but much less important than the other.
This was that third category…
The fight of this one was about time.
