Will went to the office a little early the next morning, arriving as Humphries and Depoy handed off to Knox and Wójcik. Slingby was not present.

"Humphries, when are you due at the Academy?"

"Not until ten hundred today, sir."

"Good. Will all of you please enter my office? Bradshaw, tea and coffee please, and a selection of pastries from this morning's delivery. Mister ffoulkes, take Mister Wójcik's desk. No calls, no interruptions but Mister Bradshaw's."

They all gathered around the meeting table. There was a shuffling of chairs. Will took his seat at the head of the table while the others aligned themselves automatically by seniority. Will waited until the Uncomfortable Chair had been shoved to the wall and the voice recorder was loaded with a new wax cylinder. The silence continued until Bradshaw arrived with the largest tray. He poured tea for Will, then served the others. Humphries, grim and weary, asked for coffee. His face was drawn and grey, his usual good humor absent. At Will's signal he turned on the recorder.

Knox, fresh and dapper, quickly secured the largest pastry. "Good to have you back, Director. Am I off desk duty?"

"No, Mister Knox. As my duties have changed, so have yours. You will continue to work eight to sixteen hundred as Acting Director and one short shift as Reaper. Miss Cortland will also continue to work one full shift as Acting Director, but that shift shall be midnight to eight hundred. Humphries, you will work with me sixteen to midnight. I will need you to match my schedule for some time; you will introduce me to your collection of maps and instruct me in their use. You will teach at the Academy as always on first shift with third shift off. To ease future schedule changes, each of you will select two people to back you up on your daily responsibilities, with the purpose of training them to take over when necessary. Knox, present this information to Miss Onayemi or to whomever is running Scheduling this shift. Tell Mister Mallory that Humphries and I may be traveling together with Miss Sutcliffe as our battlefield guide. He is to assign such escort as he and Scheduling see fit."

"Yes, sir."

"Mister Wójcik, keep Cortland and Humphries' schedules as free as possible for three days while they adjust to switching shifts. Seniors DePoy and Solway have their own responsibilities, to which they must return. You are to find Admins who will serve Cortland and Humphries as you serve me and Mister Knox. Each of you will then train a subordinate to cover for you if you are otherwise employed. Miss DePoy, until your replacement is ready to take over, switch shifts with Miss Solway so that you may continue with the Assistant Director you have been supporting."

"Director, if I may?" Humphries wrapped his hands around his cup; were they trembling? "I would like to propose, if Mister Wójcik agrees, that Mister Bradshaw be offered the position of my Personal Aide. He's due for promotion and performs most of those duties now."

"Mister Wójcik, your opinion?"

"A good choice, Director, if he is willing to accept the additional duties, and some training from Security."

"Great," chirped Knox. "Make sure he teaches the rest how do the tea and coffee and pastry orders."

Something like the ghost of a smile touched Humphries' face and vanished.

"Very well, everyone; Mister Wójcik, will you please refresh our cups? I need reports from you all on the events of the last week while I was gone. Mister Humphries, you first, since you must leave soon."

Humphries checked his watch and gave a quiet, thorough, rigidly controlled review which somehow barely mentioned his encounter with Madame and mentioned Grell not at all. He managed to imply that the entire week of Will's absence had been a period of unbroken monotony, with all the usual deliverables being handled by exemplary employees capable of managing an infernal invasion without raising a finger from their typewriters. The others nodded in solemn agreement. Spears sat stone-faced and resolved to get the dirt from Jacobs and Mallory if his subordinates didn't loosen up after Humphries left to teach.

Humphries, hands hidden in his lap, calmly answered Spears' questions. He excused himself from the table and left to gather his teaching materials. Slingby was not waiting for him outside the door.

When the door closed, Spears lifted an eyebrow. "Well?"

"Huge fight," said Knox. He pointed across the table to Humphries' empty plate. "Alan's not eating. Probably not sleeping. He's moved out of their apartment. Eric's shut down their bond connection and both are getting a little crazy. Alan's buried himself in his work. Ten Hagen's proofing everything he does, because Dutch is a nice man and so is Alan. Eric, though, Eric let his fury boil over onto his group. Liz Brodie and her crew aren't speaking to him right now. Terry yelled back. He discovered a sudden need to assist Garraway in Bristol. He'll stay there until Eric apologizes."

"Did Slingby actually allow a domestic dispute to affect the office?" Spears' voice promised retribution for absolutely unforgiveable behavior.

"Er. Well. I'm getting ahead of myself. When Alan came back from Madame's office, Eric was really angry. Nobody knew where he'd been, you see. Eric assumed he'd ducked away from his guards again. Alan left to get some rest before his night shift, and yeah, to take the argument somewhere private. Eric followed him home, shouting. Alan packed his duffel in silence and moved into a room lower down in H block that has a Franklin lock. Eric can't force the door without landing in the Great Dismal Swamp."

"And how do you know all this?"

"C'mon, Will, everybody knows all this. Eric stood yelling outside the locked door. That floor is single and double rooms full of Senior veterans and new hires, so 'all this' is public knowledge in the entire London Division. A Scythes Engineering Senior and two Supplies Upper Admins came out in the hall and ran him off. They're not Eric's employees. They are not afraid of him. If Eric challenged Supplies, they'd walk away and report him to you. If Eric challenged Scythes, they'd lay him out in lavender and then report him to you. The news has had two days to spread."

Will removed his glasses and pressed a hand over his eyes.

"Eric demanded Alan do something that Madame forbade him to do," sighed DePoy. "This may have been the first time Alan ever stonewalled him. For some reason Eric overreacted. Alan was very short on sleep and already angry. The only way to obey orders was to leave the situation."

"Mister Slingby had just returned from the battlefields," said Wójcik. "Conditions there, I am told, were very difficult that day. He found that his partner had left the office without his usual Security escort. There have been disagreements about that before, and promises made that can, unfortunately, be overridden by persons of higher rank."

Will considered. He knew he was not good at understanding his employees' personal feelings, beyond banning them from the workplace. He dropped the effort to understand the passions and turned to the politics of the problem.

"Have they been performing their duties in the workplace?"

"Alan's doing his best. The work gets done. His support staff have taken over some conflicting duties. That's simply because he can't be Acting Director and Chief of Operations at the same time. They're doing fine. Eric's being Eric. Cold rage. Fortunately, Avram's keeping things going. He's appointed two aides to share Terry's duties."

"Senior Auditing Adjunct DePoy. Why did Madame phrase her orders in such a way as to punish Mister Humphries?"

"Sir, I am not privy to her thoughts. I can only speculate."

"Understood. Speculate, please."

"Will all of you promise to keep these speculations confidential?" She looked sternly at Knox, who did love to gossip. Knox glanced at Will, accurately estimated his likelihood of survival if he hesitated, and nodded.

DePoy continued. "Madame was in the difficult position of following orders of which she disapproved. I would guess that she had warned her superiors that sequestering Directors without warning or explanation would not only force adaptation in their Branches, but result in rescue missions. She may have mentioned a few names of secondary managers whom they were underestimating. Alan probably headed the list." DePoy paused, choosing words carefully. "He figured it all out, I think a little earlier than Madame expected. She had not considered that Grell might take independent action. Indeed, having deduced that a test was in progress, Alan would probably not have interfered at all. But Grell's plans forced his hand. He acted to protect her."

"Agreed," said Will.

"I would like to suggest, sir, that Alan did not leave his home solely out of anger. He moved out because there was no other way to comply with his orders, since Eric would not let it go. This cannot be the first time they have disagreed. I would prefer to assume that Madame was also under strict orders. It would explain the orders given to Alan. To the best of my knowledge, she has never before issued commands that could endanger his partnership, health and ability to function; they are too important to us. Most unlike her, sir, to risk his welfare and loyalty in a fit of pique. I would like to suggest that we, like Eric, are also seeing malice where none was intended. Unlike Eric, we should not overreact. It would be best if we stepped well back and let them work it out on their own."

"Will they work it out?" worried Knox.

"They should, Ronnie. Mister Spears is back. Alan's orders have expired. The next time he and Eric meet, he is free to tell all. They will teach two classes together today, so if Eric is willing to listen, by tonight Alan will be home. Eric should be apologizing to his team tomorrow. Madame's orders may have lapsed as well."