“Rian …” Harley whispered.

R-e-l-a-x, Rian wrote on the legal pad that Harley had written on.

Three slides in, Rian wrote on the legal pad again, “He copied stuff from my paper.”

As the man droned on, Frances looked across the two women and, as it became clear to her that they continued to sit back in their chairs, relaxed and unaffected about what they’d hoped would be an effective opening salvo, she frowned and whispered into the ear of the silver-haired lawyer who’d been sitting back with a smug grin on his face. He sat up, looked quickly at her, and then snapped his head to look at Harley and Rian, who were sitting quietly, listening to the Egyptian expert.

By the time the man had gotten to his tenth slide, and still no sign of panic was visible from the other side, the lead lawyer signaled to the expert to start wrapping things up. The man was in mid-lecture, however, and hadn’t been paying attention to him. Instead, he’d been glancing repeatedly at Rian and Harley, who looked like they were paying rapt attention to what he was presenting.

So the lead lawyer stood up abruptly, and said in a loud voice, “Thanks, Professor. Can we switch the lights back on, please?”

There was an awkward pause as the bewildered expert took his seat and the lights were slowly switched back on. The lead lawyer remained standing, and ceremoniously buttoned the top button of his jacket, as if gearing up for another round of arguments.

“So …” he said in a gravelly voice.

“So …” Harley answered in her own voice, much sweeter and more musical than earlier, when she’d spoken in fairly sharp, and at times, sardonic tones, depending on the point she’d wanted to make.

“I believe we’ve made the case here that this object, while interesting for aesthetic reasons, is fairly middle-of-the-road, in terms of its significance, even in terms of its place in the collection that is being sent for auction. And so the price that this museum has set for it, is really quite unreasonable, particularly since we are offering to give the museum the certainty of a buyer, and spare the museum, and its board, the uncertainty of an auction …” the lawyer started to say.