The Hearing

Washington did not look like money. It looked like rules written by money after the cameras left. Ethan sat in a closed committee room beneath framed portraits of men who had regulated railroads, radio, banks, and the internet after each had already changed the country. Senator Claire Wexler presided from the center. Staffers lined the wall. Marcus Vale sat behind the witness row as if democracy were another asset class. Victor Sloane sat three seats away, expression clean and funereal. Priya sat to Ethan's right. Hannah to his left. Nora was not allowed inside, which meant she was somewhere more useful. Wexler opened with a warning. "This is not a trial. It is also not a pitch meeting." Sloane spoke first. He was elegant, measured, devastating.