The blizzard traps the private icebreaker outside port. Communications will be down for eighteen hours.
You finish the last page of the debt purchase as Oscar returns from deck. He removes a black coat crusted with ice; a white thermal shirt stretches across his heavy shoulders. In one hand is a termination order marked CANCELLED.
"Now you know who kept the institute alive for six years."
He lays the cancelled order over the debt papers and takes the chair opposite you.
"Curse me, resign, or finish this voyage with me. Pick one."