Chapter 6: The Names Willem Refused

Willem divided the wedding guests into four groups. The first could enter. The second could enter after further checks. The third could enter only if Elias ignored him. The fourth could not enter while Willem remained alive and employed.

Prince Kofi began in the fourth group. Mara moved him to the third.

“That is not how vetting works,” Willem said.

“It is how invitations work.”

They were back in the old management room. This time Willem had control of the table and three screens. Mara had accepted the screens because the wedding was six weeks away and because refusing Willem all structure only made him invent it in corridors.

Kofi had requested eight accompanying staff and twelve security personnel.

“Two staff,” Willem said. “Four security. No weapons inside the residence.”

“He will not accept four,” Adrian said.

“Four is what we can accommodate under the present arrangement,” Willem said.

“Send four as the offer,” Elias said.

Willem wrote it down.

“And answer their practical objections when they come back.”

“They’ll want six.”

“Then bring it back to us.”

Mara underlined four once. “Next.”

The former bridal-shop owner passed every check except one: she had once been arrested during a municipal protest in 1987.

“For blocking a road,” Lena said.

Willem read the file. “A road is an access route.”

Mara moved her into the first group.

Ruth Harland, the broker’s surveillance director, remained outside the wedding list. Her meeting was confirmed for the following week. Abram had prepared the trading records. The dark room had prepared its own explanation and was not permitted to send it.

Willem approved of that restriction. He did not approve of A. Venter. The name sat alone on the third screen beneath a scanned copy of the school ledger. The witness address led to a demolished block of flats. The identity number field had been left blank. Three women with the correct initial had lived near the school during the relevant years. Two were dead. The third, Anna Venter, had disappeared from ordinary records at sixty-one.

“No invitation,” Willem said.

Elias stood at the window. “We do not know that she is the writer.”

“Exactly.”

“Then you cannot exclude her by name.”

“I can exclude an anonymous person who knows where you went to school, knows your father and knows about the wedding.”

Mara said, “She has not been invited yet.”

“Good.”

“Do not sound victorious.”

“I don’t want this taken as approval.” Willem drew the envelope closer. He had lowered his voice, although nobody had asked him to.

The table unit lit once.

***DR:- “New information is available,”*** the dark room said.

Willem had not invited it into the discussion. Abram had. They argued about that with their eyes.

“Report,” Elias said.