Page 58 of Offside

He took the chair beside mine. His right arm stayed close after the game. I noticed because I was a person with eyes, not because he was mine to assess.

"I told you what I decided yesterday," he said. "I didn't ask what you wanted done with your name."

"No," I said. "You didn't."

"I'm asking now," he said. "Before I touch the phone again."

"Remove my name from the private letter," I said. "Remove the recusal, the relationship, and any suggestion that the transfer harmed you. Don't use my work as the basis for a retaliation claim."

"And the public response?" Bishop asked.

"Cancel it. No threat to disclose any part of this. Named or unnamed."

"Everything about you goes, named or unnamed," he said.

"Yes," I said. "All of it."

He nodded once. "What stays?"

"That's your contract decision," I said.

"I'm asking which parts touch you because I want the line clear," he said.

"The independent medical assessment doesn't involve me if the file release and review stay with Zoe and Reyes. The performance counter is your work. Neither uses my name or the recusal."

"So only those parts stay," he said.

"If you want them," I pointed out.

"I do," he said. "That's the counter I want."

He picked up the phone, then stopped before unlocking it.

"Do you want to be here when I call?" he asked. "You can hear every word."

I nodded.

"You can talk if you want to."

"No. This is between you and your agent."

He called Marchetti and put the phone on speaker so I could hear both sides.

The agent answered on the third ring. "I've got the draft ready."

"Kill the second track," Bishop said.

After a pause, Marchetti asked, "The process letter? All of it?"

"All of it. No retaliation argument. No conflicted-process argument. No threatened public response. Take out every reference to Declan Pryce, the recusal, the potential relationship, and the transfer."

Marchetti was quiet for a beat before he answered.

"That removes significant leverage," he said. "You understand that."

"It removes something that isn't mine to use," Bishop replied.

"October twenty-ninth is still public. Do you want to challenge the leak itself?" Marchetti asked. "That can stay separate."