Page 95 of The Session

“I’ve been a teacher for too long to know that when I hear someone say ‘interesting,’ it actually means, ‘I don’t think so, old man.’”

“I’m just thinking it over,” Mark replied.

“Well, let me expand a bit. It’s not like somebody would go home and listen to my voice drone on the radio about the lesson. They would hear it or see it on TV being applied. The debate strategies that Summit provides, I think, are quite good—forcing people to switch to debate the other side. Very helpful. These communication methods could be used when producing the news, for example. I think there are a lot of interesting ways it can be applied, allowing the lesson to extend beyond the classroom.”

“That’s very ambitious,” Mark said.

“Wishful thinking, perhaps. At least it saw the light of day in their textbook. Hopefully some students somewhere found use in it.”

“I’d like to be of help somehow. I’ve got—well, you’d say—pretty good access to the people inside Summit. Maybe there’s something I can do,” Mark offered.

“That’s very kind of you, Mr. Greenley, but I’m not going to hold my breath.”

“I understand.”

Mark ended the call and wondered how many other people like Mr. Allard he was going to run into—people who had a positive experience with Summit that ended badly.

He returned to his studies, but he was distracted by someone staring at him out of the corner of his eye.

He turned and saw an attractive woman with short, dark hair smiling at him. She wore a thin cotton cover-up over a red bikini.

“I knew it was you! TikTok superstar Mark Greenley,” she said with a laugh.

The woman collected her coffee and walked over, taking the seat opposite him at the table. Mark stared at her for a moment, trying to remember why she looked familiar.

“Diane,” he said at last, remembering the woman who had asked for a selfie with him in Miami.

“Good memory, especially given all the beautiful women I’m sure you’ve been meeting,” she replied, again trailing a faint accent from somewhere.

“What a coincidence,” Mark said flatly, realizing it was no coincidence at all.

“So what brings you here?”

For a moment, Mark thought he might have a stalker on his hands, but then common sense put his ego in check.

“Just enjoying the sun. What about you?” he replied.

Diane picked up the Supernova textbook from the top of the stack and looked at the cover.

“I’m investigating a murder,” she said casually.

True Crime

Mark recalled a chapter in Max Lightman’s The Expert Communicator that covered how not to act suspiciously or reveal too much in a high-stakes negotiation or interrogation. Lightman wrote that he and Feingold had reviewed thousands of hours of police interviews with suspects and noticed common patterns that indicated when somebody was caught in a lie.

They made a list of tells, including acting indifferent to what should be surprising information, trying too hard not to be surprised, and subtler cues like eye movement. Lightman noted that even the most highly trained intelligence operative can be caught off guard and can’t rely on his body not to betray him.

He added that the most practical approach the average person could learn was to repeat the keywords of what the interrogator said.

The idea was that it could indicate either disbelief or an attempt to understand what somebody had just explained. This created a kind of ambiguity that made it hard for the other person to read you.

“Investigate a murder,” Mark repeated slowly, and with interest.

According to Lightman, the next step was to shut up and make eye contact, waiting for them to continue. A common technique used in high-pressure negotiations, like getting people to buy cars or confess to crimes, is to keep the other person talking. If they say enough words, eventually, “yes” or “I did it” are likely to be spoken.

Mark could tell that Diane was an expert communicator by the way she locked eyes with him and stayed quiet.

They stared at each other awkwardly for a moment. Then Mark recalled what Lightman had suggested doing in case of a stalemate.