A man in a lanyard came and read Arthur’s papers and went away again.

When the clerk hung up, she printed four blue plastic badges and pushed them across the table.

“These are provisional,” she said.

“You’ll need them validated upstairs before the first round.”

“Then we’ll validate them,” Arthur said.

Claire handed the badges out.

Owen ran his thumb over the raised letters of his own name.

“Don’t lose it,” she said.