"Good evening!" a voice greeted him.
Dan started, and his eyes quickly searched the room for the source of the voice that had delivered this unusual greeting.
"Over here," the voice said. A grotesquely fat man wearing a red robe, heavy with gold brocade rose from a reclining chair and smiled at Dan.
"We've just—," Dan began but the fat man interrupted him.
"I know! I've been expecting you for some time now. Have some grapes?" the man asked, indicating a bronze container on the table. "Or some wine?" he asked, proferring a silver decanter that stood beside the bronze dish of grapes.
"Where are the other members of the Council?" Dan demanded.
The man repressed a laugh. "There are no other members!"
"You mean you—!" Dan stopped in utter amazement as the truth began to become clear to him.
"Yes," the man replied calmly.
"But I don't understand. How did you do it?"