The Stice–Hal exhibition; "nobody but John Wayne has been able to beat" Hal; the dining-hall all-business

timeline_event

texture · 11 Nov YDAU

When: 11 Nov YDAU (the off-record Stice–Hal exhibition and that evening's supper)
What: Wayne is the standing measure of Hal's ceiling: word that Stice "had very nearly beaten an Inc nobody but John Wayne has been able to beat" ripples through the dining hall. Wayne is alongside Stice when Thode's Vespa pulls up with the match order (scene 125); at supper he is "all business," eating in near-silence with the morose Canadians, giving Coyle's anti-Nuck joke "not a look," and leaving the table without a word (scene 122); in Schtitt's room his and Stice's names head deLint's secret chart while Hal's is absent (scene 132). The recurring in-text verdict — "The thing about Wayne is he's all business" — is the note every scene sounds.