The morning fog had barely lifted from the harbor, but inside the vaulted chamber, tempers ran hot beneath the cold chandeliers.
Foreign Minister Jørgen Vang-Lorentzen set his folder down with an audible smack, glasses perched low on his nose, his tone clipped and precise.
"Let me be absolutely clear, Canada violated our territorial waters three times this month. Three. They boarded two German-flagged civilian vessels under pretense of search and seizure without presenting warrant or cause. That, gentlemen, is not neutrality. That is a provocation."
Across the table, Justice Minister Elisabeth Frijs laced her fingers and leaned forward.
"And yet it is we who have chosen to lie to the international community. We who accepted prisoners given to us by the German Navy, prisoners they picked up alone and unmoored after sinking the Ottawa. That skiff came from a warzone we denied ever existed. From a ship destroyed in a conflict we claim never happened."
