Mo Mowlam, her officials and a battery of local and international reporters and photographers were counted into the Maze, one by one. And then they were counted out again, one by one. The in-total tallied with the out-total. The Maze is a grey place; no one would voluntarily stay there a moment longer than necessary.
The UDA, UVF and IRA inmates whom Dr Mowlam encountered yesterday on her visits to the H-Blocks have no say in the matter. Well, not for the moment at least. Dr Mowlam gave them no explicit guarantees, but implicit in her discussions was that if they delivered she might deliver.
It was like a very tight, tense game of poker, with the main players carrying strong hands, but each unsure who had the trump cards. In the end poker-faced Mo scooped the pool, but offered a nod-and-wink promise to eventually divvy out some of the pot: she gets the UDP in the talks, the UDA prisoners might get early releases - but only if the talks succeed.
If Mo Mowlam's mother ever gave her the age-old warning to be careful of the company she keeps she did not pay it much mind. But then again gamblers tend to be more concentrated on high stakes than on questionable opponents. In the Maze yesterday there was no doubting that the stakes were high.
As for the other players, well, they'd be more at home slouched around a green baize poker table in Tombstone than at a bridge session on the Malone Road.
Most of the game was played in H-Block 7 where UDA inmates are housed. Nobody was bluffing. Straight dealing all the way. Anyway, who could look into the cold, strange eyes of Milltown cemetery killer Michael Stone and try to sell a pair of sixes as a straight flush?
When the cards were folded Dr Mowlam met the press, anxious to impress upon us that whatever about her refreshing, no-nonsense image, equally she was no Annie Oakley. Before getting into the meat of the conference she took time to apologise to the relatives of the victims of paramilitary violence.
She understood that many of the bereaved were offended with her meeting convicted killers, and was sorry for that. But she was also heartened that other relatives contacted her to urge her to just "do it".
She didn't find meeting the prisoners easy, but was convinced that was the only way to move the peace process forward. She would take her cue from those who told her to press on. And press on she would, said poker-faced Dr Mowlam.
