The former deputy first minister designate, Mr Seamus Mallon, is patrolling the almost deserted corridors of Parliament Buildings, Stormont, looking for a room in which to conduct an interview with The Irish Times. It is his first day back in Stormont since last Friday week and now, minus his title, his salary, his staff, his car, his driver, his office, he must find somewhere new to plant himself.
"Which way to the SDLP off ices?" he inquires of an official.
"Down to the left," he is told.
Another re-routing, and staff in the SDLP general office eventually find him a room. He's in free-rein interview mode when a Northern Ireland Office official looks in to inquire if he could do some work on the office computer.
"Could you come back later?" says Mr Mallon.
Later still, yet another official comes in to say he is trying to set up the SDLP deputy leader with a re-commissioned Nokia. "I've even been decommissioned of my mobile phone," says Mr Mallon. He adds that the Ulster Unionist Party has tabled a Westminster question demanding confirmation that his staff and clerical supports have been withdrawn from him.
"Oh, pure vindictiveness," he says.
So, political life isn't what it used to be. Is he missing the power and prestige that went with the office of deputy first minister?
"On a personal level I miss my staff and my driver, but I don't miss the trappings."
And regrets? Would he not have been wiser to play it differently? No regrets, he insists, rather strongly.
"I realised it was the only way open to me to focus on the gravity of the situation, and to try to save the agreement. I have no doubt that I did the right thing - of that I have no doubt whatsoever."
Mr Mallon says he went through 48 hours of difficult soul-searching in reaching his decision to resign his position on Thursday week last, the day of the debacle when Northern Ireland's first, but very short, nationalist government was formed.
He says he informed the British and Irish governments he would not resign as deputy first minister if a number of conditions were met. These included the "suspension" of the Assembly and the positions of first and deputy first minister pending the review, and based on the successful outcome of the review the election in the Assembly with cross-community support of the first and deputy first minister.
Those conditions sound tantamount to he and Mr Trimble resigning, but the operative word, Mr Mallon suggests, is their positions being "suspended".
So if he were prepared to have his position suspended, rather than offering his resignation, it is surely fair to read into that that he would like his old job back. "Nothing should be read into it," he says.
If September's review somehow saves the agreement, would he aspire to being a fully-fledged rather than a designate and former deputy first minister? "I will await the outcome of this review, I will not deal in ifs," he replies.
Mr Mallon wants to play mum on his future job prospects, but does say, "I will play a full and central role in the review." Again, he insists this should not be interpreted as him still cherishing the position of deputy first minister.
One has to be careful deciphering Mr Mallon's true intentions, but he certainly conveys the impression of a man who remains politically committed.
As with many politicians in the pro-Belfast Agreement camp, that commitment is tempered by an accompanying evident mood of political dejection. Neither Mr Mallon nor most of his Yes colleagues have yet lifted themselves from the emotional helter-skelter of recent months, culminating in last Thursday week's farce in and outside the Assembly.
The rift with his former First Minister is very deep. Were Mr Mallon again to share the reins of power with Mr David Trimble it is obvious their relationship would be at best purely workmanlike. Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon started off well together over a year ago, but it was a white-water-rapids decline thereafter.
Mr Mallon won't entertain any of the arguments put forward for the Ulster Unionist Party leader. While informed unionists suggest Mr Trimble wanted to test the IRA on decommissioning after Sinn Fein signed up to the Way Forward document, surely the timing - July, Drumcree, the marching season - meant it was impossible for him to bring his party with him?
Does he not accept that David Trimble had to buy time to protect the agreement? Time was bought in October, December, January, after Hillsborough, after Downing Street, and every time Mr Trimble would not lead his party, says Mr Mallon.
On the question of political risk-taking, Mr Mallon will, up to a point, buy the view that there is a cultural difference between nationalism and unionism - but only up to a point.
"To use a folksy idiom, there is a view that the unionist mind can only deal with what it can quantify. Everything must be weighed and measured. The nationalist community, down through the decades, has had to deal in concepts because it had nothing it could quantify.
"There is that cultural clash, but the impasse goes much beyond that dimension. It is a matter of political judgment and political wisdom, to either set about solving all of the problems, or to deal only with the issues, however important in themselves, that are sectoral party political issues."
Unionists like Mr Trimble, and even those on the perceived liberal wing of the party such as Mr Ken Maginnis and Sir Reg Empey, argue that they just can't trust republicans. Did Mr Mallon trust republicans? Did he believe the IRA would have decommissioned after The Way Forward? "I don't know - but I would have found out," he states.
"And so would have the Ulster Unionist Party and the two governments and the people of Ireland. The opportunity was there within a very short period of time to find out. The Ulster Unionist Party, with a remarkable lack of political wisdom, could not bring themselves to find out."
Republicans, and even some perceived liberal nationalists, are now claiming that unionists are following a strategy of keeping Sinn Fein from power, with or without IRA disarmament - the old "no Fenian about the place" line. Here Mr Mallon is at his most dismissive: "I would defend this Ulster Unionist Party against any accusation of having a strategy.
"I believe there are many within the Ulster Unionist Party, and within the broad unionist community, who want this to proceed on an inclusive basis. Unfortunately, the Ulster Unionist Party has had neither the vision nor the courage to recognise the potential that exists."
Which brings us to the unionist contention that an SDLP pledge to see Sinn Fein expelled from the executive in the absence of decommissioning might have saved the Way Forward paper. "We will not make ourselves hostage to the political fortunes of Sinn Fein . . . We will not make ourselves hostage to anybody's fortune. We will not pre-empt the outcome of the review, either its decisions, or the sentences that will be imposed on others who are in default."
He points out that it could be more than Sinn Fein who are in default. The DUP had indicated it would act as "ministers in opposition" but would not sit with Sinn Fein in any executive. Neither could this be allowed, he said. The convention of collective cabinet responsibility must apply. "We cannot have semi-detached ministers who go on solo runs."
But now there is a situation where republicans are backtracking on the implicit decommissioning pledge while unionists aren't budging from their positions of guns before government. Surely, if this continues, the review, even with George Mitchell at the helm, is doomed to failure.
"Quite frankly, I think people are sick of the unionist and Sinn Fein theology on this one," says Mr Mallon. "A viable, certifiable way of dealing with this matter was decided upon in the Way For- ward document, and it is that Way Forward document which will be the basis for our further deliberations within the review."
How to deal with Sinn Fein or anyone else in default is all down to the review. "We will not settle for anything that is riddled with ambiguities, nods or winks, or side-show agreements or understandings. If agreement is reached, it will have all the issues tied up," he adds with some passion.
"I can't see this review being generous to any party that is in default; nor would the people of Ireland, North and South, be generous to any party that would default on its obligation.
"Until the two governments stop acting as home help to the Ulster Unionist Party and Sinn Fein, then they will thwart the wishes of the people of Ireland, as expressed in the referendum, and bend the will of the two governments at each and every whim."
There is a sense of a plague on both houses from Mr Mallon, although he believes that currently the main culprit is Mr Trimble. He says that under the legislation, the Northern Ireland Act 1998, Mr Trimble must resign as First Minister by Thursday, September 9th.
And again he has no sympathy for those who contend that if Mr Trimble must stand for election again, his own party would desert him. If that is the case, Mr Mallon seems prepared to deal with his replacement, whoever he or she may be.
But all that is contingent on the review succeeding. At least he has faith in the former US senator, Mr Mitchell. "George Mitchell's role will be crucial. He has respect, he has experience, he has an analytical mind, and he has the weight of the White House behind him."
He won't play John Taylor's game of offering the percentage chance of success or failure of the review. "This is too serious to lay odds about. This is a crisis," says Mr Mallon. It is the last chance for the agreement. "The political process will be dead in Northern Ireland for a number of years if the review fails; the opportunity of a lifetime will have been missed," he adds.