The report landed on Kai's desk at nine in the morning, which was six hours earlier than his head felt ready for anything at all.
He was having a headache, a dull, persistent thumping at the base of his skull that promised to make every single moment of this day feel like punishment. He deserved it. He knew he deserved it, but that didn't make it any easier to tolerate.
He had woken up at half five with the taste of an entire bar in his mouth, no clear memory of getting home, and a black hole where most of last night should have been. He remembered the bar. He remembered talking at Dennis about footage. Tan's voice in his bedroom. After that, nothing but fragments that would not hold still.
It didn't matter. What mattered was the report waiting for him when he finally hauled himself into the office, dark glasses pressed to his face like armour.
