Soren was at the mission board when Kai came through.
He was reading the zone seventeen interior listings—he had been running zone seventeen interior contracts for six weeks, the same systematic progression through S-zone adjacent work that he had described as a projection before Kai left Kael's Seat. The projection had been correct. His adaptation lag in zone seventeen was down to nine seconds from the eleven he'd reported the previous day. He was tracking it at each session and the trend was consistently downward.
He looked up when Kai came through.
"Zone nineteen interior access," he said. "Filed for next week. I want the interior data before you leave."
He said it before Kai could speak, which meant he had already calculated what Kai was about to say.
Kai looked at him.
