Three days.
He had slept in fragments — forty minutes here, ninety there, the shallow surface-level rest that left the body technically functional and the mind aware that it was being managed rather than restored. This was not a new condition. He had operated on compressed sleep before, during the alliance restructuring two years ago and during the Vault contract arbitration that had run six weeks past its projected timeline. He knew the particular quality of fatigue that came from sustained operational pressure and had learned to work inside it without letting it show.
This was not that.
The reports were done. Every report he had assigned to himself in the past three days had been completed with standard accuracy. Decisions had been made. The review petition was filed, the legal team w
