He said it at eight fifty on a Friday morning with the timing of someone who had been carrying the sentence for a day and had decided it was done being carried.
Valdris had been at his desk for forty minutes. The morning had the quality it sometimes had, settled and focused, the kind where the work moved properly and the hours had substance. He had been working on the Marcen response protocol, which was detailed and required the specific quality of concentration that left no room for other things, and he had been giving it that concentration with reasonable success.
Colt arrived at eight fifty and set the external correspondence on the desk and picked up the signed materials from the previous day and was turning to leave. He stopped at the door without turning around.
"You were within s
