Chapter 18: Tael After Hours

The Bureau floor emptied in stages.

By 1810 the civilian analysts had gone, filing out in the usual loose cluster, jackets buttoned against the corridor chill, conversation already beginning in low voices before they cleared the door. By 1820 the junior intake processors had shut their terminals. By 1835 the floor was quiet enough that Kael could hear the ventilation cycling in its low, constant register, the sound the room made when the room was only itself.

He had stayed because the transit labor registry case was open and the notation incomplete. He told himself this and it was true. He did not examine whether it was the entire truth.