Chapter 4: The Chip, Untouched

The first day he worked a class three discrepancy — a regional governor's broadcast claim about water reclamation infrastructure in an outer colony, set against eleven field testimonies describing non-functional processing units and a contamination event that appeared in none of the official records. Kael cross-referenced, categorized, logged. His notation was clean. Tael reviewed it without comment, which he had come to understand was her form of approval.

He walked back to the transitional barracks wing at 1800. The boot sat on his right foot the way it always sat. He could not feel the chip.

He told himself this on the first day.