Chapter 19: Luke Makes His Move

The ethics complaint hit the firm's internal portal at 6:02 a.m.

I know the exact time because I was already at my workstation when the notification cascaded through the shared compliance feed, and I watched the timestamp populate in the corner of my screen the way you watch a car run a red light — the moment itself ordinary, the meaning of it arriving half a second later.

I had been there since five. I hadn't slept. After the loading dock and the subbasement and the river air, I'd gone home to Queens, stood in the kitchen for twenty minutes without turning the light on, and then come back.