Voss sat in the chair across the table without being offered it, which told Kai something about how many rooms he had walked into and how few of them had required permission.
He set the sealed document on the table between them but did not open it. He placed his hands flat on either side of it. No other movement.
The room was plain. One table. Two chairs. A window with the Rift's distant glow at the edge of the eastern sky. Voss looked at that glow for exactly two seconds before looking at Kai.
The directness was not aggressive. It was the directness of someone who had no interest in performing patience he did not feel.
"The zone fourteen monitoring log," he said. "Tell me what triggered the event."
Kai looked at him. This was the first question and it was not the question of someone who needed to understand the mechanism. It was the question of someone checking whether Kai understood it.
