Senior Auditor Merle Pratt of the Federal Bureau of Awakened Affairs arrived at the Eclipse checkpoint at half past one, riding in the middle sedan of three with the expanded order in his lap and a smile he had been rehearsing since the airport.
Financial Audit Division, lead signature: his. Entity classification task force: attached, and scheduled through his desk. He had read the order four times on the flight over, and it got better every time.
'Twenty-two years,' he thought as the fence posts ticked past his window. 'Twenty-two years of basement offices and per-diem forms, and the biggest file in the country lands on me.'
Kaiden Grey. Twenty-something, a head taller than Pratt had ever been, richer than the Bureau's annual budget, and famous enough that Pratt's own daughter kept a poster of the man's guild over her bed.
Pratt had studied the file photos at length and came away with the conclusion that nobody's shoulders were that broad without help.
