*Bael's POV*
Director Han's fourth revision of the eastern division report arrives at nine twenty-three, thirty-seven minutes before the deadline.
Bael reads it the same way he read the first three — steadily, without expression, moving through each section at the pace the content deserves. The report is forty-three pages this time. Two more than the last version. Han has added detail where Bael marked deficiencies, expanded the projections, and reconciled the figures that couldn't be reconciled in the third attempt.
It is better than the third version.
It is still not complete.
Bael sets it down.
He had expected this. Not because Han is careless, Han is many things but careless is not one of them, but because Han is still, on some level, testing the boundaries of what Bael will actually read. Each revision has been a calibration. How closely is he watching? How much can slip through in the footnotes? What constitutes adequate?
