The kind of assessment that came from years of keeping dangerous people alive in even more dangerous situations.
Lu Zeyan stood in the doorway, or rather, he'd returned to it after whatever quick conversation he'd had in the hallway with whoever had witnessed his inglorious exit.
He stood there without quite entering, as if crossing the threshold again would somehow make this situation more real, more irreversible, more completely beyond his control.
His expression was unreadable, some complex mixture of defeat, anger, wounded pride, and something that might have been grudging respect mixed with the kind of fear he probably didn't want to acknowledge.
"The IT department will have your credentials ready within an hour," he said, his voice carefully neutral, professionally distant, as if they hadn't just had a physical altercation that had ended with him on the floor. "Your administrative assistant..."
