Chapter 301: The Urgent Zones
Soren had the table cleared.
Not the instrument shelf — that was still arranged in its row of things to be replaced. The documentation table. Every notebook and tool removed. In their place: one large sheet, fixed at the corners with field markers. Soren's revised formation zone assessment, hand-drawn and labeled in the careful columns he used when he wanted something to be read without explanation.
He was studying it when Kai came in.
"The Cole meeting went as expected," Kai said.
"I assumed it had," Soren said, "based on the amount of time you were in that room." He did not look up from the table. "Sit down. This will take a few minutes."
The formation zone table had sixteen rows, one per zone. Soren had reorganized it this morning.
The urgent zones — the three he had been tracking since the survey's early formation mapping — were now at the top, separated from the medium and long-range zones by a drawn line.
Kai sat and looked at the table.
