Your team just lost its lead. The client presentation is Thursday.
Tuesday morning. Your team's project lead resigned overnight in a two-sentence email. Thursday at 3 p.m., the client — a school district that has already paid a deposit — walks into a room expecting a full presentation. That's forty-eight hours from right now.
You're gathered on a video call: five faces in five different rooms, coffee visible in most of them, one person clearly still in bed. Nobody has been told yet who is in charge. Everyone is quietly wondering if it's supposed to be them.
The chat window is empty. Someone's mic is unmuted and you can hear a dog barking. This is the first minute of the next two days.