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“No,” he said finally.
Dean looked sideways at him, waiting.
“I think they’ll follow each other,” Reid said. “My job’s just to hold the center long enough to keep it from breaking.”
Dean grunted, the closest thing he ever gave to a smile. He lifted his mug in acknowledgment. “Fair.”
They stood in silence, both men knowing the stillness wouldn’t last. For Reid, one thought pressed harder than the rest. The team was his gravity. Claire was his pull. And somewhere ahead, the two would collide.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN – FORD SCHOOL, ROOM 416 – 0810 HOURS
Strategic Intelligence & Policy Ethics | Dr. Claire J. Bowman
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 1800-2100 Hours
The title hung on the screen like a courtroom plaque. Claire stood beside it, arms loosely folded, gaze level. Her notes rested untouched beside her, unnecessary. She didn’t need them to tell this kind of truth.
Behind her, the first slide shifted: a black-and-white satellite image. Ash-gray terrain. Collapsed structures. A single plume of smoke curled toward the frame's top edge. No names. No dates.
“Today’s topic,” she began coolly, “is failure of process—not failure of personnel. Not error—failure. There’s a difference.”
A few students began typing dutifully.
“You're looking at a post-strike reconnaissance shot. What stands out?”
A female student near the front squinted. “Smoke signature. Structural collapse. Civilian zone?”
“Theoretically.” She gestured toward the projection. “What should have prevented it?”
A young woman near the middle raised her hand, speaking quickly. “Target verification protocol?”
“Insufficient,” Claire said. “What else?”
“Real-time data confirmation?”
Claire nodded slightly. “Closer.”
From the back, a voice cut in: “Did you work this strike?”
The room shifted. Heads turned. It was a young man near the wall—tall, wire-rimmed glasses, pale focus like a laser.Cameron.
Claire held his gaze. “I’ve worked a lot of strikes.”
He wasn’t satisfied. “But this one. That smoke pattern looks recent. Less than six hours after impact.”
No response.
He leaned forward. “You said this was a failure of process. So the system failed. But systems don’t just fail. Someone greenlit this. Who?”
Her jaw ticked. “That’s not relevant to today’s lesson.”
“I think it is.” He didn’t flinch. “You’re showing us this for a reason. What aren’t you telling us?”
Claire stepped away from the podium. “If you're here to dig for headlines, you're in the wrong class.”
But he didn’t back off. “Did it happen during a blackout window? Was the feed manipulated?”
The class went quiet. The temperature in the room changed.
