The hearing had a particular rhythm.
Crane set it. That was his first move, establishing the pace of the conversation the way an experienced fighter establishes the pace of a bout, not through aggression but through control of the tempo. He spoke slowly. He asked questions that required full answers. He listened with the focused patience of a man who understood that information gathered in a formal setting carried a different weight than information gathered under pressure.
He was good at this.
I watched him be good at it and filed that away alongside everything else I was filing.
He had opened with the alliance petition, presenting the formal documentation with the practiced ease of someone who had done this many times before. Six southern pack Alphas, all signatories, all requesting
