Sera had spoken at the Harrington Conference three years running.
She didn't find it difficult. She found it clarifying, the way any task was clarifying when you knew the material well enough that the words came from understanding rather than rehearsal. She stood at the podium with four hundred people in seats in front of her and talked about cross-sector intelligence sharing in hostile acquisition environments. She knew this topic better than most people in the room. Better than all of them had known it two months ago.
The room was attentive. It was usually when she spoke. She had learned early that audiences responded to specificity more than to confidence, and she was always specific.
She didn't see him until the third paragraph.
Fourth row, center. Roman. Not looking at his phone.
