[SERA — POV]
She found him in his office.
He was sitting at his desk, not working—just sitting, with the documents from the hearing in front of him, which told her he'd read them again. She came in without knocking, which was a thing she'd never done before in twelve years, and sat across from him without being asked.
He looked at her.
"You voted no," she said.
"Yes."
"Because of the methodology."
"Because you went outside the chain of command. Because you withheld intelligence from your commanding officer. Because you—" he stopped. His voice was steady and controlled and doing the thing voices do when someone is managing them hard. "Because you built a case against me, Sera. In essence. You found evidence that my intelligence picture was compromised and instead of bringing it to me
