“Sir,” Glain said. “Permission to speak?”

The High Commander’s gaze fixed on her, and Jess was very glad it wasn’t aimed at him. “Denied,” he said. “You are here to listen, Recruit Wathen, and not to provide me with excuses. To continue: this squad had a great amount of potential. The last test was, in fact, designed to simulate an ambush of your squad by hostile forces while you were in the performance of regular duties. In the course of that exercise, one of your squad was killed, and another injured. Is that accurate? You may now answer, Wathen. Briefly.”

“That description is accurate, sir,” Glain said. There was no emotion to it. She stared into the distance, somewhere over the High Commander’s squared shoulders.

“The exercise was designed to test your innovativeness, your toughness, your responsiveness, your team’s bonds. How do you feel that you performed in light of this, Recruit Wathen?”

“Sir, our progress toward our goal was steady and careful, and when presented with the unexpected challenge of Greek fire, we took cover and returned fire. We followed procedure. We defended our Scholar at all costs.”

“Ah,” the High Commander said, and leaned back in his chair. “The Scholar. There comes the interesting twist in this tale: you were not assigned a Scholar or anyone representing one. Scholar Wolfe’s intrusion into this space was unauthorized and introduced random factors that call the entire exercise into doubt.”

“Permission to ask a question, sir,” Jess said, and pushed forward before he could be told no. “If Scholar Wolfe wasn’t authorized to be there, then how did he get in?”

It was a simple and revealing question, and the High Commander stared at him unblinkingly for a moment. Jess could almost feel the rest of his squad trying to shift away from him without moving a muscle.

“Scholar Wolfe forged credentials to allow himself access. We are still investigating the matter.” Clearly, he wasn’t happy about Wolfe’s refusal to cooperate further. The closed Codex on his desk hummed for attention, and he paused to consult it, then closed it again.

Glain took advantage of the distraction to say, “The Greek fire wasn’t at exercise strength, sir. It was fully dangerous. And we are well aware that one of our own was meant to take out Scholar Wolfe, and died for failing. It’s a testament to our squad’s determination and training that this ambush did not succeed. Sir.”

“Your argument is that your squad succeeded, Sergeant? At the cost of one dead recruit and one seriously impaired, possibly unable to return to duty?”

“We are sworn to fight and die in service to the Library. Recruit Oduya tried to shoot our Scholar—a Scholar who, whether supposed to be there or not, was nevertheless our responsibility. So yes, sir. We did succeed.”

“Do you then accept responsibility for a traitor within your own squad?”

It was a trap, and in the hard silence that fell, Jess struggled with an impulse to blurt out a defense. Glain wouldn’t thank him.