The next morning, someone didn't show up.
Not late.
Not delayed.
Removed.
His name was Corvin Hale.
Class B.
Shield-type.
Measured. Quiet. Reliable.
The kind of student Oversight preferred—stable output, minimal deviation, no ideological spikes.
At 07:10, his dorm room registered vacancy.
At 07:12, his access badge deactivated.
At 07:15, his name vanished from the internal training queue.
No announcement followed.
By 08:00, half the wing knew.
By 08:30, everyone did.
The Triangle did not explain.
It didn't need to.
Scarcity had failed to fracture cohesion fast enough.
So escalation shifted from resource pressure—
To person removal.
Lucas stared at Corvin's empty desk during morning theory block.
"They did it," he said quietly.
Zagan's voice carried no surprise.
This is structural correction. When systems lose behavioral compliance, they reduce population noise.
Lucas's jaw tightened.
"He wasn't even loud."
Precisely.
