The room did that thing where nobody breathes for a second and everybody's brain runs the same math at the same time, and every single one of us arrived at the same answer, which was absolutely not.
Blair got there loudest.
"No." One syllable, flat as a dropped plate. "Absolutely not. My squad does not."
"Your squad is three people and a corpse's paperwork." Vale said it without cruelty, which somehow made it worse. "Regulations don't care about your feelings. Neither do I, but at least I'm consistent about it."
"There are procedures for this." Blair's chin came up. "Squad restructuring goes through the Dean's office with faculty review and written consent from both captains."
