Volmer sat back down. "Why weren't you."
The figure was quiet for a moment.
"Because what I was doing elsewhere felt more urgent," they said. "Which was probably wrong. Or at least, it was a calculation that didn't account for everything it should have accounted for." They turned from the window. "I'm accounting for it now."
Volmer looked at them across the desk.
Twenty years of administration had given him a particular skill with people who were saying something underneath what they were saying, and a parallel skill with knowing when to push on it and when to let it arrive in its own time.
This was a let it arrive situation.
"There's a briefing this afternoon," he said. "Security debrief with Captain Morris, the student representatives, and the legal authority contact. The inquiry is in motion."
"I know."
"You'll want to be in the room."
"Yes." The figure looked at the window again. "And the students. The ones who handled most of it."
