Rodriguez did not immediately attempt persuasion. Rama recognized, watching him process Kharn's declaration, that whatever institutional wisdom nine years of leadership had cultivated included precisely the discipline required here — resisting the immediate impulse toward defensive justification when genuine grief and legitimate grievance demanded something considerably more difficult first.
"I want to acknowledge something before responding to what you've said," Rodriguez said, his voice carrying careful, genuine weight rather than diplomatic management. "Your anger is legitimate. Six people died who represented profound significance to your civilization's historical identity, and no institutional success elsewhere changes that genuine cost."
