“Are you sure that’s how you want to handle this?”

“Yes, sir,” I said.

“Leave the seating exactly as it is.”

Vance watched me for a moment, then picked up his pen and signed the bottom of the registry sheet.

“It’s your decision, Colonel.”

I turned and walked out of the administration building into the bright afternoon sun.

The granite walkway down to the lower quadrangle was lined with freshly painted white lampposts.

Derek was waiting by the stone archway near the library, his dark suit jacket unbuttoned and his right shoe tapping a fast, uneven rhythm on the flagstones.