“They combined the academy ceremony with the local business school?” I asked.

Brenda checked the brass clip on her board.

“The stadium holds eight thousand guests.

Running them together saved thirty thousand dollars in security costs.”

She flipped two pages forward and pulled a stapled document out of the sleeve.

“Here’s the master guest list with the double seating assignments,” she said, laying the document on the desk between us.

“The MBA graduates sit on the east side, and the cadets sit on the west.”

I scanned down the alphabetical column of business students on the third page.