“I’m capable of weighing a sentence.”

He wrote for a while.

His pen scratched.

Nobody on the benches moved a muscle.

“Warrant Officer Hayward,” he said, and I got to my feet.

“Are you the same Diana Hayward cited for the Kabul evacuation operations in the record in front of me?”

“Yes, I am, Your Honor.”

“Then you were out of the country serving, not hiding from a courthouse.” He turned a page.