We ran the drill four more times before Misato called it. By the fourth pass, Blair had stopped correcting and started calling, which sounds like a small thing until you've watched someone who's spent eighteen years believing control equals survival hand a fraction of it to a girl she used to pay for existing. The diamond held. Naomi hit her marks. Jordan's shadows caught a clone before it could tap anyone dead. Even Hikaru gave a slight nod when Blair let her cover both flanks the way she'd wanted to from the start.
Nobody said good job. This wasn't a good-job kind of squad. But nobody died in the simulation either, and for the Midnight Foxes that counted as a standing ovation.
"Water," Misato said. "Ten minutes. Then we walk through the assault variation and I explain why Davenport's target priority almost got Love shot in the back."
"It was tactically sound," Blair said.
