By afternoon, the version of the pilot that spread across the Triangle wasn't the version Dreyden lived.
It never was.
The official summary posted to upper-rank boards at 14:12 was clean, measured, sterilized.
Pilot Session Report — Integrity Stabilization Pathway
Participant demonstrated adaptive alignment under dynamic boundary conditions.
Minor boundary deviations logged and corrected without escalation.
Cooperative efficacy: satisfactory.
Oversight confidence: reinforced.
Reinforced.
Like the word itself could plaster over the part where they shifted the floor mid-test.
Dreyden read the summary once while leaning against the east walkway rail. Wind dragged cold air across the concrete and carried the faint smell of ozone from distant training blocks.
He read it again—not because he didn't understand it.
Because he wanted to memorize the exact shape of the lie.
It wasn't a direct one.
That was the problem.
Nothing in the summary was technically false.
