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When Confidence Meets Competence
As the briefing continued, something subtle happened.
Stopped shifting in their seats.
They leaned forward.
Every sentence Ava delivered answered questions before they were asked. She anticipated failure points, outlined contingencies, and identified risks no one else had mentioned.
She didn’t say I.
She said we.
When she spoke about extraction timing, she glanced toward the SEALs.
When she discussed airspace denial, she nodded toward the pilots.
Every unit felt seen.
Mark Sullivan felt heat creep up his neck.
He had spent fifteen years in the teams. He thought he could read people in seconds.
He had been wrong.
The Mission That Proved Everything
Two nights later, the plan met reality.
A storm rolled in early. Communications jittered. An unexpected vessel entered the exclusion zone.
Chaos threatened to unravel precision.
She stayed calm.
Adjusted timelines.
Redirected assets.
When a SEAL element went dark for ninety seconds—long enough to trigger abort protocols—she held.
“Wait,” she said quietly. “They’re still moving.”
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