Chapter 9 - DEAN REED
Allison Reed did not deny working on Pulse.
That was the first surprise.
She had been twenty-eight in 2022.
Assistant director in student engagement.
Not dean.
She helped recruit participants and test message delivery.
Her photo from that year matched Maya's memory.
“So she's C-4?”
Vanessa asked.
Adrian shook his head.
“No evidence.”
We met without Allison first.
He refused to accuse a current dean based on a four-year-old visual memory.
Correct.
Then Allison requested the meeting herself.
Forty-two minutes after Adrian asked her office to preserve records.
She entered Kingsley carrying a binder.
No lawyer.
Bad sign or confident sign.
I could not tell.
She looked at us.
Then at Adrian.
“I assume Maya remembered me.”
Vanessa leaned forward.
“You knew her?”
“I enrolled her.”
“Were you the fourth participant?”
“No.”
“Then why were you outside the lab?”
“Because I worked there.”
Simple.
Allison had a staff badge because she was staff.
Maya's memory identified the wrong category.
Good.
Then Allison opened the binder.
“I was also the person who asked the project team to stop using personal complaint data.”
Adrian stared.
“When?”
“October seventeenth.”
Three days after our freshman fight.
“What prompted you?”
“A student conduct coordinator realized case numbers were appearing in experiment exports.”
“Did you report it?”
“Yes.”
“To?”
Professor Kerr.
Dean Malcolm Pierce.
General counsel's office.
Martin Bell.
Same general counsel.
“What happened?”
“Pulse shut down.”
“After Maya.”
“Yes.”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“And then all of you forgot to tell the students.”
Allison looked at her.
“No.”
That surprised us.
“I argued for debriefing.”
“Then why didn't it happen?”
“Legal advised against broad contact until they knew scope.”
“Scope took four years?”
“No.”
Allison's voice hardened.
“Scope took six weeks.”
There.
“So after six weeks?”
“The final review recommended targeted debriefing.”
Adrian stopped.
“I haven't seen that.”
“I know.”
The room changed.
Allison looked at him.
“The version the board gave you is incomplete.”
Adrian's face tightened.
“How do you know?”
“Because I kept mine.”
She pulled out a memo.
Final Internal Review.
Recommendation 7:
Notify students in affected conflict sequences of unauthorized message use, provide corrected record, and offer no-fault conduct re-review where applicable.
There.
We were supposed to be told.
Vanessa stared.
“What happened?”
Allison turned one page.
Handwritten routing note:
Hold pending counsel. Potential downstream liability / reputational amplification.
Initials:
M.B.
Martin Bell.
General counsel.
Brooke whispered:
“He killed the debrief.”
Allison corrected:
“He delayed it.”
“For four years.”
“Yes.”
She did not defend him.
Then I asked:
“Did Dean Pierce know?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
“Nothing.”
There.
Not forged records.
Not secret criminal scheme.
A decision not to push.
Why?
Allison answered.
Bellamy had just secured a $6.4 million retention grant linked to Pulse analytics.
Not Pulse itself.
Related infrastructure.
Dean Pierce feared reopening the study would jeopardize the grant, eliminate advising positions and expose student records publicly through litigation.
“So he chose us.”
Vanessa said.
“He chose the institution.”
Allison replied.
“That is not the same thing.”
“No.”
It wasn't.
Maybe worse.
Then Allison looked at me.
“Rachel, your freshman conduct notation should have been reviewed.”
I stared.
“What notation?”
A warning.
Low-level.
Not on transcript.
Still inside internal conduct history.
For threatening language during the Jefferson confrontation.
Vanessa had one too.
Brooke had no conduct case but should have received a written correction regarding the source of the leaked complaint.
None happened.
Adrian sat back.
This investigation was growing beyond what he had been given.
Then Allison said:
“One more thing.”
Of course.
“The Aster account was never only Nora’s code.”
Nora frowned.
“What?”
Allison showed a system map.
Aster-4 was controlled by a research admin group.
Five users.
Nora.
Eli Grant.
Professor Kerr.
A data engineer.
And:
A.VALE-CONSULT
I stared at Adrian.
Vanessa stood.
“What the hell is that?”
Adrian did not move.
Brooke looked between the initials and his face.
“A. Vale.”
Nobody needed help spelling it.
Adrian finally said:
“I can explain.”
Vanessa laughed.
“That sentence is having a terrible year.”
I stared at the man who had walked out of Kingsley and asked who had called the other two.
“You had access to Aster?”
His answer came quietly.
“Four years ago.”
There.
May you like
The investigator had not entered the story last week.
He had been inside the system when it happened.
