Chapter 8 - THE UNFAIR ADVANTAGE
Mercer’s face flushed red as the realization finally penetrated his ego. He looked at the five paper targets hanging in front of them, then at the rental Glock resting on the rubber bench, and finally at the quiet civilian woman standing in jeans and a gray shirt.
He hadn't been betting against a local civilian who picked up a gun on weekends. He had just challenged a former Tier-1 special operations instructor who had trained the most lethal covert shooters in the nation’s military arsenal.
"Jesus," Mercer muttered, rubbing the back of his neck as sweat broke out along his hairline. "You... you were running the range."
"I was running the range when you were still in basic recruit training, Sergeant," Sarah said quietly, her voice devoid of anger, holding only the heavy weight of exhaustion.
She looked down at her hands—the calloused palms, the small scars across her knuckles from hot brass and shattered glass, the hands that had held military weapons for fifteen years before she walked away from the war to find quiet in an apartment near the Oceanside pier.
Miller stepped forward, placing his hand flat on the bench, his tone dropping into urgent respect. "They said you retired after the incident. They said you disappeared."
"I didn't disappear, Corporal," Sarah replied, reaching down to slide the rented Glock into its plastic protective case. "I just finished my job."
She snapped the case’s plastic latches shut with two clean, sharp clicks.
"And I came here today for ten minutes of quiet," she added, looking up into Miller’s eyes. "Not to be remembered."
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Miller looked at her for a long, silent moment. He understood what it meant to carry ghosts. He understood why a former Major from the Activity would wear an old gray shirt, tie a jacket around her waist, and rent a stock handgun at a public facility just to feel the familiar weight of steel without the burden of a mission.
He slowly brought his heels together, raised his right hand, and snapped a sharp, flawless military salute toward the civilian woman in Bay 7.
