Chapter 4 - THE ASSEMBLY AND THE RHYTHM
Claire paid no more attention to Brooks or Kane. She crouched back down beside the cleaning cloth, her hands dropping to the disassembled M110 rifle with fluid, automatic purpose.
She picked up the upper receiver, sliding the newly lubricated bolt carrier group into the housing with a smooth, silent push. Her fingers picked up the charging handle, seating it into the upper groove with a sharp, satisfying click. Next, her hands swept up the lower receiver, bringing the two halves together, her thumb driving the front and rear takedown pins home with clean, effortless taps.
The entire reassembly took less than twelve seconds.
It was not a timed drill performance designed for show; it was the unthinking, rhythmic habit of a master craftsman who had assembled that specific weapon system ten thousand times in absolute darkness.
Range Master Ellis took three slow, heavy steps down from the control podium, his boots crunching quietly against the gravel. He watched Claire's chest—noticing that her breathing had settled into a slow, rhythmic, low-frequency cadence. In for four seconds. Hold for two. Out for four. Her heart rate was dropping into the low fifties despite the scorching heat and the crowd of mocking officers standing two feet away.
Ellis’s face went completely serious. The casual, bored posture of a range supervisor vanished, replaced by an expression of deep, profound vigilance.
Admiral Kane looked past Claire toward the distant target line. Out at the eight-hundred-meter mark, a single silhouette steel target stood against the white alkali salt flat, barely visible through the thick, swimming distortion of the desert heat haze.
Kane turned back to Claire, a challenged, cynical smile touching his lips.
May you like
"All right," Kane declared, stepping back to give her room. "Let's see it."
Claire didn't offer a dramatic reply. She reached down, zipped the heavy olive-drab canvas rifle case shut over her cleaning supplies, gripped the integrated carrying handle of the M110 in her right hand, and began rising to her feet.
