Chapter 7 - The Objective
The investigation started before Sarah reached the infirmary. Training logs were pulled. Medical records were reviewed. Camera angles from the headquarters exterior were preserved. Soldiers who had been silent in formation found themselves seated separately, asked simple questions by officers who did not accept “I don’t know” as a shield.
Sterling interviewed Vance last.
He sat across from her in a sterile conference room, uniform still dusty, expression rebuilt into resentment.
“You embarrassed me in front of my soldiers,” he said.
Sterling folded her hands. “No. I interrupted you in front of your witnesses.”
His nostrils flared. “You don’t understand what it takes to make soldiers hard.”
“I understand the difference between hardening and harming.”
“She was weak.”
Sterling’s eyes did not move. “Private Jenkins completed the assigned drill with an unreported rib injury.”
“She should have reported it.”
“She did.”
Vance looked away.
Sterling opened the folder. Inside were prior complaints. Minor, dismissed, scattered across months. A sprained wrist labeled clumsiness. Heat exhaustion called attitude. A recruit reassigned after “failure to adapt.” Statements from soldiers too afraid to name the pattern until the base commander asked directly.
“You have been confusing fear with readiness,” Sterling said. “And cruelty with standards.”
Vance leaned forward. “You think they’ll survive real war if they can’t survive me?”
Sterling’s face went colder.
“I survived war,” she said quietly. “The battlefield never needed men like you to make it worse.”
For the first time, Vance looked away first.
By evening, he was relieved of training duties pending formal investigation.
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By morning, the story had reached higher command.
And Sarah Jenkins was still alive.
