Chapter 4 - The Silence Behind the Line
Harris hated silence more than disagreement.
Disagreement could be crushed.
Silence meant the audience was thinking.
He glanced back at the soldiers, searching for the easy laughter that had been there minutes earlier.
Nobody gave it to him.
One trainee looked at the dirt.
Another stared at the target.
A third slowly lowered his phone as if suddenly embarrassed to be recording.
Amanda removed one side of her hearing protection.
“You owe me fifty,” she said.
The words were quiet.
That made them worse.
Harris’s face went red.
“You think one shot makes you special?”
“No.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
Amanda looked at the range safety officer.
Willis had straightened now. Professional instinct had taken over. His hands rested near the clipboard, his expression careful.
Harris noticed.
“What?” Harris snapped. “You impressed too?”
Willis did not answer.
Amanda did.
“I’m here to see why your trainees’ qualification scores drop when you instruct.”
That sentence changed the air.
Harris stared at her.
The soldiers behind him went still.
Amanda reached into the inside pocket of her tan jacket and removed a slim credential holder. She opened it just enough for Harris and Willis to see the seal and classification band, not enough for anyone behind them to read.
Harris’s eyes moved across it.
Then stopped.
His face lost color.
Amanda Reed.
Military Marksmanship Evaluation Unit.
External Standards Review.
Harris looked back at the target.
Then at her.
May you like
Then at the soldiers who had watched him mock her.
The hole in the center of the paper suddenly looked less like a lucky shot and more like the opening line of a report.
