Chapter 7 - The Man Nobody Listened To
Sullivan survived the first hour. That became the only victory Avery allowed herself to count.
Marcus stayed over him until the medevac team took control, his gloves dark with work, his face gray from exhaustion. When he finally stumbled toward Avery, he looked at the rifle in her hands, then at her face.
“You saved him,” he said.
“You got to him.”
“You gave me the distance.”
Avery did not know what to do with gratitude, so she checked the chamber.
Hayes approached more slowly. His earlier panic had been replaced by something harder to read.
“Who taught you?”
Avery looked toward the armored vehicles where Staff Sergeant Morse should have been. But Morse had not been on the mission. He had been left behind at Griffin, assigned to range safety, ignored by people who thought old instructors belonged near clipboards instead of decisions.
“The man nobody listened to,” she said.
Hayes frowned. “Morse?”
Avery’s eyes flicked to him.
That was answer enough.
Hayes looked back toward the ridge, then at the rifle. “He flagged you?”
“He trained me off-record.”
“Why off-record?”
“Because nobody wanted to hear that supply could shoot.”
Marcus let out a tired, humorless laugh. “They’re going to hear it now.”
But Avery knew the Army well enough to understand that saving lives did not always protect the person who changed the story. Sometimes it made them inconvenient.
By the time they returned to base, the questions had already started.
Why was a supply specialist engaging distant threats?
Who authorized the training?
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Why was her skillset undocumented?
And why had nobody listened to Morse when he tried to report that the unit had an asset hiding in plain sight?
