Chapter 5 - The Target Drops
The wind changed.
Sarah felt it along the side of her face before the range flags showed it.
She adjusted her stance.
The rifle rested unsupported against her shoulder. No bench. No bipod. Only balance, breath, and a body that remembered more than she wanted to explain.
Garrett’s friend raised the strobe again.
An older man near the back reached over and pushed the light down.
“Enough.”
He was broad-shouldered despite his age, with a gray beard, faded scars along both forearms, and the posture of someone who had spent a lifetime carrying weight without announcing it.
Garrett looked at him.
“Mind your business.”
The veteran did not answer.
Sarah inhaled.
The deck became silent.
She aimed not at the center of the steel plate, but at the weakened chain link above it.
The third shot cracked through the range.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
Then the chain snapped.
The steel target dropped from its mount and struck the dirt beneath it with a heavy metallic crash.
Nobody moved.
The three rounds had not been scattered luck.
They formed a deliberate group around the same link at one thousand yards, standing, through iron sights, in crosswind.
The technology executive slowly picked his cash up from the bench.
Garrett stared at the empty target frame.
Then he turned on Sarah.
“You rigged it.”
She lowered the rifle and opened the action.
“Of course.”
His jaw tightened.
Sarah looked at him.
“You think I drove here before sunrise and weakened your chain?”
Several people avoided Garrett’s eyes.
May you like
His humiliation needed somewhere to go.
So he chose Sarah.
