“You did well, both of you,” Anna said, looking at Alisha. “No question you learn better with a little competition at your side.”
“Better? I was hitting more targets yesterday than I did today,” Alisha complained.
“Yesterday, I placed the target twenty feet from the muzzle. Today, for the private’s benefit, I moved the targets to three hundred feet. What I saw today was a hell of an improvement from yesterday.”
Alisha felt much happier about her progress now. She went back to the compound in search of Colonel Logan so she could brag about her improvement, but he was nowhere to be found, so she returned to her quarters to see if Jack was up for some good news.
While certainly sadder than normal, Jack was dressed and having his breakfast when she and Benjamin returned.
Jack listened attentively as she chattered on about how happy Anna had been with Benjamin’s shooting.
“Treasure any kind words from Colonel Riley, Benjamin. They are few and far between.”
Alisha didn’t like him talking about Anna like that, but she didn’t lecture him. She couldn’t scold such a heartbroken soul.
Benjamin added, “She also said Colonel Kane improved greatly as well. Yesterday she was shooting at twenty-foot targets, and today three hundred feet.”
Now Jack looked really impressed and muffed up Alisha’s hair. “Little imp, you didn’t tell me that part of the story. That’s tremendous improvement!”
“I didn’t mention it because Benjamin’s story is so much better. It was his first day at shooting lessons and he out-shot me every time.”
Jack was surprised, clearly not understanding how extraordinary the private’s accomplishments were. “Sounds like you’ve got a natural talent there, Private.”
“He does!” she assured Jack. “But wait ’til you see him fly!”
Jack leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Don’t put too much pressure on him. He’s still young.”
Alisha looked over at Benjamin and noticed how worried he looked.
She gently patted his arm. “Don’t sweat the test today, Benjamin. I think you’ll make it easily, but even if you don’t, you’ll be back up in less than a week, and by then you’ll have your shooting down cold.”
Benjamin visibly relaxed and smiled in return.
Alisha reached out and squeezed Jack’s hand in a gesture of appreciation for intervening. She hadn’t even realized that she was placing heavy expectations on the young soldier.
Chapter 25
Benjamin was on fire during the practices. Not only did he stick the spot every time, but his shooting was even better than during target practice that morning. Anna was preening like the owner of a prized racehorse that just broke the track speed record.
Alisha noticed several of the first and second group looked concerned. They hadn’t expected much threat from Group 3 and beyond, but Ben was clearly a ‘phenom’. That was until the actual testing began. He took off as beautifully as ever, but during his descent, he seemed distracted and was late getting off his shots and he missed the spot by an incredible ten feet.
She walked over to Ben. “Don’t worry about that run,” she assured him. “You just got distracted.”
“Don’t stand by me!” he yelled and pushed her away from him.
His actions shocked Alisha. Why would he strike out like that? Did he blame her for the pressure she had placed on him? He was so young maybe it really was too much. She wished Jack were there. He’d be able to calm the boy down. “Get back in line, Ben. You’ve got two more runs. Just do your best. Don’t worry about the results.”
She returned to stand by Anna.
“I know you’ve only been colonel for a day, but you’re making a piss-poor start of it,” Anna said.
Her criticism hurt. Anna must have seen the mishap with Ben and blamed her for it. “I don’t know what happened.”
“Well, let me tell you. You’ve been treating him like he was your kid brother instead of a private in the Corps. So when he acts like a spoiled brat, it’s your own doing. There has to be a wall between officers and those they command. They can’t be your friends or buddies. They’re just resources to send to war.”
“But it wasn’t a tantrum. There’s something wrong,” Alisha insisted.
“Yeah, in his head. I tell you one thing. I’m not wasting any more time on him,” Anna snapped.
Alisha tried to ignore Anna’s bitching and instead focused her binoculars on the area of sky that she’d expect Ben to soon appear. He had been in perfect position last time until he reached about five hundred feet. With the binoculars at high intensity, she studied the boy’s face as he came out of the clouds. He looked terrified as he stared into the north field. He wasn’t paying attention to where he’d be landing at all.
Then Alisha saw a flicker of red cross his face and then return, making a bead on his forehead. “Anna, someone’s beading Ben with a laser rifle.”
Anna grabbed Alisha’s binoculars from her hands. A second later, she tossed them back as she snared a gun from a cadet and climbed up on the general’s stand.
Since Anna wasn’t bothering to explain why she had pushed the general out of the way and was now taking aim into the field, Alisha decided she had better do so. “We’ve a sniper in the field, sir. He is beading Private Benjamin.”
“Anna, don’t shoot to kill—they are Ryders,” Colonel Logan warned as he studied the snipers through his binoculars.
“What the hell are Ryders beading one of their own!” Powell demanded. “Shoot to kill, Colonel Riley!” he bellowed.
Anna fired three shots and then watched for a second longer and fired one more time.
“Jack…” the general started to bellow, and then realized Jack was not present. “Logan,” he corrected himself. “Find out what the hell is going on here!”
By this time, all the Ryders had landed, but not a one had been measured. Alisha went to Ben, patting him over to make certain he hadn’t been shot.
“Don’t stand near me!” he begged, pushing away her hands.
“Benjamin, it’s all right. Anna took them out.”
Benjamin stopped fighting her. “Took them out?”
“The snipers in the field that were beading you. Colonel Logan has sent a crew out to pick them up.”
“They’ll be gone before the crew gets out there,” Benjamin said with sad resignation.
“The hell they will,” Anna said. She approached and checked Benjamin over herself. “Hold still, soldier. You could be shot and not even realize it given you’re pumped up with adrenaline.” After frisking him over, she declared him fine.
The general had acquired binoculars from someone and watched the retrieval. “Damn it, Colonel Riley, I told you to shoot to kill!” he bellowed.
“Well, sir, I shot to hurt like hell instead. I’m not about to waste valuable Corps resources at a time like this. If you want them dead, send them on a mission. Those wounds won’t keep them bedside more than a few days,” Anna replied.
Amazingly, the general didn’t argue with her. Instead, he hurried off to the officers’ compound with a crowd of Ryders following.
Alisha looked around at the trainees, now confused and upset over their unmeasured test. She looked at Anna for help.
“Hell, let’s get back to the testing. We don’t have time to be pissing away an hour. We’ve got a new Corps to build!” Anna exclaimed and yelled the group back into their line. “Last test didn’t count. If it was world-class, tough shit, you’ll just have to do it again.”
“Maybe we should start the testing over. It’s clear why Benjamin got distracted. And why he pushed me away. He was trying to protect me,” Alisha said.
“Yeah, well he should have said something. You don’t just clam up when there’s a sniper beading you. And you never push a colonel, not even for the best of reasons.”
Alisha remembered Denny telling her the rule was ‘you never touch a Ryder, not even to help them’. Now she saw how
stupid rules like that took root. “Anna, I may be a piss-poor colonel, but I’ll be damned if I will ever punish a Ryder for attempting to push me out of harm’s way.”
Instead of being insulted by her reply, Anna just smiled and shook her head, as if Alisha was hopeless.
Alisha turned her attention to the skies and waited for the trainees to appear.
While clearly showing some deterioration from his practice runs, Ben’s scores in shooting and flying were high enough to give him first place in each of the last two runs, but when added to his disastrous first score, he missed the cut by one person. Alisha was about to announce the results when the redheaded videographer broke line and came up to her and Anna. “Colonel, sirs. The entire group requests that you allow Private Abrams to retake his first test.”
Alisha smiled in appreciation. She now recognized the Ryder. He was Philly’s friend, Cole.
“Well, that isn’t the line’s decision,” Anna snapped.
“Yes, sir,” he said with disappointment and turned back to the line. He took two steps and fell to the ground in pain.
For a second Alisha thought he had been shot by another sniper, but as she went to him, it was clear that he was only feigning an injury, forcing them to drop him and pull Benjamin up into the ranks of the flyers that passed. And while she appreciated Cole’s willingness to sacrifice his chance, she wasn’t going to let that happen.
She could see by the anger in Anna’s eyes that she had figured out Cole’s ploy herself. But before Anna could flay the soldier alive, Alisha grabbed her arm and walked her away from the troop so they could talk in private. The moment she released Anna’s arm, the storm began.
“If you ever again grab my arm and march me off like some pissant private, I will kick your butt so far that you’ll wake up in a hula dance in Hawaii,” Anna threatened.
“I brought you over here to save face,” Alisha explained. “It was very clear you were about to ream that soldier because he was faking his injury.”
“You’re damned right I was!”
“He was faking that injury to force us to do what’s right.”
“Which is exactly why I’m going to kick his butt ’til it’s blue!”
“No, you’re not!” Alisha said.
“For God’s sake, grow up and get some balls before you lose complete control of this situation. This isn’t some daycare center!”
“You want balls, well, here they are. This is my instruction field, not yours. I am in charge, and the only time I have lost control of this situation is when I let you take over and make an arbitrary and unjust decision that not one person on that line or myself feels is fair. And that soldier on the field felt this injustice so strongly that he was willing to sacrifice his own place to correct our mistake. You keep saying I’m a piss-poor colonel, but we clearly have different standards of what makes a good colonel. I will never knowingly allow injustices to stand, nor will I allow another colonel to hijack my authority. I am remanding your decision. Benjamin Abrams will be allowed to redo his first test.”
“You give in to them once, and they’ll be questioning every order you ever give them,” Anna warned.
“You know what? Maybe a little pushback is healthy. Maybe we learn something when that happens,” she said and turned back to the line and smiled at Cole, still prone on the ground. “That’s the worst acting job I’ve ever seen, Cole. In fact, I’m assigning you forty demerits for a damn poor performance.”
Cole looked relieved that his punishment hadn’t been any worse.
“But for being willing to take the penalty for another member of your team, I’m awarding you a hundred merits. So get back in line, Cole. Is there anyone on this line who does not believe that Private Abrams should be allowed to retake his first test run?”
Alisha smiled when no one objected. “Private Abrams, your team believes you deserve the right to retake your first run, and I concur.”
Behind her, Anna cursed beneath her breath.
“Prepare to go up,” Alisha ordered softly.
She looked down the list and located the name above Benjamin’s: Daily News. What type of parent would name their child Daily News? God Almighty! She watched Daily as the young girl crossed her fingers and watched the sky for Ben to show. Was she hoping he’d fail or succeed?
The moment Benjamin appeared in the skyline, Alisha lost sight of Daily. Instead she watched the absolute poetry of Benjamin’s maneuvers as he rolled the gun out and fire three times into the dead center of the bull’s-eye, returned his gun, and landed precisely in the center of his mark. The entire squad swamped him, including a very happy Daily News.
Anna handed her the score on marksmanship and stormed off. Alisha smiled when she saw it was a perfect five hundred. That would go nicely with his perfect five hundred on flying.
A gentle hand landed on the back of her neck. She smiled up at Jack, pleased he felt well enough to come out.
“I almost asked you last night if you thought this boy was worth all the pain his salvation had caused,” Jack admitted.
“And now that you’ve seen his talent?”
Jack pulled her to him and kissed her forehead. “You did the right thing,” he assured her. “And kicking Godzilla out of your daycare center—that I will cherish forever,” he promised her.
“What about the snipers? What will happen to them?”
Jack shrugged. “I’m pretty sure they’ll be the same three that assaulted Abrams, which means they are the general’s favorites. This morning when Logan brought Tucker in to file a report against them, the general was clearly balking at pressing charges, and by the fact they were still running about during the training, I’m guessing Logan lost his argument.”
“But General Powell ordered Anna to shoot to kill,” Alisha reminded him.
“Which means, at least for a moment, he had changed his mind, but until I see those goons in jail, I won’t feel justice has been served.”
“What about Tucker?”
“If I know the general, he’ll be a buck-private by the end of the week, which is really unfair. Powell just used him to punish Jason and the other two goons. He never intended to have MAC reevaluate Tucker for a permanent promotion. Jason knew that as well. Thus, Tucker never had a chance to control and lead that squad. He couldn’t protect Abrams. He was probably in serious danger himself.”
Alisha nodded. “It would have been the same for me, if this incredibly handsome colonel hadn’t come to my rescue and pulled DC from the line and sent him to the brig.”
“Well to be fair to Logan, he was specifically ordered by the general not to interfere. I can assure you, he wanted to rip DC apart.”
“Wait!” Alisha grinned. “I just lost three Ryders. I can take three more, one from each of the classes that have trained so far.”
“Sounds fair,” Jack agreed.
“Stay here. I have to give Daily News the news,” Alisha begged and quickly ran into the mob still circling Benjamin.
Chapter 26
When Logan realized Powell wasn’t planning to open a report on Jason and his two fellow goons, he felt sick. The fool still wanted to salvage them. Disgusted with the general’s lack of backbone, Logan stepped outside just in time to see a single flyer coming down. Alisha must have let Benjamin take his first run over. The boy was truly amazing.
They were going to have a devil of a time keeping the boy unharmed if Powell didn’t throw his favorite three in the brig.
“There you are!” the general snapped. “All my colonels are wandering off and shirking their duties today. Discipline has certainly gone to hell around here.”
“If you let them off, you have no idea how bad discipline is going to get,” Logan warned.
“I did not let the captains off. You think I’m that big a fool? Oh, Jason talks a good story, I grant you. I let him talk because I was just trying to figure out how I had been so wrong about him. He had always seemed aggressive with the colonels, but he never disobeyed an
order.”
“So what’s their punishment?” Logan asked, seeing Anna coming straight toward them and she did not look happy.
“I gave them a choice. They could be drummed out of the Corps in shame, or they can die in battle serving their country.”
Logan watched Alisha and Jack through the binoculars. The bastard had just kissed her right there in the field! Logan was so distracted he almost missed Powell’s answer to his question. He put the binoculars down. “You’re letting them off?”
“Hell no! They’ll stay in the brig alongside DC until I need a volunteer for a suicide mission. And then they’ll go out and perform it.”
“You’d risk a mission with one of those men?” Logan asked in amazement.
“I would. They are first and foremost soldiers. Whatever is wrong with them, it is not a missing sense of duty. They would rather stay in the brig and die a soldier than live a day outside the Corps. And we are too damned short of resources for me to waste their one good quality.”
He hoped to hell Powell was right about them. He’d never put his life into DC’s hands.
“Logan!” Anna yelled as she finally reached him. “You need to teach your girl how to be a leader before she runs this training project into the ground.”
“MAC rated her leadership qualities extremely high,” Logan replied.
“Well, MAC is a goddamn computer!” Anna retorted. “You and I both know that you cannot be indecisive when it comes to leading. You do what you say and say what you do. No exceptions!”
“Alisha usually does just that,” Logan observed.
“Spit it out, Colonel Riley. If you’ve got something concrete to say, then say it!” General Powell snapped.
“The decision was made not to let Private Abrams have a rerun of his first test. But instead of ignoring the squad’s protests that it was unfair, she gave in to them and let him fly.”
“Why the hell wouldn’t she let the boy take the run again?” the general demanded.
“Because the decision had been made…in fairness to the other contestants.” Anna replied.
Scavenger Falters (The SkyRyders Book 2) Page 13
