“I was good at cooking.
Bases always need cooks.
So I cooked.”
There was no bitterness in his voice, which somehow made the answer heavier.
Miller stared at him.
“You expect us to believe nobody here knew?”
“Most people don’t ask the man serving potatoes what he did before lunch duty.”
One of the shooters laughed before catching himself.
Even Sterling allowed the smallest smile.
Then the general’s expression became serious again.
“Were you a sniper?”
Saul looked toward the distant target.
“Among other things.”
“And that unit?”
“Gone.”
Sterling understood the boundary in that single word and did not press him further.
The mission remained the immediate problem.
He ordered the three shooters back to the firing line, but this time Miller was not allowed to give them the solution.
“Saul calls nothing,” Sterling said.
“He asks questions.
They make the decisions.”
Miller looked stunned.
“You’re putting the cook in charge of qualification?”
Sterling faced him.
“No.
I’m putting observation in charge of ego.”
Saul leaned against his cart.
The first shooter settled behind the rifle.
Saul asked, “What do you see in the cut?”
The shooter answered.
“What changes before the ridge?”
Another answer.
“What are you trusting because you measured it, and what are you trusting because somebody told you?”
The shooter paused longer this time.
Then he adjusted.
The rifle fired.
Steel answered.
The man lifted his head with a stunned expression.
Saul simply nodded toward the next shooter.
“Your turn.”
The second man missed his first attempt.
Miller inhaled sharply, ready to intervene.
Sterling looked at him once.
Miller stayed quiet.
Saul asked the shooter what had changed.
The man studied the canyon, corrected himself, and fired again.
Hit.
By the time the third shooter took position, the atmosphere on the range had transformed.
Nobody was fighting the distance anymore.
Nobody was pretending uncertainty was weakness.
The men were watching, communicating, and thinking.
The third shooter struck steel on his first attempt.
General Sterling looked at his watch, then at the target.
The final gate had been cleared.
But the general was not finished.
He turned to Miller.
