Chapter 1 - The Untouched Paper
The harsh Wyoming afternoon sunlight beat down relentlessly on the outdoor Army qualification range. A strong, biting crosswind whipped across the pale gravel, snapping the red safety flags violently against their metal poles.
Standing perfectly still at the firing line was Private Emma Carter.
Emma was twenty-eight, wearing standard camouflage fatigues, dark green hearing protection, and clear protective glasses. Her brown hair was secured tightly into a practical bun. She belonged to a logistics support unit—soldiers who managed supplies, not frontline combat.
Fifty yards downrange, a crisp white silhouette paper target fluttered in the wind.
Emma took one slow, highly controlled breath. The fifth and final shot from her M4 rifle cracked like a whip across the dry mountain ridge.
The white silhouette target remained completely, entirely clean. Not a single bullet hole.
Brutal, mocking laughter instantly erupted from the dozens of heavily armed infantry soldiers gathered behind the concrete partition. They were Combat Group Charlie, and they had been dragged out to the range for a "demonstration."
"Did she even keep her eyes open?" a massive infantryman sneered loudly, high-fiving his buddy.
Emma didn't flinch. She calmly engaged the safety selector on her rifle and lowered the weapon across her chest, her expression completely unreadable.
Colonel Daniel Mercer, the arrogant, forty-something senior commander overseeing the range, stepped forward. He folded his arms over his decorated camouflage uniform, an incredibly smug, condescending smile plastered across his face.
May you like
"Five rounds, Private," Mercer projected his voice so every soldier could hear. "Fifty yards. And not a single impact on the paper. Exactly what I expected."
👉 Mercer thought he had just proved his point, but a veteran sniper watching from the tower saw something that made her blood run cold.
