Day 12 – Overweighted vest issued. Collapsed. Confirmed wrong equipment per TSgt Olivo.
She flipped to a fresh page. The pen scratched lightly.
Day 14 – Langston repeated phrasing about my mother’s intel file. Confirmed secondhand but specific. Source unknown.
She paused then wrote slowly,Pattern escalating.
Later, she wrapped the notebook in a pair of socks and slid it into a folded T-shirt at the back of her locker. Not the best hidingspot, but enough to feel like she had one piece of ground still hers.
That night,she returned to her bay late. She had spent the evening restocking equipment for the cadre, a task added at the last minute and assigned only to her. Her feet dragged. Her eyes stung.
Mia was already in bed, earbuds in, eyes closed. A small flashlight glowed above her bunk, casting a halo of soft light against the ceiling.
Shannon opened her locker.
Stopped.
The T-shirt was moved.
She froze.
The folded edge was off by half an inch. Just enough for someone who never touched it to know.
Her hands moved slowly, methodically, through the fabric. The notebook was gone. Her fingers tightened. She pulled everything out.
No note. No misplacement. Just absence. She closed the locker slowly, one hand still braced against the inside wall.
Mia’s voice came from the upper bunk, soft and sleepy. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Shannon sat down on her bunk, back straight, eyes fixed on the floor. She didn’t move for a long time.
The next morning,inspection passed without incident. Her locker was perfect. Her uniform was sharp, her face calm.
Krueger didn’t say a word. He walked past her bunk, glanced down, and gave a small nod. Almost like approval.
Shannon stood at attention, saying nothing. But inside, something had shifted.
Not fear. Not anger. Just cold. She had written everything down. Now it was gone. And whoever had taken it had done so to prove a point.
BASIC CADET TRAINING – DAY 20
It started with a clipboard. Dorm check. 2230 hours. Routine accountability drill. Krueger’s voice snapped cadets to their bunks like a switch flipped. Boots aligned, heels to edge. Lights on. Bunks lit under fluorescents like surgical tables.
Shannon stood at attention with the others, braid tight, face unreadable. She knew the cadence by now. She knew the silence before Krueger’s footsteps. And she knew, somehow, this one wasn’t like the others.
Krueger entered the squad bay with a second-class cadet at his side. “Random accountability verification,” he said to no one.“Names. Faces. Locations logged every ten minutes after lights-out. You know the drill.”
He moved fast. Too fast.
Mia leaned slightly toward Shannon. “This isn’t normal. Not this fast.”
Krueger called names. Pointed. Logged. When he got to Shannon, he paused then wrote something slowly. He turned back toward the door, waved his assistant over, and said it loud enough for everyone to hear:
“Cadet McKenna was out of dorm bounds at twenty-two hundred. Flag her for dorm protocol violation. Formal report goes in tonight.”
Shannon’s stomach dropped. “I was here,” she said calmly but sharply.
“No, you weren’t,” Krueger said without looking at her. “Room check timestamp says otherwise.”
