Chapter 5
The field went completely still.
Briggs’s mouth opened.
“What?”
Commander Cole did not answer him yet.
He looked to the officers.
“Kill the demonstration. Keep the cameras running.”
That sentence changed everything.
Two military police officers moved from the edge of the field toward the ring.
Briggs pushed himself up on one elbow.
“Commander, with respect, she never identified herself.”
Riley’s eyes stayed on him.
Cole’s jaw tightened.
“She was not required to.”
Briggs looked around, searching for support.
He found none.
The same soldiers who had laughed earlier now stood frozen, staring at Riley like they were seeing her for the first time.
Cole turned to the crowd.
“This was a command evaluation,” he said. “Sergeant Briggs was informed that an outside observer would be present during today’s combat demonstration.”
A murmur moved through the troops.
Briggs went pale.
Cole continued.
“He was not told who.”
Riley removed the plain training patch from her shoulder.
Underneath it was another patch.
Small.
Dark.
Unfamiliar to most of the troops.
But not to the officers.
One captain in the front row whispered, “No way.”
Another officer stood without realizing it.
Briggs stared at the patch.
His face drained.
Riley Carter was not a new recruit.
She was not a little girl playing soldier.
She was Chief Warrant Officer Riley Carter.
Joint Special Operations.
Three deployments.
Two classified rescue missions.
One Silver Star that had never been publicly announced because the operation that earned it did not officially exist.
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And for the last month, she had been assigned to investigate abuse complaints inside Briggs’s training program.
Read Part 6 to find out what Riley had recorded while Briggs thought he was humiliating her.
