Lena brushed food from her sleeve.
“The first two mysteriously went missing.”
Vaughn laughed nervously.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Lena tilted her head.
“Don’t I?”
Fifty feet away, Colonel Marcus Hale placed his coffee cup on the counter.
The moment he saw the document in Lena’s hand, his expression changed.
He walked straight toward them.
The entire mess hall became quiet.
Vaughn noticed him approaching.
His posture immediately changed.
Colonel Hale stopped beside the overturned table.
He looked at the spilled food.
The soldiers holding phones.
Then Lena.
“Private Mercer.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is this the situation you advised me might occur?”
Vaughn whipped his head toward Lena.
She did not even look at him.
“Yes, sir.”
Vaughn immediately stepped forward.
“Sir, she set this up. She’s trying to make me look—”
“Silence, Specialist.”
Hale never raised his voice.
He did not need to.
The colonel turned toward Vaughn.
“Are you the soldier referenced in two previous reports concerning harassment?”
Vaughn opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Lena raised the document slightly.
“This one won’t disappear, sir.”
Colonel Hale took it from her.
He read the first page.
Then looked directly at Vaughn.
“You kicked her table in front of sixty witnesses.”
Vaughn swallowed.
“You damaged government property.”
Another pause.
“You publicly targeted another soldier.”
Then Hale looked toward the phones around the room.
“And apparently you decided to document the entire thing for us.”
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