The mess hall doors opened.<\/p>\n
Two Military Police officers entered.<\/p>\n
Vaughn looked toward them.<\/p>\n
Then toward Colonel Hale.<\/p>\n
\u201cSir, this is over a table?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hale\u2019s expression remained cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stepped closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the pattern.\u201d<\/p>\n
The MPs moved to either side of Vaughn.<\/p>\n
His confidence disappeared.<\/p>\n
He looked around desperately.<\/p>\n
The same soldiers who had laughed minutes earlier now avoided his eyes.<\/p>\n
Nobody defended him.<\/p>\n
Nobody smiled.<\/p>\n
Vaughn finally looked at Lena.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou planned this whole thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lena looked at the food scattered across the floor.<\/p>\n
Then back at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice was quiet.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just followed your usual routine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The words hit harder than shouting would have.<\/p>\n
The MPs escorted Vaughn toward the doors.<\/p>\n
He walked through an aisle of silent soldiers.<\/p>\n
Phones slowly lowered.<\/p>\n
When the doors closed behind him, the entire room seemed to breathe again.<\/p>\n
Colonel Hale turned toward everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny footage recorded on personal devices will be submitted to the sergeant major or deleted by 1300.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nobody argued.<\/p>\n
Then he looked back at Lena.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you intact, Private?\u201d<\/p>\n
Lena glanced at the overturned chair.<\/p>\n
\u201cFully operational, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n
For half a second, Hale almost smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he walked away.<\/p>\n
Lena remained standing alone beside the mess she had never created.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The mess hall doors opened. Two Military Police officers entered. Vaughn looked toward them. Then toward Colonel Hale. \u201cSir, this is over a table?\u201d Hale\u2019s expression remained cold. \u201cNo.\u201d He stepped closer. \u201cOver the pattern.\u201d The MPs moved to either side of Vaughn. His confidence disappeared. He looked around desperately. The same soldiers who had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","class_list":["post-627","sr_chapter","type-sr_chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter\/627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/sr_chapter"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/sr_chapter\/627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fantatv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}