Then Evelyn picked up the final cartridge.
Chapter 3
PART 3 — THE THIRD SHOT WAS NEVER EVELYN’S
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Tyler glanced downrange.
“You’re still taking the third shot?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“No.”
Everyone seemed surprised.
She held the cartridge out.
Tyler stared at it.
“What am I supposed to do with that?”
“Shoot.”
His expression changed.
“Me?”
“You chose the target.”
“That plate?”
“Yes.”
Tyler glanced at the distant steel.
Then at the rifle.
“I’ve never fired that rifle.”
Evelyn raised an eyebrow.
“Recoil surprises civilians.”
A few Marines failed to hide their laughter.
Even Ross smiled.
Tyler accepted the cartridge.
He sat behind Evelyn’s rifle.
Suddenly, all his jokes felt very far away.
He positioned his shoulder.
Wrong.
Evelyn corrected him.
“Relax.”
He adjusted.
“Cheek lower.”
He obeyed.
“Don’t fight the rifle.”
Tyler took a breath.
The camera flowed around them, rising behind Tyler’s shoulder, drifting across Evelyn’s scarred hand as she pointed toward the optic, then extending visually along the line of fire toward the distant
target.
Tyler settled.
“Wind?”
Evelyn answered.
“You tell me.”
He studied the mirage.
“Left to right.”
“How much?”
Tyler hesitated.
“One point five?”
“Try again.”
“Two.”
Evelyn smiled faintly.
“Better.”
Tyler adjusted.
His breathing slowed.
The Marines watched.
This time no one wanted him to fail.
That surprised him.
He squeezed.
Crack.
Silence.
No ping.
Tyler sighed.
“Miss.”
Evelyn looked downrange.
“No.”
Ross lifted the spotting scope.
His eyebrows rose.
Maddox turned.
“What?”
Ross stared for another second.
Then lowered the scope.
“He hit the chain.”
Tyler blinked.
“The chain?”
A moment later, the distant steel plate tilted sideways.
One mounting chain had snapped.
The plate hung crooked.
A strange cheer erupted behind Tyler.
He stood, stunned.
Evelyn laughed.
A real laugh this time.
Tyler looked almost embarrassed.
“I wasn’t aiming for the chain.”
“I know.”
Maddox said dryly, “Take the victory.”
For the first time all morning, the tension
broke.
But it lasted only seconds.
An unfamiliar voice called from behind them.
“Evelyn Mercer?”
Everyone turned.
A Marine courier stood at the edge of the canopy holding a sealed envelope.
Evelyn’s smile vanished.
The courier approached.
“This was delivered to headquarters this morning. Marked for you personally.”
Maddox frowned.
“From whom?”
The courier handed it over.
Evelyn saw the handwriting.
Her face went white.
Maddox noticed.
“What is it?”
She didn’t answer.
Her scarred fingers trembled for the first time.
She opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Old.
Dusty.
Taken in Iraq.
Maddox looked over her shoulder.
His face changed.
The photograph showed three Marines beside a damaged wall.
Young Maddox.
Young Evelyn.
And a third man.
Ross leaned closer.
“Who is that?”
Evelyn whispered,
“Thomas Briggs.”
Tyler froze.
“What?”
Everyone looked at him.
Evelyn turned slowly.
“What did you say your full name was?”
Tyler’s mouth went
dry.
“Tyler James Briggs.”
Evelyn stared at him as though the entire morning had suddenly rearranged itself.
Maddox took the photograph.
On the back was a handwritten sentence.
He read it silently.
Then again.
Tyler stepped forward.
“What does it say?”
Maddox looked at Evelyn.
She nodded.
He read aloud.
If my son ever reaches Pendleton, tell him his father didn’t abandon him. Tell him I asked Mercer to keep the truth until he was ready.
Tyler stopped breathing.
“My father died when I was six.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“No.”
Tyler stared.
“You knew him?”
She nodded.
Maddox looked shaken.
Tyler whispered, “How?”
Evelyn stepped closer.
“Thomas Briggs was on Nathan’s team.”
Tyler turned toward Maddox.
Maddox’s expression confirmed it.
Evelyn continued.
“He was the one who pulled me out after I went back for Nathan.”
Tyler looked at her scar.
She nodded.
“That injury didn’t happen saving Colonel Maddox.”
Maddox said quietly, “Not exactly.”
Evelyn’s voice broke.
“It happened saving your father.”
Tyler’s knees nearly failed him.
Evelyn continued.
“Thomas survived Fallujah.”
Tyler stared at her.
“What?”
“He survived.”
“My mother told me—”
“She believed what she was told.”
Tyler’s face twisted.
“Then where is he?”
Evelyn looked at the envelope.
“That’s the part I didn’t know.”
She removed a second piece of paper.
A recent hospital letter.
Tyler read the first line.
Then his hand began shaking.
Thomas Briggs was alive.
Not overseas.
Not missing.
Not buried beneath a military marker.
Alive.
In a veterans’ rehabilitation center less than twenty miles from Camp Pendleton.
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