{"id":18051,"date":"2025-11-11T12:40:48","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/?p=18051"},"modified":"2025-11-11T12:40:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T12:40:48","slug":"18051","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/?p=18051","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

His two aides, both full-bird colonels, stopped at the flap like they\u2019d hit a glass wall. They knew better than to enter a scene he was processing.<\/p>\n

Wallace\u2019s eyes did a single, slow sweep of the room. He didn\u2019t gawk. He assessed. He saw the downed Rangers. He saw the scattered sim-rounds. He saw the cadets, frozen in terror and confusion. He saw my stupid blue gun.<\/p>\n

And then his eyes landed on her.<\/p>\n

She hadn\u2019t moved. She just stood there, rifle at the low-ready, a perfect image of disciplined, potential violence. She was the calm center of the storm I had created.<\/p>\n

Wallace\u2019s expression didn\u2019t change, not at first. He just looked at her, truly looked at her, for a long, silent moment. There was a flicker. Not surprise. Recognition. But a kind of recognition that was deep and troubled. He had seen posture like that before, but not here. Not in a mess tent full of kids.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

His two aides, both full-bird colonels, stopped at the flap like they\u2019d hit a glass wall. They knew better than to enter a scene he was processing. Wallace\u2019s eyes did a single, slow sweep of the room. He didn\u2019t gawk. He assessed. He saw the downed Rangers. He saw the scattered sim-rounds. He saw the…<\/p>\n

Read More “”<\/span> »<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":144,"today_views":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18064,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18051\/revisions\/18064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/readmore.cx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}