Chapter 6
Bradley looked at his desk again. He was a man who had spent thirty years learning the difference between the rules that existed because they were right and the rules that existed because systems needed rules, and the specific situation of those two categories creating a direct conflict was something he had navigated before, in both directions, at cost in both directions.
"There are going to be consequences for the protocol violation," he said.
"I know."
"There are also going to be people who want to give you a medal for the outcome."
"I know."
He looked at her for a moment. "What do you want me to do with that?"
Rachel thought about it. She thought about a girl pinned down in Syria with rounds cutting through the wall above her, and a pilot who burned fuel he didn't have to give her a door out of the fire. She thought about the specific arithmetic of debt, how it accumulates in silence and pays itself when it decides the time is right, not when the paperwork says it should.
"Whatever you think is right, sir," she said.
He nodded slowly.
The formal record reflected a protocol violation and a mission outcome. Both were entered without editorializing, which was the correct way to enter them. The violation carried a written reprimand that was placed in her file, which was the consequence for the rules that existed because systems needed rules. The outcome carried a citation that was also placed in her file, which was the consequence for the rules that existed because they were right.
Both were accurate. Both were permanent.
James was at the base medical facility for three weeks before the leg allowed him to walk without assistance. Rachel visited once, on a Tuesday, when the ward was quiet. She brought bad coffee from the machine in the hallway because it was the only coffee available and bad coffee was still coffee.
He was sitting up in the bed reading a maintenance manual, which was exactly the kind of thing she would have expected him to be reading.
May you like
He looked up when she came in. He looked at the coffee.
"Is that as bad as it looks?" he said.
