Identity Zero novel · Chapter 7 of 32

Chapter 7: Inspection

"Am I interrupting, Commander?"

Sallow didn't come in.

He leaned on the doorframe and let the cold in behind him.

"Seventeen's shoulders," Gideon said. "Buckle cuts. I want them clean before they turn."

His voice was the drill voice again.

Flat. Bored. Nothing in it at all.

"Course you do." Sallow looked at Jesse, sitting on the bench with his shirt half off. "Real hands-on, this one."

"Was there something you needed, Major?"

"Colonel wants the ruck times." Sallow smiled. "I'll tell him you're busy."

He let the door swing shut on its own.

They listened to his boots go down the hall.

Gideon didn't look at Jesse.

"Barracks," he said. "Now."

"Gideon."

"Don't." He opened the door. "Not here. Not ever here."

At morning formation, Sallow was waiting.

He walked in front of the line wiping his hands on a rag.

They were black to the wrist.

He'd been under his truck at the motor pool, the way he was most mornings, and he smelled like axle grease and coffee.

"Good news, ladies," he said. "Some of you are getting special attention this term."

He stopped in front of Jesse.

"Private lessons. After hours. In the drying room." He tucked the rag in his back pocket. "Very private."

Somebody down the line snickered.

Then a couple more.

Gideon stood at the end of the formation with his clipboard.

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