Chapter 3 - THE COLOR DRAINSThe silence that followed was so deep you could hear the distant hum of air conditioners three floors away.
Corporal Brandt’s smug smile shattered instantly. His jaw went slack, his mouth opening and closing like a fish pulled out of water. He blinked rapidly, looking from Captain Vance’s rigid salute back to me, sitting calmly on the steel bench in my gray blouse and dark slacks.
"S-Sir?" Brandt stammered, his voice cracking into a high, panicked squeak. "Captain... who... who are you saluting? She's... she's just a civilian! She doesn't have a uniform! Her card threw an error code!"
Glenn’s triumphant grin froze on his face. The smirk curdled, turning into a stiff, awkward grimace. He slowly took his hands out of his pockets, looking sideways at Vance.
"Wait a minute," Glenn said, his voice dropping an octave as panic began to prickle through his tone. "What kind of joke is this? She's... she's my sister. She does admin work. What is this 'General' nonsense?"
Captain Vance finally broke his gaze from mine, turning his head slowly toward Corporal Brandt. The look in Vance's eyes was so cold, so lethal, that Brandt actually staggered backward a full step.
"Corporal," Vance said, his voice dropping into a terrifying, glacial register. "Tell me you did not just lock the incoming Commanding General of this entire Marine Corps base inside a temporary holding cell."
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Brandt’s knees buckled slightly. The color left his face entirely, leaving him a sickly, chalky gray. "I... I... the scanner... the database hadn't updated her biometric override yet! She didn't show me physical orders! She just—she said—"
"She told you who she was," Vance interrupted, his voice lashing like a whip. "And you treated her like a criminal."
