THE SILENCE THAT BROKE THEM

Too calm.

He swallowed hard, his earlier arrogance completely gone.

“I… I thought—”

“You didn’t think,” she corrected softly.

That hurt more than a shout.

Then she turned to Major Lozano.

“The obstacle course.”

Lozano tried to recover his posture, but his voice betrayed him.

“Standard pressure training—”

“You falsified my results.”