“I’m not pressing charges,” I said softly.

“I don’t want his money, and I don’t want his name on a court docket next to mine.”

Clare looked up at me, her smile bright under the terrace lights.

“You’re too forgiving, Major General.”

“It isn’t forgiveness,” I said, looking out toward the dark fairway where the flagsticks stood silent in the wind.

“It’s clearance.

When an operational line is closed, you don’t keep sending troops back into the swamp.”

David laughed, a short, warm sound in the quiet night.