“Thank you, sir,” I said.

I picked up a blank pronunciation guide from his stack and carried it with me out the heavy side door.

At nineteen hundred hours, the barracks were completely silent.

I sat on my floor with a brass polishing kit spread across a white towel.

Rachel sat on the edge of my bunk in a soft wool sweater, holding a paper cup of tea from the mess hall.

She had driven straight from the regional airport to the academy gates.