He gave me a slow, triumphant smirk.

He was sure he had beaten me completely.

He figured I’d slink back to my cheap motel room, accept the wrecked credit, and quietly resign my military commission to dodge a public family scandal.

I left the three folded cardboard boxes lying on the porch planks.

I got into my sedan and shifted into drive.

At twenty hundred hours I sat perfectly still on the edge of the sagging mattress in my motel room.

The old window air conditioner hummed loudly, pushing damp air across the cramped square room.