“Hey, at least we’re still getting to sleep in a bed. I hear we’ll be out in the field more often than not, starting tomorrow,” Catie said.
“Rats!”
“It’s just two more weeks.”
“We will survive,” Joanie belted out the refrain. “Hey, I’m going down to the mess hall. Julie and I are going to work on our Delphi Facts. Do you want to come?”
“No, I’ve got some things to do here,” Catie said.
“See ya.”
“ADI, surveillance off,” Catie said.
“Oh, are you finally going to spring your trap?”
“I’m going to arm it,” Catie said.
“When will it go off?”
“0700 in Delphi City; 1100 here.”
“When you’ll be conveniently occupied at the rifle range,” ADI said.
“That’s the plan.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Has anyone ever fired an M4 before?” the sergeant major asked.
Catie reluctantly raised her hand. She had thought about not admitting it, but figured she would give herself away anyway.
“Cadet MacGregor, when did you fire one?”
“Sergeant Major, last year, a friend took me to a firing range and taught me to fire it,” Catie said.
“Did he teach you how to clean it?”
“Yes, Sergeant Major. And we also learned how to do that in Basic.”
“How fast can you tear one down and put it back together?”
“I don’t know, Sergeant Major; I’ve never timed myself,” Catie said.
“Well, come up here, and we’ll time you!”
“Yes, Sergeant Major!” Catie barked as she moved to the front. “Damn, how fast should I do it?” she wondered.
“The field manual specifies that you should be able to field strip it in one hundred fifty seconds,” the sergeant major said as he handed the rifle to Catie. “Begin.”
Catie ejected the magazine and checked the chamber to make sure there wasn’t a round in it.
“Very good! You can see that Cadet MacGregor likes that pretty face of hers and doesn’t want to have powder burns on it, or worse, shoot herself or one of us!”
Catie ignored the sergeant major’s narrative of her efforts as she stripped the rifle down, checked its components for wear or defects, and then reassembled it.
“Nice, one hundred twenty-five seconds to strip it down, and only one hundred seconds to reassemble it. Of course, you haven’t put the magazine back in it.”
Catie jammed the magazine back into the rifle, then handed it to the sergeant major.
“No, I don’t want it, I want to see you shoot. Prone position, fire downrange!”
Catie lay down, positioned herself for the shot, and fired.
“Keep firing, I want ten shots!” the sergeant major ordered as he used his pocket scope to see how she did.
“Nice shooting, you had a good teacher,” the sergeant major said. “Let’s see you do that from the kneeling position.”
Catie fired off ten more rounds, hoping that the sergeant major would start teaching the others how to shoot and leave her alone.
“Folks, we have us a regular sharpshooter here. MacGregor, you can help out teaching the rest of these maggots how to shoot.”
“Where did you learn to shoot like that?” Joanie asked as Catie was coaching her.
“Like I said, a friend took me out to the range,” Catie said.
“Yeah, but it had to be more than once.”
“It was; he liked to shoot,” Catie said. She couldn’t say that Kal, the Marine Commandant had been her teacher. “By the way, do you still want me to shoot you?”
“No! I’m doing better this week. But I’m still finding mud in my hair, my ears, and some other places I won’t mention.”
“You’d swear the stuff moves on its own,” Catie said. “Now relax and exhale as you squeeze the trigger.”
◆ ◆ ◆
At seven o’clock, Sophia Michaels finally got around to taking her shower. She made a point of starting out late on weekends. Her mother tolerated it since she was always ready to leave the condo by seven a.m. on the weekdays, even though she sometimes stayed home to do her schoolwork or write the articles for the Delphi Gazette.
As Sophia was rinsing her hair, the device Catie had installed in the ceiling injected its load into the hot water line. Catie had timed it to go off two minutes after the hot water started to run. Once its load was injected into the hot water line, the device fused the hole that was in the metal band around the line, sealing it. Then it released a spring that bounced it off the line and over a few feet. It landed with a soft thump, then fused its circuit board into a solid lump. That opened a small vial of acid which ate away at the plastic. As it ate the plastic, it wicked more of the acid from the vial to feed its hunger. Before Sophia finished washing her hair, the device was an indistinct lump of plastic with some metal mixed in.
Sophia had just finished rinsing her hair when she opened her eyes and saw green on her hands. She blinked, then tried to rinse her hands, the color wouldn’t come off.
“Oh no!” she cried as she quickly exited the shower. She looked in the mirror. Her hair and part of her face were green. “Catie! I’m going to kill you!”
“What’s the problem?” her mother called out.
“I’m green!”
“What?!”
“I’m green!” Sophia wrapped a towel around herself and exited her bathroom.
“Oh, my. You are green,” her mother said. “Did you try washing it off?”
“I was taking a shower when it happened!”
“Let’s see,” her mother said. Mrs. Michaels walked into the bathroom and turned the shower on. Clear water ran from the nozzle. She stuck her hand into the water and brought it out. It was clean.
“Were you washing your hair?”
“Yes!”
Mrs. Michaels squeezed some of the shampoo onto her hand, then washed it off. Then she tried the conditioner. “Doesn’t seem to be the soap. Did you use anything else?”
“No! It’s Catie. She’s getting even for my book!” Sophia wailed.
“You knew she would,” Mrs. Michaels said.
“But, green! How am I going to go out in public?”
“We can go to the clinic and see if they can get it off,” Mrs. Michaels offered.
“Ohhhhhh! I’m going
