She gave Lucy a thumbs-up.
Lucy glanced in the other direction to where Alexis Sanchez was still shooting at her target. She hesitated before each shot and Lucy cringed when she realized that most of the rounds hadn’t even hit the black portion of the target. Alex was book smart, focused, and brilliant with numbers—unfortunately, she had no firearm skills. They’d already lost two recruits opening week who failed the physical test; no one wanted to see anyone else leave.
“Cease fire. Guns down on the table. Step back from your station and await your score.”
There was no privacy here at the gun range. All thirty-four recruits in New-Agent Class 12-14 would know who passed, who failed, and what score they got.
Carter and Eddie were standing at the two stations to the right of Lucy, between her and Reva. They had a friendly competition about who would score higher, but Lucy suspected they both had perfect scores. The eleven recruits who had military experience had an upper hand at the gun range.
Special Agent Joel Kosako went down the row to announce their scores. Lucy had heard from her sister-in-law Kate that over 70 was acceptable at this stage, because they would be practicing rigorously before the actual qualification round.
“Jackson, seventy-five. Caruthers, thirty-three.”
Ouch.
“Penrose, seventy-two.”
Lucy looked at Reva and smiled, but Reva frowned. She’d expected a higher score.
“Acosta, ninety-eight. Nix, ninety-eight.”
“Tied?” Carter exclaimed. “Rematch!”
The instructor frowned at him and moved to Lucy. “Kincaid, ninety-three.”
“You sure you weren’t a soldier?” Carter asked her.
“My brother was Army,” she said. “He trained me. He’s going to expect me to get a perfect score before I leave.” But Lucy was very happy with her score. It was her personal best on this range.
“Not that there’s pressure in perfect,” Eddie teased.
“Fields, sixty-eight. Dorfman, forty-one. Sanchez, twelve.”
Carter whispered, “I’m surprised she hit the target at all.”
Lucy winced. “We need to help her,” she said quietly. “She’ll never pass at this rate.”
There was one perfect score for the first round, a former Marine. Lucy was the top female scorer, beating out Margo. Lucy was surprised, since Margo had been in the Army for three years. Had this been the real qualification round, only thirteen new agents would have passed. They had two weeks to get the others up to speed.
Kosako, a former drill sergeant, called everyone to gather in a circle.
“This is one of the worst group of shooters I’ve had in years,” Kosako said. “Only a third of you would have passed if this was the real test. We’ll be spending extra time on the range for the next two weeks, all of you. Now, we’re doing it again. Reset the targets.”
As Lucy jogged toward the far end of the range, a familiar shiver ran down her spine. Someone was watching her.
She shook it off—Kosako was watching all of them. She’d done well in the drill; she shouldn’t worry.
She reset her target and turned to jog back to her station. She was tense as she scanned the crowd, trying to figure out who had eyes on her.
She spotted Class Supervisor SSA Paula Kean standing with Agent Laughlin right behind Lucy’s station. They hadn’t been there during the first round.
Laughlin caught her eye, then said something to Kean, who nodded, and glanced at Lucy.
She swallowed and turned her back on them. Put on her ear and eye protection, checked her weapon, reloaded. Focus on the routine. Focus on what she knew.
When Kosako cleared them to shoot, Lucy’s muscles froze. She couldn’t shoot if she was this rigid. Her first shot missed the target completely, hitting the dirt hill behind. She mentally ran through her inner procedures to calm herself, but she was now behind everyone else, and that made her more tense. Her neck ached the more she tried to force calm.
What did Laughlin want from her? What was going on between him and Kate? It was obvious Kate didn’t like him, but she had refused to explain exactly what was going on. Had he threatened Lucy and Kate was trying to protect her? That would only make it worse. Kate should know that.
Yet all this speculation was only making Lucy more worried. She couldn’t focus and was the last to finish. She knew she’d done poorly.
Carter leaned over and asked, “What happened?” He looked at her hands. “You’re shaking.”
She didn’t want to talk about it. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Laughlin watching her, neither smiling nor frowning. Just staring.
“I choked,” she said.
“If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t