Saul looked through the optic, then lifted his eye again.
“No.”
Miller gave a disbelieving laugh.
“No?”
“Your current solution missed twenty times.”
One of the shooters looked down, embarrassed.
Saul touched the side of the rifle, feeling the accumulated heat, then glanced toward the ammunition that had been sitting under the sun.
“You boys keep asking the rifle to forgive everything else.”
Sterling said, “What do you need?”
“A minute.”
That irritated Miller almost as much as the old man touching the rifle.
“The mission won’t give us a minute.”
Saul kept watching the distant terrain.
“Then you should learn what to notice before the clock starts.”
Sterling’s mouth tightened—not quite a smile, but close.
Saul waited.
The men behind him began shifting impatiently.
He ignored them.
He watched the heat shimmer, a loose strip of grass near the firing line, then the tiny distortions farther downrange.
The wind at their faces was not the wind in the canyon.
That had been his point from the beginning.
Finally he settled back behind the glass.
The range officer prepared to call the shot, but Sterling raised a hand.
No announcements.
No ceremony.
Saul breathed out.
The rifle cracked.
Everyone turned instinctively toward the distant steel.
For a fraction of a second, there was nothing.
Then a hard metallic note came back across the canyon.
Hit.
Nobody cheered.
The sound was too shocking for that.
Miller stared through his spotting glass as if he expected the mark to disappear.
“Edge,” he said quickly.
“Barely.”
Saul remained behind the rifle.
“Steel doesn’t grade pride, Captain.”
One of the younger soldiers covered a smile.
Miller lowered the spotting scope.
“One round proves nothing.”
General Sterling looked at Saul.
“Can you do it again?”
Saul turned his head slightly.
“Wind changed.”
Miller scoffed.
“Convenient.”
Saul pointed toward the canyon without looking at him.
“Watch the shimmer above the cut.”
The three shooters leaned toward their optics.
For several seconds nobody spoke.
Then one of them quietly said, “It’s rolling.”
Saul nodded.
“Now you’re looking.”
He adjusted for what he saw rather than what the original range numbers told him.
The second shot broke.
