At first there was no response. Nathan could all but feel the anger radiating from the battalion commander as he struggled to regain control of his temper. As with so many other things, the sights and sounds of this sort of tantrum were familiar to him. Often his father, frustrated by a bad day, would storm home where he would transfer his anger from a deserving target to his own children. Scott Dixon never meant to do so, Jan often told them. “Your father is a passionate man,” she would explain to a young boy whose only concept of passion was love and affection.

Finally the raspy voice mumbled something that Nathan didn’t quite hear. Watching, he could see the adjutant’s shoulders visibly relax despite being well hidden by the baggy BDU shirt he wore. “Sir,” the adjutant continued while still exposing only his head in the open doorway, “while you’re waiting for Captain Cockran would you care to talk to our new lieutenant? He’s right outside.”

In Nathan’s mind alarms sounded as he held his breath and waited for the response. “No, please no,” Nathan found himself praying. But luck was seldom an item second lieutenants were issued in any appreciable quantity. From the open doorway through which the adjutant peered, came a disgruntled “Sure, why not.”

Not waiting to be called forth, Nathan stood up and slowly began to make his way through the first open doorway. As he did so Nathan was amazed by how closely his feelings of dread and apprehension matched similar feelings he had experienced in the past. It had been this way when he had been a small child, called to task by his father for smacking his younger brother with a baseball bat. There was no difference between his feelings now and those he had when he went off to his high school principal after it had been discovered that Nathan and his friend had fed a program into one of their teacher’s computers that forced the poor teacher to endure several minutes of military marches before he could do anything on it. And of course, answering numerous special reports to the commandant of cadets at VMI for public display of affection always managed to generate a level of fear and loathing that was most uncomfortable.

Pulling back from the entrance to Colonel Blackwell’s office, the adjutant informed Nathan of the obvious. “The battalion commander will see you now, Lieutenant.” There was no missing the relief in the adjutant’s voice.