Madeline stood and raised her weapon, identifying herself as a police officer and ordering the man to release the shrieking woman. Instead, the man pulled his hostage closer as cover and threatened to cut her. Other passengers were yelling and moving about the cabin, seeking places to hide. Finally, there was a moment when the flight attendant tried to break free, and a few inches separated her and the man with the knife. Madeline fired.

And the flight attendant went down.

“Shit!”

Madeline bent over in horror. The man on the screen yelled, “Who’s next?”

“Madeline!” Holodnak yelled. “Is it over? Is the danger over?”

Maddie realized she had lost focus. She straightened up and fired five rounds into the man with the knife. He dropped to the floor.

The lights came up and Holodnak came out from behind the computer station.

“I killed her,” Maddie said.

“Well, let’s talk about it,” Holodnak said. “Why did you shoot?”

“Because he was going to kill her.”

“Good. That’s good under the IDOL rule—immediate defense of life. Could you have done anything else?”

“I don’t know. He was going to kill her.”

“Did you have to stand and show your weapon, identify yourself?”

“I don’t know. I guess not.”

“That was your advantage. He didn’t know you were a cop. He didn’t know you were armed. You forced the action by standing. Once your gun came out, there was no going back.”

Maddie nodded and hung her head, and Bosch suddenly felt bad that he had set up the whole session.

“Kid,” Holodnak said. “You’re doing better than most of the cops who come through here. Let’s do another and end it on a good note. Forget this one and get ready.”

He returned to the computer, and Maddie went through one more scenario, an off-duty incident where she was approached by an armed carjacker. She put him down with a center-mass shot as soon as he started to pull his gun. Then she held back when a passing civilian suddenly ran up and started shaking a cell phone at her and screaming, “What did you do? What did you do?”

Holodnak said she handled the situation expertly and that seemed to raise her spirits. He once again added that he was impressed with her shooting and decision-making processes.

Harry and Maddie thanked Holodnak for the time on the machine and headed out. They were recrossing the basketball court when Holodnak called from the door of the simulator room. He was still playing pin the tail on the donkey with Bosch.

“Michael Formanek,” he said. “The Rub and Spare Change.”

He pointed at Bosch in a gotcha gesture. Maddie laughed even though she didn’t know that Holodnak was talking jazz. Bosch turned, started walking backwards and raised his hands in an I-give-up fashion.