Chapter 4 - The Insignia
The tension in the private room was now thick enough to cut with a carving knife. Fourteen pairs of eyes darted frantically between Maya, Liam, and me, trying to decipher a language they didn't speak.
Maya stood up halfway, her voice trembling with indignation. “Liam, what is wrong with you tonight? Why are you taking his side? He sits behind a desk pushing papers while you earned your Ranger tab!”
Liam didn't even look at her. He pushed himself fully out of his seat and turned his entire body toward my side of the table. His eyes were wide, fixed with an intensity that bordered on disbelief.
“Sorry, man,” Liam muttered, his voice dropping into a tone of profound, unexpected reverence.
I offered a slight, acknowledging nod. “You didn't do anything wrong, Lieutenant.”
Liam reached his hand out across the corner of the table, offering a formal, respectful greeting. As I reached forward to accept his handshake, the heavy wool fabric of my Class-A uniform jacket shifted slightly at the shoulder, the crisp arm movement exposing the subdued black-and-gold shoulder sleeve insignia and the specialized combat tab pinned directly above it.
Liam’s hand stopped dead in mid-air.
His fingers curled inward, trembling slightly. His eyes tracked upward from my cuff, past the rows of campaign ribbons and valor awards, directly to the small embroidered tab resting on my left shoulder.
The color completely drained from his face, leaving him looking ashen, like a man who had just stared down the barrel of a loaded weapon.
“What?” Maya demanded, her voice rising in a shrill panic as she rushed around the corner of the table to grab Liam’s arm. “What are you looking at? What is wrong with his uniform? It’s just a medical patch!”
Liam slowly pulled his arm away from Maya’s grasp, ignoring her completely. He took a full step back from the table, his posture instantly snapping into a rigid, involuntary position of absolute military respect. His eyes were locked onto my shoulder patch with a mixture of awe and sheer terror.
“You’re... you’re a Night Stalker,” Liam whispered, the words tumbling out of his mouth in a breathless gasp.
The table went dead silent. My father frowned, leaning forward. “A what?”
Liam finally looked back at Maya, his eyes flashing with white-hot fury. The polite, deferential fiancé who had endured her endless bragging all evening had completely vanished, replaced by an infantry officer who had just realized he was standing in the presence of legends.
“Shut up, Maya,” Liam commanded, his voice cracking with intensity. “Just shut your mouth right now.”
Maya recoiled as if she had been physically struck. Tears of humiliation welled in her eyes. “How dare you speak to me like that! Over him? Over my brother who guards a gate? Tell him to explain himself!”
May you like
Liam turned back to face the entire table, his chest heaving. He looked at my father, then at my mother, and finally back to Maya, who was trembling with rage.
“Do you have any earthly idea,” Liam said, his voice trembling with suppressed emotion, “what you have been making jokes about all evening?”
