sound high above the fighting in his supersecret bombers.” He chuckled at his own insight, then said with a smirk, “Well, stop your crying and sniveling and go back to the beginning of the Pit. You still have . . .”
And to his surprise, Bradley let the M-16 rifle fall from his hands behind him into the mud.
“ Pick that weapon up, Basic! ” Weber shouted. “Are you insane ? Pick it up, now! ”
“Take it back, Weber,” Bradley said flatly.
“What did you say, Basic? Did you just address me by my last name?”
“I said: take it back, Weber.”
Weber’s eyes were bulging in complete and utter disbelief, and he stuck his face close to Bradley’s once again. “ You will address me as ‘Sir,’ Basic! ” he shouted, louder than Bradley ever remembered him doing so before. “And you will not direct me to do anything ! I give the orders here!”
“I’ll tell you once more, Weber: take back what you said about my father,” Bradley said.
“Getting rid of you is going to be easier than I thought, McLanahan,” Weber said, his incredulous expression replaced by a broad, satisfied smile. Bradley’s eyes met his, which turned Weber’s expression back to one of red-hot rage. “You’re one step away from a board of review, maybe even an on-the-spot dismissal. Get your eyes off me, Basic! ” But Bradley didn’t look away. “How dare you mouth off to a second-class, Basic? How dare you look me in the eye? Who do you think you are? You’re nothing but a candidate here, McLanahan, a wannabe. The only way you survive to attend my beloved Academy is to obey your superior officers, and that’s me. ” And he punctuated that last sentence with another punch in Bradley’s chest with three fingers of his right hand . . .
. . . except the jab never landed, because Bradley swatted his hand away.
“You just laid a hand on me, Basic!” Weber shouted, his voice just now beginning to grow hoarse. “That’s an automatic trip to the squadron commander. You’re one step away from going home to your daddy. Get your eyes off me, Basic! ”
“Take back what you said about my father, Weber,” Brad repeated, then added, “or you’ll be sorry.”
“You’re threatening me now, Basic?” Weber exclaimed, his eyes bulging in anger and disbelief. “If you want to go home to your daddy so bad, McLanahan, why don’t you just ring out? It’s easy. I’ll take you to the squadron commander, and you tell him you want to go home, and that’s it.” Bradley said nothing.
Weber moved face-to-face with Bradley. “But if you want to stay—if you’re afraid of getting rejected by your own daddy by going home before you even begin fourth class—then this is what you have to do: you apologize sincerely for touching me; you promise to uphold the basic principles of the Academy; and you agree to assist me in all my additional duties for your entire fourth year, in addition to all your other requirements. If you agree to all these things, I’ll omit filing a report on you for your breaches of conduct in this evolution, and you can continue Second Beast.” Weber nodded. “You did very well in First Beast, McLanahan, and even though your M-16 is lying in the mud right now, you haven’t done anything more egregious than what a lot of dipshit Basics do in Second Beast. You can still pull this out of your ass if you choose to do so. What say you, McLanahan?”
Bradley didn’t take his eyes off Weber, but looked him straight in the eye . . . for just a few moments, before caging his eyes, looking straight ahead at nothing, then said, “Sir, Basic McLanahan begs the cadet sergeant’s indulgence and sincerely apologizes for his inexcusable insubordination. Basic McLanahan was completely out of line, promises never to touch or threaten an upperclassman ever again for any reason, appeals to the cadet sergeant’s mercy to allow him to continue the Second Beast, and humbly requests the cadet sergeant’s permission