Snyder stared at the seventeen-year-old private seated across the conference table from him. He slid a report across the desk. “Care to explain this, Mardman?”
Mardman peered down at the Iboard. “Looks like my performance ranking.”
“It looks like garbage. You were playing Helicopter Commando so vigorously, you let this report go unanswered for fifteen minutes.”
“It was a false alarm.”
“What if it wasn’t?”
“But it was.”
Snyder put up his hand. “Any report can be, and your first priority is to be there for the report. And then you only got seventy percent of these right. The only good news is that you wasted the time of our specialists with false reports that kept them from their work rather than letting something slide through the cracks.”
“So? They got plenty of time.”
Snyder slammed his fist down on the table. “But they’re doing your job! Effective immediately, I’m suspending your access to Helicopter Commando. Don’t try hacking it. I’ll find out.”
“Jimenez never did that!”
Jimenez probably didn’t know how. “Jimenez ran our team as a last place team in both quality of our scores and efficiency.”
“What do you expect? We’re on Z-row. Only total losers end up—”
“Keep digging. I’ll see your hide in the infantry, on loan to an African warlord.”
Mardman smoldered. “Are you this nice to everyone on our team?”
“No. Some people need help learning the job. I don’t think you do. I think you’re just lazy and undisciplined.”
“Other than staying Intelligence, what’s in this for me?”
“When opportunities or a better seat comes up, the first thing the captain looks at is performance rankings. Do your job right, and you get off my team.”
Mardman smiled. “Now, that’s an incentive.”
Continued…Next Thursday
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