Snippet #2665553

Colt had been pleasantly surprised with the boy’s notice of the bullet, initially: Not many trainees caught something that he did not, especially on their first day. 



Then Samon managed to get hit with the very piece he had detected, and grouped himself right back into the average.

“And that is how you are dying,” he snapped as the boy fell, and notably flushed red from the mistake. Had Colt had something else to throw while the boy was off-guard from his mistake, he would have tossed that over, too. “You are training to be Agent of Liberty, Cauldier. You are needing to be prepared like one.” 



He spoke as he watched the boy work through the task, still making his laps around him. He would pause and watch from a certain angle every now and then, before picking up his circles once more. Colt knew that the boy would feel watched, and perhaps unnerved by the intense observation.



He did not care.



When Samon held out the gun, Colt took a step toward him and accepted it from his outstretched hand. Even if he had not been watching like a hawk, the trainer would have noted precisely what Samon had forgotten the second it hit his palm.



He looked to where the bullet had fallen, and back to Samon, pausing to see if the boy would mention his negligence. He nodded to himself when Samon did not.



“So, Trainee Caudier,” Colt said, pointing the weapon toward the back wall with his finger hovering on the trigger, “You are handing loaded double-action revolver to Liberty Agent. Is six-shot weapon. Everyone is knowing this, yes?” 

He fired once into a practice target behind him, striking it lethally without turning to look. “So, I am thinking, now, ‘Is six shot weapon. Is having five shots left.’”

He shot again, hitting another target. “Four.” Two pumps more, one into the target and another one hitting the previous bullet hole. Colt stared toward Samon, and more specifically, the inch or so of air just beside the trainee’s ear. “Now I am thinking, ‘Two shots left. Two more bullets in chamber.’ And so…” 


Bang.



The bullet flew loose and whizzed past the trainee’s head, so close that the boy could have felt the heat, and then buried itself in the wall behind him. 

Colt stepped forward and seized Samon by the shoulder before he had time to filch away, and pressed the still smoking barrel against his forehead. “And now, I am missing. And thinking, ‘Is okay, there is one more shot.’ So, I am making bold move.”

Colt pulled the trigger. The gun clicked, empty.



“And now, Trainee Cauldier, I am dead.” He released him with a rough shove, and threw the gun onto the mat at his feet, “Because person I am trusting with life is making mistake, and then saving own skin by not telling me.” 

His voice did not rise in volume, but it was impossible to miss the terseness in his tone or the tightness of his jaw. 

“When you are hiding behind lie, lie will always give you away.”

He kicked the revolver, to remind Samon of where it was, and then tossed a pack of ammunition from his belt onto the floor beside it.

“Now, pick it up. Loading it. All the way.”