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“It’s still like that out there,” Lauren griped. “Our country may have thrown open the doors to women going into combat, but there’s a helluva lot of push back by the military, and the black ops community in particular, to not allow us women through their doors. But the horse is out of the barn. SEALs are already opening their doors to women candidates.”
“But,” Sky said, “you busted down the door before that, Lauren. You became a Marine Force Recon sniper.”
“Only because I was twice as good as any man carrying a set of balls,” Lauren said grimly. “Twice as good. I outshot all of them. Repeatedly. Consistently.” She pulled out a hog’s tooth on a leather string around her neck. “When I passed Marine Corps sniper school with a 950 out of a possible 1000, I’d done better than any man who passed through that brutal school. But they refused to give me the hog’s tooth. Every male sniper who passed the test got one.” She scowled and tucked it down inside her black t-shirt. “It took me a year of haggling, getting a lawyer, and then suing the Marine Corps to force them to acknowledge that I passed with the highest score ever and that they owed me that hog’s tooth as proof of it.”
“Wow,” Abby murmured, “you really took them head on.”
“It’s the only way they understand force vs. force. Anyway, it’s the story of my life,” Lauren said tightly. “I eventually was put on the roll call as passing the school course and given my rightfully earned hog’s tooth. It’s SUCH a boy’s club, even to this day. It will be interesting to see how the sniper school evolves now that it’s open doors to women. My bet is that they’ll have more women snipers graduating than men, in the long run.”
“Is that why you left the Marine Corps?” Abby wondered.
“Yes, after six years I walked away. I figured the hassle, the continual sniping behind my back about me being a woman, hurting a lot of male feelings, and just generally expending a lot of energy defending myself and trying to get good on ops, took an emotional toll on me. I was fighting an outside enemy and I was also fighting Marines who were supposed to have my back. I had enemies in two camps.”
“And then you found Shield Security?” Sky asked.
“Actually, Jack Driscoll went looking to hire me. He knew my sniper scores and didn’t care if I was a woman or not.” Lauren’s voice tempered a bit. “He’d heard how good I was, how many kills I had. The day after I left the Corps, he called me up and offered me a job and a mind-blowing salary, as well as a leadership position in his company.”
“Jack’s a fair guy,” Sky said to Abby. “He was in SEALs for seven years before he left. He started Shield with the intent of getting the best of the operators, no matter what service branch they came from.”
Abby looked over at Lauren. “Are you the only woman in it?”
“Oh, no,” Lauren murmured, her shoulders relaxing. “About half of the operators there are women. Jack has a hundred employees, and his company is growing so fast, they’re building on to the original office complex. His services are wanted around the world, and he’s got a very good name for himself.”
“Impressive,” Abby said, nodding. “I like a man like that.”
“Don’t we all?” Lauren said.
“Joe strikes me as that type of man,” Sky said.
“Oh, he is, believe me. We’d never have gotten along if he hadn’t treated me like an equal.” Abby grinned a little and opened her hands. “I come from Hill people in West Virginia. Most folks consider us ignorant because we live in the mountains, raise our own food, and live in tight knit groups.”
Raising her brow, Sky said, “You don’t strike me like that at all.”
“No,” Lauren said with an evil grin, “one look into how Abby canvases an area, she doesn’t miss a thing. It’s a sniper’s way of operating in the world. Details count. She learned that from her Pa in the hills of West Virginia, I imagine.”
Abby flushed. “Well, I admit I do still operate more or less like a sniper, paying attention to details, but I’m not as paranoid about it anymore.”
Sky laughed. “Cal told me once being a sniper and paranoid went hand-in-hand with one another.”
“Paranoia keeps you alive,” Lauren added archly, finishing off her wine. She slid off the stool. “Second round ladies?”
Sky shook her head. It was barely eleven a.m. “No, I’m going to nurse my water for a while, Lauren, thanks.”
“Me too,” Abby chimed in. “Well,” she said, “how do you think our guys are doin’ out there in their dive boat?”
“Hopefully having fun,” Sky said. It was Cal’s bachelor party. He’d rather do something like diving than drinking himself into a drunk. “Cal loves the water.”
“Those guys are water dogs, no question,” Lauren agreed.
“How do you think Alex will do? Does he know how to swim at all?” Sky wondered. She watched Lauren’s mouth twitch. Alex had arrived at Coronado almost a week ago. He’d been keeping his distance from Lauren so far. Earlier this morning, he went out to eat with the guys at a local SEAL restaurant and then on to the dive boat.
“Probably drowned.”
Abby hooted. “You can’t mean that, Lauren.”
“Don’t try me.”
Sky shook her head. “Alex is from Ukraine, and he joined the Russian Army. I don’t know enough about Spetsnaz to understand how they train their operators.”
