Commander Li made it six steps past the open gate before someone finally noticed him, which was not exactly the kind of thing that inspired confidence in a military base.
The empty checkpoint had been bad.
The unmanned watch platform had been worse.
And the fact that no one had stopped three military vehicles and one civilian car from rolling inside should probably have been enough to make everyone turn around.
But somehow, the part that annoyed Zhenlan the most was the young soldier beside the water barrels looking up like Commander Li had interrupted his break instead of returned to his own base.
"Commander?" the soldier blurted out, straightening so quickly that the barrel he had been leaning against rocked behind him.
His rifle hung loose across his chest, his helmet was clipped crookedly under one arm, and the salute came late enough that even Lingyun noticed.
