I shrugged, not looking over.
“I did say that to your captain. But in the short time you’ve been here, you’ve made me change my mind.”
I looked down.
I believed him. But I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of admitting it. “So you say,” I said.
“The guys don’t want to take your challenge. They say you don’t need to prove yourself. They want me to give you a pass.”
“I won’t take it.”
“That’s what I told them.”
“Go back in and tell them to pick somebody, then,” I said.
“Who gives the orders here, Hanwell?”
“You do, sir. So go back in and act like it.”
The captain went in, and a few minutes later, they sent out Case.
“Nope,” I said, the minute I saw him. “That’s just insulting.”
“I’m the choice,” Case said with a shrug. “Deal with it.”
“Case,” I said, “you could not run this course if your life depended on it.”
“That’s why we all picked me,” he said. “Nobody wants you to lose.”
“I’m not going to lose,” I said. “Now get back in there and pick somebody real.”
A few minutes later, the rookie came out.
“Why didn’t you call me?” he asked, referring, I supposed, to the brick.
“What would you have done?”
He shook his head, looking out at the course. “I don’t know. Helped you sweep up, maybe.”
“Maybe it was you who threw it,” I said then.
“You couldn’t possibly think that.” He searched my eyes.
I shrugged. “Maybe you’ve been nice to me this whole time to throw me off your trail. Maybe you secretly want me gone.”
“Trust me,” he said. “I want you the opposite of gone.”
I looked away. “I don’t trust anybody anymore.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Owen said. “Nobody wants you to.”
“Why are you out here, anyway?” I asked. “Shouldn’t you be inside, deciding?”
“They’ve already decided.”
I turned to him. “Who is it?”
He shrugged. “It’s me.”
