"Lin, have you found an owner for that Remington 700 yet?"

Lin Feng looked at Orion with genuine curiosity. "Why? You have someone in mind?"

Orion nodded without hesitation. "As a matter of fact, I do."

Lin Feng paused. "Daryl?"

Orion shook his head. "Emma."

Hearing that name, Lin Feng froze for several seconds before it registered. "Who? Emma? Are you sure you've got the right person?"

"I'm sure. My read on people doesn't miss. It's her." Orion paused. "And haven't you noticed?"

"Noticed what?"

Orion cut a sideways glance at Lin Feng. "Emma has focus and follow-through that goes way beyond ordinary people. Patience, too. Like a rattlesnake hunting in the desert — able to wait, and wait, and wait for prey to wander close, and then strike once. Fatal."

Lin Feng went quiet and looked out at Aisha, who was staring blankly into the middle distance. Honestly, he hadn't noticed.

But memory surfaced, the only two times Emma's help had been needed, there had been something in those eyes. A light.

The kind that comes from stubbornness that doesn't know when to quit.

Lin Feng turned back to Orion. "...Problem is, Emma's still a kid. Fifteen years old. With that build and frame, how many rounds of recoil can Emma actually handle? Three? Five?"

Orion's expression shifted. The look he gave Lin Feng was the look someone gives an idiot. The corners of his mouth pressed down. "One shot, Lin. Emma only needs to be able to fire that one decisive shot. That's enough."

Lin Feng's expression changed. He heard exactly what Orion was getting at, and it made him knit his brows. "Then I can't agree to it myself. But if you can convince Andrew, you can try."

The corner of Orion's mouth pulled sideways. "Deal."

He turned and walked off without another word.

Lin Feng watched his back. For the first time in a while, he had the distinct feeling he'd just been played.

Whatever the two of them talked about, Andrew glanced over at Lin Feng not long after, held the gaze for two seconds, and nodded hard.

Then Orion walked straight into the camp storehouse, pulled out the Remington 700 and a box of ammunition, crossed the yard to where Aisha was standing, and said something.

A light came into the young girl's eyes. Not looking at anything else, just straight at Lin Feng. A bright, open smile. Then a turn toward Orion, and one firm nod.

Lin Feng scratched his head as he watched the two of them walk off together. His brain started grinding. A suspicion surfaced fast: Did this guy play both sides?

Oh, hell no.

The thought landed and he was already moving, following after them. Nobody got to trample on Lin Feng's credibility and just walk away.

When he caught up, they were both lying prone on the grass, side by side. Orion was talking in a low voice:

"Slow your breathing. Relax. Find the most comfortable rhythm and just settle into it. Take your time."

"Good. Now — after you exhale most of your air, there's a window before the next inhale. Two, three seconds. That's when you shoot."

"Once you've found the rhythm, rest the pad of your index finger on the trigger. Squeeze slow and steady. No force. No tension. No hurry."

"Fire when it feels right. Don't rush."

Lin Feng stopped walking. He didn't go any closer.

About five seconds passed. A clean crack split the air.

Emma's body jerked hard. A muffled grunt, but no getting up, no crying out. Just stayed prone, right where she was.

Orion turned his head. "How's the shoulder?"

Emma answered through gritted teeth. "It's sore from the kick, but I can handle it."

Through the binoculars, Orion found a sapling two hundred yards out, snapped clean in half. The corner of his mouth curved up.

First time touching a rifle, and a hit. This kid's talent really was something else.

The smile faded. Then dropped a little further.

Shame he wasn't a professional sniper. He knew some basic theory — enough to get someone started, but not enough to take anyone deep. That was the limit of what he could give.

He exhaled slowly.

Orion lowered the binoculars. "All right. That's enough for today. Go find Marcus when you get back, get something prescribed for that shoulder. Starting tomorrow, you're with me for physical conditioning. Work toward being able to fire a few more rounds down the line."

Emma lifted that small head. Brows pinched tight, face doing something painful, but she pushed it down and held it there. A quiet "mm." Then two steps back, and up onto both feet.

Orion took the rifle, smoothly cleared it, ran a quick check, and only once satisfied did he stand and sling it over his back.

He reached over and pressed his fingers into Emma's shoulder.

The young girl's eyes shut. The body started to tremble. A string of sharp hisses came out, unstoppable, but Emma didn't push the hand away.

Orion finished his assessment, nodded, and said quietly:

"Not bad. No bone damage. The muscle's a little swollen, but a night's rest will sort it."

He turned to Lin Feng, and his tone shifted. "Out of every person I've seen, this kid has the highest shooting talent. First time holding a rifle. Two hundred yards. One shot, one hit." He paused. "Genius."

Lin Feng didn't say anything back to him. He braced a hand on his knee, leaning partway down to look at Emma, whose eyes had gone a little red at the rims. "Does it hurt?"

"A little..." Emma smiled, baring teeth, breath hissing in between words. "Lin, I can handle it."

"Lin, I'm not small anymore. Two more years and I'll be an adult. And I want the kind of power that can settle things. I want to be the one who turns the tide when the camp hits a crisis. The one who actually helps."

Lin Feng blinked. Two seconds.

Then he smiled and reached over to ruffle Emma's hair. "Mm. As long as it's what you've decided."

Smart. Emma had read exactly what he was about to say and shut the door on it before he could open his mouth.

Emma smiled and nodded, then winced, baring teeth again, face going tight.

"Go on. Go find Marcus and get something for the swelling and pain."

Emma nodded like a good kid, pressed a hand to that shoulder, and walked off.

Lin Feng and Orion fell in behind, following at a distance. Orion laid out his concern then, and let out one of his rare sighs.

Lin Feng listened to the whole thing. "It's fine. Lay the foundation first with what you know. After that, there's still someone in the camp who can take it further."

"Who? Abraham? I don't think Abraham was a sniper either."

Lin Feng offered a name. "Crane."

The perpetually half-dead look was a little misleading, Crane had been an operative, after all. Should have gone through systematic sniper training at some point.

Question was how much of it had actually stuck.

➤ Next: I Have Already Given the Opportunity

Chapter 126 - I Have Already Given the Opportunity

Crane was nowhere to be found, who knew when that guy had slipped off with Shane to the gas station, but Rick was still in camp.

Rick was pretty satisfied with life these days. No going to work, no living in constant low-grade dread like before. More time to spend with Carl and Lori. The bond between the three of them was visibly getting stronger.

When Lin Feng tracked Rick down, Rick had just stepped out of Hershel Greene's place.

"Lin? What's going on? Is this about Ethan and the others?"

Lin Feng grunted. "How well do you know them by now?"

"Well enough," Rick said. "Honest, decent people. Acceptable. But we still do it your way—observe first, then decide."

"What about specific skills?"

Rick thought for a moment. "I don't know everything yet, but three of them stuck with me.

"Ethan, forty-six. Used to be a construction site supervisor—a complete jack-of-all-trades. Knows a lot.

"On the high end: reading construction blueprints, calculating building material costs. On the ground level: site layout, staking out lines, concrete mix ratios. Plus driving and operating excavators, skid-steer loaders, dump trucks.

"Honestly, that guy alone is worth a small construction crew."

"Jesse, thirty-eight. Equipment maintenance lead. Handled all routine machinery repairs on the site. Knows mechanics, welding, torch cutting."

"Troy, forty-one. Scaffolding and steel structure foreman. Proficient in scaffolding erection, steel frame construction, elevated lookout fortifications. Also does rope rigging and crane hoisting."

"Those three are the most well-rounded. The others aren't bad either, everyone's got real skills, just more than I can keep straight. But Ethan said the twelve of them together can handle seventy percent of any construction problem on a site."

Lin Feng nodded. "Looks like we're going to have our own construction crew."

Rick planted his hands on his hips and asked, straight-faced, "So how do you plan to use them?"

Lin Feng looked toward the chain-link fencing. "Replace it. Build concrete walls, that way we don't have to worry about walkers breaking through during a horde. If we leave the right gaps in between, we can even deal with walkers from inside using melee weapons."

Rick looked over at the fencing, brows slowly drawing together.

Rick didn't know engineering, but one look told him this was a massive undertaking. The resources and effort required would be measured in months, not weeks.

But if it actually got done, just as Lin Feng said, the next time a horde hit the pressure on the camp would drop to almost nothing.

Well. Assuming no mutant strains showed up.

"Then it looks like we're going to be very busy for a while."

Lin Feng didn't deny it. Instead he shifted to something else. "What do you think about having T-Dog and Ethan co-manage this whole area?"

Rick looked taken aback. "You don't trust them?"

"That's part of it. But it's more about locking down the structure before the camp's management expands any further."

"Or put it another way," Lin Feng said plainly, "getting our own people in first."

At this stage, Glenn was growing faster than T-Dog, steadily moving toward the core combat tier. T-Dog was a different story—the gap in fighting drive and combat capability was only widening. Better to find T-Dog a solid position now than wait for T-Dog to fade into the background later.

"And if T-Dog can't keep those people in line, or can't handle the job..."

"Then there's nothing I can do. I've already given the opportunity. If someone can't hold their ground, who's to blame? I can't keep someone in a role that doesn't fit their capability just because of old loyalty, that's not fair to everyone else in this camp."

Rick nodded. No argument. "You're right, Lin. I'll talk to T-Dog. Hopefully T-Dog grabs this chance."

Lin Feng smiled, and the two walked together toward the nearly finished storage shed for gunpowder and primers.

Ethan was leading the crew through the final work, hammers ringing against steel nails in a steady clatter.

Catching sight of Lin Feng walking over, Ethan smiled. "Good afternoon, Lin, Rick. Something else you need from us?"

"There is," Lin Feng said, "but finish up here first. The camp's gunpowder and primers are waiting to be moved in, and those take priority."

Ethan wiped the sweat from a brow with a sleeve. "Half an hour. Come find me in half an hour, how's that?"

Lin Feng grunted in agreement, then glanced over at Sunil, who was standing nearby with blueprints in hand. "Sunil, how have these past two days been? Settling in alright?"

Two days of rest had brought a little color back into Sunil's face. Sunil nodded. "Very well, Lin. Thank you for taking me in and watching over me."

The smile was genuine. The words were full of it too.

Setting aside everything before, just speaking of now: Sunil's stomach had shrunk badly from going so long without food, which meant eating too much at once wasn't an option. Small meals, often. Sunil had assumed that outside the three regular meals, the extra two would be nothing but bread and crackers.

Then Carol had quietly fired up the stove and cooked something proper.

Carol had told Sunil that Lin had specifically asked for it. That it was special treatment, the only arrangement of its kind in the camp.

Sunil had cried on the spot. And made a quiet promise to repay it.

"Good. Right now I need a favor." Lin Feng kept his voice even. "I need a blueprint for a perimeter wall. Doesn't need to be tall, two to three meters is fine. Gaps built in at intervals so we can attack outward from the inside, and solid enough to take high-intensity impacts. Can you do it?"

Sunil nodded without hesitation. "I can. Give me one night. I'll have the drawings ready by tomorrow. But the scope, Lin, how far does it go?"

"One-to-one replacement. Everywhere there's chain-link or wooden fencing, we wall it."

Sunil's gaze swept slowly across the full perimeter. A beat of silence. "You're sure, Lin?"

"Yes," Lin Feng said. "Very sure. If we can't do it in one go, we split it into two. We do it piece by piece, we'll get there eventually."

Sunil nodded, said nothing more, and went back to the notepad and pencil, sketching and calculating.

"Ethan. Can it be done?"

Ethan looked at the certainty in Lin Feng's eyes, jaw tightening. "It can. But the appetite for materials won't be small. And with just our crew, the timeline is at least two to three months."

"What if there's excavator equipment available?"

"Then we can cut that down. But I'd need to run the actual numbers once we have the specs and materials list."

"Fine. You focus on the build. Everything else is on me. Talk it over, write up what you need, and I'll have people get it. Someone will also be coming to report to you later, when they do, teach what needs teaching, show what needs showing."

Ethan caught the faint look on Lin Feng's face, that almost-smile that said everything, and understood exactly what this was about. No objection. Just a nod.

If someone was being placed with them, fine. Back on the construction sites, had clients ever held back on dropping people in?

The only hope was that this one wouldn't be an idiot who came in throwing orders around and getting in everyone's way.

➤ Next: Are You Crazy?!