Ronnie told them in the morning that they'd probably head out the following day. She allowed Rebecca a short respite to relay the news to Cat, but after that, started driving them through exercises again. In a concession to their fatigue and soreness, she forewent the melee training and focused on room-clearing movement with unloaded firearms under her watchful eye.

This involved over two hours of creeping down hallways and covering doorways on the mostly-vacant third floor with Christine and Patrick. During their breaks, Ronnie would position a half-dozen cardboard cutouts of movie stars and advertisement models, then follow behind the four of them, grading and critiquing their encounters with the cellulose opponents.

It all reinforced Rhonda's earlier lessons about Rebecca and Sam's SMGs maneuvering better than larger guns like Rebecca's old M4 that Patrick inherited or Chrissie's liberated shotgun. They settled into a rhythm of Rebecca and Sam creeping forward stealthily, supported by firepower of the other couple. It was very different from what Rebecca was used to — usually following Ronnie's lead with the Tavor, or covering others with Felicia while Sam watched her back. She was starting see why Ronnie wanted her to practice with the P90 and use it for clearing tight spaces — it was noticeably lighter, and several inches shorter than even her compact Tavor, which Ronnie had her alternate back to a few times to get a feel for the differences. She also came to appreciate the new helmets Rhonda had insisted they get used to — sleeker than the more classic design she'd seen most of the "grunts" wearing on guard duty, cut high over mounted earmuffs and sporting rails for other accessories on the sides and forehead. After thumping against a few walls in quick movements, she contemplated how she would have appreciated one the day Sebastien nearly bounced her head off of a brick wall underneath the other end of town.

Ronnie made them do their first several run-throughs without any of the bells and whistles they'd picked up from Black Tusk. Eventually, she let them start using the flexible "peekaboo" camera and spherical drone they'd taken from Black Tusk in the fall, to expand upon the basics.

Rebecca eventually realized that she and Sam were picking up on each other's patterns, progress towards the sense she and Ronnie shared for guessing each other's next moves. During the next break, she pondered if her Relationship with Sam would add to that at all... maybe some benefit to partially make up for the pitfalls and distractions of going into combat with someone you were that kind of close to?

When they'd started to get fatigued and sloppy (and a little grumpy), Ronnie let (most of) them settle around a whiteboard downstairs, and set Rebecca to sketching out the floor plan of her apartment building. They were in one of the never-finished retail spaces on the ground level, surrounded by high ceilings, partially drywalled metal-framed walls, and wide stretches of uncovered concrete floor. The tall windows let more light in for work projects or get-togethers like this, but it also meant they were draftier. Rebecca pulled the zipper on her heavy sweatshirt up the rest of the way and tucked her elbows in closer to her body as she drew on the board.

Garage, lobby, her floor, her apartment. She had to close her eyes and visualize walking through the space a few times to get the proportions right, and saw Sam looking at her worriedly when she reopened them a second time. She made sure to smile reassuringly and gratefully at her before lifting the marker to the board again.

"So... stairwell.... hallway... and 306, here." She finished filling in the doors between the stairwell and her apartment, then along the rest of the hallway to the far stairwell, capped the pen, and set it down with a sigh.

Ronnie nodded approvingly. "Thanks, kid. So. You're our home turf eyes on this, and probably on or near point. How do we go in?"

Rebecca hesitated, but Ronnie remained silent with that absolute certainty that her question would be answered that let her remain completely, unemotionally, patient. Sam encouraged her quietly from the end of the row of folding chairs arranged in front of the whiteboard, where she sat with her helmet in her lap. "You got this, sugar."

Rebecca nodded, as much in gratitude as to convince herself of the affirmative. She woke a tablet on the table, connected it to a little USB-powered micro projector, and aimed it at the whiteboard, temporarily overlapping her drawing. "First... I think we need a staging area that isn't right in the middle of the apartment buildings. A good spot to park the cargo truck, and for Cat to meet us at."

She pointed to the lower corner of the projected map. "There's this little trailhead area across the creek, to the southeast. It's got a small parking lot, a picnic area, and a restroom building... and the main entrance actually comes through the apartment complex and fords the creek here." She tapped on the board at the appropriate spot.

Rebecca glanced at Ronnie for signs of approval or otherwise, but just like when she was first interrogating Sebastien months ago, Ronnie left her to run with it, so she continued. "So we could come into the park through this fire road from another neighborhood... set up a perimeter around the trailhead, I think the building and rock walls around the picnic area would be good cover. We scope out the creek ford and probably cross there or even upstream of it... and then duck into the woods west of the entry kiosk. Use those as cover to circle up to the building. I have a key that should still work on the back door here, that leads to the downstairs storage areas."

She shuttered the projector, and started pointing at her drawings instead. "Hallway between the storage closets here goes to the garage, left to the stairway at my end of the building, and then up, without walking around between all of the buildings in the main parking lot. We'd only be exposed to the apartments on the back side of the building. Uh, I guess we could have some folks cover us from the woods?"

Ronnie nodded when Rebecca looked to her again, but there was still something else that troubled Rebecca. "But... that puts us between the armory and the apartments. I don't know what to do about that."

"Don't worry, Bex. You did good." Ronnie unshuttered the projector again and stepped forward to the board. "We circle the wagons here, like you were saying. Once we know that area's clear, we send two Humvees, one of them with the Mark 19... sorry, the grenade launcher... back out the same way we came in, around to the fork in the road that splits between the front of the apartment complex and the back entrance to the armory — looks like an employee parking lot. They post up out of sight, and come in loud if we run into trouble, mirrored by the squad on security in the park. A squad securing that outer intersection will prevent surprises from the other end of the complex, and we need to have that route to the armory secure to bring the vehicles in after scouting it on foot anyway. The group moving up through the trees can be split into three squads, one to make entry and make sure the building is clear at our back before we move on the armory, and one to cover each direction out of the woods. It looks like they're a good quarter mile deep, so we should be able to lurk undetected from either side."

Rebecca followed Ronnie's gestures on the map with her eyes."Okay, but that sounds like a lot of people. Are you going to sell whoever's in charge of Fairbanks' people all of this?"

"Oh, we just did. I'm pretty good about telling myself things. Easy information sharing and all that."

Rebecca blinked away a frown as she unpackaged Ronnie's meaning. "Oh! So you're in charge of the whole thing?"

Ronnie grinned as the others followed suit or nodded approvingly from their chairs. "Sure, kid. I've run platoon-level ops before. Fairbanks has other things to do, and we're a bit short on brass. Plus, he reckons, correctly, that I know 'our' half of things better than anyone he'd send, and his people will all respond well enough to me just based on rank. I've actually been putting this together for several days."

"Huh. Fair enough. That makes me feel a lot better about being put on the spot to plan things, too."

Ronnie clapped her lightly across the back. "Ah, relax. I told you, you did good. Everybody get your stuff together today and check it all over. Pat, Chris, it turns out we will be needing your ride tomorrow like I said we might. If you're following Rebecca and Sam in, I'll need two grunts in the driver and gunner seats."

"All good, Sarge." Christine nodded, as did Patrick next to her.

"Wait, what? Chrissie... you don't have to, you know." Rebecca was hesitant — she knew better than to try to sideline Sam, but she didn't see a reason that Patrick or Christine specifically had to be going into harms way for her. She saw Sam give her a trademark "shut up, dummy" eyebrow and lip twitch just before Christine answered.

"Oh come on, silly. We already told Ronnie we wanted to."

"Yeah, why do you think she had us practicing with you?" Patrick grinned and shook his head at Rebecca, before Christine continued.

"You came and got us last year, goofball. Why wouldn't we help you?"

Rebecca shrugged. "I don't know. This is... more trivial, just a personal thing..."

Christine stood, and stepped in front of Rebecca, placing a hand on each of her shoulders. "Oh, and getting our asses saved isn't going to be personal? Friends take care of each other, you numpty."

"I... well... thank you, Chrissie."

"Of course, silly. Just... think of it as us helping you with an errand, or moving. Errands are just more dangerous these days. All of them. So we take care of each other."

"Okay. I can do that."

"Good!" Chrissie pulled her into a brief hug and then departed with Patrick, collecting the gear they'd been practicing in from a table towards the rear of the large room. Rebecca lingered briefly (which meant Sam did too).

"Hey, Ronnie..."

Rhonda finished picking up the tablet and projector and turned to her. "What's up, kiddo?"

"Totally off topic, but... I was thinking. We haven't seen as much of you lately now that we kinda settled in here, and you encouraged me to start doing watch rotations with Sam and others. I know recently you've been busy with all the construction and logistics and security recently, but even before that. Are you... well, okay?"

Ronnie smiled at her. "Ah, cookie. You and your big heart. Yeah, I'm good. I've got stuff to do and I'm getting it done. Don't feel bad just because you're leaving the nest more often."

"Okay. If you say so. I was just worried you might be lonely, and, you know. I guess I kinda miss you. Maybe I'm just projecting..."

"Tell you what. After we get back from this trip, I'll make a point of making sure we spend more time together."

Sam interjected from where she leaned forward in a chair, with her elbows on her knees. "Oh god, Remy, if you get me stuck with more PT, I swear Rufus is taking your place in the bed."

Rhonda laughed. "I don't want to disrupt your domestic harmony. I'll just join you for a meal every week, maybe drop by and bullshit with you during a watch and make sure the two of you aren't getting too distracted with each other, that kind of thing."

Sam rose and moved a few steps to Rebecca's side. "Well, I guess that's okay. MOM."

Rebecca chuckled. "Okay, Ronnie. I'm sorr... oof!" Sam elbowed her in the ribs, continuing her ruthless campaign to discourage Rebecca's habitual apologies. Rebecca rounded on her playfully. "Hey, you wanna go? I thought you said you didn't want more training. Ronnie, you got the knives on you?"

Sam pinched her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm. You know, I would... but I'm going to be the adult here. I know we're going to hate getting up tomorrow enough as it is."

Rebecca shook her head at her in mock frustration, and then leaned in to kiss her cheek. "Okay, let's grab our crap and go before Ronnie decides she's had enough of us."

She paused as she slung her armor over one arm and the P90 over the other. "Ronnie... if you ever do need something, please... Like Chrissie says, we take care of each other, right?"

Rhonda looked her square in the eye. "I will, Rebecca."

"Okay. See you later? I'm sure you're going to come around and mama bear over our gear."

"You know it. Didn't you just say you wanted to see more of me? Now scram, we've all got a bunch of prep to do."