Bekka had joined Garen up on the roof. They would do a visual sweep every now and then. The big thing they tried to do was rest for the run that evening. As exhausted as they were, it was hard to really fall asleep, so instead of fighting and fighting trying, they just lay with one another and rested, closed their eyes and enjoyed the sea breeze. The quiet conversation wandered all over the place like a drunk in a hall of mirrors; sometimes serious and sometimes comical.
“OK, Mr remote provider, I hope you have some good psych books squirreled away. I think we are going to need them.”
“Yeah, I think I have some somewhere. That, plus Zoloft, Xanax and valium. We have two fresh from bad deployment kids, without really being back. It was bad enough with Gabe and Kara from their first, but they were part of a big system and had a lot of us to help. Which one do you think is going to be worse?”
“Angelique is younger and more resilient. I think she will adapt quicker and put it into perspective better. Besides, she had personal anger and revenge driving her. That’s stronger than an abstract.”
“I can see where you are headed with that, Bekka, but there are some other factors as well. I would agree with you to a point, right up to how she was when I got to her. She was basically buried alive in the dark by an attacker, who hurt her severely and would not let up regardless of her actions or the damage done. She had no contact with us and didn’t even know if there was anyone else alive, much less looking for her. That’s why I snowed the shit out of her so deep for so long. I wanted it to be a slow return so we can guide it a bit better.”
“Yeah, but at least Angelique’s were all trying to kill her specifically. Allyson is having a hard time with the ‘sniper’ thing. She hasn’t ever had to flip the switch to go from peace time to wartime before. She needs to come to accept what she needs to do. If not, it will tear her apart.”
“I was thinking of putting the supplies in one of the conexes when we got back. That spreads food resources between the two buildings and we already have enough at the house for quite a while.”
“That sounds good. And pile the radios and such in the work room?”
“OK, and all the firearms in the garage initially while we sort them out. Then we can move them to shelves in the tunnelway unless we decide to cache some of them elsewhere. Any idea what Odina has for weapons?”
“No idea. We don’t even know if she is going to show up. I’m not counting on it one way or another. If she does, we can outfit her as we see fit. We have enough. I’m not looking to run many more full-fledged combat operations. I just want to get us back to the house, climb in our little hole in the woods and pull it in after us.”
“Speaking of which, we need to figure out who and how many are going south to check the forest camp.”
“I know. Angelique is obviously out.”
“Right, and me, Kara or Allyson needs to be here for med support of that.”
“We don’t have the assets for a full-fledged battle. It has to be primarily reconnaissance.”
“OK, two people? “
“Sounds good, but which two?”
After a moment of thought, Bekka started talking again
“Well, with my rib, running is out. We need at least one long gun and one medic.”
“OK, I got it. You and Allyson. Then if you have to bail in a hurry, I can backstop you like before. How soon after we get back do you think the two of you can head out?”
“If we get back before dawn, we could head out at last light. If you and Kara can handle things during the day, Allyson and I can do a quick reset and crash to stay on night schedule and have some rest before rolling. If we go in the Hyena, you can run to backstop position on the bike. Sound good?”
“Yeah. The sea breeze reminds me of Mogadishu.”
“But at least we have more than a bombed out fire station to sleep in.”
“And no C-5 engine runs at three in the morning. Today’s shower was just as cold as well.”
“Cold felt good there.”
“It’s not a hundred and twenty eight in the shade here. That water today was damn cold.”
“Garen, take a nap and quit whining.”
They both just lay there resting and listening to the wind.