Correll nodded his agreement. “I’ve taken all of that into account,” he said simply. “The final battle plans will be drawn tonight. The convoys will rendezvous in less than forty-eight hours. I want everyone in the base to get a good night’s sleep, ’cause we’re sure as hell gonna have to be wide awake and full at ’em tomorrow. Group briefing will be at sunup tomorrow.”
With which, he dismissed the group gathered in his office and returned to his papers, scribbling furiously and muttering incoherently to himself as they left him.
While the Hellbender group went off to their own rooms and immediate companions, Ryan gathered his people together.
“Back to our space, and I think we may just need our own briefing first,” he said softly.
It was something with which the others could all concur, and when they reached the office space that doubled as their living quarters, Jak took guard by the door, keeping one ear on Ryan while he made first watch.
“So I’ve heard Lonnie’s and Danny’s view of things— what do you think?” he asked of Doc and Dean.
By turns, they expressed opinions that differed little from those already heard, Dean adding the all-important coda of the opinion Danny expressed concerning Correll’s ability to keep calm and focused in the heat of battle.
“Yeah, I’d kind of figured that one out myself,” the one-eyed man said wryly. “I’m not too sure of anyone else other than Danny has that opinion, though…and that could make things difficult in the middle of a firefight.”
“The only thing we can do is keep triple alert for when it starts to happen and have plans of our own,” the Armorer added.
Ryan agreed. “That’s why I wanted this. What do we think of the setup here? J.B.?”
The Armorer considered this for some time. “The weapons have been well kept, and the wags are maintained well. There’s a good supply of ammo and grens— better than I’ve seen for a long time. The hardware won’t be a problem. There’s enough to go around and then some. It’s a question of whether they can use it.”
“They can,” Krysty interjected. “They’ve got good blaster sense and know exactly when not to fire. But the thing that worries me is that they’re arrogant—not in an obvious way, but because they’ve been isolated for so long that it seems like Correll’s hyped them up to a point where they really believe they’re unbeatable.”
Mildred agreed. “They can shoot well, but they can’t take the idea of someone being better than them. So if they come up against forces that are better in a firefight, some of them might go to pieces.” Although she didn’t add any names, Mildred thought of the blond Catherine, who had tried to make her look stupid in front of Rudi.
“Same goes for unarmed combat,” Krysty mused. “You saw it yourself,” she said to Ryan, before going on to detail her experiences with Juan.
“It would seem to me,” Doc commented with a degree of humor, “that we are dealing with a community that is a trifle unstable—and if anyone is qualified to see that, then it must be me. I fear they have been in isolation and infected with the good Mr. Correll’s brooding on perceived wrongs.”
“And that’s what makes them dangerous,” Ryan finished. “They’re like a damaged gren that could go off in your face as soon as the enemy’s.”
He turned to Dean. “You reckon we can trust Danny to be with us if we have contingency plans?”
“Yeah. All Danny really wants to do is spend his time messing around with old tech and trying to get to the bottom of it…and mebbe spend the time doing that with Ayesha helping him.”
“And can she be trusted?”
Dean shrugged. “Who can say? It’s kind of hard to get an idea about her just from a couple of hours, but I’m sure she wants to get out of that convoy alive and not be a slave to Summerfield. And I’m also pretty sure that she’d pretty much like to spend all her time messing with old tech as well—especially if Danny’s around.”