The watchtower was quiet between them with the city below and the wall below that and five blocks southeast the things that could think sitting in whatever remained of the park and watching the building with their unblinking attention.
"They can count," Michael said.
"They can observe and respond to what they observe," Cole said. "Whether that’s counting or a cruder version of the sa thing I don’t know. But they moved when the building appeared less defended and stopped when everyone ca back." He paused. "That’s not instinct. That’s strategy."
Michael looked at the signatures for a long mont.
"Defense eting at ten," he said. "I need you in it."
"I’ll be there," Cole said and went back to looking at the city and Michael went down to find Gareth.
---
The eting happened in the apartnt with six people around the coffee table and the Blueprint Interface overlaid on the space above it that only Michael could see but that everyone had learned to interpret from the way he looked at and gestured toward empty air.
Michael. Cole. Gareth. Dr. Kang. Sera. And Anya because her supply and logistics assessnt was going to matter for whatever the defense tiline produced and Michael had learned that leaving Anya out of planning etings cost him things he didn’t find out about until later.
Gareth sat across from Cole and the two of them had not been in a room this small together before and the air between them had a quality that wasn’t hostile exactly but was two people who had independently assessed each other and arrived at a mutual wariness that was honest if not comfortable.
Michael put the threat picture on the table the way he put everything on tables, directly and completely.
The Aberrant group. Five blocks southeast, forty seven to sixty individuals, cognitive function retained, coordinated behavior, strategic movent tid to building population levels. One block closer since the wall completed. The patience of it.
The variant Stalker. Dr. Kang’s findings on the body. Sustained speed, structural reinforcent, extended reach. One escaped north. Unknown population size in the northern blocks. Unknown relationship to the Aberrant group.
The tiline. The Aberrant movent pattern suggested deliberate approach with assessnt stops. Based on the current pattern the next movent was due when the building presented a reduced defense profile again. The variant Stalker unknown.
He laid it out and let it sit and looked at the room.
Dr. Kang went first. She covered the biological findings with the precise economy she brought to everything, no speculation beyond what the evidence supported, no softening of the implications. The virus convergence theory, stated clearly as theoretical and clearly as alarming. The training implications for the variant Stalker contact profile.
Sera listened to the training implications section with the specific focused attention of soone updating an internal model in real ti. "The inside reach principle still applies," she said when Dr. Kang finished. "But the approach window is shorter. You need to initiate the inside move earlier in the Stalker’s approach which ans committing before you have full information about the attack direction."
"Counter," Cole said. It wasn’t a question, he was asking her to continue.
"Elevated position helps," she said. "Height changes the approach geotry and forces the Stalker to adjust which buys ti. Maya’s turret control gives us elevated coverage. For ground level contact the answer is group coordination, two people minimum on each variant, one drawing the approach and one taking the inside move on the opening." She paused. "We’d need to train specifically for it."
"Starting tomorrow," Michael said.
Sera nodded.
Gareth had been listening to all of it with the no-easy-look version of his attention and now he looked at the table and then at Michael.
"The Aberrant timing," he said. "They moved when we went outside the wall. They’re monitoring the building population." He looked at Cole. "The clearing operation pulled most of the building’s capable fighters outside simultaneously. If they’d moved at noon instead of stopping at five blocks they could have reached the wall before we ca back."
"They didn’t," Cole said.
"They didn’t this ti," Gareth said. "They’re still assessing. They’re not ready to commit yet." He looked at Michael. "Which ans we have a window. Not a large one and not a permanent one but a window where they’re still gathering information and haven’t decided to act on it."
"How do we use the window," Michael said.
Gareth looked at the table. "We stop giving them useful information," he said. "The clearing operation showed them our full force composition and our movent pattern. We shouldn’t do that again. If we go outside the wall we go in small groups with staggered timing so the building never appears significantly reduced." He paused. "And we vary the routine. They’re observant. If we do the sa things at the sa tis they learn the pattern and they use it."
Cole looked at Gareth with the wariness still present and sothing else appearing alongside it that wasn’t wariness. "Agreed on all three points," he said. It cost him nothing to say it and he said it simply.
Gareth looked at Cole briefly and looked away.
Anya had been quiet through the eting and now she put the clipboard on the table and looked at Michael. "The supply implications," she said. "If we stop large external operations the supply acquisition rate drops. We have three weeks of comfortable stock at current consumption. If the threat picture forces us to reduce external runs significantly we need to know what we’re managing toward."
"The greenhouse cos online fully in ten days," Michael said. "That covers the caloric baseline if we manage it correctly." He looked at Anya. "What’s the gap between greenhouse output at full production and current consumption."
She looked at the clipboard. "Twenty two percent," she said. "We’re short twenty two percent of caloric needs from greenhouse alone at full production. The stockroom find covers that gap for approximately six weeks after the greenhouse is running." She paused. "After that we need external acquisition again."
"Eight weeks total then," Michael said. "Before supply becos a forcing function."
"Eight weeks at current population," Anya said. "If the population grows the tiline shortens."
He looked at the table and ran the numbers and looked at the Tier 4 blueprint list in his vision and at the underground expansion and the advanced turrets and everything on the list between now and eight weeks from today.
"It’s enough ti," he said. "If we use it correctly."
The room looked at him.
"Advanced turrets today," he said. "Blast walls this week. Underground expansion next week. Parallel to that we retrain for the variant Stalker contact profile and we change the external operation pattern to staggered small groups." He looked at each person at the table in turn.
"The Aberrant group is going to commit eventually. When they do they’re going to hit the wall and the turrets are going to do significant work and whatever gets through is going to et the blast walls and whatever gets through that ets us." He paused. "We build every layer we have ti to build and we make sure every person in this building knows exactly what their role is when it happens."
The room was quiet for a mont.
"What’s the turret tiline," Cole said.
"Today," Michael said. "All day. I need your group on materials."
Cole nodded.
"The training schedule," Sera said.
"You set it," Michael said. "Starting tomorrow. Full building, twice daily, variant Stalker specific additions."
She nodded.
"Gareth," Michael said.
Gareth looked at him.
"The external operation pattern changes. Staggered small groups, varied timing, maximum four people per group." He held Gareth’s gaze. "I want you designing the new pattern. Routes, timing, composition. Based on the threat picture Dr. Kang and Cole have laid out."
Gareth looked at him for a mont. "You’re giving the external operation design," he said.
"You’re the one who identified the timing problem," Michael said. "Design the solution."
Sothing moved across Gareth’s face that passed through several things quickly and settled sowhere that Michael hadn’t seen before on him, sothing that was neither the easy look nor the thing underneath it but a third version that was quieter than both.
"Alright," he said.
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