As they walked in relative silence, Neal noted that unlike himself, Dr. West had not tried to argue the point with Colonel Milton, and had simply started walking in the direction indicated by the colonel’s outstretched hand. As she was clearly not one to blindly follow societal gender mores, it was obvious that she was simply more aware of which arguments could and could not be won with men like the colonel. The point was not lost on Neal, and he decided to try and follow her lead in the upcoming military briefing, noting with satisfaction that he was not as pigheaded as his ex-girlfriends typically said he was.

“We’ll be taking this next left.” the colonel interjected from behind them, continuing as they turned onto another uncomfortably well-lit beige corridor, “We’ll be meeting in Teleconference Room B526 up here on the right.”

As they approached Barrett Milton stepped to the door before them and, pausing as he clasped its handle, spoke in an aside to Neal, “Before we go in I just wanted to confirm that you changed the Incident ID on that report, I had meant to mention it in the control room but our conversation went a bit long and it slipped my mind.”

“Yes,” said Neal in a similarly low voice, remembering the report’s less than diplomatic name, “about that.” The colonel froze at Neal’s hesitation and frowned very sharply at the scientist, apparently considering bringing his not inconsiderable martial training to bear on the man.

The colonel spoke quietly but sharply, “I like a joke as much as the next man, Mr. Danielson, but this is going in front of important…”

“No, Colonel, no. You misunderstand. I tried to change it, I really did,” Neal held his hands up to placate Barrett, remembering his very real and quite frantic attempts to edit out his quip once the incident came into the spotlight as ‘requiring further investigation.’

“But apparently once you submit a report,” Neal continued, “you cannot edit its ID, something about ‘tracking’ and ‘validity of data.’”

The truth was that Neal didn’t dislike this Colonel Barrett Milton guy nearly as much in person as he had after their initial phone conversation. Plus the ‘guy’ in question was roughly six foot, his angular jaw and rugged features emphasized by a clearly enthusiastic athletic regime, and it was obvious to Neal that the man could happily beat the younger, but somewhat flabbier, scientist to a Tropicana pulp if the inclination grabbed him.

Like before, Laurie saw an opportune moment to interpose herself between the two men, this time physically as well as metaphorically, and as she pushed past them toward the door, she said, “We need not mention the title as we introduce the topic, Colonel, nor, I’m sure, does anyone read that part of the report.”