They did not meet outside the Pentagon. Colonel Milton had been careful to enter by a different entrance and had also arrived several hours before Neal. Sitting in a bank of cubes reserved for visiting officers, he thought about how to play the crucial meeting he was about to attend. He was relying on Neal to bring the documentation they were going to rely on as proof, while for his part Barrett had also brought a sheaf of superconducting material to show their potential recruit.

Neal, arriving as he always did through the civilian checkpoint, went to his office and then pulled up the daily check-in sheet on his computer, locating the cube the colonel had been assigned for the day.

Seeing Neal approach, and noting that no one was in sight, the colonel did something he hadn’t done in years. Standing as he saw Neal approach, he took the man’s proffered hand and then put his other arm around his shoulder in a brief hug.

Neal was surprised, touched even, but he kept a serious face.

“Colonel,” he said, the moment seemingly passing, “it’s good to see you.”

“You too, Neal, you too, and I thought we said it was Barrett when no one was around.”

Neal laughed quietly, “Of course, Barrett.” It felt strange to say it, but somehow good as well, like calling a parent by their first name. Neal asked, “How are things at Hanscom?”

“Good, we have the shield design finalized and we have sent Martin to North Dakota to help Madeline with production. We are about a week behind schedule but I am hoping we can make a good deal of that up in deployment, we had some necessary contingency in that part of the schedule.” He smiled as he said this next part, “I understand Ayala attacked you with the antigen.”

They both laughed a little. Ayala had taken a bit more time and care before injecting Barrett than she had with the unsuspecting Neal, but only so she could enjoy winding him up about how much it was going to hurt. It had ended in a brief tussle when Barrett had tried to get the hypodermic gun off her. Not a good idea, it turned out. Moments later, he was face down on the floor with her astride his shoulders, her legs pinning him down as she rather ignominiously wrenched his pants down. The actual injection had been rather anticlimactic, in the end, but the, err, tussle that followed it wasn’t.