“Good,” Eric said firmly, “you get your own squad. Orders will be sent to your suit before you’re wheels up, but you already know what you have to do.”

Ron nodded, throwing him a salute before he pivoted on his heel and walked away. Eric watched him go for a moment before returning his mind to his own tasks. He made his way over to where Alexander and Janet were leaning against the wall, the matched pair having watched the entire scene in silence.

“Nice speech, boss,” Alexander told him with a grin. “Have one for us too?”

“You two don’t need a speech. You’re both crazy enough to do this job for the fun of it.” Eric rolled his eyes.

Janet laughed outright, nodding. “You know us too well, Cap. You splitting us up?”

“Hell no. You two work good together, and I can’t guarantee that anyone else I put you with will. One of you is in command, the other is second. Work it out between you,” Eric said calmly. He’d never normally do anything that casual with the chain of command, but he knew both of them well enough to trust them to do their job and probably be better at it than anything he could hope to devise.

They normally flipped a coin to see who was in command of a given mission, and had been doing it since shortly after they met. Officially he supposed that one of them had seniority, but he couldn’t be bothered to check which. They were a matched pair and they were a law unto themselves, and that was the way things were.

He was just a captain. Some laws of the universe were beyond his ability to control and he wasn’t stupid enough to tell the Sun to set in the morning.

“We’ll do what we have to, boss,” Alexander said, Janet nodding in agreement. “You have any specific orders?”

“Not yet. Still gathering intel. I’ll send it straight to your suits.”

“Right. We’ll be getting ready then,” Janet said, grabbing Alexander’s arm and hauling him physically away. Eric just smiled fondly as they left.

“What about me, love?”

Eric didn’t turn around at the sound of the purring voice. He just shook his head equally fondly and spoke. “I want you to get online with your contacts, Siobhan. We need intel. I want to know everything you can learn. Relay it to Lyssa. She’ll be in charge of coordinating our movements.”

Siobhan stepped up close behind him, draping herself across his shoulder as she spoke into his ear. “The little girl? Can she handle the responsibility?”

“This little girl can handle a hell of a lot more than that,” Lyssa said in an irritated voice.

“Hmmm,” Siobhan hummed, not sounding in the least intimidated. “Her ears aren’t half bad either. Not her best assets, mind you, but not half bad.”