“We’re about to find out,” said Patton. She slung the pack over her shoulder, took several deep breaths, and waited. Ninety seconds later, the camera moved to the position pointing directly away from her and Patton ran. The loose stones slipped under her feet and she immediately realized she should have stretched before she did this. She had been sitting still most of the day and her muscles were tight. She tried to keep a count going in her head and when she reached fifteen, she was barely halfway there. The hill seemed twice as steep as it had from below. She gasped for breath in the thin mountain air and did her best to put on a burst of speed, thinking she just might make it when her foot slipped again and she came down hard among the stones. The fall knocked the breath out of her, but there was no time to worry about that. She had maybe eight seconds left and if there was one thing basic training had taught her it was how to crawl across the ground. She shimmied toward the pole, covering the last few feet almost like a snake and pulling herself into the shadow of the satellite dish just as she heard the camera start to move. She pivoted around, staying behind the camera as it turned, then did her best to breathe. After two minutes of scooting around the pole every time the camera moved, she finally felt able to function. She gave Bob a thumbs-up and got to work.

Luckily, the motor on the camera made a slight noise a second or so before each turn, so Patton was able to anticipate those movements and match them to her own. Tapping into a communications system while having to move every thirty seconds was not exactly easy, but she finished the job, took a breath, and got ready to sprint down the hill.