“Yes sir!” the Ranger barked and the group followed suit, finally showing a little life. He’d been right to throw in a combat soldier. If nothing else, he could set an example.

“All right then. That’s what I wanted to hear.” He pointed to a tall, tangled hill about four kilometers away. “The objective is simple. On top of that is an American flag. We need to get it out of the rain. Any questions?”

His pale attorney—Major Gregory Kent—raised a hesitant hand.

“Yes. Greg.” Smith said, deciding to retreat into a little informality after his show of anger. No need to scare these people any more than necessary.

Kent indicated toward five assault rifles stacked in plastic bags. “What are those for?”

“An excellent question. Those fire a laser that can be picked up by the uniform of an opponent and all are equipped with Merge targeting systems.”

“Opponent, sir?” the Ranger said, perking up.

“Did I forget to mention that there’s a five-man Delta team under orders to stop us?”

Not unexpectedly, his team descended into frightened protests.

Smith held up his hand and they went silent. “If you’re hit—and I’m giving you a direct order not to be—the training software in your Merge will evaluate the damage and reduce your effectiveness based on that evaluation.”

The fear on the skinny programmer’s face faded into cautious curiosity. “How does it do that, sir?”

“If it registers an injury, it’ll limit your vision and throw off your equilibrium to mimic your probable condition.”

“And if we’re dead?” the plump women said. Stacy something. She worked on drones.

“Your vision will go black and your ability to hear will be degraded. Don’t panic, though. It’s just the Merge projecting a solid color onto your visual cortex. I’ll use my simulation leader software to reset your unit when I’ve had a chance to evaluate the situation. Just sit there and wait until you come back online and then go back to the command tent and get a cup of coffee. Understood?”

A little of the energy had gone out of their response but he decided to ignore it and instead pointed to the older woman whose hand was up. “Yes. Carrie.”

“Sir, I think there’s been a mistake. With the exception of Corporal Grayson over here, we’re not combat people.”

Smith nodded. “But you do have Merges. And Delta doesn’t.”

“I don’t see how a fancy cell phone is going to make much of a difference,” Kent said. “I represented a Delta guy once. As near as I can tell, if you shoot them it just makes them mad.”

Grayson rolled his eyes.

“Look, I’m out here to gather some data on Merge effectiveness,” Smith said. “I want that flag, but the only failure here is if you panic or if you don’t give one hundred percent every second of this exercise. Is that understood?” No response. “Is that understood?”

“Yes sir!”

They all actually managed to say it at the same time. Things were looking up.