Five men to lead, five men to direct. Each had a callsign, each had been given special attention from Teacher. Not just the regular attention, but gifts given by Teacher when Teacher was empowered by Ingenue, the drawbacks removed by the Black Goat.

His eyes were wide, taking in every detail. With Teacher’s ‘consultation’, he had been gifted strategic awareness and focus. He had studied maps of the complex, his team’s numbers like sprinting speed, endurance, and accuracy at the range, and he had studied the enemy.

It felt good. He’d joined Teacher without reservations when the mentions of the deal had started being spread around. Nilles U was too full, so he’d accepted a job pitched by a guy in white. Others had balked, backed off, or been lazy. Maybe a fifth of those others had been convinced to work for Teacher by other means. Means that the Wasp Commander had glimpsed but never divulged.

He was okay with it.

He was okay with it because he got this. Being important, being excellent at something. Getting power, and powerful people following him.

Cathound snapped his fingers twice in rapid succession. He held up three fingers, pointed down the hall, then he tapped his ear.

Enhanced senses. Normally Teacher granted something like enhanced hearing or enhanced vision. Cathound had the whole suite; night vision, super hearing, tactile sense, smell, and balance. His shooting numbers were in the ninety-second percentile among everyone who had been tested. For squad Yellow-Black, that was poor.

Three incoming.

Every member of the squad looked to the Wasp Commander for instructions. Hand signals relayed those instructions more neatly than words could. Three took up positions in the hallway, aiming down the length of it. Cathound was one of those three. Dripfeed disappeared into the rooms at one side of the hall. Their martial arts expert with further expertise granted by Teacher. Horn carried a heavy shield and a pneumatic punch for knocking holes in walls. He hid in the room at the other side of the hall.

The Wasp Commander snapped his fingers once, then drew a circle with thumb and finger, bringing it to his eye. He pointed.

Let’s see who they are. I’ve studied the files.

Shutter tossed a camera down the stairwell at the end of the hall. All five men in the squad looked to the displays mounted at the backs of their guns. The displays tracked ammunition, while giving a detailed view of what the cameras mounted on the gun barrels were seeing. Despite intervening concrete, the displays showed the silhouettes of two running women, a young man trailing behind.

The Wasp Commander pointed his gun, attaching his phone to the back of the weapon and using it as a sight. He saw them ascend the stairs, and opened fire at the same time his squad did.

They hit air. The displays, however, showed the two women standing at the top of the stairs.