Free Web NovelChapter 343: Chapter 343 Packing Protocols
Ethan
Monday starts at 5:40am with the Ops board dark and clean. I like it that way before we put weight on it. We’re going to Silver Mist today, and I have to wonder how it’s going to be when we see Maze and finally meet Kiara. She is a fox shifter after all. Father had a lot of unpleasant things to say when word reached us about their matebond.
Plates on the SUV’s are pre-cleared, immobilizers are active and fuel has been topped yesterday, logged, not assumed.
’Put what matters in two places,’ Blake says. He’s been restless lately, grumbling over the growing nearness of Elijah and Allison. Not that I’m very fond of the idea. She is all our mate, but we can’t claim her publicly, and I don’t even know if she’ll fit here as Luna.
’Two places,’ I answer, as I export the manifest to hard copy and a read-only on the Ops drive. One sealed envelope in the convoy safe and one in mother’s brief.
Badges. I print the set and test each chip against the reader: ALPHA/OPS, COUNCIL, VISITOR/OPS (no recording). Allison’s sleeve carries the rider again. I slide it into the "to deliver" tray with her earpiece.
Comms. I program three talkgroups:
A-NET (encrypted); Alphas, Luna, Gamma, Beta.
B-NET (ops); drivers, follow, Wardroom liaison. freewēbnoveℓ.com
C-NET (listen-only); Allison’s earpiece, PR relay if the Crown wants a timing cue.
I push the new keys, then run a quick loop with Daniel and Fallon, to make sure they know what I did and how it works.
"Alpha comm check," Daniel says on A-NET.
"Copy," I answer. "Fallon?"
"Clear," he says. "Battery rotation set."
"Good," I say. "Allison’s on C-NET only, no transmit."
"Logged," Daniel says, voice even. "Earpiece labeled."
Ward maps. Wardroom drops the six-o’clock sweep on the S7 and S8 as green and 31a stable after yesterday’s tick. I overlay the skip history and print two sets; one laminated, grease-pencil friendly and one goes in SUV-1 with another in SUV-3. Digital copies live on the convoy tablet under Maps equals SM-Approach.
By 6:40am, the board carries the weight it should and mother arrives with navy in a garment bag and a thermos. She reads the top third of the board, touches the Visitor/Ops line without comment, and hands me the bag.
"Neutral," she says. "Shoes you can stand in."
"Yes," I answer, sighing internally. I really don’t want to go, but we agreed and it sounds serious enough.
She flips the KNOT WATCH sheet. "This reads like you want people to do something and then go home," she says, which is her version of approval.
"That’s the idea," I shrug, trying for casual, landing on grumbling.
She sets a small box on the table. "Frame order," she says.
I open it. The placard is simple; Rhea, Consort (1896). Ward & Instruction. Matte, clean font. I close the lid and put it in the after pile.
’You’ll hang it,’ Blake says.
’After Tuesday,’ I promise him, and myself.
At 7:15am, Allison steps into Ops with Daniel. She wears black pants, a dark top, hair tied up for work, and the kind of shoes you can stand in for two hours. Daniel sets a small folder on the table labeled Visitor/Ops, Grey.
"Badge, earpiece, packet," he says. "Honeypot card tucked inside."
I pass her the badge and the earpiece. "Listen-only," I say. "C-NET. If you need me, text, mindlink or step to the shoulder. We’ll keep it boring."
"Boring is the goal," she agrees. The badge clicks at her collar and the earpiece sits comfortably behind her ear. We test the feed; check-check and she nods. Ruby warms her eyes for a second and recedes.
"Whiteboard’s in the van," I add. "Your drills are loaded. If the Crown asks for a short, we give them the exact version you teach. No flourish."
"Copy," she says as Elijah blows in with cones over one shoulder and a bag that looks like it holds snacks and nothing else. Ezra arrives behind him with the tablet and the ward maps.
"Where do you want the cones?" Elijah asks.
"Van," I say. "And do not teach the guards a game on the Crown’s grass."
He grins. "No promises."
"Promises," I correct. He sighs and redirects to the van.
Ezra taps the Maps tile and nods. "S7/S8/31a are marked with dates. Good."
"Keep your copy close," I say. "If Wardroom wants to talk shop, you are my first answer." He lifts a hand, understood. Ezra always was the best to explain and talk wards.
I hand Allison a small laminated card. "If anyone hands you cream or points you to a ’heritage’ contact, you hold this out and tell them to submit it to Audit," I say. "You don’t pocket anything, and you don’t step into a conversation you didn’t plan."
She reads the card, heritage@blueridge-services and the KNOT WATCH bullets, and slides it behind her badge. "Copy," she says, looking as if she does it without even thinking about it these days. Elijah watches her face and doesn’t offer a touch. He learned.
I send Daniel to lock the garage access for the day.
"RFIDs?" I ask.
"Active," he answers. "Only the four drivers’ badges open bay doors. If someone tries to move a car with a different key, the immobilizer kicks. Cameras log who tried."
"Good," I say. "Add a note to Gate; no plate swaps at the barrier. Visual confirm drivers. No exceptions."
"Sent," he says.
Father texts at 8:20am; Office. Now
His door is open and he’s standing by the window in a shirt he reserves for speeches and a mood he doesn’t. He doesn’t offer me a chair, or a smile. His face is a gloom and doom kind of a look.
"You sent the final manifest," he says.
"Yes," I answer, lifting an eyebrow. He points at the page on his desk where he’s circled Visitor/Ops, Allison Grey with a heavy pen. "Remove this."
"No," He has tried this so many times already, why does he think it’ll work just before we leave?
"You’re going to walk a fox into the Crown’s wardroom like you own the place," he says. "While our friends watch a girl who could actually be Luna stand on the square with her parents and wonder why she’s been humiliated."
"Lizzy isn’t being humiliated," I answer, resisting the urge to roll my eyes at his dense, narrow outlook on pack and life. "She’s being treated like a person, not a placeholder. The Crown asked for mixed-unit readiness and I’m taking the person who teaches the module we built for it. She’ll sit as a guest and she won’t talk out of turn. She’ll do the work and we’ll leave." I pause for a second. "Do you forget our Queen is also a fox?"
"You’ll get questions you don’t like," he says. "From men who don’t care about your paperwork." He completely ignored my question about the Queen. Fine.
"I’ll answer with policy and precedent," I say. "If someone wants to turn it into a referendum on species, I’ll point to §14.2 and the record you edited in 1989 to make yourself feel better." freewёbnoνel.com
He goes still. It’s the kind of quiet that means the next line will be a threat dressed as wisdom. "You forget who built this pack’s spine," he says. "And you think a scan of an old ledger makes you brave." There it is. I don’t move although Blake is fuming inside me by now.
"The ledger makes me accurate," I say. "Brave is taking the person who can do the job and protecting her while she does it."
He steps closer. "If she’s in the convoy tomorrow, I’ll run a breakfast with James and Lizzy at eight and take the feed live. People will see continuity while you play social experiments."
