Blackthorne, Gallagher & Royal?

Chapter 23 - Planning

Rebecca's POV

I think after moving everything yesterday, everyone is a little slower getting up this morning. I say a "little slower" because everyone is still up and moving pretty early in the morning, but not as early as usual. Today we have to come up with a plan for how we are going to deal with visitors that come to campus, invited or uninvited, and get everything set up how we want it to be in our new barracks.

"Rebecca!" Zach calls.

"Coming, just give me a second," I call back. 'He couldn't even give me the chance to get ready for the day,' I mutter to myself knowing that it's not going to change anything or do any good.

After I'm dressed and have left my room, I ask my gathered unit, "So what is the plan for the day?"

"So nice of you to join us Rebecca," Ethan says, "today we are coming up with a plan for how we are going to keep you a secret when people come to visit."

"We are currently trying to get access to an early warning system for the unscheduled visits, and access to the schedule of planned visits so that we have a little more time to get you into a hiding spot somewhere safe where they won't be able to find you," Zach inputs.

"That sounds like it would be helpful to have something like that," I state. "The problem would be that eventually the rest of the students would catch on when I don't show up to class, but I guess eventually they would catch on anyway, and how are you to keep them from mentioning me when a visitor comes because from what I have heard, the inspector doesn't always announce their presence they just observe and then move on."

"That is a concern that we have brought up to Dr. Holst. She has said that she will consider telling the whole compound about the incoming visits, but she is concerned that the boys will behave weird or different than they usually do. Dr. Holst said that she would keep us updated as the decision progresses through the channels," Ethan informs me.

"What about making it a rule that I am not to be mentioned in any conversation in a way that suggests that I am not a guy? That way it is not something that changes when visitors come, and so that there is no chance of anyone slipping up and accidentally giving away that I am on the compound," I suggest.

"That would work for part of the issues we will face, but what about when you start to get better, because I have a feeling that there will be at least one thing that you are better at that some of the recruits," Zach mentions concerned.

"How would the administration feel about making training a little friendly competition between units or platoons? Most everything we do already has some sort of point system attached to it, or could easily have one added, but is only used for personal improvement and is not kept track of very well. Would it work to take the units' average score in each field and rank them? It would then give the unit leaders something to motivate their members with without directly mentioning people in other units because the individual scores would not be made general knowledge among all platoons. So, no one outside of their own platoon knows who the weakest member of their platoon is, and no one would know who the best person is on the compound as they could be in a platoon with a person that is weak in that event."

Zach and Ethan look at each other for a second seeming to have a silent conversation, and then Ethan responds, "That could work, but I would make it per platoon for the compound wide knowledge and have each platoon know how each unit compares so that there is two levels of competition, one between units and the other between platoons. I think the most benefit could be gained with each unit knowing how they affect the score because the smaller groups then make it easier to know how you stack up against others, but the compound only knowing the platoon averages give individual scores less weight in the standings. The unit leaders would then only know their own members scores, the average score other unit in their platoon, and the average scores of the other platoons. Then when motivating their members, they would be mentioning the platoon that is better than their unit or platoon rather than just individual people from other platoons. We will discuss this with Dr. Holst and see what the administration thinks of that plan. Now we just need to come up with a plan for how and where we are going to hide you."

"We should maybe start with how we are going to hide where you are staying as if they find another sleeping area, they are going to wonder why it is set apart from the others," Zach states.

"Well I for one would like to be able to lock the area where I sleep when I am not in there throughout the day because not all of the units will accept that I am here and will try to scare me off by messing with my stuff," I request.

"We would be required to make it so that administration has access to the space for inspections. And we would have to make it locked in a way that if a visitor comes into the barrack when we are present that they would not heavily question us about the space, or make it so that we can truthfully state that we do not know what is in the space and why we have not tried to break into the space," Zach points out.

"What about a lock that is unable to be picked or hacked into," Andrew questions. "I bet that there is some type of lock out there that could meet those qualifications. There is always advances in technology occurring out there."

"Jonas, get started on research into locking systems that are extremely hard to pick or hack into. I suggest looking to see if there are any locksmith written sources out there on the topic, their experience would be able to give you a good starting point for finding something that would work for us," Ethan orders.

With that, Jonas turns and heads to his trunk to get started on his research. Zach then asks, "Anyone have anything else they want to bring up to the group?" When silence is all that meets his question Zach then dismisses everyone to finish getting things moved and settled how they want it.

As I am headed outside of our barrack to get some air, Zach calls out, "Hey Rebecca!" I stop and turn to look at Zach in acknowledgement that I heard him. "Why don't you get your space set up some more," he continues once he is sure I am listening. "That way no one truly knows what your space looks like."

"I was going to go for a short walk," I reply. "I need to clear my head so I can think some more about how I want to position things in my space. After that I will get back to setting up my space."

Zach then rapidly fires off questions, "What if an unexpected visitor comes today while you are out? What will you do then?"

"Then we have more issues than just where I am as we do not have any security set up for my space yet," I reply.

"Fine, go on your walk," Zach sighs in response to my answer. "Maybe by the time she gets back Jonas will have found a suitable lock for her door," I barely hear him mumble out.