Secure Message from Chase Rhovnik to Rhett Daniels:
AR has requested a training op. AR and her team will be the aggressors. Your team has to protect the asset for 24 hours. We will use a live target -- LR. These things tend to be scary, particularly with AR's team involved, and we think that it will help LR take the threat more seriously. There is a Rowley Training Center like facility a short boat ride from Kalao and that's where we will do it. I know that LR's team isn't ready to handle the experience of AR's so you are allowed to supplement LR's team with KR's for this event. It will be a good opportunity for LR's team to learn from their counterparts. Do not take AR or her team lightly. This is the sort of thing she lives for. AR should be in touch to talk details. I don't think I have to tell you that everyone will be watching. Nobody expects you to win but do not embarrass me.


Secure message from Rhett Daniels to Chase Rhovnik:
Sir.


Secure message from Andy Rhovnik to Rhett Daniels:
Weeeeeelcome to my woooooorld!!!!!!!! My team and I have a time sensitive job that we need to prep for so this is going to have to be quick. For some crazy reason I have been talked into giving you a chance to prove you're good enough to train the teams of my little cousins. So here it is -- your chance.

We start on Sun 0600 and run through Mon 0600. It will take place in one of the two mock villages at the Palmer Training Facility. You can take your pick as to which one. My team knows the facility pretty well so we won't arrive until Sun and you won't tell me which village until the start of the game. Your team can arrive Sat. You can go Fri to take a look around.

For the record, I've never lost this particular game. My record (which also just so happens to be the game record) is 3hrs 14min in "killing" my target. The commanding officer from that mission washed out. Please try to do better. I love a good challenge.


Secure message from Rhett Daniels to Andy Rhovnik:
There's a first time for everything. On an unrelated note, you ever been "killed" on one of these ops?


Secure message from Andy Rhovnik to Rhett Daniels:
Nope. Don't get ahead of yourself, big britches. My team and I have been working jobs while Laura's has been reading tea leaves and Kat's has been standing stiffly in their suits while she works embassy parties. My hands are so dirty they don't scrub clean. You're playing with the big dogs now. Woof.

The Rhovniks prided themselves in their uniquely tough and creative training exercises, and their war games were no exception. Two whole model villages were rented out for their security forces, and each agent was given a special weapon: a 'light gun' in the loosest sense of the term, capable of tagging and immediately identifying 'killed' targets for the exercise administrator's benefit, but also uniquely equipped to adjust for range depending on weapon type and account for wind speed and direction, producing recoil as well as emitting noise from both the shooter and the target with each shot, regardless of the success or failure of the hit.

The technology was new to Rhett; the concept of war games, however, was not. The mission to take the seafood from Andy's 'generous' feast and hide it all inside her team's motor pool after their arrival was necessary to raise his team's morale, but every other moment had been spent counseling them on tactics.

Twenty-two hours into their match, it was clear that Rhett's tactics consisted of splitting his team up and spreading them out, moving under cover to new locations whenever possible and breaking cover and (usually) sacrificing oneself whenever a diversion was needed, whenever Andy's team was coming too close to LR -- or at least that seemed like the most probable motive.

The objective was to outlast Andy's team, after all, not destroy it, though her stubbornly strong numbers made it difficult to stay off their radar while they covered so much ground at once. Two hours to go, and LR stood at four people including the target herself, while AR still had nine.

According to the administrator, Rhett Daniels had yet to make a kill.

Yet, to this point, Rhett Daniels was winning the game. Laura was still 'alive' and Andy's team was running out of time to do anything about that. The thought caused Andy to curse lightly under her breath as she rolled her wrist over to glance at the watch around it. 1:58:33. The seconds ticked down further.

She cursed again from beneath the overhang of what appeared to be a small grocery store that, at least at first glance, could open tomorrow if need be. 'Gary's Grocery', the sign on the door read, 'Eat here or we both starve'. The effort that had been poured into making the villages on the island look real was incredible. The shelves were even full of cans, boxes, and bags of groceries but a quick glance at the vintage look to the labels and the 'Sell by' dates would prove that some of them had been best eaten before Andy was even born.

They had lost track of LR and her team forty-five minutes ago after a fierce gunfight in which Andy had smoked Rhett, Laura, and crew out of a home two blocks west. Three of LR's team had gone down, including Richie -- Rhett's best marksman beside himself. Andy hadn't lost any but in the volley of fire that Richie rained down on them as they took him out, Rhett and his team had managed to escape with Laura clad in a hooded black sweatshirt.

It was a last ditch effort to come back to Main Street but it seemed like something Andy herself might do. Victory should be sweet. It should be experienced in the heart of things. The buildings were plentiful with lots of hiding places. Rhett only had another hour. Here, she decided, he would pick for the last stand. "There," she murmured to Jim beside her. "You see the church. The steeple. Watch it for a moment."

"Andy, you know those comics you think are so funny?" Jim replied, exhaustion in his voice as he trained his eyes on the steeple.

"Spy vs Spy," she responded distractedly.

"Yep. You do remember the lesson, right? The spies get so focused on beating one another that they forget the purpose of the mi--"

"There!" Andy's hushed whisper was excited after a flash of something caught of the early sunlight.

"Maybe," Jim replied in a low tone, motioning with two fingers to his eyes and then pointing towards the steeple for another member of their team with younger eyes to watch the steeple.

The sharp-eyed marksman from Andy's team sucked in a breath at another movement. Someone was descending from the steeple, and he caught a glimpse through one of the pocket windows peeking in on the tight staircase. "Black hoodie!" he hissed, and grinned broadly as he lined up a shot.

His expression fell, though, at the amplified crack from the church and the buzz emitting from the device on his collar. He was dead. "Rhett Daniels killed Raul Olveida at 44 meters with an M40A5 rifle." First blood for the sniper today.

Across the street Rhett was hurrying into a new position, hunching down and manuevering past the steeple's windows to find a new vantage point. "Get your ass down to the choir loft," he hissed after the retreating figure in the black hoodie. There were ways to get a vantage point on the loft, and Andy's team must have known that was where he'd end up sending her, but it would take some time -- and breaking cover -- to get that angle.

And Rhett would be watching.

"That's just fucking brilliant there," Andy grumbled at Raul's back as he hauled down Main Street towards the Town Hall where in the basement sent the holding tank for those 'killed' where they could watch the final minutes of the game via a live feed from carefully place cameras that could watch practically the entire village, including the interiors.

"That was kind of a nice shot," Jim murmured appreciatively at the shot. ?We should move forward carefully here. He?s up there waiting to pick us off.?

"Okay, okay. Let me think. He's in the steeple. The safest place for her would be the vault beneath ground but... he's got to stay in that steeple. I bet he wants us to think that hooded figure was a decoy and that he?s actually got us in the vault. He can pick us off so easily from up there but, if it was me, I wouldn't want Laura all the way down in the vault while I was in the steeple," Andy stated in a low tone to the now seven people gathered with her.

"Choir loft," a young Australian named Jack drawled in reply.

"Choir loft," Andy agreed with a flicker of a grin and a nod. "The alley between the bookstore and barber first and then we'll make the run to the church. Let's move out."

It was playing out more or less as Rhett had predicted, but it was happening faster than he would have liked. He hoped that Raul's 'death' would rattle them more and keep them pinned down longer while they made plans, but they wasted no time. It meant that Laura had even less time than he had hoped.

It also meant that Andy was about to lose more people, and fast.

He was lying prone up in the steeple, all the way at the top of the stairs, seconds after Andy's team broke from cover. The man with the military bearing, middle-aged with buzzed hair, was bringing up the rear and therefore took Rhett's bullet. "Rhett Daniels killed Jim--"

He didn't wait for the administrator to finish, and neither did Andy's team. Someone paused before following the team into the barber shop to pepper the top of the steeple with automatic fire, and caught a flash of movement through the lower pocket window a moment too late. "Rhett Daniels killed--"

This time the administrator's voice was continuously drowned out by the buzzing from the device on his collar. Close shots from Andy's team covering her from the distance, lighting up any angle they could get on any opening in the steeple. It was time for him to find a new position, closer to their intended target in the loft.

Andy's back hit the brick wall between the two buildings and she reached out to bring in the sole man just behind her. Jack. The other six were headed down the street towards the brick building to wait out the last 1:42:09. She cursed again after that quick check of the time. Rhett had taken out most of her team in under thirty seconds.

"Hell," Jack stated in abject shock as he watched the string of backs headed down Main Street with their guns hanging at their sides. "Isn't this the fewest people you've ever finished this game with?"

"Shut the **** up, Jack," Andy growled. She grabbed him by the arm and shoved him out roughly from behind their cover. His exclamation of protest was the only sound. No shots fired. Her fingers wrapped around his arm and she tugged him back into cover. "Betting he's moved closer on her now. He's expecting us to come through the front door and he'll just pick us off. We're going to take that tree at the back of the church up to the roof--"

"That roof is way too steep. We'll fall off and break--"

"We'll do it very carefully," Andy replied sharply. "And quickly. We go in through the steeple and then down to the choir loft."

"Yes, ma'am," Jack replied to the commanding tone.

Rhett couldn't get eyes on their final approach, which meant she was taking this very seriously. He could understand spending a few men trying to remove him from the picture, but risking herself? She'd called his bluff. This wasn't a decoy like he'd wanted her to believe.

"Second Team, status." But no sooner did he use his radio than the report came in that he'd just lost the rest of his team. He and Laura were alone now, which meant that if she made a break for it, she'd likely be picked off. This had just become their Alamo.

"Keep your head down," he told Laura as he returned to the choir loft, and while she made herself as small as possible among the pews, Rhett found a corner and readied his weapon.

That second team had been picked off from the top of the church. It was tricky to balance with their backs against the steeple, firing on the pair of men below. The satisfying voice of the administrator rattled in her ears. "Andy Rhovnik killed Gil Noroelwa at 12 meters with a Bullpup Assault Rifle."

But while it was satisfying, the voice rattling in the watch on Jack's wrist (which he evidently forgot to silence) gave away their position. The second LR team member on the ground trained his weapon upward and immediately picked Jack off in the dim early morning life with a blast of several shots. "Jack Amell killed by--"

Andy growled at Jack, not waiting for the rest of the message before firing off her shot. "Andy Rhovnik killed Manwe--"

"Great. That's just great. You?re going to have to find a way down on your own," she huffed at Jack as she swung in through the opening of the bell tower, trying to soften the sound of her boots against the wooden flooring. The assault rifle was abandoned there in the bell tower and she pulled out the service revolver on her hip as she crept towards the spiral staircase that descended downward.

It was two on one now, which Rhett would have liked, except Laura was unique among the Rhovniks in having virtually no firearms or tactical experience. Effectively it was Rhett versus Andy.

With a little more distance between them, he felt confident that she would not stand a chance. But in close quarters combat? It remained to be seen what Rhett still retained from his house raids in Fallujah -- and that was five years ago.

"Son of a goddamn ****," he muttered to himself when he realized: "She's coming in from the steeple. There was nothing else for it. He hurried out from his corner to put himself between Laura Rhovnik and the stairs to the steeple.

The realization came too late. A single shot echoed off the stone walls that looked so much older than they actually were.

"Andy Rhovnik killed Rhett Daniels at 4 meters with a SIG P226," the administrator declared.

"Nice to finally meet you, Rhett," Andy finished cheerfully as she emerged from out of the stairwell into the mouth of the church?s choir loft.

"Hi," Rhett replied through grit teeth. It technically resembled a smile, but getting 'killed' still stung, even by a worthy opponent.

Though what happened next helped.

Movement from the pews exposed Laura's position as a dummy grenade rolled into the middle of the loft. It emitted a flash, buzzing both of their collars, and Laura -- still a little confused on what anything Rhett actually said meant and when to say it -- threw up her arms and joyfully trilled, "Frag out!"

The administrator paused, and then began, through an audible sigh, "Laura Rhovnik killed Andy Rhovnik at 6 meters with an M67 fragmentation grenade. Laura Rhovnik killed Laura Rhovnik with an M67 fragmentation grenade. The, uh... administrators will need to consult the... policy handbook... but we are tentatively calling this a stalemate."

"No, no, no!" Andy groaned, tossing her free hand up in frustration as Laura's rose in joy. "You've got to be kidding me. I can't not be 12-0!"

"We tied!" Laura laughed, and razzed her cousin before she threw her arms around Rhett to give his neck a quick squeeze, a move that clearly took him by surprise as he staggered a step even under her light frame. "I never tied Andy in anything before!" She broke the hug to pump her fists in the air.

And now Rhett wore a more genuine grin, finishing his introduction to Andy with a handshake. "And nice to finally meet you too, Andy."

Despite the blemish on her record, she couldn't help but let a smile flicker across her lips as she watched Laura's enthusiasm. That was needed. He had injected a bit more fire and a whole hell of a lot of confidence in her little cousin. It might just be the thing that kept her alive a little longer. Begrudgingly, she offered Rhett a wider smile complete with dimples as she stretched out a hand to shake the one he offered. "You personally took out most of my team. I'll admit it. I was wrong. You're good and I?m impressed. Impressed enough that if you ever want some cross-divisional work, I think a mission or two together might be fun."

"I might just have to take you up on that," he replied, eyes crinkling kindly at the corners. "C'mon. Let's go get breakfast."


((With thanks to the player behind Rhett Daniels.))