Sam sat across from Erica and looked at the sheet of paper with a single name on it, their sole volunteer to accompany Mike to the showdown with Nallit's people: Erica Spencer. "No one else is willing to go?"

"I don't see your name on there," Erica said.

"The Imperator won't risk both centurions on the same operation. I thought everyone here was buddies with Ski."

Erica shrugged. "Everyone who has ever seen Nallit in person comes back terrified of the man, assuming they come back at all. Why would you expect anyone to volunteer to be his hostage?"

"Because Nallit will kill all of us if he doesn't get three of them."

"That's not what will happen, though. If someone volunteers, there is a hundred percent chance they are going to be facing the demon man. If someone doesn't volunteer, then eventually the 'volunteers' will be chosen or have their name pulled from a hat. Any way you look at it, all you get for stepping up is worse odds of seeing another day."

Sam paused. "Then why did you volunteer?"

"I'm taking the place of one of the soldiers under my command."

"Taking a bullet for people you can't stand?"

"It's part of the military life. You might not want to spend time with the person at your side, but you are there for them. Hopefully, they are there for you."

After a moment, Sam tapped the paper. "So who are we volunteering?"

"That depends on organizational needs. Who is least critical to the mission of the EDA going forward?"

"Ummm . . . I don't want to make that call."

"This is the burden of command, Sam. No one wants to decide whose life is most disposable. You have to make the call and then you have to live with the consequences."

"What if no one is disposable?"

Erica folded her arms. "Come at it the other way. Who is most mission critical? Meaning someone who is doing a job that either no one else can do? Jimmy is our accountant. McGreary is our medic. Varanelli is our administrator. Those three can't be picked. Next, who has the most potential? Diego is a paragon. Whittaker ignited. We don't want to lose either of them, so they can't be picked either. Finally, of those who remain, who does the most work on an ongoing basis? Cop Cody is a workhorse. Tracy will do any task she's assigned without complaining. Smith volunteers for most of the kinetic work. Take those three away, and you are left with Joe, Jess, and Srinivas."

Stolen novel; please report.

Deep breath. "I can't order my best friend to do this."

"Then you are left with Joe and Srinivas."

"I can't send my best friend's boyfriend either."

"You have to nominate two people. The choice of who goes is yours, but I think my assessment of their individual contributions is accurate."

Sam leaned forward to smack her forehead against the table. "Why did I let Cassandane make me a centurion?" Because you thought you were just as good as Mike, or maybe even better. She sat back up and looked at Erica. "Based on everything you said, your name shouldn't be on the paper. You do all the day-to-day running of the operations team. If you don't come back, the team suffers and Mike gets pulled into management instead of being a walking weapon."

"Fine. I'll defer to your judgment. Now you have three spots to fill. Who are they?"

Sam put her face in her hands. "The bottom three."

"Joe, Jess, and Srinivas?"

"Yes," Sam said. "Write their names down. Do I have to be the one to tell them they volunteered?"

"It would be better coming from you than from Cassandane. She doesn't have a soft touch."

"They're going to hate me. I'm basically saying they are our most disposable soldiers."

"Oh, you're not going to tell them the real reason you picked them. That would be a disaster for morale. Tell Joe he was selected because you think his experience as a veteran law enforcement officer will let him keep a cool head under pressure. He'll like that even if he isn't thrilled with the assignment. The two lovers are both sirens, so you can tell them that the combination of teleotic and noetic talents gives them defenses against physical and mental harassment. Let all three of them know that the mission is considered low risk but high discomfort. Say they are good at de-escalating conflict. Things like that. Command decisions and command justifications are going to diverge on occasion. Until you get the hang of it, just grab an experienced leader and ask 'how do I explain this one to the troops'?"

"I can't believe I'm going to be teaching school while all of this is going down a few miles away."

Erica nodded. "What are you even going to teach them on their last day? You can't leave the building."

"It's a half day, so they're getting an early dismissal. Otherwise we're just going to be testing them on basic proficiencies and suggesting drills to help them get better on their own. We don't really care what the city customers get out of the experience. We exchanged training for a year of rent in this place and we are only using a month of that. The afternoon the teaching staff is going to work on our own skills. There are some concerns that we might get passed by if we get a smart enough student in the next cohort."

"Did you make the call to have a half day yourself?"

Sam grunted. "Some command decisions are easier to make than others. I guess I'll go ruin the day for three people now."