As soon as she sat down, Sam hit Jess with her question. "What do you think about Greg Smith?"

"Very cute."

"Is he too old, though?"

"Too old for what? You're not getting married, Sam, you're chatting up a cute guy." Jess glanced towards where Mike had just sat down with his weird crowd of ex-military people who called each other by their last names. "Honestly, age isn't that important."

"No, Jess."

"What?"

"I'm pretty sure Mike is my nemesis. You can't date the nemesis of your best friend."

"Can I get a nemesis, too? Maybe that Greg Smith guy. I think his eyelashes look better than mine and it is a little annoying."

Sam picked at her food for a few minutes before Jess leaned in close to whisper something. "If the Mike thing doesn't work out, I'm going for Cody."

"Is that one of the cops?"

"Cody is the one that actually smiles. Joe sadly lost that ability when he graduated police academy."

"The poor man."

"I guess Erica put him on a roof in handcuffs and that's why he is in the EDA." Jess raised her eyebrows. "I told him it sounded kinky."

"Did he laugh? Oh, no, don't tell me the police academy took away his smiles and his laughs."

"He did laugh. No smile, so it was a weird psycho robot laugh."

"So," Sam said, "I go after Greg and you go after Cody."

"Cody is my backup, girl," Jess said.

"Ugh, fine, be like that. Betray me and run off with my nemesis."

"If you insist, madame centurion."

"That was not an order! Abort! Abort!"

Jess gestured towards the lid she was using as a plate. "This was actually pretty good. I was dipping falaffel in hummus and it really worked."

"Must have been nice, not eating off of a plastic bag."

"I highly recommend the experience."

About the same time Sam gave up on lunch, she spotted Mike talking to Cassandane in the hallway. Something in their postures triggered her. "I think my nemesis is convincing the boss of something," she said, then winced at the realization she had just called Cassandane boss. Sam hopped to her feet and went to the door, tossing the remnants of loss into the trash on her way out.

". . . so no corona wrestling," Mike was saying. "The other things I don't know how to do myself yet."

Sam folded her arms. "What are we talking about?"

"Classified techniques," Mike said.

"What do you mean classified? I'm a centurion, too."

"We are restricting some knowledge," Cassandane said. "I will address this more at tonight's senior leader meeting, but Mike requested guidance on topics he should avoid for the afternoon training."

"Are we going to have a meeting every night?"

"Yes, Sam, we are," Cassandane said.

"Followup question. Do we get off weekends?"

"Not in the foreseeable future."

Sam restrained the urge to complain. Neither Mike nor Cassandane would be sympathetic. "So that's all we're talking about?"

"I'm also looking to leave a few people out of my training session. Srinivas, Varanelli, and Jimmy don't have the kinetic talent, so I can't see them joining us for a flight around the city. Unless I can charge them up with animas after they attuned to something else?"

"Unfortunately, an attunement precludes not just drawing forth foreign precursor, it also totally prevents the absorption of it. Even if you managed to force animas upon their minds, it would not be usable to them."

"Then how about we give those three a pass? Jimmy is already busy working on our finances. Varanelli and Srinivas would only get in the way of flight training."

Cassandane tilted her head. "And what would they do while they were missing out on training?"

"Varanelli isn't even interested in training."

"She doesn't have a choice," Cassandane said.

"She doesn't have a choice about being in the EDA. But maybe she should get a choice about how she contributes. She's an administrative assistant for a doctor's office. We are going to need someone around here to answer the phones, coordinate our schedules, order supplies, supervise contractors while they are in our facilities, stuff like that. The three of us have other duties."

Cassandane looked to Sam. "Your thoughts?"

Sam shrugged. "It sounds like a good idea to me."

"I will talk to Kendra Varanelli about taking on the role of administrator," Cassandane said. "What would you have Srinivas do while you are flying with the others?"

Of all things, Mike turned to her for support. Sam rolled her eyes. "Send him to buy us a computer."

"If you do that, make it sound like it was your idea," Mike said. "He gets touchy when people assume he's technical support."

Cassandane frowned. "Why?"

"Because he's Indian."

"I don't understand."

"It's like how you get touchy about being an Aoleyen sometimes," Sam said.

"I did not realize your world had selectively bred humans."

"I didn't mean it like . . . oh, you're sarcastic." Sam glanced between Cassandane and Mike. "Why did I think I should be involved in this talk?"

"Must have been your leadership potential acting up," Mike said. Sam frowned, not sure if the words were intended as a compliment or an insult.

She returned to Jess while Cassandane separated off the individuals being assigned alternatives to training with Mike. Sam relived the conversation with Jess, barely finishing before they were called by the booming voice of Mike to line up in the hall for flight training. Mike corrected their line to be straight and gave a quick lecture on proper military bearing. Then he gave instructions on what they were going to do. Apparently they were going to be flying in formations. He even gave names. 'Bird formation' would be a V with the point man front and center, the second and third most experienced individuals at the tips of the wings, the other kinetics along the lines, and any soft targets being secured in the center of their formation. 'Spotter formation' had the majority of the group flying low while two of their number went high to watch ahead and behind. 'Assault formation' had everyone except a 'tail watcher' form up in two lines and charge forward at a fast pace. And 'leapfrog formation' had them sneak forward between spots of cover.

After half an hour of speaking, Mike charged up their recruits. Judging by their reactions, Mike gave significantly larger charges than she did. Annoying. Jess very obviously had to restrain herself from commenting. Then they took to the skies. Mike took the point for their bird formation and had Sam and Spencer at the ends of the wings. They flew slowly down the street, many of the advanced students obviously struggling just to stay aloft. The exercise seemed a little boring at first, at least compared to the hectic race she and Sam had done across the country. Slowly, she started to enjoy their stately flight. It was hard not to like flying, after all. The slower pace even let them do some sightseeing.

After a dozen blocks, Mike landed and offered some criticisms. Their formation had not been even enough. They had been looking around like sightseers instead of watching for threats.

They took to the air again and made several circuits of Pittsburgh's downtown. By their second trip, people on the street had gathered at spots with good views to cheer their passage. Then they landed atop another building for a break. When they took off next, they flew the spotter formation with Mike spotting forward and Sam spotting their tail. They did two laps of the city like that and switched to the leapfrog formation. This time, Mike removed himself from the exercise to serve as an observer, shouting at them when they chose poor hiding spots, were slow sprinting between locations, or failed to maintain their vigilance between breaks in the action.

When that game exhausted them, they went back to flying bird formation. By the time they returned to the convention center for dinner, they were all exhausted. Yet, Sam had to admit, everyone seemed happy. As far as team building exercises went, owning the skyline of a city had been pretty good.