The debriefing had started calmly. It had been a few days since the incident and cooler heads prevailed when the meeting began. All agreed with the general outline of the situation, and Black raised no dissent to Harry’s description of the weakened wall that had resulted from Yellow’s retreat, nor the mistakes made by when he revealed himself to the beast.

Black was just about to pin the blame for the whole sorry episode at the feet of the injured man when Jacob began to recount the details of the failed control collar.

“As soon as the creature began to run, it should have been stopped. I notice you’ve not invited Mr Green to this meeting to defend himself, so am I to assume you have exonerated him of blame?” Grey glanced at Black before nodding. “Which means you agree with me that the collar was faulty. Goodness knows how many others are affected, but have never been required to activate. But that’s nothing compared to the failing of my friend’s staff,” he went on, with a wave in Harry’s direction.

“Staffs are the responsibility of the wielder,” Grey began.

“And I was with him when he checked it before the exercise,” Jacob lied. “As a conscientious man he takes great care of his equipment, as shoddy as it might be.”

“Now just hold on a moment,” Black barked. “I’m sick and tired of you men blaming every mistake and mishap on your equipment. Nothing is perfectly reliable so you should prepare for the unexpected!”

“We should,” Jacob agreed to Harry’s surprise. “But we are not.”

Black sat back and grinned, no doubt dreaming up a suitable punishment.

Jacob had not finished, however. “The training we are undertaking is not suitable for what I fear we will face. All we have done since we arrived here is form small groups of men to take down a single adversary.”

“Which is what we have always seen,” Grey interjected, to keep the peace.

“Agreed, but we have no reason to believe that it will be the same when we are in the field.” Jacob was striding back and forth in front of Black’s desk. “Those of us who fought in the war,” he paused for a second and regarded Mr Black, “know full well what happens with tactics and strategies based on outmoded information and methods of combat. We spent weeks in practising hand-to-hand combat, short range fighting, and what did we end up doing? Cower in muddy holes under artillery barrages before marching towards machine guns in broad daylight. You’re doing the same damn thing here; we need to plan for the unexpected, not just get ticked off when it happens.”

There was a brief silence before Black stood. He stamped around his desk, until he was face-to-face with Jacob, regarded him with contempt and ordered him in a hoarse whisper to sit. Jacob did so, slowly.

“I agree there’s a discussion to have here,” Grey’s voice trembled. “If we can improve the training, it’ll be to everyone’s benefit…” he trailed off under a withering stare from Black.

“Nonsense,” Black said. “This is what we’ve always done because this is what we’ve always faced. The fae aren’t even as smart as the Hun, it’s just a few dumb animals coming through and we need to put them down. You men will be on the front lines for that, so you had damn well better be ready to do what we tell you.”

“But if there’s a chance we’re preparing for the wrong battle,” Harry said, “then we owe it to all the men…”

“End of discussion,” Black shouted. “We must seal that breach, there’s no two ways about it. Or do I have to remind you again what is at stake? The repairs at Stonehenge are vital to stop more fae arriving. Some of our Council even suspect that the damage at the turn of the century caused the psychic disturbances leading up to your bloody War. If you want to talk about what you ‘owe to all the men’ you’ll do your duty and prevent another one!”

Jacob sat, his lips pressed together. He clasped his hands in his lap so tight his knuckles had turned white.

“Unless you’re not up to it,” Black continued, a smirk crossing his face. His grin faded as Jacob rose from his seat. Grey got a hand to his shoulder before he launched himself at Black and led him from the room.

“What was that about?” Grey asked Jacob as they walked along the corridor, Harry scurrying behind them. “I’ve never seen you so riled up.”

“Shouldn’t have called me a coward,” Jacob muttered.

“Well, I don’t think he did,” Grey said. Jacob wheeled around, anger flashing in his eyes. “All right, he was wrong to say what he did,” Grey added. “But you didn’t need to tell him he was doing everything wrong, either.”

“Someone has to,” Jacob said. “You expect me to keep quiet after what I’ve seen? What we’ve seen?” He added with a gesture back at Harry. “Black still thinks it’s dumb creatures, but I think they’ve got a purpose.”

“Look, I’m your commanding officer if you will, and he’s mine. If you have problems, come to me. I can present them to him in a more…” he paused, looking for the right word, “appropriate way.”

Jacob scoffed. “He won’t listen, his kind never do. Doesn’t matter who says it.”

“I want to help you, Jacob,” Grey protested. “But you need to help yourself too. When you blow up like that it just turns him against you all the more.”

Jacob gave no reply to this, his shoulders hunched as he strode away.

“I’ll talk to him, when he’s cooled down a little,” Harry said, passing Grey as he set off in pursuit of his friend. “Thanks for looking out for us.”

Grey sighed. “Get some rest, both of you, I suspect you’ll be shipping out sooner than you imagined after that little performance.”

Harry caught up with Jacob as he crossed the field towards their barracks. Unable to decide how best to break the awkward silence, he opted to wait for Jacob to speak first.

As they passed the medical wing, Jacob slowed and glanced over. “How is he?” he asked.

“He’s doing better, they’ve almost healed his wound and there’s no infection, so they’re talking about fitting him for a prosthetic in a day or two. It seems the boffins have come up with some magic impressed into the wood so he might not even seem crippled.”

Jacob nodded and resumed his silent walk.

Eventually, Harry could stand the silence no longer. “Look, I’m with you. We need to protect ourselves and our men from the people like Black who don’t know what they’re doing. But coming at them head on won’t help, they’ll just reinforce their position and dig in deeper. Snapping at Grey won’t help either, at least he’s on our side.”

“Hardly,” Jacob said. “So we cut them out. Go around them, teach the men ourselves.”

“Teach them what?” Harry asked. “Apart from your feeling we’re doing it all wrong, what are we meant to prepare for?”

Jacob shrugged. “To be ready for anything.”

“Oh that’s nice and clear,” Harry said. “Isn’t that what they just told us to do?”

“At the same time as telling us to train to take on a single creature at a time. That’s no way to be prepared, to be flexible enough to take on what’s out there.”

“But we don’t know what’s out there,” Harry protested.

“We have an idea.”

Harry tried not to show his annoyance. “If this is about what you think you saw at Ypres…”

“There’s no doubt what I saw, I’m telling you. Wave after wave of… them.” He shuddered. “Pitiless, merciless, unstopping; there’s no way our tactics would work against that.”

Harry laid a hand on Jacob’s shoulder, and the two men stopped walking. “I know how hard it was for you, over there,” he said. “And how long you were out in that shell-hole. But it was the Germans you saw, not some otherworldly creatures. There’s no sign that anything other than the machine-gun fire and shrapnel killed our men.”

Jacob pulled free and stalked away. “I know what I saw,” he repeated over his shoulder. “And if Grey and Black won’t help us, then we have to help ourselves.”

Jacob suggested going to the pub again, but Harry demurred.

“If you’re serious about training the men in secret,” he said, “we should have a clear plan and clearer heads.”

“What do you propose?”

Harry thought for a moment. “We need to break the expectation it’ll be a straight one-on-one fight, or a handful of us against one beast. If the fae launch waves of smaller creatures at us, we need a strategy to cope. Or a machine-gun,” he smiled.

“Right, God knows we saw how effective that was against us. Or perhaps the archers at Agincourt - ranks of men lined up raining down death on the enemy. So we need smaller, faster-firing spells than we’re using so far. Instead of groups of three or four we need larger formations. Some can handle defensive walls, while the rest fire over them to mow down the attackers.”

Harry shook his head. “I don’t think we can rearrange the entire battlefield and still somehow expect them not to notice our efforts. But the spell work sounds like a good idea, I’ll chat to the magical research lot to see what they can suggest. It might mean less strain on the staffs than the big blasts, too.”

Jacob looked pleased. “And I expect we can sneak more drills into the training, formations and quick-turns during marching practice. If the men are used to that then it should be second nature by the time we’re in the field.”

“That’s assuming Black doesn’t deploy us tomorrow,” Harry said. “I need to talk to Grey and see if he can help us out. No, hold on,” he said as Jacob protested. “I believe we can trust him. He’s got some experience, and I think I can win him over at least enough to let us try. And we’ll need his help to avoid being sent off to Salisbury before we’re ready, or all this comes to naught.”

“All right,” Jacob agreed. “But if he sells us out…”

“He won’t,” Harry said.