Backus Marsh was reached just as the sun was going down, and the supply driver very kindly dropped him at the headquarters shack in the base just outside the town proper. From there, he was directed to a house just beyond the wire-protected base area. He knocked on the door before walking in. The lounge room had been converted into an office with two desks. There was a male Corporal behind one at a female private behind the other, both looking at him.

“I’m supposed to report to Captain Greaves.”

“You’ll be our new mentalist then?”

“Yes, Andrew Harris.”

“Right. Just a moment.”

The man’s face took on a distant expression, and Andrew could feel him doing something mentally. Then the Corporal snapped back into a normal expression.

“The Captain will see you straight away. You can leave your duffel there.” The man pointed to the left of the door Andrew had come in through. “Through the door on the left.”

“Thanks, Corporal.”

As per the military etiquette he was taught in training, he knocked and then entered without waiting for permission as he was expected by the person inside. Captain Greaves was sitting behind the desk that was directly opposite the door. Dressed in the sand and brown camo and with her hair tied up, she looked completely different from the girl on the train. Andrew marched forward, came to attention, and saluted, which the Captain returned.

“Sit.” She said, waving a hand at the chair standing a little to the right of the center of the desk.

Sharon watched him sit, studying him and her expression became more puzzled by the second. She knew he had power, she’d picked that up on the train, and she knew he was apparently quite strong, but he was showing little more glow than an ordinary person. Damn, that was an impressive shield he was holding, seemingly automatically. Well, they’d been looking for another powerful magician apart from her, and it appeared they had found one. He and his squad had been sent to the front after an accelerated training program which she wasn’t entirely happy with after the disaster the first group of magic recruits had been subjected to, but she wasn’t in overall command, so she could only do the best she could.

She had read the report from Sanchez with some interest. Harris’s suggestion about grounding shields was simple but clever, and she had passed that idea on to the other mentalists in the army. Such as they were. Reading Sanchez’s report, there seemed to be little that Harris needed to learn in terms of mentalist skills, which surprised her as she thought she was quite well-trained. Her grandfather had been a very powerful magician, as they used to be called, and had taught her very well once he’d realized she’d inherited his magical ability. She was still puzzled by her father’s lack of apparent magical ability, but she put it down to one of those genetic quirks that happened every now and again. The power gene must have been recessive in her father, which seemed a bit odd but was not unheard of, apparently, according to her grandfather.