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“Organise scoping things out?” Lydia muttered to herself a couple of hours later. She was sitting at the desk in her and Karen’s room trying to come up with a plan and drawing a blank. “How am I supposed to do that?”

“Having trouble?”

Lydia looked around and saw Julie standing in the door.

“Yes,” she admitted. “This isn’t like organising a rescue. We need to remain unnoticed while we observe them rather than just a quick in and out.”

“I thought you might be,” Julie said. “I know quite a bit about reconnaissance from my former life.”

Lydia looked at her for a moment before nodding. “Yes, I imagine you do, and I’d be grateful. Please come in.”

“Thank you.” Julie sat on the end of the bed behind her. “The curfew and travel restrictions are going to make this complicated but we should be able to come up with something. In the first instance, I’d send in your brother since he can avoid notice and Alison and Logan don’t know him.”

“Daniel, you mean?” Lydia asked.

“Yes. He should be able to work out if it’s safe for the rest of us to come through to help him or observe them himself if not.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea,” Lydia said. “Let’s go and talk to him.”

 

***

 

“I think I can do that,” Daniel agreed after Lydia had explained Julie’s suggestion. “It’s a very good suggestion, actually. The only problem I see is that I know little about the targets or where I’m going so I’m not sure what I’ll be looking for.”

“Hmm.” Julie frowned. “Yes, that is a problem. I could help with that but they know me which might make it more difficult to hide.”

“I can handle it,” he said confidently.

Julie eyed him thoughtfully for a moment before nodding. “Yes, I do believe that you can.” She looked over at Lydia. “I’ll go as well if you want.”

“It sounds wise,” Lydia said. “And the rest us will stand by to rescue you if anything goes wrong.”

“Thank you.” Julie said. “I’ll take Marama with me – she can get into places I can’t – but I’m afraid we’ll have to leave Ebona here. When do you want us to go?”

“As soon as we’ve told the others the plan,” Lydia said. “I want you back before curfew.”

 

***

 

“I’m not sure about this.” Karen eyed Julie suspiciously. “It sounds like a good plan, but I’m still not sure we can trust her.”

“I think we can,” Jason said. “Even if the unicorns hadn’t vouched for her, in all the time we were fighting against her and other dragon knights she never struck me as prone to treachery. And nothing I ever heard about Caroline Laverne said she was either.”

“Thank you.” Julie smiled at him.

Karen was still glowering at them but after a long moment she sighed. “You’re right of course, and we certainly can’t all go. There’s no way we’d avoid notice.” She rose to her feet and stalked over to Julie. “If anyone spots you or Dan, you’d better grab him and jump back here straight away.”

“Of course,” Julie said. “I was already intending to do that.” She smiled at Daniel. “Shall we go?”

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