They all agreed that he would have a better chance without a squad of guys at his back, so Tom headed for the special compound that served as a barracks cum laboratory for the Fort’s mages. The place had the best security on base, magical and otherwise. Unfortunately, the precautions were not taken just to protect the mages from outside dangers; some in the military did not approve of mages in uniform. It was well known that a sleeping mage was, more often than any other time, a defenseless mage, one with few defenses to detect or stop a fragmentation grenade. The result was that the mages lived in isolation. Tom didn’t think it was the best policy, but he had to concede that it was a reasonable precaution on the Army’s part until more of the population’s prejudice could be rooted out.