This should be good.I had a feeling she was about to suggest that she and Giovanna distract him with a threesome.
“We could honeypot him,” she said.
I knew it! Wait…what does it mean to honeypot someone?
“But I doubt that would work,” continued Isadora. “He seems to only have eyes for Raven.”
“So what do you suggest instead?” asked Tanner.
“Well…Giovanna and I have also been part of all nine battles this summer. And no disrespect, but I don’t think Diablo’s assessment is correct. In every instance, Cole has sent out half a dozen scouts. And their recon has dictated the rest of his battle plans. I believe he has three basic maneuvers.” She nodded to Giovanna.
Giovanna apparently knew what that meant, because she pulled a tube of lipstick out of her purse and drew a big red X on the map right in the center of our territory.
“Let’s say Cole’s scouts found us guarding our princess at that X,” continued Isadora. “He’d respond with Maneuver Alpha - a full-on assault.”
Giovanna drew a line of red Xs in Cole’s territory. “If, on the other hand, his scouts sawusplanning an offensive, he’d assume a defensive position and slaughter us as we entered his territory. Maneuver Beta.”
Finally, Isadora took the lipstick and drew a giant question mark. “And if we tried to hide our princess to buy us time to search for their princess, then Cole would revert to Maneuver Charlie in which he splits his team into search parties. On the three occasions when this has happened, they’ve found our princess before we could find theirs.”
I blinked my eyes. I hadnotbeen expecting such a nuanced assessment from Isadora and Giovanna. What had happened to the girls who loved taking group showers and flashing the entire camp?
“Which tactic would leave him most vulnerable?” asked Tanner.
Isadora took a moment to consider his question. “I think we’ve seen that all of those scenarios result in our destruction. So instead I propose we decorate the tree with false blossoms.”
“Huh?” I asked.
Isadora and Giovanna looked at me like I was so dumb.
“Decorate the tree with false blossoms. You know…from Sun Tzu’sArt of War.”
What the hell is that?
Tanner nodded. “Oh, that’s clever. You really think that will work?”
Isadora gave Tanner a wicked smile. “It’s worked for us before. The details are classified, but let’s just say that there’s a terrorist sitting in jail somewhere still trying to figure out how he hadn’t realized that the beggar on the side of the street was actually a female commando.”
Giovanna laughed. “That poor guy. I’ll never forget the look on his face when you tore off your wig and shoved your gun in his face.”
What?!“You two were special forces?”
“Yeah,” said Isadora as if it was totally normal.
Suddenly her in-depth assessment of Cole’s battle plans made a lot more sense.
“So how do we do this false blossom thing?” I asked.
“Well…that depends.” She turned to Nigel. “Could you sew up a second princess dress in the next hour?”
Nigel put his hand on his hip. “Was Adolf Hitler the most influential fashion icon of the 1940s?”
“Yes?” replied Isadora, sounding just as confused as I was.
“Damn right.” Nigel snapped and walked away.
“Does anyone know what just happened?” I asked.
Diablo looked at us like we were all idiots. “He said he’d do it. How was that not clear?”
