HUGE thanks out for the clarifications. and maps.
Mea Culpa on the misspelling of Birchwood.
Looking closer, he is not shaven, he has a light and light colored beard.
While on missions, my better half was required to dry shave with a knife. They are expected to maintain discipline, civility, military code of conduct and hygienge for health and psychological purposes. It also tactically helps them to become an invisible part of the populace, lost in a crowd. They also learn to take care of themselves and learn that they do not need modern conveniences to do so.
(I just got a whole lecture on the homeless and their habits. lol)
He felt Frein would do this to better blend in for escape purposes and that tactically he would have left the area some time ago. It would help him hide in plain sight. Every city has a homeless population, the invisible population that he could have disappeared into easily.
I gave him too much credit. Apparently playing soldier and survivalist left him skill-less in comparison to the real thing. If he couldn't hunt and fish, he could at least have had a cache of MREs.
Better half summarizes that it would be tactical and he overestimated him, however he was trained to overestimate rather than underestimate one's adversary. He also says this would have been taught in military tactics, procedures and history and supposedly he was educated in these.
Sorry for the long post.
moo
