Lee waited for the young men to finish their introduction to John and while the latter was getting ready to answer their question started to spread the maps he had gotten from the library out on the ground. He'd marked in some of the highlights he remembered from his initial walk in the woods and had also marked some of the things Kara had observed.
John wanted to go north and Lee thought it best if he went in a direction he'd not been in yet. It was practical to get as many pairs of eyes over as much of the terrain as possible as each of them might see something different based on their previous experience.
He'd been pretty certain the three were military with the clothing they were wearing. The question to John about his rank was potentially confirmatory.
Knowing John currently outranked his most recent military rank he decided to cede leadership for the time being. Getting into a debate about rank at this point wasn't going to get them anywhere. He walked over to John and said quietly "You can tell them whatever you want about my rank. I've got the maps when everyone is ready. I'd recommend we all cover a direction we haven't gone in before. I came in from the north."