by Kal Spriggs
“Entrants, begin!”
The very first thing I did was raise my TBA-T and Sanjaya and Osmund followed suit. There were three starting platforms in our line of sight and on all three of them, entrants had already begun moving into the first obstacle, jumping from platform to platform. The jumps were long, the platforms were far apart and there were changes in gravity between gaps in the grav-plates. Most of those entrants doing the jumps took big, long predictable jumps.
Each of us aimed at a different team and we opened up. The TBA-T’s, or Training Tyvek Ballistic Autorifles, just fired pulses of lights that the other team’s suits picked up and translated as hits. For solid hits, that triggered an electric jolt designed to disable the appropriate body part or stun if it was considered a lethal hit. I picked off two of Iron Flight’s team before the third even noticed he was under fire. He’d landed on a big, empty platform, he didn’t have any cover and I shot him twice as he tried to decide whether to run or return fire.
I shifted over, checking to see if Sanjaya or Osmund needed help, but their targets were down as well. “Good job,” I noted. “Let’s go.”
We’d just took out nine of the competition, over half of them. There were only two teams left to even worry about, both of them on the other sides of the Gate.
There were some jeers and some shouts from the observers, but most of them were just watching. The last teams to run Tangun’s Gate were rarely expected to do anything interesting. I spun off part of my focus, keeping Prince Ladon under observation. His fists were clenched and if he could have volleyed lasers or missiles out of his eyes, I would have been a dead man.
We went through the jumping platforms quickly, then climbed a wall, then across a series of cables laid out like a spider-web. This was where I was having issues, because while I’d seen other teams run this, I hadn’t actually physically done it. Add to that how weak I was, and I was a sweating, exhausted mess as we finished those off… and we still had six more obstacles to go, each of them spiraling inward towards the Gate.
The next set was a series of narrow steel struts we had to run across. I made it, wavering at the last, but Sanjaya gave a shout as he lost his balance. Osmund caught him by the shoulder, but then he started to fall. I grabbed ahold of a stanchion and reached out, able to catch Osmund’s outstretched arm and bring them both to safety.
“Thanks,” Sanjaya breathed.
“Don’t mention it,” I gasped. I felt like I had nothing left. We still had five obstacles.
I staggered to my feet. “Let’s go.”
I tapped into the observation monitors as we went into the next obstacle. It was a pair of walls, about three meters apart. We had to put our feet against one wall and extend our exosuit’s arms to almost full extension to reach the other side and walk ourselves, pushing against both walls, with nothing but open space below us. One of the other teams was almost to the gate. The other had another two obstacles. We had to speed things up.
My arms were a trembling mess already, but I forced myself into a mechanical rhythm, foot and hand, foot and hand, muscling across the fifty meters and then collapsing on the far side. Sanjaya collapsed right on top of me, before I could even recover. Osmund collapsed on top of him. The pair of them helped me up and we went through a set of swinging bars, and then another set of jumps, these between moving platforms. Then, of all things, we had a series of gates we had to lift, one after the other, the last of them so heavy it took two of us to get it up.
The last obstacle was a simple ladder climb. But it was a hundred meters of curving, thin ladder that bounced and swayed under every movement.
And of course, we were only halfway across when I heard gunfire begin inside the gate. The other two teams had encountered one another. Unless we were really lucky, and they took each other out, then one of them was going to win and then they’d come to our side and pick us off while we were on the ladder.
I forced myself to move, climbing hand over hand, my arms screaming as the tired, atrophied muscles protested. I could hear the rattle of the TBA-T’s die down. Someone had won. We were running out of time. I reached up and caught the lip of the entrance and pulled myself up over the edge. I had a panicked moment where I lost my grip, my legs trailing out over nothingness, kicking frantically, before I caught hold again and pulled myself inside.
I didn’t have time to catch my breath. I sat up, bringing my TBA-T up, holding my position while first Sanjaya and then Osmund crawled through. I waited for them to stand before I even tried. My shaky legs took two attempts. “Ready?” I panted.
“Ready,” they chorused. We moved forward.
I’d never seen the inside of the Gate. Both of them had, but just as they’d said, it was something of a maze. All the walls and branches led inward, different ways joining up, different grav-fields aligning into one central chamber.
There were no monitors here. I couldn’t see where the enemy were. I moved across the doorway, panning the chamber, noticing a dozen or more big columns that could provide good cover and plenty of darkness for concealment. My exosuit’s sensors weren’t picking up any sounds or noises. If someone were there, they were waiting in ambush.
“Breach,” I snapped.
Sanjaya led the way in, flanked by Osmund and I.
Gunfire erupted from our flank and Sanjaya swore and then began to jerk as his Kavach exosuit administered jolts from hits. I spun, picking out an attacker and firing into him until he went down. Osmund picked of the second and then we spun back the other way, clearing the chamber. Sanjaya’s suit showed him as being incapacitated. As far as I knew, we were supposed to leave him here.
“Is that it?” I asked.
“Seems like it,” Osmund answered. He pointed at a platform at the center of the chamber. “If there’s no further opposition, we go stand on it and it lifts us to the top.
He and I stepped forward. The platform shifted underneath us. The ceiling opened up and then we stood on top of the gate. We’d won.
My monitor feed on Prince Ladon showed his face flush with rage. My heart bleeds for you.
***
Chapter 23: I Get Some Bad News
As I came back into the bay, I had barely shed my armor when I was surprised by, of all things, a hug.
Jonna caught me by both arms, pulling me close, “You stupid, idiot! We thought you were done for, don’t you ever scare me like that, again!”
I blinked in surprise, still thinking through the Tangun’s Gate fight. “What? The fight? That wasn’t so bad.”
“No, you idiot, your withdrawal,” She pushed me back and stared at me incredulously, “You looked like a scarecrow. For that matter, you still look like a scarecrow. You weren’t coming around. Dekkas Richardson even called for a medic, finally, just to see if it would help, even if it meant having to get you back on quick heal.”
She shook her head, “The medic said it wasn’t worth it.”
“Well, I guess he was wrong,” I told her. “But here I am.”
“You look like ghossa. And you barely made it through those obstacles,” Jonna told me. She clapped me on the shoulder. “Good job, anyway.”
“Thanks,” I told her. Then, before I could stop her, she hugged me again. I awkwardly hugged her back. With how heightened all of my senses were, I couldn’t help but notice the feel of her body pressed against mine. It felt good. I had to cut those sensations off, though. It was too much, too fast. I pushed her gently away. I saw an expression of hurt go across her face, “Seriously, thank you. I’m just sore enough that I kind of need some time to recover, you know?”
Jonna flushed, “Oh, right. Yeah, sorry. Talk to me when you feel a bit better, okay?”
“Sure thing,” I told her. I went over to my bunk. Kiyu was seated on hers. She didn’t rise as I came up. “Hey,” I said. Smooth, I told myself.
“Hello,” Kiyu answered. “You finished adequately well. I would caution you, though, that attacking your opponents at the beginning sets a dangerou
s precedent. Other teams will now do so to prevent similar advantages.”
I somehow knew that she was reviewing feeds from my run. And from more than one angle. There was something so similar to her expression as the one I felt when I was splitting my focus. She has a Tier Three or higher implant. It made sense. The Imperial Family had access to all manner of fancy tech, why wouldn’t they make sure they had the best toys?
“I figured,” I told her. I wondered, then, about some of her behavior. How often had she been tapping into different feeds, splitting her attention among a dozen or more different things? I know from personal experience, that doesn’t make you superhuman, just able to multitask. It doesn’t make you smarter, it just speeds up the pace at which you assimilate data and make decisions… sometimes to make bad decisions.
“I’m in bad enough shape that I needed to get an advantage early on, so Osmund, Sanjaya, and I planned to take down competition so that we could focus on the obstacles themselves.”
“A tactical plan,” she looked over at me, “one might say lacking in strategic depth, but you had to get through the first round to move on. We’ll see how it impacts the second round.”
“Yeah.” Five out of six teams had been eliminated. Round one had lasted almost three weeks. I’d been down for almost all of that, first sick and then while Shadow had been fixing me. Round two was going to go much more quickly, probably only four or five days. I couldn’t count on being last rotation for that. They wouldn’t give us any kind of leeway for me being sick, not for this round.
That meant I couldn’t rely on a gimmick to get me into the next round.
“Were you worried about me?” I asked on impulse.
Kiyu looked over at me, her green eyes inquisitive. “Yes. In fact, I’d mourned your presumed death. But here you are… apparently.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked.
Kiyu stood up from her bunk, “There is a story among my House, about a young girl who fell down a deep well. She cried and cried, but no one came to rescue her. She cried some more, until she was so weak that she couldn’t shed tears.”
I crossed my arms, not really sure where this was going.
“A spirit came to the young girl, it offered to save her, for a small price, and she accepted his help. He lifted her up out of the well. Her family rejoiced when they found her alive. They welcomed her back, all but her grandmother, who said that life isn’t returned without a cost.” Kiyu looked back at me. “That night, when the entire house was asleep, the young girl went to the kitchen, took a knife, and slit the throats of her entire family. She killed them all. For the price that the spirit had asked for was her soul and he filled her body with darkness.”
I stared at her, “That’s pretty horrifying. Please tell me your parents didn’t tell you that story before bedtime?”
She walked away without responding.
***
I wasn’t all that surprised when two Intelligence officers arrived and escorted me to see Institor Dyer the next morning. They didn’t cuff me, so I took that as a positive sign, anyway. The interrogation room was almost a familiar place as I took a seat. I could feel the various sensors and lie detectors aimed at me. With the quicksilver piped through my entire body, I could also control a lot of my own reactions. I could slow my heart rate, I could dilate my pupils, I could control whether or not I sweated.
I didn’t know if I could fool those devices, but it was nice to have the option to at least try.
“Entrant Vars, you never cease to surprise, do you?” Institor Dyer shook his head, coming in from the door behind me. I started to rise but he waved a hand, “No, no, sit, no need for formalities.”
That made me nervous. He liked keeping me off-guard. This joviality, that scared me more than a stern, hostile expression. He had something, or thought he did. He had leverage.
“I have to admit, you’ve made a marvelous recovery. You had one of the worst reactions to quick heal withdrawal. Very severe, almost as if you’d been on higher than normal doses. Most peculiar,” he told me, cocking his head as he studied my expression.
“I’m very lucky to be alive,” I told him, quite honestly. I was lucky that my sister had a digital twin and I was lucky she’d figured out an option. I was also very lucky that it had worked.
His jovial smile flickered ever so slightly, “Yes, quite. I’ll have to admit, I was half-convinced that the medic had disobeyed Prince Ladon’s order and given you a dose of quick heal. But your blood tests came back negative for that.”
I didn’t ask where he’d gotten a blood sample. I certainly didn’t remember giving one, not since I’d awoken, yesterday. With how my body was wired up, I didn’t think it would be possible for them to take a sample without me noticing.
“Quite an amazing recovery,” Dyer leaned forward, “I should see if whoever helped you also does children’s parties. My daughter would love to see some tricks like that.”
“Sir,” I answered, not really sure what else to say.
Dyer seemed a little disappointed that I didn’t reply. “Well, in any case. Congratulations as well on your success in the first round. It was quite the interesting reaction when you emerged there at the beginning. Prince Ladon was very excited to see you.”
I swallowed, “I guess I disappointed him by surviving?”
“Oh, yes. Very much so. When you emerged from the top of the Gate, I almost though he’d suffered a stroke. His father, too, is… hmmm, irritated is too mild a word,” Institor Dyer chuckled. “He actually came to me and broached the subject of having you summarily executed.”
Control over my body or not, I stopped breathing. I forced myself to take a breath, to force out the words, “Are you going to do that, sir?”
Dyer’s smirk told me that had been the reaction he had wanted. “I’ll tell you what I told him. Imperial Intelligence is not a group of thugs and assassins,” His voice went hard and his smirk vanished, replaced by an expression of cold determination. “We sniff out threats to the Empire: traitors, infiltrators, and the corrupt. We are outside the normal chain of command because we cannot be caught up in the politics that many officers find themselves caught up in.”
I let out a slight sigh of relief.
“Which isn’t to say I don’t have an interest in you, Vars. There are just too many hanging questions. Too many convenient results. Your developing friendship with the heir of House Hayden. Your friendship with Princess Kiyu. The way that you naturally build teams and trust within your flight, in spite of your reputation as a pirate thug. It’s all very interesting, Vars. A puzzle, if you will… and I do so love solving puzzles.”
“I’ll answer any questions you have of me, sir,” I told him. “But I have not ulterior motives for working with Princess Kiyu or Entrant Hayden. They’re in my flight, I trust them. I’m not trying to manipulate or use them.”
“That, Vars, is the part that I find most unbelievable, and yet every observation and all the Empire’s very best lie detectors confirm that you believe it,” Dyer made a face. “Which, given some of the threats I’m focused on, only makes you more suspect, in some regards.”
My throat constricted and the cold, calculating part of my brain wondered if I could make a move fast enough to try and get his pistol if he went to draw it. I felt that my reflexes were faster. But even if I did that, I didn’t know if I was strong enough to get it out of his hands. Even if I did, what then?
He went on, “But let’s not talk about my many concerns, Vars, let’s talk about your future.”
“Sir?” I asked.
“I’m talking about sponsors, Vars. You put yourself up as a… free agent, of sorts, when you didn’t take the offers from Entrants Hayden and Kiyu. Should you do well in the second round, well, there will begin to be offers from initiates and even officers. I think you’re on track to do that. You’re clever, as I said before. You have drive and capabilities.” He sat back. “In case you didn’t notice, Vars, I’m making you an offe
r.”
“Sponsorship?” I asked, my eyebrows going up.
“A spot in Imperial Intelligence,” he told me.
I stared at him. That was one of the last things I would have expected. “Do you mean as an informant, sir?”
“No, Vars, I mean as a full member. You’d be expected to act as an informant, for now. But upon graduation from the Institute, you would be inducted into the officer corps of Intelligence. Your first assignments would be to monitor and investigate corruption, deception, and treason here in the Empire. Maybe even to serve as an infiltrator in other nations.”
I couldn’t help but perk up at that. If I got an assignment to infiltrate somewhere else, somewhere outside of Drakkus, then it would be an easy enough matter to then escape, to go home. But I hesitated. “What would you want of me, sir?”
“Ah, clever, Vars. Clever enough to see that nothing is without a cost,” he smirked at me. “Intelligence values loyalty above all. Loyalty to the Empire above any individual.” He cocked his head at me. “The situation in Jade Flight has the potential to cause instability. You’ve embarrassed Prince Ladon and by extension, his father, Crown Prince Abrasax. In the process, you’ve made Entrant Hayden look strong and capable, which reminds people that her father was one of the Empire’s most respected officers.”
I felt my stomach sink as he went on, “Princess Kiyu, daughter to Prince Ladon, has also been made to look strong. As Prince Ladon’s influence wanes, hers has waxed. The result is that Prince Ladon has taken more and more extreme view on how to deal with this problem. He needs to be reassured of his position. Princess Kiyu needs to be brought down a bit.”
“And Entrant Hayden?”
He sighed, “I really don’t dislike the girl, Vars. She’s hard working, clever, and she’s clearly dedicated to the Empire. But if she’s allowed to continue to increase in respect, the Imperial Family will almost definitely take covert, or even overt, actions to make her go away. Given some of her ties and connections, that might well erupt into open fighting. Civil war is exactly the kind of thing that I don’t like, Vars.”
