by Terry Mixon
She sighed. She was just going to have to accept aid from a source that she didn’t want to even speak to. She had no doubt that their help would come with a price, but sadly for her, it was a price she was going to have to pay.
Fei brought up the file that had been attached to the message from Still Water. It galled her to have to approach Imperial Intelligence for any kind of assistance whatsoever, but if anyone would have the type of equipment that she needed, it was them. They were, after all, spies.
She input the code into her desk before she could change her mind. Even at this late hour, somebody picked up on the other end on the first ring. They only answered with voice.
“Go.”
“I need some equipment,” Fei said without identifying herself. “Authorization code Zeta Charlie Bravo Epsilon Mouse.”
“Hold one… Authorization confirmed. Stand by while I forward your call.”
She frowned. Forwarded her call to who? She’d just called Imperial Intelligence. Who were they calling?
The channel was clear for almost three minutes before the vid screen came to life with an image so surprising that she jerked back in shock. Grinning at her while wearing a shirt of eye-searing yellow flowers was Riggio Gomez.
“Sergeant… No, Lieutenant Na. This is an unexpected pleasure. What can I do for you?”
“Riggio? What the hell are you doing on New Dallas?”
“I live here. I retired here to be near my parents after… everything. I gotta say that I’m a hell of a lot more surprised to see you here and back in uniform.
“Still, this probably isn’t the most secure way of catching up. What do you need that I can help you with?”
“High-end surveillance equipment that isn’t patched into the main grid. Stuff that won’t be found unless someone is looking really closely. Not the kind of thing that a civilian can get their hands on.”
He scratched his chin, still smiling. “You called Imperial Intelligence to get connected to me. Who does that suggest I’m working for?”
“Really? You went to work for them?”
“Only as a tech guy. I leave the spy crap to those with the right kind of personality. On the plus side, I can get what you need, and my supervisor told me that you have carte blanche. If you need it, I can provide it.
“And, for your peace of mind, I’ll report solely to you for the next twelve weeks. Imperial Intelligence will only hear from me if I need something, and they don’t get to dictate my actions. It’s like old times. You get to call the shots, and I’ll make the magic happen.”
Fei wasn’t sure how much of that she should believe, but this was Riggio. They’d bled together and almost died together. Better yet, he liked Andrea.
“I can’t imagine your presence here—and mine—is coincidental,” she said after a few seconds. “Strangely enough, your sister is a drill instructor in my unit, which screams intent. Someone is playing a game of some kind. Are you really on my side?”
His expression was deadly serious. “I figure I owe you and Lieutenant Tolliver my life. That doesn’t even count my share of the haul, which set me up for life and lets me do great things for my family.
“For the next twelve weeks, I’m your Huckleberry. I hadn’t heard that my sister was involved in anything, though I knew she was on the base. Since she’s a drill instructor, I can guess why you’re here. Is Andrea really that old now? I guess so.
“I owe her some too. She betrayed her people to save us, and I’ll damned well give her my all. I’m your man. One hundred percent. Tell me what you need, and I’ll make the magic happen.”
She briefly wondered if she could believe him but decided that was being idiotic. She’d known and worked with Riggio for years. If he said that he was on her side, he was.
Besides, she was out of options.
“I need surveillance gear to keep watch over a barracks and all of the approaches to it so that I can have continuous coverage of both the inside and the outside without anyone knowing that they’re under surveillance. This has to be with the assumption that somebody is going to be looking for the vid cameras and bypassing the official feeds.”
“I can get you that equipment tonight if you need it.”
Fei considered that. The late hour meant that very few people were awake, and she could spend the hours of darkness planting the vid cameras around the barracks. That would give her a backup monitoring system in place before the enemy was likely to strike.
“I’m on the marine base. Am I going to need to meet you somewhere else?”
Riggio laughed. “No. Tell me where, and I’ll be there in an hour.”
“225th Training Battalion, Bravo Company, First Platoon. For God’s sake, wear something that blends in.”
He laughed. “I can be subtle. See you shortly, Sarge. It’s good to be working with you again. I’ve missed that.”
“Me too. See you on the parade ground in an hour.”
Fei killed the channel and turned her attention to creating a more detailed map of the area around the barracks, noting which areas of approach would be best monitored and which ones would be covered from multiple angles. Riggio could double-check her work when he got here.
Depth of coverage was going to be critical. If an approach was only visible to one camera, it might be vulnerable to being spoofed. If all the approaches were covered by multiple cameras, even if some of them were discovered and neutralized, there was a good chance that word would still get to her if anyone tried to breach the perimeter.
She spent about forty-five minutes working before she rose to her feet and started out toward the parade ground. It was time to meet an old friend.
Page managed a few hours of sleep and felt refreshed when he woke the next morning. That might have had something to do with the fact that he’d slept in till 0700. Luxury.
He dressed, went to the mess hall, and had an actual meal before returning to the barracks to meet with the recruits. They’d already been up to the pit, so they’d just finished cleaning up when he arrived.
Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t be going to the confidence course until the second week, but it was within his purview to shake up the schedule.
And he wanted to. He needed to see exactly what Tolliver was bringing to the table and determine how clever she was. To a lesser extent, he wanted to know what her bunkmate was like.
The same was true of Claudio Baker and his bunkmate, Justin “JR” Handley. He’d already decided to tap Handley to be Baker’s partner on the confidence course. Sending anyone to do the obstacles alone was just asking for trouble.
He wanted to set up a rivalry between Tolliver and Baker. Once that was going, he’d control its intensity to keep them poking at one another and get the platoon operating at a higher level than they might otherwise be inclined to. He’d have to keep a very close eye on everything to make sure that things didn’t escalate too far, though.
The recruits were busy getting their bunks made when he walked into the barracks. “Morning, recruits! I hope you’re ready for a march. You’ve got three minutes to be finished making your bunks and lined up outside. Move!”
That set off a flurry of activity behind him as he walked back out to where the lines were painted on the ground. A few people were right behind him, but most minutes later. The last recruit hit the line thirty seconds after the deadline.
“Pathetic! Everyone drop and give me thirty.”
They’d eventually learn to move faster, but that would take them a few days if history was any indicator.
Once they’d completed the push-ups, some of them needing to be yelled at by one of the other drill instructors for flawed form, he got them back on their feet.
“You recruits continue to disappoint me,” he said, his hands on his hips. “You have got to pick up what we’re doing faster and be more on the bounce. It may not seem like it right now, but we’re giving you extra time. By next week, you’d better be finished getting your bunks and lockers s
et up before one of the drill instructors arrives, or there’s going to be trouble. Pick up the pace, recruits!
“Now, I hope all of you are ready for a nice road march. The confidence course isn’t too far away, but it’ll give you some practice moving in formation and keeping time. Marching is one of those fundamentals that every marine needs to understand at a cellular level, so pay attention.
“You may not know this, but marines love to run, and marching is the foundation for running as a unit. By the time you’re done with basic training, you’re going to have learned that you can run a lot farther than you’d have ever thought possible.
“Now, let’s get a move on. Right face!”
Once everyone was turned, he got them marching down the road. He then began educating them about cadences. Cadences were ditties that helped them focus on their timing and improved their breathing because they had to sing along.
Many were also crude and generally unacceptable in polite company. Yet their history was so ingrained into a tradition that no one would dream of changing them. It was merely the way things were done.
Another benefit of singing together was that it built a sense that the platoon was a single entity in their minds. Each little bit of that the drill instructors could do to drive that point home was helpful.
It took them roughly half an hour to march to their destination. The course was positioned near the barracks because every training platoon would be using it at one time or another.
There were places on the base that they’d be marching to that were many kilometers distant, usually up and down steep hills and through brush that would be challenging to get through even for a trained marine, but that was for later.
He’d made sure that no one was scheduled to use the confidence course this morning. A combat team was scheduled to use the obstacle course in the afternoon, but the platoon would be gone by then.
He stopped the recruits and turned them to face him with the first of the confidence course obstacles behind him. It looked like a ladder built on a gigantic scale and then propped up so that it was on a gentle slope.
Only looks could be deceiving. The ladder-like surface was three meters wide to allow more than one recruit on it at a time and was more than stout enough to support the weight of many recruits.
The obstacle’s apex was about four meters off the ground, which was covered in sawdust and had a few safety pads to prevent injuries when someone fell. The logs that made up the “steps” on the six-meter length of the ladder angling up to the apex were slightly more than half a meter apart. The same was true on the descending side.
Honestly, it had always looked like a squat tent to him. It was a significant first step in building a recruit’s confidence in their physical abilities, but there were many more that followed it. Together, they could intimidate the uninitiated.
“Listen up, recruits,” he said, half turning to face the obstacle. “This is the Weaver. We call it that because you have to climb up one side and down the other by weaving your bodies between the logs, over one and under the next.
“The gaps average just over half a meter, but there are a few places where the gap is significantly wider. Those spots might require someone helping you. Or not, if you’re that good.
“See how the side logs are painted red? Touching red will disqualify you, and you’ll have to start the obstacle over. The posts holding up the apex are also red, you’ll note. Stick to the center of the span, and you’ll be fine.
“The confidence course is meant to drive home how essential teamwork is and also reveal personal limitations that you might not be aware of. Trust me when I say that we all have them and that being a marine means covering for your fellow marines.
“Today, I’m going to send Recruits Tolliver and Randall against Recruits Baker and Handley. We’ll use three obstacles as a test. Whoever wins two out of three will get a reward. Those who fail will be punished.
“You see, when you make a point of going after your fellow recruits, you’d better have what it takes to back it up. If you don’t, there will always be a price to be paid. Do you understand me?”
The platoon sounded off in unison. “Yes, Drill Instructor!”
“Excellent. Then let’s be about it.”
18
Andrea eyed the Weaver and started calculating the best way to handle it. They hadn’t made her put on any of the damned weights this morning, so she’d be allowed to run the obstacles without them. That was going to give her a significant advantage.
Part of her wondered if that was intentional. Was Drill Instructor Page trying to make a point about her? If so, what was the message? That she was a badass?
That was probably true compared to the other recruits, but what good would that kind of messaging do them?
Then again, she supposed his reasoning really didn’t matter. She needed to win this competition, and the key thing to remember wasn’t her strengths. Instead, she needed to compensate for her partner.
While Diana was physically fit, she didn’t have the same muscle density as the boys or Andrea. She’d have to work harder than the rest to achieve the same results.
Of their opponents, Claudio was the most buff. Handley wasn’t out of shape; he just wasn’t in as good a condition as the jerk. Still, he’d have an advantage over Diana. JR and Claudio were going to be a challenge for the girls to overcome, and she’d just have to make it work.
To do that, she needed to improve Diana’s chances. The only way she could see to do that was to work her way through the obstacle in front of Diana and use her greater strength to help her.
That wasn’t meant to be an insult to her bunkmate. None of them had any experience running these obstacles, so being hesitant was natural. She expected her own performance would improve with time and experience.
Only this first time, they had to be better than the boys.
Drill Instructor Page stepped over to the front of the obstacle. “As you can see, it’s wide enough for all four of you to go up at the same time. Here are the rules. You go over one log and then under the next until you reach the top. If you go over the top of the first log in the sequence, that means that when you reach the top, you’ll need to go over the apex.
“Don’t get yourself out of order, or you’re going to have to try to go underneath the apex log, and that means that you’re going to fall. There’s padding underneath the apex to help mitigate some of that and sawdust in the other areas. The sawdust won’t be that big a help, so my advice to you is to hang on.
“You’re allowed to help your partner and hinder your opponents, but you cannot touch any of the logs that are marked in red. If you do, I’ll call you out, and you’ll have to drop off the obstacle and start again.
“The winner of this obstacle will be the first team that gets both of its members down the other side successfully. Now, get into position and wait for my signal to begin.”
Andrea stepped over to the left side of the obstacle’s front and spoke softly to Diana. “Follow me up and be ready to take my hand if you run into trouble. Our best option is to get as much of a lead as we can on these two. If they get in front of us, they’re going to win.
“We can use my greater strength to offset that some, but you’re going to have to move as quickly as possible.”
Her friend nodded, and they set themselves up to begin.
Claudio and JR took up positions on the right side of the entrance. The big boy grinned at them.
“I hope you girls are ready to get stomped because this isn’t going to be pleasant. At least not for you.”
“Whatever you say, Tiny,” Diana said smugly. “Let’s hope you’re big enough to reach between those logs. We wouldn’t want to see you fall short. Again.”
The boy’s grin turned into an angry snarl just as Drill Instructor Page yelled at them to begin.
Andrea lost no time heaving herself over the first log and under the one just past it, flipping over in the process so that she c
ould move more quickly while still getting her arms on the next log beyond.
The process wasn’t too tricky, as the logs were close together, but she knew that there was a gap farther along that would make getting between them more difficult. She’d have to keep that firmly in mind so that it didn’t surprise her when she reached it.
Just as she wormed her way around the second log, she could see that Diana was struggling slightly to get past the first one, so she reached back and lent her friend her strength. She was able to use her leverage to pull the other girl up and around even as she swung her legs free.
The maneuver almost made Diana fall. If she had, there was an excellent chance that she’d have yanked Andrea with her. They’d gotten lucky this time. She’d have to pay better attention going forward.
Claudio and JR were making decent time, but the obstacle was just as unfamiliar to them as it was to the girls. To her relief, it was causing them some grief too. JR seemed to be having difficulty understanding how to correctly weave between the logs and fell as he tried to maneuver past the second one.
Not only did he come loose, but he also grabbed the red log on the side, thus doubly disqualifying himself even before Drill Instructor Page yelled at him to start over.
The boy snarled and turned around to head back to the beginning of the obstacle. While it no doubt annoyed him, at least he didn’t have to make up very much. Falling at the top or on the second half would’ve meant having to make up a lot more time.
Something that would be good for her to keep in mind.
With Andrea helping Diana move, they were doing almost as well as Claudio. He was starting to worm his way slightly ahead of them, but that wasn’t going to matter so long as they could beat JR. This was a team exercise, after all.
When they reached the broader gap between the logs, Andrea reached over and locked her arm around the far log before using her greater body strength to lock her legs under the log behind them. That turned her into a human bridge that Diana could use to get across the gap.
