by O. J. Lowe
Nobody in the group had gotten close to hitting it, the instructor overseeing it had made some notes and they’d never been invited back to try again. That was fine, nobody liked snipers or the idea of being killed from a thousand feet away by a foe they couldn’t see or hear. First impressions counted for a lot in Unisco training. He’d thought it strange at the time, just like the airloop thing. Later he’d realised, they wanted people who could instinctively grasp at something, natural talent they could develop. And apparently, his natural talent was to keep the peace amongst those who were meant to keep the peace themselves. He didn’t know what that said about him or what impressions he’d been giving off. Maybe keeping peace between Scott and Jess for all those months had rubbed off on him, playing peacemaker by stopping them from killing each other. Maybe. He’d never considered it that way before. Sometimes experience brought clarity.
“You understand we need to do what needs to be done,” Inquisitor Sweeney said. “We always do that. Nothing else. It’s our motto. Whatever it takes.”
Looking back at that day, only a matter of hours ago now, he could understand it. Whatever it took to get there. Now he had a goal, rather than a target of graduation, he’d found himself ready to dedicate himself to it. First though, the final test, the last practical. He and Theo had jumped from the aeroship first, airloop’s fastened across their upper bodies and he’d heard his heart hammering in his ears, fighting for supremacy with the roar of the air as they fell. A few thousand feet up, the city sprawling beneath them, once they hit the ground, they’d need to survive, evade the other team who were giving them a five-minute head start. Him and Theo against the rest of them.
Wouldn’t be easy, but he’d been assured countless times nothing worthwhile ever was. Theo had been his usual unflappable self while they’d been ready to jump, giving off the impression it didn’t bother him at all. Maybe it genuinely didn’t. As annoying as that smug sense of self-worth was, it was preferable to him flapping like crazy and panicking. He got the feeling Theo didn’t panic. He’d never seen it. Didn’t mean that he couldn’t be broken mentally. He wouldn’t have hit him with that bowl if he couldn’t. A real loose cannon, if things didn’t go his way.
There had to be more to him than that. Had to be. Either way, their test awaited, they had to work together to get this done. He looked down, saw the ground rushing towards them and he yanked his loop. He felt the electricity crackle through his cape-like coat, felt it stiffen and catch the breeze, wind whipping at his face, he squeezed his eyes shut. The first time he’d done this, terror had flooded through him. Now though, he liked it, felt the rush and he let out a cheer taking him by surprise. He hadn’t expected that. Pete could feel Theo’s eyes focused on him, drilling into his falling form like laser beams.
Then he heard the shout, a yell of shock that hit a crescendo into terror. Pete craned his head back, saw Theo clawing at his cape. What had he just been thinking about the lack of panic in him? Moving through air was hard, it was like swimming but without the water, no sort of forward propulsion and the idea of the ground coming ever closer was a touch distracting. “To me!” he yelled, his voice lost amid the roar of the air. He repeated it, kept his eyes on Theo as he tried to keep pushing himself forward to his partner. Theo had given up clawing at himself now, was scanning the ground, his eyes widening in fear. He knew he was going to die, for whatever reason his airloop wasn’t working and he knew that the end was near.
Not a chance!
Pete didn’t like him, he wouldn’t go out of his way to be nicer than he needed to with him, but he’d be damned if he was going to let him die on his watch without doing every little thing that he could to save him.
“Theo!”
He screamed it at the top of his lungs, wondered if some of it had gotten through. He thought he saw the other man’s head twitch in the breeze, just slightly in his direction. The urge to tug his own airloop ring was overpowering, he had to move his hand away from it, a definite no-no he’d been warned. You let go of it, you might not get hands on it again in time. If he slowed his fall, Theo would continue to move at the same speed, would hit the ground before he had the chance to catch him.
Instead, he aimed down, pointed his body like a missile and tried to get some leverage, kicking with his feet at an angle. He could feel water leaking from his eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks as he pushed and pushed, squeezing his eyes shut, didn’t want to look at the ground. It’d have them both shortly unless he pulled it out of his ass. He flailed about with his arms, allowed himself to peer through wet vision.
Close! So close. Theo had seen him now, was doing the same thing as he’d tried, his face still laced with the fear but at least he was fighting. Divines knew it was one thing Theobald Jameson could do when the cards were down, he could fight, and he wasn’t going to go down without one. Their hands were inches apart, their fingertips almost touching, the ground incoming and now they were in amongst the skyscrapers, could see the lights of the early morning traffic far below. If he didn’t pull it off, some commuter was going to have a truly horrific morning. A savage grin swept across his face, nothing like gallows humour to get the blood pumping. At times like this, a short fall could feel like a lifetime in a second. He kicked his legs, tensed his muscles against empty air, he felt Theo’s fingers graze his and he thrust his arm into them, caught each other in an embrace. His airloop kicked, he felt the electricity run through it, saw it in Theo’s hand. He’d found it! He’d bloody done the job for him and they’d slowed almost to a halt before starting the fall again.
By the time they kissed the ground, the final pull had snapped the string, propelling them the last few feet into an untidy heap, a jumble of arms and legs.
“Don’t ever tell anyone about what we just did,” Theo muttered, wriggling to dislodge himself. “I mean it, Jacobs. That was… My bastard loop snapped off when I went to pull it that first time.” He craned his head up at the aeroship high above them, waved his fist in anger. Pete fought the urge to smile as he picked himself up, dusted his legs off. They’d hit grass, damp with morning dew and he was glad for the chance to experience the soak stains across his clothes. Better than the alternative. “Sabotage!”
“Oh, grow up,” Pete said. “Got to test us somehow, don’t they?” He straightened his jacket, hadn’t had the chance to throw much else on over his black clothing, t-shirt and trousers. They looked like exactly what they were, trainee agents on an exercise. His jacket was the only thing covering the Unisco logo on the back, the unicorn head and horn he’d seen on the identification shields before. His jacket was black like the rest of the gear, it blended well. Theo’s was blue and purple, he looked a little out of place, like the kingdoms most pissed off jogger.
“I don’t call nearly killing us testing us, I call it sadism!”
“Hey, we didn’t die though, did we?” Pete said, shrugging his shoulders. “All about teamwork and that, I guess. We pushed through. You’re lucky I heard you shout, I’d hate to be having to try and scrape you off the ground right now.”
Theo scowled at him, his face temporarily flushed red with anger. It wasn’t a pleasant image, he had to admit. Maybe he’d pushed it too far with that comment, few people liked being reminded about their mortality and he doubted Theo was much different. Instead he was surprised as his partner offered him a hand, looked more than a little uncomfortable with it as his face returned to its normal colour.
“You can be a real pain in the ass sometimes, Jacobs,” Theo said. “You don’t know when to shut up, you don’t seem to have a filter in what passes for a brain. But…” He paused, shrugged his shoulders uneasily. The words looked like they tasted poisonous to him. “But, you saved my life up there. You didn’t have to. You could have let me drop. It might even have been easier for you to pass this whole thing on your own.”
“Doubt it,” Pete said. “Two against the rest of them isn’t exactly a fair fight. One would stand no chance.”
�
�Speak for yourself,” Theo said, that cold grin back with its obnoxious presence. He showed his teeth, hand still outheld. Pete made his choice, gripped it and moved to hug him. He felt the recoil, didn’t let him break away from it. He didn’t care how uncomfortable Theo was by it, he wasn’t going to let him forget this moment.
“I do,” he said, almost whispering it in his ear. “Believe me, I saved your life because I couldn’t picture myself letting you die. I risked my own life to make sure you carried on living yours. I could have hit the ground as well, you know. I joined Unisco to preserve life. Don’t think I forgot the bowl.”
He broke away, straightened the lapels of his jacket in what he hoped was a suitably intimidating look. In truth, Theo had probably been threatened more across family breakfasts, yet he still looked shaken up by the ordeal. This was probably the ideal time to make a point.
“I expect you to do the same now. Work with me. We can beat the rest of them. Hells, we’ll probably make top two in our class if we make it through this. Konda told me, they’ve never tested cadets the way they’re testing us. The teams are always equal. They made an example just for us.”
“They want us to fail, don’t they?” Theo said, some of the fire returning to his voice and Peter Jacobs had never been so glad to hear that level of condescending arrogance before. He grinned at him.
“Sure do,” he said. “You know what, partner? Let’s go disappoint them, shall we? Make them regret ever betting against us.”
The moments of doubt had gone, the fear and the uncertainty he’d seen since they’d hit the ground wiped from Theo in an instant. He looked ready to kill now, Pete thought, and he hoped he wouldn’t regret pushing him to this point. Last thing they needed was for another cadet to get seriously hurt because Theo lost the plot.
“Fuck yeah!”
Something hit the ground between them, tore out a chunk of concrete the size of an eyeball, Pete felt it bounce off his leg. Instinctively, they both stared to the sky, saw another streak of laser fire homing in on them and they moved simultaneously, throwing themselves aside. It hit the ground mere centimetres from its partner.
Some bastard was shooting at them. Live shots as well by the looks of it, he’d seen the weapons they used for training purposes and they didn’t leave gouges in solid concrete like that. Best case scenario, they were stun blasts. Wasn’t particularly better as an alternative to deadly force, both would leave them on the ground. At least though, they’d be able to eventually walk away from a stun blast. They’d fail the exercise though.
“Run!” Theo bellowed, Pete gave the sky one final glance as he stumbled to his feet, saw the outline of figures falling through the air. The rest of them were coming, three, four, five, six, seven he could see. Number eight had to be giving them covering fire. That was simultaneously worrying and a relief in Pete’s book. They didn’t have a decent sniper amongst them, probably the only reason they hadn’t been hit. Over three thousand feet from a hovering aeroship buffeted by wind…
Cheating bastards! They had to have had a professional Unisco sniper on that aeroship for a shot like that. Pete wasn’t an expert but there wasn’t a chance in any number of hells you could find of a trainee capable of shooting like that. Either way, it’d made the message clear. They needed to get clear and fast before they got company. Getting into a fist fight down here wouldn’t end well. It wouldn’t be the smart play. Neither he nor Theo had weapons, he didn’t doubt that the hunting team did. All it took was one of them to get lucky and land a stun blast to them while they were distracted, and it’d be over.
He didn’t know where they were running to, dipped back and let Theo take the lead. He looked like he had an idea where he was going, like he had a plan. That was a relief. Pete didn’t even know if he was sure which city they were in. They came on a fence, hurdled it with ease. They’d jumped bigger fences back in the academy for fun. A few people milled about, Burykians, all of them. He couldn’t see a single face drastically different to the rest of them. At least they hadn’t left Burykia then, they couldn’t be too far from Iaku. That made sense given their travel times. No way they’d go to another kingdom, not when Burykia had perfectly good urban environments of its own. Their cities were distinctive compared to those in other kingdoms, they had a real sense of development about them, like the architects had looked to the future and imagined what it’d look, then putting their own spin on it. Greeting the future right now and all that stuff. The traffic across the road was dense, thickly packed together, a hint of a thousand different fumes in the air, deadly sweet and noxious on the back of his throat. He fought the urge to shove his arm up against his mouth, wouldn’t do to stand out.
Looking around, he could see some pedestrians wore face masks, not the worst idea he’d ever seen for the health reasons, but neither he nor Theo had anything on them bar the clothes on their back. No credits. No weapons. Not even a summoner. They’d still not been given them back yet and that rankled. He hadn’t seen Mermari or Basil for too long. They couldn’t miss him, that’d imply a sentience long since lost but it didn’t change the fact he missed them. He knew there’d have to be some sacrifices made in the line of duty, this was one such sacrifice, didn’t mean that he had to like it. Just that it might be the first of many.
“That way,” Theo said, pointing ahead. They’d stopped running now they’d hit a civilian area, dropping to a brisk walking pace. Another thing he didn’t like. They needed to put as much distance between them and their pursuers as rapidly as possible but there was a way to do things. A running target caught the eye far more easily than a stationary one. Best they could do was walk quickly and keep their heads down, avoid catching the eyes of anyone close by. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it’d do.
Pete saw what he was pointing at, didn’t quite know what to make of it. A mag-rail station was a fine idea, at least it would have been if they had any means of accessing it. Most stations around the kingdoms were card operated to avoid letting the homeless have access to them. Especially in Burykia, they liked their stations clean and their vagrants out of both mind and sight. If they couldn’t be seen, then they weren’t a problem.
“I’ve got an idea,” Theo said. “Come on, we can do this. Trust me. Partner.”
Hearing him say it like that didn’t reassure him much, the word partner sounded alien coming from his mouth, he even saw the twitch as he said it in the corner of his eyes. Theo didn’t like the word either. He made it look dirty, soiled on his tongue. He’d always thought his partner would be a little more reassuring. It wasn’t like there were too many more options though.
“Okay, lead the way,” he said. “Partner.”
The crowds built up a little more, the closer they got to the station. They would, Pete supposed, people had places to be and jobs to get to. The trains were good, they’d been brought in to try and reduce speeder congestion, make the air cleaner to breathe, move a mass of people around in comfort and haste. Maybe all the boxes hadn’t been ticked all the time, but it was a better system than it had been when he was growing up. Back then, public transport both clean and efficient had been little more than a dream, a life where the dregs of society still saw the trains as their own personal bathroom, a place for them to sleep and harass the respectable on their way to work. His dad had always had harsh words about the way they moved from carriage to carriage, shuffling along and screaming angrily at people trying not to meet their eyes, trying not to think of them as people. John Jacobs wasn’t normally that sort of man, Pete had always found him kind and understanding, a lot more so than his mother’s first partner if the things he’d heard were anything to go by, a union that had produced Sharon and not much else. It wasn’t something that got discussed much at home, he couldn’t say he was surprised why, especially since what had happened to Sharon.
“Follow my lead,” Theo muttered out the corner of his mouth. Pete saw him edge his way through the crowd, sidling through the busiest throngs of people and he wondered
what he was up to. More than that, he drew a few dissatisfied looks from those around him, mutters of discontent.
If he hadn’t been part expecting it, part looking for it, he might never have seen his partner’s hand snake into pockets, checking for lapses in security. Fondling someone without them noticing was a tricky skill, even more so when it came to sneak something out of their person without them catching on. He wasn’t even sure they’d taught them this at the academy, doubtless it would be a handy skill in the field, but they’d elected to avoid it. Wherever he’d learned to do it, Theo hadn’t picked it up in any official way.
Seeing him come back with two tickets and a grin on his face, he wondered why he found it so surprising that he had a trick like that in his armoury. Everything about him spoke of troubled childhood. And what do children do when they’re troubled? They act up, break the rules, get away with what they can. They either grew out of it or they went further down the spiral into trouble. He still wasn’t sure which one Theo had moved into. Sometimes he looked like a reformed criminal trying to do good. Sometimes he looked like a barely functioning good guy trying to avoid bad. That first one may be harsh, he quickly realised, hating himself for thinking it even as the thought passed across his mind. Theo might be many things, but he’d never given off the impression that he was a truly bad guy. Not like his father. Pete had heard too many things about John Cyris over the years to not wonder about his son and where his loyalties lay.
