by Kal Spriggs
“When you put it like that...”
“Besides, the final exercise is something of a tradition. The first class, every year, try to build it bigger and more complex than the previous year. The funds are a tiny portion of what we have for general operations, and they manage that budget, it's part of their rating. Each class saves as much money from the training budget as they can for it.”
“Huh,” I said. That actually seemed pretty clever.
“Yeah, the Admiral set it up that way over a decade back,” Salter said. “So it gives the regimental staff more incentive to work hard and be tight on the funds they're given. Plus, we'll leave it up for the rest of the year. Cadets will use it for training and team building events. The one last year got used as a park... it was so cool we were all sad to see it go.”
“Okay,” I said, “well, I guess it all makes more sense.”
“Don't hesitate to ask questions, Armstrong,” Salter grinned. “And by the way, in case I hadn't said it yet... you're doing a good job.”
“I am?” I asked in surprise. I mean, I'd known I'd done alright, but any kind of praise caught me off guard. “Thanks.”
“I'll catch you later,” she said.
I was kind of shocked how well things were going. The candidates were doing well, I was doing well, and I was in a relationship... and that was going well.
It kind of made me worry when things would get bad again.
***
“All right,” Ashiri gave me a thumbs up as we gathered in the arena holding area. I couldn't help giving her a nervous grin.
“Listen up!” Cadet Lieutenant Webster shouted from near the door. We all turned to face him. He looked the most confident that I'd seen him, possibly ever. “The maze has three parts. Three rings, the central area will be the most heavily guarded. It's laid out to be confusing. Don't feel you have to beat the thing, you're just here to show the candidates what to do.”
“Sure,” Ashiri muttered from next to me, “that doesn't mean we don't want to beat it.”
Webster gave us all nods, “Go to your start positions. Oh, and draw your ammo,” he waved at the piles of loaded magazines, each one labeled with our names. “Good luck... but don't beat it too easily, this was about ten months of planning and work, okay?”
We laughed at that. In truth, I didn't plan on being able to get very far. I knew that, in theory, there were several different sets of lanes through the maze, but being unfamiliar, I probably wouldn't get very far. That wasn't what we were here to do, after all. We were here to give the first run of cadet candidates an idea of what they were supposed to be doing.
I went and drew my magazines, instinctively checking the top rounds in all of them. They were training rounds, but I had to fight the urge to unload and check the rest of the magazines. Don't be paranoid.
I went to my lane and waited. I couldn't see the viewing stands above me. I knew I'd be down below my candidates, I expected that they could see me and I thought I heard voices carry through the holographic field over us, but the field distorted the noise. Or maybe it was the maze, I wasn't certain.
Standing outside it, I didn't have that feeling of familiarity anymore. The crisp basalt blocks simply seemed ominous.
“Candidates!” I heard the Regimental Training Officer shout, “The course in front of you is the final exercise. It consists of three rings, each with increasing numbers of traps and enemies. You will compete against those enemies and each other to reach the central chamber! You will be graded on time to completion and how far along you get! Activating the lever at the center of the maze will end your time and award you full points!”
I knew what would come next. “Your Cadet Instructors will now demonstrate!”
A light blinked to tell me to move in. I entered the maze at a cautious pace, my eyes sweeping for threats. It was pitch dark black and I activated the light amplification on my helmet visor. Above me, I was sure the holographic projection would amplify light for the candidates so they'd be able to watch us move. On instinct, I turned down the noise canceling features on my helmet. If we were firing live rounds, that meant I'd damage my hearing, but we were using training rounds and I wanted to be able to hear if someone was sneaking up on me in the dark.
I found the first trap just a few meters inside, a trip wire that I cautiously stepped over, making certain there wasn't another trap beyond. As I went further down the corridor, I froze. Somehow I knew there would be another trap, something in the floor. I saw the edges of the basalt blocks in the floor looked a little too smooth and I poked at them with the barrel of my rifle. The blocks swung open, dropping into a deep shaft. Of course.
I bypassed a few more traps, spotting mines and trip wires, and somehow knowing where the deep pits would be. In fact, as I took turns, I started to feel as if I knew this place. It was hard to figure out where. The light-amplification made everything into shades of green and made it seem alien, but the turns and twists felt so familiar.
I left the first ring and moved into the second. There should be armed opposition at this point. I was proven right as I rounded a corner and, less than a few meters away, there was Thorpe from Ogre.
We brought our weapons up at the same time and I fired at his unprotected legs. His rounds struck my chest armor and I heard him swear as he fell. Got you, I thought to myself. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Ogre supplied the defenders for Sand Dragon's lanes. At least there wouldn't be any accusations of favoritism.
I continued on, slipping around the edges of an open pit, then crawling under a set of trip-wires set at various heights. In the dark, I should have been disoriented, but I felt like I knew exactly where I was going. In fact, if I was right, there would be a large chamber ahead, the perfect spot for an ambush...
I eased around the corner in a crouch, and then rolled into cover behind a basalt pillar. Just as I did, I heard shots echo through the chamber and I smiled, my caution had paid off.
I popped my head around the pillar down low. Another shot rang out and this time I caught a muzzle flash. The flash illuminated my opponent's face. It was Sashi Drien. Of course it is. The training round smacked into the basalt floor near me.
Upper gallery, I realized. It was a good spot for an ambush, a platform that ran along the back wall of the chamber. I didn't have any cover to get across the open ground. I didn't have a lot of options. Three shots fired so far, and I was certain if I stayed here too long, then support defenders would shift in my direction. I rolled to the far side of the pillar and fired in the general direction of where I thought my opponent was.
I froze, though, as my rifle fired a real bullet. The unmistakable crack of the round shocked me into stillness... and a moment after that my opponent fired a live round right back at me. The round struck me square in the chest and the heavy impact jolted me back into motion. I dove to the side as more shots rang out.
I didn't know if she knew we were firing live rounds at one another. The only reason I'd noticed was because I'd had my noise canceling tuned down in my helmet. She hadn't noticed the live rounds during the Grinder. She might not notice them now. She could shoot me, kill me, and she'd just think she was playing the game. Unless maybe she knows... I banished that thought. Sashi had betrayed me, but I didn't think she'd try to kill me, not for real.
That didn't leave me with many options. I couldn't trust my magazines. I cycled the action on my rifle and ejected a round. It was a real one. I worked the action and emptied the magazine. All of them were real rounds. All but the first three...
I pulled out my spare magazine and checked it. The first three rounds were training, below them, I saw a real round. I threw the magazine to the side and loaded the three training rounds into my rifle. My best bet was to just wait here. Surely someone would have heard the real shots and they'd call it, right?
Except the holograms were distorting the sounds, I remembered. They might muffle the gunfire enough that no one would know. I felt a chill as I realized th
at despite the fact that I was right in the middle of the entire school, none of them had any idea that my life was in danger. No one is coming to help me, I need to do this myself.
I felt like someone had replaced my blood with ice-water, but the strangest sense of relief washed over me. Here, it seemed, was the bad news at last. Things had been going so good over the past weeks that it felt good to know where the threat would come from.
I loaded the magazine with the three training rounds and took stock of the situation. Sashi Drien would have support coming soon. There were doors at either end of the chamber, which almost certainly led to other lanes. Her support would come from there. There was a chance that they only had training rounds, but I didn't want to count on that. My best bet was to get to the center. If I got there, it would end, and I could tell them what had happened.
But I had to get past Sashi, first.
***
I heard movement and the sound of footsteps and I knew I had to move.
I'd stopped wondering how I knew where things were. I rolled out of cover and then dashed across the chamber and into the shelter of another set of pillars. Gunfire cracked out at me and I heard the malignant whine of bullets ricocheting through the chamber. Please, I thought, someone please notice...
The pillar I hid behind was big, two meters across, carved of solid basalt. It was huge and comfortingly solid, especially seeing as Sashi was shooting live rounds at me.
I knew there'd be a set of stairs off in the darkest part of the room and I wasn't wrong. I ran up them and squeezed off a round at a dimly seen form in the shadows, the light amplification barely showing me the movement in time. One.
Bolander fell at my feet, a big welt on her throat from where I'd hit her. I spun and fired in the other direction and I heard Sashi swear and saw her duck back into cover. Two.
I had one round left. I cleared the stairs and took shelter behind a low stone block. On impulse, I shouted out to her, “Sashi, you've got live rounds!”
“Shut up, Jiden, I'm not listening to anything you have to say!”
“I'm not lying, someone set us up!” I snapped. In the hope that it would make her hesitate I bounded out of cover and rushed towards her. She leaned out and I was staring down the barrel of her rifle. I flinched as she squeezed the trigger.
The bullet caught me in the thigh and I gave a shout of pain as my leg went out from under me. I saw her freeze then. I didn't give her time to rethink and possibly kill me with the next shot, I fired at her... and my round struck her right on the side of her chest armor. That was my last round and I'd botched it.
“You faker!” Sashi snapped. She rushed forward, bringing her rifle up to fire at me from point blank. As the muzzle came in line with my face, the only thing I could think of was that maybe if I'd paid more attention in Commander Pannja's training, I wouldn't die.
I'm not going to die, I told myself. I swung my rifle into her stomach and as she doubled over, I swung the butt into the side of her helmet. Sashi crumpled to the ground. I levered myself up, leaning on the weapon. I had to get to the center chamber. I had to let people know that someone was trying to kill me.
But instead I fell down. The cool basalt of the floor felt good against my face. I'll just rest here a moment, I thought to myself.
Then the world went dark.
***
Chapter Twenty-One: Luck Is My Middle Name
“You're very lucky to be alive, young woman,” the female doctor told me for what seemed like the hundredth time. She also seemed to think it was somehow my fault that someone else had shot me. Then again, last time she saw me, it was because Sashi shot me in the face with a training round...
Maybe it was my fault, in a way.
I just lay there, trying to make sense of things. Soon enough, the Admiral showed up. She stood at the end of my bed, staring at me. “What a mess this is,” she said.
“Is anyone else hurt?” I asked. That had been my big worry, if someone else had live rounds, then one of the other runners could have been hurt or killed.
“No one else on the course was injured,” the Admiral answered. I caught the distinction right away.
My eyes widened, “Not one of the candidates...”
The Admiral closed her eyes and looked down. For the first time ever, she looked weary and sad. “Jiden...” To my surprise, she took a seat. “God, this isn't easy. I had to break the news to his mother a few minutes ago.”
“What happened, who...”
The Admiral looked up and met my gaze, “Cadet Lieutenant Webster was the architect of the maze. Not long after you were injured, someone noticed that he was missing. He was located in his room. He'd...” She looked away, “he took his own life.”
“What?” I stared at her in shock. “Why?” It didn't make any sense. This had nothing to do with him.
“We found drugs in his room,” the Admiral said softly. “We haven't finished testing his blood samples, but...” she shrugged, “Cadet Lieutenant Webster tested positive for Rex on his return from his summer assignment in Duncan City last year. I made the decision to set him back a year and give him the option to attend rehabilitation.”
“Rex?” I asked in shock. It was a drug, a dangerous drug, I knew. “But...”
“He took the punishment, he came back clean, but it seems the stress was too much for him,” the Admiral said. “And his assignment in Duncan City last summer was working in logistics for the military. He would have had access to alter logistic and maintenance records.”
My eyes went wide, “You think he was the one behind the other attempts on my life.”
“It seems possible,” the Admiral said, her lips pinched together in distaste. “I interviewed him, Jiden. I didn't think he had it in him, but the Militia's investigators have gone with it and they put together a pretty convincing case. The rounds in yours and Sashi's weapons were from the same lot of ammunition listed as 'disposed.' As a Training Officer, he could have slipped real rounds in the lot sent to Ogre. The launcher and the explosives used... he could have had access to those things, he would have known how to use them.”
“What was his assignment in Duncan City?” I asked, feeling hollow as I considered all that.
“He was assigned to the logistics department of Admiral Drien's staff,” the Admiral replied.
I looked up in surprise at that and the Admiral gave a slight shake of her head, as if to tell me not to ask. But I couldn't help but feel there was some kind of connection. But accusing an Admiral of some kind of ties to this... that seemed a little outside my league.
“Is there going to be some kind of service for him?” I asked.
The Admiral gave me an odd look. “All the evidence suggests he tried to kill you multiple times.”
I understood that, yet at the same time, all I could feel was pity for him if it was all true. All this time I'd thought I was facing some kind of evil mastermind... and it was just another cadet, one who was in over his head and didn't know what to do.
“He might have made some bad decisions,” I said, “but that doesn't necessarily mean he was a bad person.” It wasn't all of what I wanted to say, but it was the best I could manage.
The Admiral gave me a nod, “We'll have a service. He wasn't exactly popular and most of his friends graduated last year, but I'm sure there will be those who will wish to attend and pay their respects.”
“Does everyone know?” I asked, feeling sick to my stomach as I considered that.
“Yes, Jiden,” the Admiral said softly, “Most of the candidates are in the dark, we cleaned everything up and let them run the course once we confirmed there weren't any other lethal surprises, but the rest of the school and all the Militia either already knows, or will know over the next few weeks. It's bound to get to the media, too. Bad business.”
I nodded. I understood, now, why Webster had seemed to hate me so much. I thought about the school's memorial wall, “Will his name go up on the wall?”
The
Admiral's face hardened, “No, it won't. That's a wall for heroes, and whatever his reasons, Webster tried to kill a fellow cadet before he took his own life. Webster will get a memorial service, but he won't be buried with military honors and his name will not go up on the wall.” Her expression went bleak. “And it's my fault for not stopping him sooner.”
“Ma'am, you couldn't have noticed...”
She looked at me and she shook her head, “Jiden, I have this entire facility wired. I see when you and your boyfriend sneak away to kiss, I see when a candidate sneaks food in his room against regulations... I should have seen when Webster started taking drugs again. I should have caught him when he put live rounds in those magazines and I should have stopped him. I shouldn't have let him come back here. But I did... and that's on me.”
There wasn't anything I could say to that. The Admiral seemed to take Webster's actions personally, as if she could somehow have seen inside his head. I wanted to tell her that it wasn't her fault, but I didn't see a way to make her see it.
“Get better, Jiden. Fall semester starts in just another week,” the Admiral said as she stood up. “Now, I'm going to go. Your boyfriend has been wearing a hole in the waiting room floor.”
“He's not my...”
I didn't get the chance to finish as she left. For that matter, I wasn't really sure I wanted to finish that thought. I mean, I hadn't thought of Kyle as my boyfriend but...
The door opened and he hurried in. Before I knew what was going on he was bent over the bed, hugging me, “Oh, man, Jiden, you put a big scare in me!”
“Ow,” I managed to say. I was on some pretty good painkillers, but he was almost lifting me out of the bed and I had a big hole in my leg.
“Oh, sorry,” Kyle gently laid me back down. “Sorry, I just... when they pulled you out of there, you were so pale and there was blood... well, there was blood everywhere. I thought for sure you were dead.”
“I could do without too much description, thanks,” I replied.
