“He’s seeing another woman, isn’t he?” Kayla said in anger, hoping that her acting ability was as good as she imagined. “I can tell. Go on—deny it.”

“Who do you think you’re trying to fool, lady?” said the second man behind her. “I’ve never seen anyone run that fast and vault up a wall like that. You think we’re going to believe you’re just some obsessed stalker?”

The first man raised an eyebrow. “I’ve heard stories. We all have. Young women, freakishly strong, getting in people’s business.” A car sped past the intersection ahead, but he ignored it. “We’re just going to stay here, nice and calm, until our ride shows up. Then you’re coming with us and answering some questions. Get it?”

Kayla had heard enough Earth accents in her time at Madam Georgia’s, and both men spoke like natives. She’d be lucky if they didn’t take her off-world to dissect, and then the entire Helvetic military would become aware of Valkyrie’s secrets. There was no way she could let that happen. She’d have to watch carefully for the slightest chance to escape, though the two soldiers were still keeping their distance, guns ready. They obviously weren’t fools.

Unlike herself, she thought, as she regretted her choices that day.

“Hey, who’s that?” one of the men yelled suddenly as he whirled around.

There was movement down the street. Two women with guns drawn dodged between parked cars. Kayla dropped as gunshots cracked through the air. Both men fell to the pavement, a cluster of bullet holes in their chests. After a long moment, Kayla carefully raised her head, and saw Masey Laukkanen, together with a woman she did not recognize, standing over her.

Masey’s face was twisted into a sneer. “I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt, Private Barnes,” she said, almost spitting the rank. “I’m going to assume that we are close to your home, and that a pair of Helvet Special Forces soldiers had a moment of total professional incompetence when they took a fancy to you.”

Her expression indicated that she didn’t believe that for a second, and that her wrath for Kayla would be terrible.

“Um… Not exactly,” Kayla said in a small voice. The shock of so much violence left her shaken. Maybe she would have been better off getting kidnapped.

A battered old sedan drew up and stopped in the road.

“Grab him,” Masey said, pointing to one of the bodies.

Kayla pulled the dead man up onto her shoulder. She noted, with a shiver, the glazed eyes of the first person who had died as a result of her decisions. Masey’s partner dropped the other body in the trunk of the car, and Kayla did likewise, before getting into a passenger seat.

“Keep off the main roads,” Masey cautioned the driver.

Nobody spoke to Kayla as they drove off, and she didn’t think it wise to try and make excuses. She sat in silence for more than an hour, wondering if she was about to get kicked out of Valkyrie and lose the incredible life she had briefly achieved.

Eventually, they pulled into the depot of a small taxi company. The place looked deserted but for a few non-descript vehicles. Several of the offices looking onto the main garage had their windows blacked out.

When Kayla got out of the car, the driver emerged, and she saw with a shock that it was Christie.

“Chris—” Kayla began, but her friend only smiled sadly, and shook her head.

She followed Masey into a canteen, where a group of women were waiting with grave expressions on their faces.

“Sit!” Masey ordered, pointing to a wooden chair.

Kayla did so. Concerned looks turned to muted anger as the others in the room picked up on Masey’s mood.

“Kayla,” Masey said sharply, “these women are from Orbital Demolition Team Four. Would you kindly explain to them why you felt it necessary to piss away their months of hard work in Rackeye?”

Kayla’s throat was so dry, she wasn’t even sure if she could talk. A dozen pairs of eyes were fixed on her, most now bearing expressions of anger or contempt. She had never been so terrified in her life.

She tried to speak as contritely as she could. “Uh… Masey, I—”

“Senior Chief Laukkanen!” Masey snapped.

“Senior Chief, uh, I was attempting to follow those men because they had attempted to kidnap me in the university. I uh… think I may have gained a lead on what’s causing the animal attacks here.” Kayla was certain nobody would believe her, but she didn’t even have the wit to lie anymore.

“Hey, Zhang, get in here,” Masey called.

After a short pause, Jiao Zhang entered the room. Kayla looked down. As If she needed anyone else to witness her humiliation.

“Zhang, you didn’t tell me you had another member of your team on the ground?” Masey said in a sarcastic tone.

“Why would you think I had another team member?” Zhang countered, her voice neutral.

“It’s the only explanation!” Masey insisted. “Because I could not possibly be hearing that the most promising young Ranger graduate this year would throw her career away, being so much of a senseless infantile airhead, that she thought she could tail two professional soldiers while she’s off on her weekend leave. Right?”

“That is an astute conclusion,” Zhang replied.

Kayla kept her eyes on the ground, fighting the urge to cry. She was certain she was going to be driven out of the organization in shame, to spend the rest of her life cleaning some Helvet family’s bathrooms.

“Six months, we’ve been watching these guys!” Masey yelled. “Quietly building up profiles, tracking their movements, mapping their safe houses. And now they will go to ground, change everything up, and avoid any young woman like the plague, because you just forced us to kill two of their comrades. And absolutely none of this is going to tell us anything about the animal attacks! You stupid, ignorant little girl!” Masey smashed a coffee machine into the wall.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Kayla flinched. “I’m sorry—”

“Sorry? Who cares if you’re sorry? Does that get our operation back?” Masey clutched her forehead. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“They took my friend—”

“Oh, they took your friend!” Masey leaned down until she was inches from Kayla’s face. “I don’t care if your friend is lying dead in a dumpster somewhere,” she hissed. “There is a Helvet Special Forces unit in Rackeye, in the company of a known serial killer, and they have likely kidnapped dozens of people in the last year! Do you have any idea what that means?”

Kayla didn’t say anything while she focused on trying to stop her whole body from trembling.

Masey stood up and looked around. “So, there you have it, ladies. Everyone be sure to make your appreciation known to miss Kayla Barnes here, while I go and message a friend of mine that she is a pathetic judge of character.” She left the canteen, slamming the door behind her.

The other ODTs filed out, muttering obscenities in Kayla’s direction and letting her know exactly what they thought she was worth.

Zhang trailed behind them, but when she reached the door, she stopped. “Christie, would you please join us?” she called, before drawing up a chair of her own in front of the distraught Kayla.

Kayla wiped tears out of her eyes. “I should—” she began, but couldn’t think of what she could do. Masey was right—she was an irresponsible fool that didn’t belong in Valkyrie, and she hated herself for betraying women who were clearly better than she could ever hope to be.

Christie joined them, and Zhang turned to her. “Did you get those reports on the kidnapped students?”

“Yes, I have them here,” Christie replied.

“Excellent.” Zhang offered Kayla a tissue. “Senior Chief Laukkanen,” she said calmly, “also known as ‘Flashbang’, for reasons you probably guessed, made some good points. However, Kayla, I would like you to please talk me through exactly what happened today.”

Kayla wiped her eyes. “I was so stupid,” she stammered.

Zhang put an arm on her shoulder. “Kayla, look at me. This is a very tense situation, and I need you to Ranger up right now. What happened? Tell me every detail.”

Kayla breathed deeply and forced herself to think through the day. She slowly recounted the events of the morning; her visit to the university, her run-in with the soldiers, and her attempt to follow them. Zhang listened intently while Christie scribbled notes.

Eventually, Zhang spoke. “So, all you did in the university was hop the security barrier? That’s it?”

Kayla nodded.

Zhang frowned. “Tell me what happened to your friend Weslan.”

Kayla explained about her communication with him, and why she felt that his last message, bluntly severing their connection, didn’t make sense to her.

Zhang nodded slowly. “They obviously showed up there because you asked about him,” she observed. “Then they tried to take you in.”

Kayla nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

“What you did was incredibly foolish, not to mention unprofessional. When you got away you should have immediately tried to make contact with the organization and tell them what was happening. Running off on your own to play the hero is a recipe for disaster.” Zhang sighed. “However, it looks like we are not done with you yet. Please wait here.”

Zhang left the canteen, leaving Kayla alone with Christie.

Christie continued scribbling notes in silence. Then she stopped and looked up. “How was Mountain Ranger Battalion?” she asked.

“Really great. I’ll probably never get to go back there,” Kayla said. The thought hit home and made her want to cry again. Corporal Rudaski would right her off as a useless loser, while Thandi would begin an exciting and adventurous career, wondering why she had ever decided to be friends with Kayla.

Christie gave her a sympathetic smile. “Have a little faith.”

Kayla sniffed “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, this is my job now. Sort of—I’m still in training, obviously.”

“Intelligence?”

“Something like that.”

“What happened to five years in a Ranger battalion?”

Christie shrugged. “It appears that not all units feel the need to play by the rules.”

Masey re-entered the room, followed closely by Zhang. The senior chief’s expression, while still intimidating, had softened somewhat.

“Alright,” she began. “Zhang has convinced me that your missing friend might not be so unimportant. Tell me more about him.”

Kayla quickly listed off every detail she knew about Weslan, including who his parents were, and how well known he was after his relationship with Rose.

“So, he’s a child of the Helvetic elite?” Masey asked, looking concerned.

“Yes,” Kayla said firmly. “His father is probably the most important scientist on Caldera.”

“Okay…then this isn’t the kind of kid you roll up on the street and write off as a kidnapping,” said Masey. “Unless you are getting really ambitious.”

Christie looked pensive. “You said he’s working in a government lab? For a contractor?”

Kayla nodded.

“There are no off-world biotech contractors in Rackeye—only official Helvet delegations,” Christie said confidently.

Kayla raised an eyebrow. “But if it’s supposed to be a classified project—”

Christie gave a derisive laugh. “I’d know about that too. When you know where to look, the whole rotten bureaucracy becomes an open book.”

“Okay, so here’s what I’m seeing,” Masey said. “Dozens of college graduates were starting new lives in what appeared to be cushy contractor jobs. Then, over several months they stopped coming home or responding to calls, so we think they’ve been kidnapped. But what if all these different contractors were actually fronts for a single organization?”

Zhang nodded. “That would make sense, but what would they want with college graduates? And why risk exposure by involving well-connected rich kids?”

“All of them were high-achieving science or engineering researchers,” Masey said. “Exactly the kind of people you would need if you were trying to bootstrap some Jotnar technology outside the League’s authority.”

Zhang turned to Kayla. “Did Weslan mention his boss?”

“Yes,” Kayla said. “He said she was a visionary—that she was driven and intense. I thought he was being manipulated to be honest.”

“Did you get the sense that he might have been afraid of her?”

Kayla scanned desperately through her memory. “I don’t know. Maybe a little.”

Masey swore.

“Kayla,” Zhang said, “Team Four’s Gold squadron has been pursuing a woman named Allana Rayker for some time now. She is a mercenary working with the Helvetic bureaucracy at the highest levels. We know her to be responsible for a string of murders relating to the pursuit of Jotnar technology. She is a dangerous psychopath, and by all accounts she set up shop here on Caldera about a year ago.”

Kayla’s blood ran cold, as she thought back to what Jack had told her recently. Could Weslan be working for Rayker, helping her abduct farmers? The scenario seemed too nightmarish to contemplate.

“She’s responsible for the kidnappings?” she asked.

“As we said, a few dozen students in Rackeye. We suspect she may be trying to build a base of operations here, outside the control of the Helvetic League. Why now, and why Caldera, we don’t know.”

Kayla shook her head. “Wait—you said students in Rackeye? Not colonists, from the farms?”

Masey stared at her in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“Hasn’t she been kidnapping farmers out on the Lanstead plain?” Kayla demanded.

“No,” Masey said impatiently. “For the last time, Kayla, the animal attacks—”

“I know they were being attacked, Senior Chief,” Kayla interrupted, “but the attacks stopped. They haven’t seen an animal in over a year. But people are going missing; hundreds of them. Haven’t you spoken to Jack?”

Both Masey and Zhang stared at her in confusion.

“Well,” Masey began, “obviously we talked to him when we got here, but the focus of our investigation has been Rackeye, so…” She rubbed her scalp. “Well, shit.”

“How long—” Zhang began.

“A few months,” Kayla said. “About the time Weslan stopped replying to my messages.”

The canteen was silent, except for the buzz of traffic in the streets outside.

Zhang spoke first. “What exactly was he studying when he was at the university?”

Kayla thought hard. “It was about pheromones and hormones. Biological networking or something to do with organizational—” she stopped when she saw that Zhang’s face had gone pale.