In the cramped hallways and compartments of the Banshee, the squads from every unit clustered together in small groups. They all had the same subject of conversation—the events of the operation. These they relived in detail, commenting on or criticizing every thought, word, or action to draw valuable lessons from the experience while it was still fresh in their minds.
Kayla apologized for leaving the squad, and was grateful to see their frosty expressions warm quickly.
“I was just jealous of your badassery,” Tian said with a wink. “But make sure we’re around when those Raiders you saved call in their favors.”
Even Ray laughed at that.
There were more comments, and the whole squad took the opportunity to get something off their chest.
“I nearly got lost when I took a wrong turn in the security compound,” Thandi said. “I didn’t spend enough time with the maps to make sure I knew where to go.”
Kayla wondered if she had made that up. Everyone but Thandi had said something, and she seldom made mistakes.
After the hot wash was over and they had showered and eaten, other Rangers headed back to their bunks for sleep. Kayla and Thandi stayed in the canteen until they saw Christie, arriving late and taking a tray laden down with every kind of food on the menu.
“I could eat forever,” she declared when she joined them. “It took a starvation diet to fit into that dress.”
“You looked gorgeous though,” Thandi said. “And all those billionaires fawning over you. I’d be jealous, but your job is kind of terrifying.”
“There’s nothing ‘kind of’ about it,” Kayla said as she kicked her feet up onto an empty chair. “You couldn’t pay me any amount of money to go into that house alone, much less pretend to be nice to those freakin’ losers.”
Christie nodded. “Yes, the old nerves are certainly tested. Although with the proper preparation it isn’t that much of a risk. And it’s a chateau, not a house, actually.”
“Oh, oh, okay,” Kayla said with a grin. “So, you were actually in your element hanging out with the galaxies’ elites, celebrating your cerebral superiority over all mankind. I totally get why you do it now.”
“One simply needs to indulge in intellectual conversation from time to time. My brain gets stiff listening to the pair of you compare bullet calibers for hours on end.”
They were quiet while Christie worked through her plate. Her usual impeccable table manners vanished as she practically inhaled food and drink with scant regard for collateral damage. Kayla caught Thandi’s eye and they shared a silent grin.
Eventually, she dropped her fork, pushed back from the table and belched loudly.
“That was impressive,” Kayla said, and meant it.
“Have you heard anything about the Raiders?” Thandi asked.
Christie winked at Kayla. “Fortunately, Rayker didn’t cause too much damage before our heroine showed up. Urtiga regained consciousness and had a lot of unkind words to share about Rayker, and the world in general.”
“And the missile?”
“The command staff is just as confused as the rest of us. My team leader, Zhang, told me that she was able to pull the logs just after the launch; before they cut off the network. She says the thing just activated itself, calculated its own solution and fired. Apparently, the crew was helpless to stop it.
“Thank heavens it was only an anti-air warhead,” Kayla observed.
Christie raised her eyebrows. “Indeed. Information is being suppressed on the feeds, obviously. The current story is an act of terrorism by an unknown group, which puts us nicely in the clear, for now.”
“And Rayker?” Kayla demanded. “How did they manage to get a tracker on her?”
Christie waved her hand. “A stroke of luck born of overthinking. My backup plan had been to try and bump into her and drop it in her dress or something equally desperate. A micro beacon is hardly original, but easily disguised in one’s purse. Right before the missile hit, I couldn’t stop thinking that I should err on the side of caution, so I tucked it under a subdermal layer, and watched a sack of mucus form over it before the rest of her wounds began to heal.”
“God spoke to you,” Thandi said, with a smug smile on her face while Kayla chuckled.
“Oh, yes of course,” Christie said with a hand wave. “Heaven forbid that my own professional competence and ingrained paranoia came into play.” She sat back in her chair. “In any case, gird your loins ladies, for we will be underway very soon to… what would you say? Prosecute the target? Attack? Kayla smash, or something similar?”
“To perform on-site suppression of hostile actors, neutralizing human or non-human resistance on the ground while interdicting terrestrial and extra-terrestrial squirters.” Kayla said as she inspected her fingernails.
“Slow down please, we can’t have you injuring yourself before the next operation,” Christie said.
Kayla reached under the table and jerked her chair leg, causing her to yelp with surprise.
Silence again descended on the group, and Christie reached for a dessert plate.
Kayla stared pensively at a distant spot, working up the courage to say what was on her mind.
“So...um…” she began.
“Yes.” Christie swallowed quickly. “She had me by the neck at one point.”
“Lord have mercy,” Thandi said and placed a hand on Christie’s shoulder. “You are a brave woman.”
“It was a difficult moment. Thandi’s efforts notwithstanding, I remain a committed atheist, but what I saw in her eyes pushed me closer to doubt than anything before.”
“You mean…?” Thandi began.
“She could charitably be described as the devil.”
Kayla nodded glumly.
“Her nose was bent out of shape though,” Christie said with a twinkle in her eye.
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Kayla laughed. When she had come face to face with Rayker she had made a considerable effort to rearrange the woman’s face, before taking a spike through the arm for her trouble.
“Really?” she asked.
Christie gave an apologetic smile. “No, not really.”
“Shame.”
“Did we at least pick up Kolar?” Thandi asked.
“Oh yes. He’s enjoying a comfortable night’s sleep before I go back to interrogate him, five hours from now.”
“Come on Chris, don’t they let you get any rest?” Kayla demanded.
Christie shrugged. “It was my decision. He will be angrier and more disoriented from a rude awakening. In any case, I want to be cold and irritable when I talk to him. He will realize he was cruelly manipulated and start to hate me. Then, once his spirits are suitably depressed, we shall send in one of my colleagues, dressed in an oversized hoody, glasses, and a messy hair do. She will be socially awkward, but well-meaning and quirky, and completely ashamed of her obsessive interest in particle physics, not to mention the specific field in which Kolar excels. She will gradually let slip her dislike of the organization, and myself in particular—her occasionally bullying supervisor. Their bond will be established quickly, and she will proceed with the real interrogation. By which time I will hopefully be enjoying a nap.”
Kayla snorted laughter into her drink.
Thandi’s expression had turned to one of mild horror. “That’s a whole new level of ruthless,” she said. “I remain convinced that you intel girls need Jesus.”
“My dear,” Christie said with a tired smile. “May I remind you that you shoot people in the face for a living?”
Thandi scowled. “Oh, come on. We managed to avoid that tonight, and in any case we have strict rules of engagement. This poor kid just fell in with the wrong crowd, and now you’re twisting his mind like putty.”
Christie rubbed her eyes. “He has spent the last year in Rayker’s employ, and can tell us what kind of technology she passed to VennZech from the fortress on Caldera. His comfort is secondary to the needs of the service, I’m afraid.”
“Yeah, I don’t care either,” Kayla added. “It’s been two years, I just want this to be over already, and that witch dead.”
Thandi slouched in her chair and quickly showed an outstretched hand, her usual signal of resignation from an argument.
“Also,” Kayla began, but stopped to yawn. “Urtiga told me that everyone in her unit thinks that Rayker is being assisted by an actual live Jotnar. How else could she possibly have known about the secret fortress on Caldera?”
“Well, their civilization is dead. If there are any of them left, they can only work in the shadows.” Thandi said.
“Hmm,” Christie mused, “and what is the limit to evil hidden in the shadows? How much catastrophe can be produced when it bursts into the sunlight? Civilization is fantastically complex and vulnerable. Any force that can get into the machine and start breaking things could cause incalculable harm.”
Thandi nodded. “Sure. I’m not saying we can relax, or that Rayker isn’t capable of going out in a blaze of mass murder.”
“Indeed,” Christie said, “but my greatest concern is her abilities. I tend to side with the gossip that she must be a rogue Valkyrie from who knows what century past.”
“Upgraded though. Way stronger than we are, and with those bone spikes. Also, I thought they confirmed there are no records of anyone like her joining the organization?”
“The scientists say that absent a violent death, our nanites could keep us alive for tens of thousands of years. Rayker might have had all the time in the world to cover her tracks.”
Kayla’s brow furrowed. “Hmm, I’m not convinced. Back on Caldera she was surprised to see me—shocked, actually. Her entire force was not prepared to deal with soldiers like us. The Rayker-Valkyrie take just doesn’t add up to me.”
“May I remind you,” Christie said, “that the first Valkyrie were obviously created by the Jotnar—probably to leverage humans as supporting infantry in their war. The fact that we survived their extinction, or apparent extinction, suggests that our leaders may be guilty of genocide. It would not be prudent to believe everything they say.”
Kayla shuddered. “Oh, I hate this conversation.”
“Not necessarily,” Thandi said. “The Jotnar may have destroyed themselves while humanity picked up the pieces.”
“But how is that imaginable?” Christie said. “Wouldn’t the last remaining members of an entire species recognize the insanity of their situation and try to salvage themselves from destruction? And wouldn’t a slave, on seeing his master wounded, pick up a knife and finish the job?”
“They were clearly evil beings, destined to fall.”
“Such an unwarranted assumption. Some part of their society triggered a catastrophe they didn’t know how to stop—that does not mean they were all evil. The very same thing nearly happened to humanity on several occasions.”
Thandi waved her hand. “The Bible tells us of the fall of lucifer and the other angels. I believe that is a retelling of the events. Whatever God’s ultimate purpose, it is very clear that it involves the testing of man against forces greater than ourselves. Valkyrie forces humanity to choose self-sacrifice over material success.”
“Then shouldn’t there be men here? Is your god a radical feminist?”
Thandi shrugged. “I don’t pretend to have all the answers.”
“Also,” Kayla said, “if we fail in our mission, the end result will be war on a horrific scale. So, uh… God’s playing pretty fast and loose with the odds.”
“Well,” Thandi said with a smile, “I’m sure Christie will guess her way to total knowledge of the universe any day now.”
Christie smirked. “Do you have faith in me?”
“Okay you two,” Kayla said, “while I’m sure you are another ten to fifteen minutes away from resolving the greatest ongoing debate in the history of our species, perhaps we can pencil that in for another time. I’m about ready to pass out.” She yawned again, loudly, and deeply. “Christie, you want to come roll with us tomorrow?”
“Just Jiu Jitsu? None of that punching and kicking you like to do in your matches?”
“I’m sorry,” Kayla said. “Are you referring to Mixed Martial Arts? The full spectrum of skills that, if you learned them, could well save your life one day?”
“I have a delicate brain. I don’t see that it would be well served by letting you smack it with your fist. No, grappling and wrestling should be sufficient for my needs.”
Thandi shook her head. “I’m with Kayla on this one. We have to get you trained on movement, controlling distance, reading the body. Avoiding it is irresponsible in our line of work.”
Christie raised an eyebrow. “Hmm,” she said, but didn’t look convinced.
Kayla and Thandi made their way back to their bunks, and bumped into Ray in the now quieter walkways.
“Staying up late, huh?” she said mildly. “We might have to go back out on a moment’s notice, so maybe spend less time hanging out in the canteen?”
“Thandi, I’ll catch up with you,” Kayla said, and caught her friend’s eye.
Thandi nodded, and left the pair alone.
Kayla swallowed. She felt ashamed and awkward, but she didn’t have a choice. “I just wanted to apologize for what I said to you on the return trip. It was unprofessional of me to question your motives like that, especially with how much more experience you have.”
“Oh, the ‘safe life’ thing?” Ray laughed. “Everyone knows how you get when you’re in a mood Kayla. I mean, sure it was unprofessional, but I think I’ll get over it.”
The sparkle in her smile reminded Kayla that Ray never really got mad at anyone, and she relaxed a little.
“You know I always appreciate your insight,” Kayla said. “Sometimes I wonder why you weren’t promoted first.”
Ray shrugged. “Maybe I was a colonel and I got punished for a terrible crime. Or maybe leadership’s just not my thing. You’ll never know.”
Kayla chuckled nervously. Their nanite enhancements made them effectively immortal, which meant that nobody really knew anyone’s true age, unless they confessed it. Ray was certainly one of the most capable Rangers in the organization, as far as the gossip went, but nobody could piece together her service record. She knew all about the speculation, and repeatedly made jokes about it. That was one reason amongst many why Kayla liked her so much.
“Just a word of advice, my darling?” Ray added.
“Sure.”
“You spend a lot of time hanging out with tier one operators. Don’t forget that to most Rangers they are celebrities—especially Urtiga. Women who can walk on water. You are starting to give the impression that you have higher priorities than your squad.”
Kayla didn’t know what to say to that. “I can’t help having friends.”
“Haven’t figured out what a non-commissioned officer is yet, have you?” Ray said with another friendly smile.
Kayla shrugged.
“Valkyrie may be immortal super soldiers, but it doesn’t mean we aren’t human. Combat is still overwhelming and terrifying. But the one thing every Ranger needs is to look up and see your team leader standing next to you, acting like she knows what she’s doing. And if you don’t see her, you have to believe that she still knows exactly where you are, and what you’re doing, and will be right back to make sure you’re okay. It means things are going to plan. The chaos is under control, and you aren’t going to die alone, ripped to shreds by monsters.”
Ray reached out and gave Kayla’s shoulder a squeeze.
“Now you for sure know what you’re doing Lance Corporal Barnes. I’m not sure there’s any chaos that you can’t find your way through. But you’re missing the second part, and without a team that really believes in you, you’re not a leader.”
Kayla dropped her head. “I really appreciate the advice, Ray. Now I kind of hate myself.”
“Atta-girl. That means you’ll try to figure it out.” Ray winked and walked off down the passageway.