by K. B. Wagers
“He’ll get more and more certain of his victory. Make a few attempts to score on him, and if you do, bonus. I don’t see him being worried until you actually catch up on points or take over.”
“Time’s up.” The referee came over. “You ready, Commander?”
“She’s ready,” Jenks said. Rosa nodded. Jenks held out her fist. “Kick his ass, Commander.”
Max leaned in, whispered something in Rosa’s ear before stepping down off the ropes. Jenks jumped down, shoving her hands into the pockets of her pants, and worried at her loose tooth as the fighters squared up.
The referee blew his whistle to start the match. Rosa backed up a step in what Jenks really hoped was feigned caution.
“Saw you beat Ito,” she said to Max as the two fighters circled. “Good job.”
“Thanks to you.” Max didn’t look away as Rosa fended off an opening attack from Stephan and the crowd roared.
“Eh.” Jenks waved a hand. “You fought the fight. I just pointed out some weaknesses.”
“Are you ever going to accept that you’re an integral part of this team?” Max asked. “Or do you just deflect it all in the hopes that it will keep you invisible?”
Jenks shot her a curious eyebrow, but Max’s eyes were locked on Rosa.
“You’re not, you know.”
“Not what?”
“Invisible. Granted, it’s only been four months since I got here, but I’ve watched you help everyone with their comps—including me, who you don’t particularly care for—all the while holding things together like a champ whenever we go out into the black. I know you miss your brother a lot, but you’ve—”
“Careful, Lieutenant. That’s a subject we probably shouldn’t wander into in the middle of Rosa’s match. If I punch you here it’ll cause a commotion.”
“Fair enough.” Max sucked in a breath when Rosa narrowly missed another touch from Stephan and staggered backward. “All I’m saying is that you’re important to this team.”
“He dropped his guard,” Jenks hissed, grabbing for Max’s forearm without hesitation. “Come on, Rosa!”
“Yeah!” Max punched the air when a pulse of red blossomed on Stephan’s suit right in the middle of his left shoulder. The crowd echoed their cheers and the referee raised a hand to indicate the score.
“Still a minute thirty left.” Jenks glanced at the clock and at the score, which was now eight to seven in favor of Stephan. “You’re wrong, you know.”
“Jenks—”
“I do care for you. You’re my teammate, yeah?” She flicked her eyes away from the ring as Rosa and Stephan lined back up and the ref blew the whistle to restart the match. “I don’t trust people very well and it was hard for me when Nika left, but I never hated you. I knew it wasn’t your fault.”
“I’m glad.” Max exhaled a long breath.
Jenks poked Max in the side. “Don’t go getting all sappy on me, though, Lieutenant. We’re trying to watch the commander kick some honorable ass!” She raised her voice as Stephan and Rosa circled in their direction, swords dancing together in a rhythmic beat.
Jenks glanced at the clock. “She’s got to make her move here soon.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than Rosa stumbled. The crowd sucked in a united breath and Stephan smiled as he moved in—but the stumble was a feint. Rosa swung her sword up, leaning backward to avoid Stephan’s strike, and lit up a spot on his thigh, then his stomach.
She spun, blocking him with her free arm and striking him in the back with the flat of her blade.
The referee’s whistle blew. “Three points to Commander Martín!”
The crowd erupted.
Max gripped Jenks’s arm so tightly it was painful, but she didn’t say a word as the fighters reset, Stephan no longer smiling, Rosa with an intense look in her eyes Jenks knew all too well from every single mission they’d been on.
Thirty seconds lasts forever in a fight, Jenks knew that as well as anyone, but the last thirty seconds of Rosa’s fight seemed to last an eternity as she defended herself against Stephan’s attacks.
By the time the whistle blew again she’d scored two more hits and Jenks launched herself over the ropes to pick Rosa up in a bear hug.
Preliminaries—Day Two
Max kept her eyes locked on the console in front of her, one hand pressed to her mouth, the pain of her split lip from her previous cage match forgotten as Ma swung the ship in a vicious turn, narrowly avoiding the markers. He’d had a bye for the first round, then had decimated his competition yesterday in the second with his stunning times and completion ranking.
Their completion ranking, he kept reminding her. But it was hard for her to take any credit here. All she was doing was laying a path for him—he was the one flying like a demon.
Of course, they’d spent months training together for this. Max was, as Ma kept saying, overprepared and underconfident about her skills for the piloting course; but now that they were out here flying it, she was moving on instinct and so was he.
There was an obvious path through the course, but pilots and navigators could shave seconds off their times with numerous little shortcuts and maneuvers—if they could figure them out. And with her intuition and his touch, there was a good chance they could do just that.
Max kept one eye on the flashing icon of Honorable Intent’s pilot, Lieutenant Alvar Mel, as he closed the gap on Ma.
She wasn’t going to let Mel and Luis catch up, let alone win this. She scanned the course ahead of them, hunting for something, anything that would extend their lead. Then she spotted it, a tempting but dangerous path that went deliberately off the preferred course.
To take it was to risk losing.
To take it and win would mean bonus points for the technical difficulty.
“Cut starboard and down eighteen degrees,” Max said, using their prearranged directions. “Now.”
Ma obeyed without question.
“Three degrees up and starboard, Ma, now.” She was sure the crowd was screaming at them, wondering what they were doing, but the shortcut would put them over the finish line with a full thirty-second lead.
If she didn’t mess up and lead Ma astray.
“Hard forty-five to port and immediate two degrees up. Now. Watch the port side!”
“I see it.” Ma grunted a little with the effort as they pushed the ship to the limits of its capabilities.
“Next mark is back onto the regular course. You cut through, Ma, over and down. Only a meter of clearance on the top buoy.”
“I would not have picked this route, kiddo,” he said, but he was grinning.
“I know, but you can do this.” Still, she held her breath as he maneuvered the ship through the markers and they sailed over the finish line, with Sapphi’s cheers echoing over the team com. Max grinned at Ma, taking the hand he held out and squeezing it for a long moment.
She sent out the notice on the team chat: Ma took round two!
And immediately received a series of replies from the other four members of Zuma’s Ghost.
Jenks: *thumbs up*
Rosa: Well done, both of you!
Tamago: *cheers*
Sapphi: You are both awesome!
Sapphi was bouncing up and down in the hangar when they landed. She barely waited for Ma and Max to shake hands with Honorable Intent’s crew before she started cheering again.
“Done and dusted. Dusted!” Sapphi called out, pointing across the hangar at Captain Davi Kilini, who just laughed and shook her head. Ma scooped Max and Sapphi up into a hug.
“Come on, let’s go get lunch,” he said, putting them down.
Max looped her arm around Sapphi’s neck and dragged her toward the door.
The spring air in London was cool and a light rain dripped on their heads as the trio made a run from the shelter of the walkway away from the hangar.
“Go Zuma!” A yell came from a passerby and Max stopped, eyes widening slightly as they were suddenly surrounded
by a group of excited teens.
“Can we get a selfie?”
“We saw your fight, Lieutenant, you were amazing!”
“Rumors are swirling about the Big Game, are you ready for it?”
Max smiled for the photos, answering questions as best she could, and signed a program a young man thrust in her direction with a shy smile at her. Sapphi was signing a jacket as a nonbinary teen chattered excitedly at her about how they were taking hacking classes at the university. Ma smiled and answered questions about enlisting in the NeoG from the oldest of the group.
As Max hugged the last of them, she spotted the man with the press pass hanging back in the cover of the walkway and an uneasy feeling crawled up her spine. She tried to push it away—being followed was a fact of life for a Carmichael, this wasn’t any different—and yet she couldn’t shake the feeling something was off.
“Sorry, folks, we need to get going. Have fun!” Sapphi took Max’s hand and pulled her down the walkway. The teens waved goodbye, heading in the other direction.
One of them stopped and called after them, “Commander Till just won her fight, Lieutenant Carmichael. Means you’re facing her in the next round. Kick her ass!”
“Will do!” Max replied, and the teens cheered again.
“They’ll keep you there all day if you let them. Best to get in and out with as much cheer as you can muster,” Sapphi said as they hurried Max away from the crowds.
“Them I don’t mind,” Max said. “This press guy who keeps following me around but not saying anything is making me uneasy.”
“Where?” Ma frowned.
“Our seven o’clock.”
Sapphi snuck a look. “Huh. It happens. If it’s really bothering you I can go tell him to piss off.”
“No.” Max shrugged. “Press I’m used to, part of growing up a Carmichael. They just usually talk to me—a lot more than that guy has.” She pushed it to the back of her mind. “When’s your next round?”
“Fourteen thirty. I’m gonna finish quick again so I can go see Jenks’s fight at sixteen hundred.”
“Sounds like a plan. Tamago’s fight is the same time as your comp, so I think Rosa and I are splitting. One of us’ll be there.”
“Ah, go watch Tamago, they’ll notice you. I don’t see anyone once the timer starts.” Sapphi grinned, brown eyes warm with amusement. “Nika used to say you could detonate a nuke next to me and I wouldn’t even blink.”
Sapphi liked to protest that she couldn’t stand the pressure, but the reality was she did fine when the pressure was focused on her. She only tended toward falling apart when she watched everyone else. Max had seen the video of her wiping the floor with her competitors yesterday. Max hadn’t quite understood what she was watching—coding was way beyond her. But she knew Sapphi had looked completely unfazed and—as she had just said about their piloting competition—dusted her opponent.
She wrapped her arm around Sapphi’s shoulders again. “I believe it. One of these days I’d like you to teach me how to shut the world out like that.”
Jenks studied Luis with a smirk. “Ma and Max whooped your ass this morning. That’s another for me.”
Luis’s chuckle was this rumbling purr she always imagined was similar to the big cats lost to the Collapse. It did funny things to her breathing, that laugh, and for a moment she was very glad they were in the middle of a crowded café.
“Mel’s great, but we all know he’s got a long way to go before he’s even close to Ma’s level,” he replied, rolling his glass between his palms. “And that shortcut Max took? I’d never have thought to look for it, let alone take it.”
Lieutenant Mel was barely old enough to shave and the newest member of Honorable Intent. He had some piloting skills, but Luis was right about the gap in experience.
“True,” Jenks replied, lifting a shoulder. “If you want him to learn anything, you’re going to have to get his butt out of that chair.”
Luis chuckled again but didn’t rise to the bait. “Some of us have to be file monkeys, Dai, you know that.”
That was the other thing that did her in. Luis was good about calling her Jenks whenever they were around others, but when it was just the two of them? She suppressed a shudder. The way he said her name was almost better than the sex.
Almost.
“Besides, I like being on Earth, and it gives the kids some stability.”
“Fair enough.”
“They’re coming in tomorrow with MM. I think Riz is actually cheering against me if we end up fighting each other in the finals.” He hesitated. “They might like to meet you. They’ve been asking lately.”
“They know?”
Luis shrugged. “I haven’t told them, but kids are smart. Either they heard us talking at some point or me with my moms—”
“You’re talking about me to your moms?”
“Dai, look.”
“It’s fine.” She waved a hand. “I can sign something for him?” she asked, slipping behind the mask she instinctively used as her public face. She couldn’t stop herself from withdrawing, and saw the flicker of hurt Luis couldn’t quite hide.
“Ouch, that stings.” Luis held his hands up in surrender, the easy smile back. “I’m sorry, I know that’s pushing the rules. I just thought you’d like to know. Can I have my Dai back?”
“I haven’t gone anywhere.”
“Yeah you have, you’re backing away. I’d let you do it except you keep taking steps forward like you don’t quite know what you want.”
The warning bell went off in her head to let her know she had an hour before her fight. “I should go. I have a match.” She was on her feet, paying her half of the bill with her DD chip before she finished talking.
“Damn it, Jenks, come on.”
She didn’t wait. Didn’t expect him to actually follow her or grab her and spin her into a deserted access corridor. She’d never taken a swing at him outside the cage, but her fists balled up of their own accord.
“Don’t.” He caught her by the wrists, stepping in close until she was pressed with her back to the wall, and touched his forehead to hers. “I’m sorry. I just—I’ve missed you.”
“You’ve what?”
Luis laughed, the sound pained. “It’s this thing people do, Dai, when they don’t get to see each other as often as they’d like.”
“Why would you miss me?”
Sadness washed over his face. “I hurt for you, that you don’t even think you’re someone people miss—that you don’t think I miss you. We don’t have time for the list of ways, and I was going to pick a better time for this, but . . . I love you, Dai. I miss you when you’re not around.”
There was something sharp in her chest. Jenks imagined it was what being stabbed in the heart would feel like, but she was caught up in Luis’s amber eyes and couldn’t find the words she needed before he moved.
He let go of her wrists, cupped her face, and kissed her. His were lips soft on hers, missing the heat and speed that usually dug into her gut and pulled her forward. Still, something spiraled, unfurling in that painful spot in her chest as Luis deepened the kiss.
Then he was gone, backing up well out of range with his hands up and a strange, sad smile on his face. “Good luck with your fight, Dai. Watch out for Pashol’s roundhouse kick—it’s vicious.”
Jenks stared at his retreating back, unmoving until she was alone in the corridor. “What the actual fuck was that?” she muttered, pressing her lips together with a frown.
“My Dai,” he said, like I belonged to him.
Though that wasn’t really what bothered her. It was the shift, the fucking unexpected shift in something she’d thought had been settled.
“He’s not supposed to love me. This isn’t love. It’s just sex. It was settled. Five fucking years of settled. Good sex and nothing else. What is he doing?”
Nothing else, really? Is that the lie you’re telling yourself? You started it, Jenks, this line-stepping and rule-breaking. Thi
nking it would make him back off. Instead it backfired on you and now you get to deal with the fallout.
Jenks got moving through sheer force of will back out into the foot traffic of the outdoor market up the road from the academy. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail at the crown of her head so she flipped up the hood on her jacket to avoid recognition as much as possible and cranked the music on her DD chip to something suitably angry.
People melted out of her way as she crossed the gymnasium and ducked into Zuma’s changing room, which was, thankfully, empty. Jenks rubbed absently at her heart as she wandered through to the sinks. She flipped on the cold water and splashed it into her face, cursing at the shock of it.
“Jenks?”
“In here,” she called. “Toss me a towel, will you?” She cracked an eye and caught the towel Sapphi pitched through the air to her.
“Everyone else is out there already. You okay?”
“I’m fine,” Jenks lied, coiling around her confusion like a trapped snake. She dried her face, ignored Sapphi’s raised eyebrow, and turned the music up. The savage beat of Busta Rhymes filled her head.
She headed for the gym floor, thoughts rolling. The energy of the crowd was already electric, and it sharpened when she came into view. Normally this would be the point where she played to the people in the stands, ramping them up even more.
But not today. Today she needed to be alone.
Jenks caught Rosa’s eyes as she neared the cage and gave a single shake of her head. The commander nodded, putting a hand out and whispering something in Tamago’s ear before the petty officer could start forward.
Jenks flipped her hood up again and started her prefight routine. The music blaring in her ears drowned out the noise, and before she knew it Sapphi was touching her on the arm and pointing to the cage.
Sapphi tapped her fist to her heart and Jenks echoed it, performing the handshake on autopilot and forcing herself to meet Sapphi’s gaze when their foreheads touched. She could see the questions, but she didn’t have answers for them, so she pulled away with a quick smile.
Everything always narrowed at this point for Jenks, but the world seemed painfully sharp as she turned the music off and let the sound of the crowd fill her instead. She shrugged out of her jacket, toed off her shoes, and peeled her socks away as she ran through what she knew about Commander An Pashol.