The Girls From Alcyone (8 page)

The pilot signaled they were landing as they sliced through the trees towards a small clearing. Sigrid linked her PCM to the Nav-Sats, their location was displayed clearly in her HUD. The flight had taken them 147.24 kilometers from the school, but they were still nine kilometers away from the nearest cargo drop. Sigrid tapped the pilot on the shoulder. "Can you take us closer?"

The pilot frowned in response and jerked his thumb, signaling an emphatic,
'out!'
.

"Worth a shot," Leta said.

The four girls hopped out and the
Starling
zoomed off as soon as they'd cleared the props. Sigrid looked around. Thick-trunked redwoods towered over them. The ground was mossy and soft and thick with leaves. Even at night the humidity was stifling. It was all so different from the mild climate they were used to. Within minutes their clothes were damp and clinging to them.

Suko grabbed her bowie knife and cut the legs off her trousers. "Much better," she said and sighed.

"And fashionable," Sigrid teased. The long pants were uncomfortably hot so she quickly followed Suko's example, slashing off the legs of her own pants—Leta and Khepri did the same.

"I just hope there aren't any brambles," Leta said.

Suko realized she hadn't considered the underbrush. "Oh…"

"Oh, crap," Khepri said, wondering if she could reattach the pant legs.

Leta surveyed their surroundings. "Which way do we go?"

All the girls keyed their PCMs to summon up the information. Two of the containers were over twenty kilometers distant with the other two located closer at twelve and nine kilometers, respectively. They ruled out the closest target—it rested on the other side of a rather imposing mountain. The other one might be further, but they'd have a clear run to it .

"All right," Suko said. "We'll go for that one—looks like we head east about five klicks to that river, then we can just head north along the ridge."

"Sounds like a plan," Leta said.

They took off toward the river, running impossibly fast for average teenagers—though they were hardly average girls. Thanks to their genetically modified bodies, most of the girls could cover a kilometer in less than two minutes. The undergrowth wasn't very thick, but they encountered numerous fallen trees that needed to be hurdled over or crawled under. This slowed their progress, but only slightly. Sigrid did her best to keep abreast of the pace. If anyone other than Suko had been leading, they'd have left her behind long ago, but Suko stayed by her side, jogging easily.

"Want me to carry that for a bit?" Suko asked, pointing to the sniper rifle Sigrid was forced to lug along.

Sigrid shook her head, concentrating on breathing and not stumbling. "Figures they'd give me all the extra stuff to carry," she said, managing a brave smile.

"You're doing great."

After all of Dr. Garrett's work on her, Sigrid had hoped her days of trailing the other girls were over, but of course they'd all received the same enhancements. As fast as she had become, she was still slower than the rest of the girls.

As they reached the river bank, Suko stopped suddenly, dropping to a knee. "Hold up!" Suko looked around quickly, scanning the area. "What the…?"

"What is it?" Sigrid asked.

"I could have sworn…I'm sure I picked up something up on the scan. It just blipped—but it's gone."

"Can you replay it?" Khepri asked.

Suko scanned the data, playing it back and transmitting it to the other girls through their implants. Sure enough, they all saw it, just a brief blip picked up from the Nav-Sats, and then it was gone.

Sigrid gasped. "What was
that?
"

"It looked like something flying by," Suko said, "but then I lost it,"

Leta craned her neck, looking skywards. "Probably just one of the transports."

Suko narrowed her eyes. "Maybe—I don't know. Let's just be careful. I don't feel like getting
zapped
."

Khepri looked uneasily at the dark forest and the river before them. "Let's get moving. I don't feel like walking back, either." She began to wade out into the river. It was about twenty meters wide, and shallow. The dark, murky-brown water was barely moving.

"
Gah…!"
Khepri said, as she moved further out in the water.

"What?" Sigrid asked.

She turned back with a disgusted look on her face. "It's all
swampy
—muddy. I keep sinking."

Sigrid nudged Suko and grinned. "Well, at least I don't have to carry you across."

Suko gave her a swat on her rear.

The other three girls waded in. It was slow going—Sigrid's feet kept getting sucked down into the clinging mud. She fell over and had a horrible feeling as her hand got sucked down as well. Suko grabbed her belt and yanked her up. "Now, who's carrying who?"

Sigrid gave her a sly look. "Shouldn't that be,
whom
?"

Suko swatted her again.

Three of the girls made it across, but Khepri had stopped just short of the bank, still up to her knees in the murky water.

"What is it?" Suko asked.

Khepri crinkled her nose in disgust. "I lost my boot in the mud!"

"We'll come help," Suko offered.

"I'll find it!" Khepri said, clearly irritated over the missing footwear. Losing a boot would
not
be good, given the distance they still had to travel. "What the…" Khepri said, standing up straight.

"What is it?" Sigrid asked.

"Something just—
Gahh!
" Khepri screamed, leaping back out of the water—closely followed by the biggest snake Sigrid thought could ever exist. The other girls screamed in unison as Khepri fell back on her rear in the mud.

Sigrid had no idea how long the creature was but it looked at least twenty centimeters thick at its middle. It was the same murky-brown color as the mud by the shoreline and had no eyes in its round, bulbous head. The girls drew their pistols, but before they could fire off a shot, the snake slid back into the dark water, disappearing below the swirling surface.

Sigrid's heartbeat pounded in her ears. Nobody moved; they were all still aiming at the spot where the serpent had vanished just a moment before.

Khepri finally broke the silence. "Found it!" She held up the muddy boot in her left hand. They all burst into laughter—they also moved well away from the edge of the water.

"I hope we don't have to go back this way," Leta said.

Suko nodded. "Well, let's make sure
we're
not the ones walking back. Come on. We need to
find that crate."

According to the map, their best route was up a steep, slippery hill. Scrambling up the nine-hundred meter slope took far longer than any of them liked. Sigrid worried they wouldn't get there in time—and that she was the one slowing them down. At the top of the hill, they were relieved to find that the forest gave way to a grassy clearing, sweeping down into another valley.

Suko pointed north. "Straight that way. Another nine-point-three kilometers. If we follow that ridge, it should be somewhere near the base of that hill."

Sigrid unhooked the sniper rifle from its harness and sighted down the scope to the spot. The forest was tangled and dense there. She adjusted the scope, zooming in to 40x, then again to 80x; the stabilizer in the stock kept the weapon perfectly steady. Gradually, Sigrid pulled back, scanning along the ridge-line.

"Shit," she said. She spotted something—something moving. She sighted again and focused on the team of four girls ahead of them moving along the ridge toward
their
target. "Dammit!"

"What?" Suko and Leta asked both at once.

"There's another team up ahead," Sigrid told them, without taking her eye from the scope. The other three girls crouched low, instinctively. "I think they're going for our cargo."

"Shoot 'em!" Khepri urged.

"I can't! The stun-round's only good for eighty meters."

Suko was already taking off after them. "Come on!"

Khepri threw her arms up in the air. "Wait! They're too far ahead."

Suko turned back, smiling excitedly. "Yeah, but they still have to wait and hold for extraction. They might get there first—but we can still win. We can do this!"

Leta grinned. "Then, we better get moving."

Spurred on, the four girls tore down the grassy slope, running much faster now, clearing the distance with superhuman speed. They stopped twice for Sigrid to scan ahead with her sniper scope, but there was no sign of the team ahead of them. When they got within five hundred meters of the target they slowed, moving much more cautiously; each girl held an eSMG in her hand as they spread out into the tangle of the forest. They knew the other team would be waiting somewhere up ahead.

Sigrid's heart was racing in her chest as she scanned the thick undergrowth around her. She was so intent on scanning ahead and on her flanks that she didn't see the half-buried log in front of her, and she tripped, sprawling forward in the dirt. She banged her knee, and her weapon fell from her hand.

It was also what saved her. Just as she fell, Sigrid heard the telltale
whoop-whoop
of two shock-rounds whipping by over her head and smacking into the tree beside her. Leta wasn't as lucky and she was struck; Sigrid watched her fall, twitching onto the forest floor about twenty meters away.

Sigrid rolled behind a tree without thinking, ducking as two more shots whizzed by her ear, crackling through the air. She looked around frantically. She couldn't see Suko or Khepri. A wave of panic swept over her. Had they run off or had they also been shot? Her heart hammered out a frantic rhythm in her chest—she couldn't find the eSMG she'd dropped!
She didn't want to lose.

She heard the crack of a twig and footsteps coming closer—heavy footsteps. Too heavy and clumsy to belong to any of the girls.

Sigrid forced herself to calm down and concentrate. Pulling her sidearm from its clip at her hip, she rolled out from behind the tree. The man in the strange olive-green uniform almost tripped over her as he ran by.

Sigrid rolled onto her back, leveling her sidearm at him. There was a frozen moment where the two of them simply stared at each other, both surprised by each other's presence. The man snarled; it was enough to snap Sigrid out of her shock, and she fired three shock-rounds into his chest.

Nothing happened. "Shit." The man was wearing body armor. The paper stunners were useless.

Startled at first, the man regained his composure and stared down at the teenage girl lying prone before him. He laughed as he leveled his huge pistol at Sigrid's face.

But Sigrid was lightning fast in response. Her genetically modified reflexes took over and she scissored her legs and flipped up onto her feet before he knew what was happening. He fired, but the blast was late. She stepped in close and grabbed hard at his wrist, twisting it forcefully.

The man grunted in pain and surprise and dropped the gun. Angry, he swung his fist at her head. Sigrid was glad to be so short at that moment; she barely had to duck, and she brought her knee up hard into the man's crotch, following through with as much force as her five-foot-tall body could muster.

Groaning loudly, he sank to his knees.

Gouging, biting, hair-pulling…hitting below the belt.
Rosa had drilled it into them. There was no such thing as a fair fight. All vulnerabilities must be exploited.

Suko and Khepri ran up; Khepri gaped at the man "What the fuck…?"

"He's wearing body armor," Sigrid said. Khepri raised her pistol and shot him pointblank in the face.

"
Garr
…
sonofa
…" He snarled, flailing and twitching violently before passing out.

"Holy shit!" Suko said.

"Who the hell's that?" Khepri asked. She nudged him with her foot, making sure he was unconscious, before tying him with a set of plastic binders.

Suko picked up his assault rifle. "And what's he doing with this?" She pulled out the magazine—it was full of
shockers
, similar to the type the girls were using.

"Do you think it's part of the exercise?" Khepri asked.

Suko shrugged. "I suppose. Hey—where's Leta?"

"Leta!" Sigrid leapt to her feet. She'd totally forgotten her. She darted off toward the place where Leta had been shot, barely taking three steps before tripping over the damned log again. "Mother fu—" Sigrid looked down. She'd been mistaken. The obstruction wasn't a log. It was the body of one of the girls.

"Jia…" Sigrid turned her over, brushing her dark hair out of her face. Her eyes were open and glassy. Sigrid could see that she was dead—stabbed in her chest and abdomen.

Suko dropped to her knees beside her. "Oh my God…"

Khepri shook her head in disbelief. "What the fuck?"

All three went instantly into defense mode, scanning the area carefully.

"Let's find Leta," Sigrid said, and they moved off with due caution.

When they found Leta, she was struggling to sit up.

"Owie…" she moaned, rubbing the tender spot on her chest where the charge had hit. The stun-round was still stuck to her so Sigrid pulled it off, unhooking the little barbs carefully. Leta was still a little woozy and so the girls had to steady her. She pulled open her shirt looking at the angry welt on her breast. "Bloody well hit me in the
boob.
" She giggled.

Khepri cocked an eyebrow and muttered, "…not like it's hard to
miss
…"

Suko elbowed Khepri firmly in the side, forcing a grunt from her. "
What?
"

Leta shook her head to clear the fog. "Anyway, I'm okay. What happened?"

The girls told her of the man, how he'd attacked Sigrid, and about Jia, and how they'd found her stabbed to death.

"This is
insane,
" Leta said. "This can't be part of the exercise. They wouldn't kill us…" A doubting look spread over her face. "Would they?"

"Fuck it. I'm calling for Evac," Suko said. They'd forfeit the exercise, and there would be hell to pay, but none of them were worried about that anymore.