Desperate Measures Chapter 34

Chapter Thirty-Two

July 25, 2230, Solar System, En Route UTC Space Fleet Base Penglai

Jia stepped out of the nano-AR chamber, shaking out her hands, her eyelids heavy. She was exhausted, and it wasn’t from the hordes of simulated terrorists she’d taken out in a tower.

Dealing with a screwed-up Circadian rhythm was another annoying but necessary aspect of long-distance space travel. The Army and Fleet avoided it by rigid adherence to schedules, but that wasn’t practical in their situation. Although she’d avoided having much trouble on their last space mission, her body had turned against her this trip.

Jia had been taking turns in the cockpit. At this point in the flight, there weren’t many required course corrections. Emma could handle it, but there was something calming about being behind the controls, even when she was tired.

But there was only so long she could sit in a pilot’s seat, and with Erik asleep, she’d decided to do some battle training on her own. She’s long since accepted that working for Alina meant most jobs would end in violence. They weren’t going after the kind of people who would give up and beg to be hauled to jail.

She wasn’t bothered by the necessity of taking out the violent agents of the conspiracy. Perspective helped. She was now dealing with the kind of people who would hire someone to fire cruise missiles at a jail or partake in the most disgusting types of genetic engineering without any consideration of balance or the consequences.

It was sick, but in a way, she missed the petty criminals of NSCPD. They might be antisocial and violent, but their motivations were so much easier to understand.

Jia froze as she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned toward the source, reaching for a weapon she didn’t have. The

Argo

was the one place she didn’t wander around with two pistols strapped to her.

She let out a sigh of relief, no longer annoyed at her lack of guns. Her visitor wasn’t a dangerous alien or terrorist stowaway. It was Anne, walking down the passage and heading Jia’s way.

The ID agent slowed, the corners of her mouth tugging down. “You’re using the room? I didn’t think anyone would be using it right now. Other than the engineers, everybody seems to be keeping the same schedule.”

Jia shook her head. “I just finished.” She motioned to the door. “She’s all yours, Agent Devereaux.”

Anne walked toward the room, her steps slow and deliberate. “Blackwell, I get. You, I’m still figuring out. I’m not going to pretend that doesn’t annoy me.”

“What’s to figure out?” Jia frowned. “I’m assuming there is a huge ID file on me you’ve read. If the government didn’t trust me, they wouldn’t be letting me go on these missions or anywhere near the jumpship.”

“Yes, I’ve read your file, detailing all your impressive achievements. You seem trustworthy, but that’s only one important thing.” Anne snorted. “I read how you became Lady Justice and about the corp princess who lowered herself to become a detective. Not all of us could walk into our positions so easily, Your Highness.”

Jia folded her arms. “I didn’t

lower

myself to become a police officer. I fought a lot of people who were resistant, including my own family, so I could better serve the UTC public.” She frowned. “And it’s not my responsibility to make sure everyone else makes it into law enforcement. Yes, I used an unusual entry path, but I earned it. I didn’t have to become a police officer, you know.”

Anne raised an eyebrow. “Oh? You’re saying you’re a hero for doing that. I didn’t realize it.”

“No, I’m simply adding nuance to deflect your insults.” Jia squared her shoulders. “I’m not going to sit here and take everything from you because you’re with the ID. They came to us because they recognized our skills, and our track record speaks for itself.”

Anne took another couple of steps until she was right in front of Jia. Both women were around the same height. Combined with the agent’s lither build, physical intimidation was questionable, but Jia couldn’t deny the sheer intensity in the woman’s cold stare.

“I don’t insult,” Anne offered, her voice barely above a whisper. “I present the truth as I see it. Some people don’t like that, but that doesn’t mean I care.”

“What truth do you see?” Jia asked. “Because I see a woman who was belligerent to my partner and now is being unpleasant to me without a good reason.”

“I have my reasons,” Anna replied. “And the truth is, you didn’t earn your position. Your family wealth and status bought you a place as a detective. It was mere proximity to others that got you the rest of your reputation, including your current position. If you were as great as you think, you would have reformed the NSCPD yourself, and Agent Koval would have recruited you long ago. And if you knew about what was going on in the UTC, you would have joined the ID or CID rather than the NSCPD.”

Jia lowered her arms, her hands curling into fists. She would never deny she’d been naïve about the UTC and the reality of crime in Neo SoCal and unrest elsewhere, but she wasn’t just along for the ride. She’d carved out her own fate, and she wasn’t a woman who would sit there with someone all but in her face.

“You think I’m a fraud?” Jia snorted. “After every mission I’ve done? After all the times I’ve risked my life? That’s what this is about?”

“You mean, missions like on the Hunter ship?” Anne replied mockingly. “How well would you have done without the assault infantry, hmm? It’s easy to look impressive when everyone around you is impressive. All you have to do is not screw up.”

“So I was, what, expected to take out the entire ship by myself? Don’t be ridiculous. If this is about my background, get over it.” Jia rolled her eyes. “Is that what you do? Wander around the UTC, stopping every terrorist and insurrectionist by yourself?”

“Not exactly. It’s… You see, it’s like the darts.” Anne’s face twitched. “In a fight, it’s not good enough to be second. Being not as good as the enemy means you’re dead, and when we’re on missions, there might be all sorts of personnel mixes. I want to make sure if we end up working together, I won’t have to do the work for both of us.”

Jia laughed. “Fine.” She inclined her head toward the AR room. “How about I get some sleep, and then tomorrow I show you my skills. Even better, you show me yours. I figure if I do, maybe you’ll crawl out of my ass and stop being a bitch for two seconds.”

“We’ll see.” Anne slapped the access panel and stepped inside. “Goodnight, Lin. Don’t be worried about tomorrow. There’s no shame in coming in second.”

Jia glared at the woman until the door closed.

Jia didn’t want Erik to become involved. That would only complicate the matter and feed into Anne’s argument. When he didn’t mention the woman at breakfast, Jia assumed Emma hadn’t told him. There was no way Emma wasn’t aware of the argument. Jia appreciated the AI’s restraint and understanding in the matter.

With an excuse about needing to check on something, Jia left breakfast and headed to the AR room. Anne waited inside, wearing the same expression she’d had after winning at darts.

“I’m hoping you’ll get the point without trying to set up anything too elaborate,” Anne explained. She tapped her PNIU a couple of times.

The blank room shifted, a two-person firing range forming, along with rifles hanging on either side and a box of preloaded magazines beside each position. There was no real detail outside of the firing lanes.

Anne grabbed her rifle and a magazine and slotted the ammo into her weapon. “You’re allegedly a good shot, but I want to see it for myself. This isn’t anything fancy, a dynamic firing range with stationary and moving targets of different types. Standing, ten targets per level, we’ll go until somebody misses half the targets on a given level. That person is the loser, and the other person is by definition the winner.”

“She hasn’t programmed any trickery into the simulation, other than adding near-complete noise suppression to the weapons,” Emma transmitted directly into Jia’s ear. “I would give you hints, but I suspect you would not appreciate that, given the nature of this particular confrontation.”

Jia’s jaw tightened. She didn’t respond to Emma. It would only give Anne an opportunity to accuse her of cheating and hiding behind others.

Anne lifted her rifle and flipped off the safety before taking up a shooting stance. “There are different ways to serve the UTC. You don’t have to be doing these kinds of tasks.”

“Having shooting competitions?”

“No, going to Alpha Centauri or deadly labs in France.”

Jia pulled her rifle off the wall and loaded it. “I’m fine with the way I’m serving. It wasn’t like I left the police department on a whim.”

Two stationary translucent holograms of masked men with pistols appeared in the distance. Jia fired at the same time as Anne. Both hit the targets without much trouble.

The next batch of targets appeared, a group of men at a farther distance, still stationary. Both women fired in rapid succession, hitting their targets without the use of burst fire. They’d cleared five of the ten targets for the level.

Jia smiled. She knew the difficulty was going to ramp up, but so far, she was enjoying it. Being tied with Anne wasn’t a horrible fate.

Their first moving target appeared, a hologram of a terrorist charging forward using serpentine movements and brandishing a knife. Jia hesitated for a half-second before anticipating and downing the man. She barely registered Anne’s muted fire right before that.

No surprise accompanied the appearance of multiple moving targets. Jia and Anne continued firing and striking all their targets with ease. The words

Level One Complete

appeared in floating holographic text.

“The next level will begin in thirty seconds,” Anne explained, ejecting her magazine and reloading. “And that’s how it’s going to continue until this is done. We don’t always get nice little breaks in battle, do we?”

“If you know about France, then you know I’ve fought in worse conditions.”

“No exo to do all the work now.”

“You need to reread my file. It’s obvious you missed a lot.”

Jia matched her and held her rifle closer, giving her forearms a chance to rest in the short interval between the next round. Success might shut the ID agent up, or it might not accomplish anything.

She was used to being doubted. It’d happened her entire life and career, and she’d learned words didn’t shut people up; only action and proof did. If Anne didn’t want to accept her after that, it would be the agent with the indefensible problem.

A glowing blue ball bounced in the air in the distance. The level had started without special notice. Jia whipped her gun into position as her competitor fired, not hitting her own target until a short breath later.

Jia was ready when more glowing balls appeared, again taking a moment to line up a careful shot and release. Anne was downing her targets slightly faster, but neither woman was missing a shot, let alone a target.

“Whatever else you might think of me,” Jia commented, “I’m a good shot. I always have been.”

“We’ll see. We’re just getting started.”

Jia wiped the sweat off her face and loaded a new magazine. Level sixteen was about to start. With a growl, a Zitark sprinted down the lane, which was now filled with stones. The alien leapt onto a rock and then another before heading down, the quick movements and level changes making it difficult to aim.

She released a burst, downing the Zitark and letting out a sigh of relief. Her accuracy had descended to seventy percent in the last couple of levels, as related by a scoreboard floating above the range. Anne had lost her speed advantage but was maintaining about seventy-five percent accuracy. Jia might not like the woman, but she was a great shot.

A new batch of holographic space raptors appeared and surged forward, growling and hissing in a harsh choir of murder. With the aliens sprinting across such a short distance, Jia didn’t have time to be too precious with her rifle. She emptied her magazine in rapid bursts and managed to down the targets before they’d closed on her.

Jia’s hand snaked out to grab from the row of magazines she’d set up between levels. She reloaded just as one of the targets on Anne’s side reached the agent. Another batch of Zitarks surged forward, and this time, Jia and Anne took out their respective targets at a distance.

Neither woman had said anything to the other for the last ten minutes. Their concentration was on the holograms conjured by the system. They’d had nothing but the frustratingly short breaks between levels for rests.

Level Sixteen Complete.

Time blurred. Despite her effort and concentration, Jia’s heart maintained a calm, slow pace. Quick-loading her rifle didn’t challenge her body like the near-constant movement of an actual battle.

Jia wasn’t surprised when a Leem target appeared and jogged forward, his movements covered by blasts from his lightning gun. Though the new alien wasn’t as fast as the Zitarks, her first shot disintegrated against the crackling shield surrounding it, and precious seconds passed before she realized the shield flickered off for a brief moment after three or four steps. A burst headshot downed the alien before he’d made it halfway.

She couldn’t spare any attention for Anne, with new targets appearing almost immediately. There was nothing she could do but establish the timing and down the enemy. Jia had become a machine, an automated turret that existed only to destroy simulated targets.

The seconds blurred into the minutes as more elaborate combinations of targets appeared, including mixed Leem and Zitark assault forces, a nightmarish scenario she hoped never to see in real life. One interesting tidbit of humanity’s expansion into the universe was the realization that none of the Local Neighborhood races interacted much beyond the most basic high-level diplomacy.

Level Twenty Complete.

Aiming, Jia barely registered the targets anymore. Aliens, monsters, people, drones. It didn’t matter. Some flew. Some didn’t. Trigger pull followed trigger pull. It was impossible to get through a target set without reloading midstream. There were too many, and they were too fast.

She never succumbed to the temptation of full auto. The target lanes had widened steadily throughout the levels, making that firing mode useful for nothing but suppression, and all simulated attacks were distractions, not damage.

Her current targets, a batch of fast-flying drones ahead of a menagerie of aliens, froze. The entire course turned red.

Jia hung her rifle back on the wall, rolled her neck, and wiped sweat off her brow with her sleeve. The number of targets hit was listed on the scoreboard, but that wasn’t as important as the last statistic.

JIA LIN: ACCURACY 50.25%. ANNE DEVEREAUX: ACCURACY 49.75%.

Anne set her rifle down with a frown. “I’ll admit you have skills.”

The tone was reminiscent of a person being asked to choke down ground glass. The ID agent stomped toward the door without further comment. Jia didn’t stop Anne, waiting in silence until the door closed.

“Yes!” Jia pumped her fist in the air. “Ha! Take that.”