Rise of a Valkyrie

Part 37

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"Do you remember when Susaki made us crawl through the surf for an hour straight?" Cara said fondly. "I thought I was going to drown."

Toska took a swig of her beer. "She once told me it's her life's work—getting recruits to quit. Like they're puzzles she's got to solve."

"Couldn't solve me," Kayla boasted.

Cara smiled. "Well, that's kind of the point."

The brand-new Rangers were in a bar in Tyr city, where Urtiga had invited a dozen women from various units to celebrate, drink and reminisce. Through the warm glow of success, Kayla looked back fondly on the painful experience she and the other girls had shared over the last six months. Once traumatic punishments were regaled as hilarious memories, made all the rosier by the alcoholic haze that quickly descended.

"I can't believe I slept so much, given how loudly Kayla snores," Christie said as she giggled into her drink.

Thandi grinned. "How loudly does Kayla snore?"

"What?" Christie said loudly, cupping her hand over her ear. "What did you say?"

Kayla went red with embarrassment but joined in the laughter.

"Hey, Thandi," Rose said with a wink. "Aren't you going to quit tomorrow?"

Thandi tossed a bar mat at her.

Jiao Zhang whispered into Christie's ear, then nodded to an empty table in the corner. Christie waggled her eyebrows, at the group then stood up from her chair and the two moved away to start a private conversation.

"Toska," Cara said after she knocked back another shot. "Did I tell you about the time I got a vacation on Ambrosia?"

"I didn't hear that one yet," Toska said, watching her with an expectant smile.

Rose gawped. "Shut up! How did you get a ticket to the paradise planet?"

Cara returned her amazed expression with a grin of satisfaction. "I managed to win over the son of a major corporate player. We had a fling, but he cheated on me."

Rose smiled glassily. "Gotta watch out for those rich kids—can't trust 'em. But seriously, my family is well connected, and we could never get tickets to Ambrosia. It's for the core-world cliques. They don't like frontier families very much."

Kayla raised an eyebrow.

Cara nodded. "For sure, I got lucky. But anyway, we drove around and ended up on this nice, flat beach, and I swear the whole place looked exactly like Camp Okorie, without the huts and assault course. Middle of the day, sweltering heat—I took one look at the surf and started shivering."

Toska laughed. "Oh God. What did the boytoy say?"

"He didn't notice," Cara said.

"You have to go do a stretch as an instructor to really work the trauma out of your system," Toska said.

"And not jump for six months? Screw that."

Kayla began to lose focus as the alcohol did its work. She had noticed that almost all of the women in the bar were wearing identical silver necklaces. When she looked closer at Cara's, she saw the pendant had a name engraved on it. But what did that mean?

She was about to enquire further when Masey's voice broke through the chatter. "We're reeling her in—you count on it 'tiga," she said.

"On Caldera?" Urtiga asked.