Cobra

At the begi

"Listen up, Cobras, because today'll be your first chance to get yourselves slagged," Bai a

"Great," Jo

"Be thankful we're not invading Reginine," Noffke murmured from beside him. "We set our wall lasers pointing up instead of across."

"Shh!"

"Now, the remotes are programmed with the best estimates of Troft sensory and reflexive capabilities," Bai was saying, "and the operators ru

One by one, the trainees moved to Bai's side and headed across the muddy field. Bai had failed to mention that a kill was a

All too soon, it was Jo

Jo

So far, so good. From his new vantage point, Jo

Clicking his back teeth together, he activated his auditory enhancers; clicked three times more to run them to max. The sound of impacting rain reached frequency saturation and leveled out at a dull roar; beneath it, fainter noises became audible. None of them, he decided, sounded like remotes slogging through mud. Mentally crossing his fingers, he eased his head above the wall, switching off his super-hearing as he did so.

The i

Empty.

Either he'd been incredibly lucky and all the guards were momentarily on the far side of the building, or else they were all inside, perhaps watching through the darkened windows. Either way, he had little choice but to grab the opportunity. Pulling hard with his right arm, he sent his legs and torso up and over the wall, vaulting horse style, tucking his arms to his chest as he did so to clear the photobeam. Beneath him, he got his first glimpse of the area where he would land—

And of the dull metallic sheen of the remote standing there.

The single thought unfair! was all he had time for. Kicking in his targeting lock, he snapped his hands into firing position and gave the remote a double blast. His attention on his shooting, his landing a second later was embarrassingly clumsy; but he had the satisfaction of seeing the guard hit the ground the same time he did.

But there was no reason yet for self-congratulation, and almost before he had his balance back Jo

Even without his auditory enhancers on, the buzzer that went off beside him was deafening. Jo

Jo

And, a

"Let that be a lesson to you," someone said from the building, and Jo

"Thanks, sir," Jo

"Right over there—you can head back and get cleaned up. And if it helps, a lot of the others did worse."

Swallowing, Jo

"So, the great Horizon hope finally crusked one," Viljo said, setting his tray down at the far end of the table and favoring Jo

Jo