Pirate Assassin

Page 29

Zack had to give Carvin credit. Once.he had revealed to him the consequences of his failure to finish, he had given his all to the course and Zack was now shimmying behind Carvin. I guess, he thought bitterly, it takes one social outcast to know another. Carvin's voice forced him out of his reverie. "You know Zack," he paused. Zack glanced behind. There were still some stragglers behind. "Yeah?"

"You told me people would blame me if I didn't finish and they were punished, right?"

"Unless you need a hearing aid, I suppose I did," Zack remarked dryly.

"Well...." he shifted uncomfortably, which was in reality not east to do while hanging on a ledge, "wouldn't YOU be blamed for whatever might happen when you ran the course ahead of everybody?"

"Ah, but there's a difference."

"Oh? And what might that be?"

Zack smirked. "Simple. You are invisible thanks to the new outsider, so obviously people are quick to put anything on me." Carvin begun shimmying again.

"Another thing is that I don't give a duck's ass what people say or do to me, cos I can, and will, fight back." Carvin was silent until they reached the other side. "A duck's ass? What kinda saying is that??"

Zack shrugged. "I dunno. Don't care." After a momentary chuckle, Carvin's face became sombre. "I'm sorry to say this, but there are some people you can't fight against. If you do," his face took a haunted expression, "they'll destroy you and there's nothing anyone can do about it."

The crack of plaslock filled the air. The next few days was apparently a cross-class shooting match, but secretly, Zack felt that Sgt Troffs was using this to evaluate his temperament. There was no doubt that he had heard about the cafeteria incident; it would be strange if he hadn't. However, Zack couldn't help but feel a grudging respect for the man. He was hard and uncompromising, yes, but he also gave credit where credit was due. To him, if you were a GGPU marine, you were by default, a citizen. Zack shook his head to clear his thoughts and aimed down the sights. His unhalting practice onboard the Olympus had served him well and he saw his previous six shots riddling the target at the bullseye and at the span of a hand palm. Unfortunately, someone else had noticed this consistency. "Oops," Bradsfort said unrepentantly as he nudged Zack's elbow just as Portyer and his company were about to inspect him, causing his shot to fly wide. "What a BAD shot, Mr Ying! A fail for you," Portyer said without even looking. One marine was about to voice something out when Portyer gave him a quelling look. He passed by quietly. Zack heard Bradsfort and his posse snickering nearby. He looked at the target again, imagining his face there and whipped out his plaslock and fired. It went straight between the eyes.

Zack settled well into this new system of physical studies and marksmanship. He excelled in the hand to hand combat regiment, easily becoming the top of the third-year cadets. He was an accurate marksman, though not as excellent as those who could shoot in a blink of an eye but he didn't envy them. Zack Ying wasn't looking for notoriety or popularity. He was content to slowly but steadily reaching the stage when he could hunt down his friend's killer. He had few friends due in no part by his status as an outsider and Bradsfort's and Portyer's machinations but he was on amiable terms with the others in the dorms who looked up to him as being a honest (sometimes infuriatingly so) and determined cadet. Mostly, he was in the company of Carvin and Corby. Carvin was a terrified individual, a virtual Neville Longbottom, who failed in everything that his Sgt Troffs put him up to until it reached the point where he coldly told Carvin that there was no hope of him of ever becoming a proud GGPU marine....but Zack knew better. "Its not as if I DON'T want to be in the GGPU," he told Corby and Zack over the cafeteria table one depressing day, "but the only thing I've enjoyed is engineering. My parents won't accept that though..." he finished sighing deeply. On the other hand, Corby was a recluse. He blatantly refused to attend tactical strategy classes or shooting exercises. The only thing he did was do the physical side of a cadet, saying quite morosely, "I can't skip it cos I realise I do actually need it or else I'll become a flabby marine." Zack, nonetheless, believed there was more to him than met the, often, mocking eye. It was the way he carried himself, confident but watchful, like a lion amidst a pack of jackals. Zack had shaken his head that day when Corby was spouting all his excuses of why he would not attend the academy curriculum save one. He just didn't believe a word of it.