Olivetti continued his explanations. 'Once you have successfully negotiated the Log Walk you will take a seat while awaiting your turn for the Rope Drop.'
The demonstrator CI rolled to his side and began to pull himself out onto another steel cable that ran slightly upwards toward the summit of a taller pole. Set more than halfway up, a Cazador tab painted on wood hung. The CI slapped it once, screamed, 'Cazador!' and eased his body smoothly off the cable until he was hanging by both hands. The CI released his right hand from the cable, executed a smart hand salute and said, 'Centurion, Cazador Torres requests permission to drop.'
Olivetti returned the salute and answered, 'Drop, Cazador.' The CI on the cable let go with his left hand, placing it over his crotch as he fell. The right hand went under the chin, fingers cupping the nose. The water splashed more than halfway to the cable when he hit.
Turning his attention back to the students, Olivetti said, conversationally 'Easy as Hell, isn't it? See, we don't ask too much of you.'
Oh, God, I hate heights, thought Saldanas, as he began the long climb up the I beam. Rather than look upward as he climbed, which would remind him of how far he had to go, or-worse-downward, which would tell him how far he had gone, Saldanas kept his eyes on the rusted steel of the beam, parallel to the ground. Even when his pulley, hanging off his shoulder by a strap, caught on one of the rungs, he freed it purely by touch, rather than risk seeing the ground. He closed his eyes every time a student ahead of him took off down the slide, making the beam shudder. The climb seemed endless and limitlessly terrifying.
'Get your ass up here, Cazador,' shouted the CI atop the little platform. Saldanas carefully eased through the little trap door, fingers turning white from his clenching grip on whatever seemed solid. The CI saw this.
'Scared are you, son?'
Teeth clenched to keep them from chattering, he forced out a, 'Yes, Centurion.'
'No shame in that, son,' the CI said, not unkindly. The CI took the pulley from Saldanas' shoulder and hooked it onto the cable. Then he grabbed the back of Saldanas' shirt and pulled him under the pulley. The student resisted giving up his grip on the platform.
'Open your eyes, son. The point is to see what scares you and overcome it.' Saldanas obeyed and immediately lunged for the I beam.
'Cazador, there is only one way off this platform. You either get a grip on yourself and take hold of this handle or I am going to kick your shitty butt out into space, hear me?'
Half guided by the CI, Saldanas, trembling, forced himself to stand under the pulley and take a grip on the handle.
'Now when I tell you to go, I want you to lift up with your arms. When you get away from platform a ways, bend your body into an 'L' shape. Watch the man with the flag standing at the anchor dock. He'll tell you how high to lift your legs and when to let go of the pulley. Got it? Oh, yes. One other thing. If you don't keep your eyes open to see the drop signal you are going to slam into the dock at the other end of the cable at about 100 kilometers per hour. Guaranteed fatal. You will keep your eyes open?'
Saldanas could only nod, two or three times, quickly.
'Go!' Saldanas, after a moment's hesitation, lifted off and went… nowhere. The CI still had a grip on his shirt. 'Okay. Let's try it again, this time with your eyes open. Go.' Again Saldanas didn't slide but he did keep his eyes from closing.
'All right, son. That was fine. Now this time I really am going to let go. Ready?… Go!'
At first Saldanas felt nothing. Then he realized he also could not feel the CI's grip on the back of his shirt. By the time this registered he felt the beginnings of forward motion. He screamed, ' Jeeesuuusss!' as he picked up speed. Chuckling and thinking, it's funny how he called upon the only man who can save him now, the CI called out, 'Next Cazador. Get your ass up here, boy.'
Dimly, Saldanas realized on his way down, It's a good thing I'm landing in water. No one will see the piss.
Caridad Cruz's parent's home, 31/3/462 AC
'Cara? Cara, I have a letter for you from Ricardo!'
At her mother's call Caridad ran, breathless, for the front hall. She tore the letter from her mother's hand and opened it.
'Dearest Cara,
I'm terribly sorry that I haven't written before… there simply hasn't been any time at all. The only reason I can write now is that this is sort of a screw off day; terrifying but not difficult. 'Terrifying?' I hear you ask. Very.
We were all (except Montoya, I'll tell you about him later) scared of heights. I still am but at least I can deal… now. The interesting one was Saldanas. He's a sailor who's bucking for officer (did I ever tell you even the squids have to graduate Cazador School to become centurions or officers?). I can't prove it, but I'd almost swear Saldanas wet himself on one of them. But he's a gutsy one. You could see he'd rather have died than walk over some steps that were thirty-five feet in the air. The steps were in the middle of one of the obstacles. But he'd rather die than fail, too. He made it over, with help, but almost in tears. We're all really proud of him.
For the rest, my mates and I are starving, and more than two weeks behind on sleep. They feed us so little here, one scanty ration a day, most days, that there isn't enough to allow the body to heal even a little cut. I have a couple I got early on that are still running sores.
Nonetheless, I am making it so far. I failed my first patrol, but it didn't count. I passed the second. Tomorrow we're off to the mountain school.
Give your parents and mine my best.
All my love,
Ricardo
Cara put the letter back in the envelope. He didn't even mention sex. That's not the Ricardo I know.
Camp Bernardo O'Higgins, Hephaestus,
Valle de las Lunas, 32/3/462 AC
O'Higgins was the mountain training center for the expanding legion and the second phase of the Cazador School.
In this camp Cruz's class had suffered its first fatality. In front of all four hundred odd Cazador students still with the class, a piton securing a rope snaking up the side of a cliff broke free. The reactions of both climber and safety man were too slowed by fatigue to grab a handhold; the next piton broke free as well. A long scream tore through the air, and those nearby heard a dull thud.
An ambulance came to claim the body. Other than that, none of the school cadre took any special pains over the death. In a few days a new name would be added to the monuments that stood by the entrance to the camp and the concrete plinths in front of the school headquarters at Camp Gutierrez. A memorial service was held at the close of that day's training. No other official notice was taken. That night fifteen men resigned.
Unofficially, and unobtrusively, Olivetti made note of those who had not resigned but who seemed more upset than most. These, in ones and two, as the schedule permitted, he spoke to over the next several days. One reported to him now.
'Cazador Cruz, reporting as ordered, Centurion.'
'Sit, Cazador.' Olivetti made a show of looking over Cruz's school file. He closed the file. 'This is counseling, Cazador Cruz. We counsel each Cazador student several times during the course of the school… to help you learn, to improve. That's all this is. In looking over your file, and it's a short file now, I observe that you have been a somewhat better than average Cazador. True, you failed your first patrol. Most do. Nonetheless, the evaluations of your peers in your squad speak highly of you as a leader. And the CI for your first patrol thought that mostly you were let down by your assistant, Montoya.'
Cruz bristled. 'Montoya's okay. He just took a little longer than most getting used to the lack of sleep.'
Olivetti shrugged. Alone he was a much friendlier sort than the ravening beast he usually put on for the students. 'Forget about Montoya for now. You have been acting more listless than short rations and lack of sleep alone account for. What's the problem?'
Cruz hesitated to speak for a moment. When he did finally begin to talk, it came out in a torrent. 'I don't
