‘You’ve never seen her in action, Siegmar,’ Francis replied. ‘She’s good.’
‘That so? Well, I’d certainly like to see her perform. How about we switch things up a little? A game of Fox and Hounds. She’s the fox.’
‘That wouldn’t be fair–’
‘That’s fine by me,’ Nava said. ‘That’s fifteen against one, right? I get two minutes before the others come after me.’
Francis turned around such that he was facing Nava and Siegmar could not see his smirk. ‘That’s correct.’
‘How long to assemble your team, Siegmar Tate?’ Nava asked.
Siegmar’s sneer turned into a mocking grin. ‘Won’t take long. You go ahead and get started. We wouldn’t begrudge you the extra couple of minutes.’
‘That’s very sporting of you.’ Nava stepped over to a table where an array of MagiTag weapons were laid out and selected a pistol. She slotted a magazine into it and picked up two spares, attaching them to a strap on her left thigh.
‘You’ll need more ammo than that,’ Siegmar said.
‘There are only fifteen of you,’ Nava replied. ‘I can miss three times.’ Turning, she headed toward the trees at a steady walk, taking her time.
‘You’d better get that team together, Siegmar,’ Francis said. ‘If you give her too long to prepare, who knows whatshe’ll have waiting for you in there.’
‘She’s only a support student. Clanless. She’s had no combat training. They don’t even start until after late spring break! She’s no threat.’
Francis nodded slowly. ‘Keep telling yourself that.’
~~~
Fox and Hounds had a time limit: thirty minutes, usually. It was always played where there was a lot of cover available. Those who really specialised in playing the fox tended to fall into two categories: guerrillas and ghosts. One of the most successful strategies was to find the best possible place to hide and simply wait out the timer. That was the ghost strategy. Guerrillas were ghosts with an attitude; they used the cover a great deal, but attacked whenever they got the chance, thus thinning the numbers of those searching for them. Foxes who tried purely offensive strategies tended to lose. Quickly.
Nava did not wish to waste thirty minutes of her Saturday but going up against a fifteen-man search team by running around and shooting people was just going to give Siegmar what he wanted. It would also give Nava the exact opposite of what she wanted: she was here to work out whether it was worth turning up for any other meets. If she did not try her best against these people, she would not be able to fairly judge her skill against theirs. Plus, there was no way she was allowing Siegmar to win.
So, Nava camouflaged herself in some bushes around two-thirds of the way back through the little forest. They had given her far more than one hundred and twenty seconds to prepare, so she had a good idea of where to go once her cover position was blown. Siegmar was overconfident. He was too ready to make assumptions based on his opinion of how the world should work. Support students did not have the training to defeat combat students. End of story. That neglected two realities: that a student might have had training prior to coming to school, and that none of the first years had had very much training in either stream.
He had also never been taught effective methods of searching for someone. Or maybe he had only found four people willing to do what he said. Nava spotted his group of five walking through the trees and guessed that the hounds had split into three groups. In the woods here, that meant that no two groups could see each other. Nava was now faced with five opponents instead of fifteen, and if she dropped them all, it was unlikely that the remaining ten would even realise it.
She waited. She gave them every chance. Nava had never had an actual lesson in camouflage techniques, but she did have a certain innate talent for sneakiness and enough basic knowledge to make it work. Siegmar’s team walked right past her and continued on toward the back of the wood. Nava waited for them to hit the fifteen-metre mark, then she raised her pistol, took aim, and fired.
Headshot. Her target’s harness lights turned red instantly and she shifted her aim to a second target before the hit had even been registered. She was going for snapshots targeting centre of mass now but she racked up two more red lights as Siegmar’s hounds frantically searched for their attacker.
‘There!’ Siegmar and another of his men yelled, pointing toward the bushes where Nava was hiding.
Nava tagged Siegmar’s last companion before he could get a shot off and Siegmar returned fire, lifting his weapon to use the sights, but not really taking the time to aim. Trying to hit a prone target through cover, he was doomed to failure, though he did get close. Nava was almost impressed. That did not stop her returning fire.
‘Bitch!’ Siegmar yelled as his harness told him he had been killed. Then he did what Nava had been hoping he would do. Lifting his head, he raised his voice. ‘She’s over here!’ It was a violation of the rules since he was out of the game. Nava did not mind, however. In fact, she wanted the others to converge on her current location.
Twisting, Nava rolled out of her cover position, regained her feet, and dashed into the trees behind her. When she was more or less shielded from Siegmar’s view, she jumped, caught a low branch, and swung herself upward. Trained soldiers would not ignore the third dimension when operating in this kind of environment. She had a strong feeling that the people Siegmar had recruited for his fox hunt were not that well trained…
~~~
‘She cheated,’ Siegmar said flatly, one index finger aimed squarely at Nava’s face. She stared back at him,
