Warden

to peek.”
She glanced at Gizmo but couldn’t see the drone past the vaulted ceiling. “Maybe you should let me use Gizmo. In a real-world scenario, I’d have eyes in the sky.”
“Until your drone was shot out,” Bardain said. “No, you must do this on your own, Rhea.”
She sighed and took a deep breath. She was about to peek from the side once more, when she remembered Bardain’s words: never peek from the same spot.
She rolled left, until she was pressed against the lean-to. She started slightly when two little girls walked past. They gave Rhea a strange look before continuing on their way. She’d almost forgotten she was on a public street. Feeling a flush of embarrassment, she pulled her hood tighter around her face.
She peered over the top left of the boulder and caught one of the bandits out in the open, making a run for a closer series of rocks. She got off a shot, but his friends were ready to offer covering fire, and before she could duck, she was struck.
“Good,” Bardain said. “But next time you’ll have to be a little faster on the draw.”
He took her through several more such training scenarios. Mostly, she learned that it sucked to be outnumbered by bandits in the Outlands. The best she could do was stay in cover until they made a rush for her position, and then take out as many of them as she could. However, in the process she had to be careful not to let them outflank her or get the high ground; a few times, the virtual bandits managed to clamber onto a nearby lean-to, and because she was lying flat, her legs and lower body became exposed to them. She had no idea she was in their line of sight until her body flashed white to denote the kill. She learned to crouch as often as possible, rather than lie prostrate, if the cover allowed for it.
Close to noon, she took a fifteen-minute break. She had a fat pill for lunch, which Horatio had given her for just such a purpose that morning.
Speaking of Horatio, the robot arrived with Will shortly thereafter. Will’s dreadlocks seemed tangled, his eyes were sunken, and he had stubble lining his jaw, as if he’d had a rough three days. Rhea realized she hadn’t seen him since the first day.
“Come to watch my torture?” she asked.
“Nope,” Will said, sounding tired. “We’re here to partake in it.”

9
Rhea raised an eyebrow. “Really? That’s news.”
Will gave Bardain a resigned glance.
Bardain nodded. “I’ve invited Will and Horatio to participate in today’s training. If you’re going to be fighting at their side, you might as well learn to do so as part of a cohesive team. It’s time for a crash course in small unit tactics.”
Bardain gave Will a pistol similar to her own, and no doubt just as inert. Bardain strapped a long tube underneath each of Horatio’s forearms. Noticing her curious glance, Bardain said: “Virtual rifle barrels.”
“Why can’t I get a virtual rifle?” Rhea asked.
“Will wants you trained on the actual weapon you’ll use in the field,” Bardain explained.
“Rifles are expensive,” Will agreed. “Maybe if we encounter some highwaymen in the real world, you can take theirs.”
Bardain activated another bandit scenario and Rhea took cover immediately; Will and Horatio also dropped behind small boulders nearby.
“Spotted them yet?” Rhea asked over the comm as she peered from cover, aiming down her pistol sights as she scanned for targets amongst the virtual terrain.
“There,” Horatio said.
Red dots appeared on her overhead map. Her eyes darted to the corresponding location in the real-world: the virtual terrain formed a wide hollow, from which the bandits were peeking out and similarly scanning.
Horatio suddenly opened fire with his energy rifles, forcing the bandits to duck from view.
“Rhea, go!” Will leaped from cover while Horatio continued laying down covering fire.
Rhea jumped to her feet and rushed toward the bandits. Will fired as he ran, and so did she, mimicking his example. It was hard to aim properly while running, but she realized the point of firing was merely to keep the bandits down.
One of them popped up on the far side of the hollow, pistol aimed at her. She was forced to drop. Will joined her, and together they rolled behind the same virtual hump in the ground.
“You know,” Will told her. “Nice thing about training: you can cheat.”
He low-crawled directly inside that hump, so that his body was completely shielded.
Rhea glanced at Bardain’s ghost on the battlefield beside her.
“Don’t even think about it,” Bardain said. “He’s allowed to cheat a little, since he already passed this test. You, on the other hand, are going to act as if everything around you is completely real, as always.”
She switched to a crouch, so that her feet wouldn’t be too exposed, and kept low as she peered past the edge of the rock. Horatio’s suppressive fire had forced the attacking bandit from view once more.
“Cover me,” Horatio said.
She fired above the hollow, aiming where she thought the bandits were hiding.
While she did that, Horatio arose and hurried forward, sprinting past her. He dove behind a boulder that was very close to the bandits’ positions.
“Now would be a good time for some virtual grenades,” Horatio commented.
“Too bad we don’t have any,” Will said.
“Don’t assume the bandits don’t have them, too…” Bardain told him.
True enough, an energy grenade arced from the hollow, and slammed into Horatio. It exploded in a sphere of bright light. Horatio turned solid white and remained that color.
“You’re out,” Bardain said.
“Come on Rhea, it’s just you and me now,” Will said. His pistol emerged from the far side of the hump and he began to lay down suppressive fire. “Go get them before we get ’naded too!”
Rhea charged them, leaping onto a boulder located next to the hollow. The bandits huddled in full view below her. She fired rapidly, adjusting her aim far faster than any human could ever hope to react to. Too fast even for