Only 350, Nina thought as she looked at the score displayed above her. Having selected the easy challenge from the touchscreen at the front, a countdown had started before targets that had been hidden in the ceiling descended. Taking steady aim, she had moved from left to right, holding the pistol with two hands as she systematically pulled the trigger until she ran out of ammunition. While she was fumbling for the magazine release to reload, however, the light at the top of the booth flashed red to signal that the time limit had expired. Although she hadn’t missed a target, one still remained while her score was not even halfway to the 750 Reina had suggested.

“It’s about speed Nina,” came Julia’s voice from the speaker above her. “The targets are close enough that they are easy to hit, so focus less on aiming and more on moving from target to target.”

Nina turned around before nodding her head in Julia’s direction. In response, Julia smiled on the other side of the transparent screen while giving her a thumbs-up. Changing her attention back to the magazines in front of her, she ensured that there were two spares in addition to the one that she had loaded. Going through the numbers in her head, she realised that only one reload was not going to be enough to get her to the score of 750 that Reina had mentioned earlier.

25 points for each target, while one had remained standing during her last attempt. She would need to hit two complete waves of 15 targets, 30 in total, to reach a score of 750. The problem was that each magazine only had 14 rounds, leaving her with the need to reload not once, but twice.

She didn’t see the need for the practice either. If anything, she thought she would need to work on a quick draw like she used to see in the movies. Reina had said that the pistol was for protecting herself, but this was starting to seem a little more proactive than what she had been thinking of. She had pictured herself shooting a crazed attacker in a dark alleyway on the way home, not methodically mowing down a group of targets. What did so many targets represent anyway? If she needed to defend herself from 30 crazed attackers, she was confident that it wouldn’t matter how good her reloading speed was anyway.

Before starting the challenge again, Nina thumbed the magazine release and half-heartedly practiced reloading the weapon a few times. She sighed when she thought about how much faster she would need to be to meet Reina’s expectations. Her small fingers had hurt as she loaded the ammunition into the magazines, but she persisted as she didn’t want to ask Svanda to do it for her. The pair watching her from behind the screen would probably laugh.

Positioning the extra magazines within reach on the table before her, she pressed the touchscreen in front of her before waiting for the countdown to begin.

“Seems like she’ll pick this up quicker than I thought,” Julia said to Reina as the pair watched her hit targets one by one from their table above. They had both felt her reluctance, but they had also understood that Nina was someone who was good at doing what was asked of her.

“It’s a good sign,” Reina nodded in agreement as she watched the score above Nina’s head tick over. “If she was fitter, she could be pretty impressive. Assuming her mind was in the right place, that is.”

“Fitter…” Julia murmured before pausing, lost in thought. Coming to her senses as Reina slapped her hand that was on the table, she scowled.

“Svanda isn’t enough?” Reina asked as the light over Nina’s booth turned red. Seeing that she had scored 575, she smiled at the quick improvement. Maybe she would pick it up in reasonable time after all, which would set her mind at relative ease considering that the group would probably drop below soon.

Changing her attention over to the person in question, she smiled like a mother watching her child finish first at a competition. “Impressive as always, isn’t she?”

Having swapped the green rifle she had been using earlier out for a smaller submachine gun, Svanda was now shooting purple bursts at targets that danced across the range in an erratic fashion. Enjoying something lighter, she easily kept up with the targets as the scoreboard above her head quickly ticked over.

“Mmm,” Julia nodded as her gaze lingered on Svanda’s powerful frame that her usual black tank top was stretched over.

Reina inwardly sighed while pretending that she didn’t see Julia’s teeth on her lips, changing her attention to finishing the wine in her glass. After pouring herself another from the bottle that sat on the table, she leant back in her chair and interrupted Julia’s daydream. “Well, this package that you mentioned then?”

“Oh, business now is it?” Julia smirked as her gaze moved from Svanda to a button on the table that she pressed. Moments later, an attendant entered before silently placing a manila envelope on the table. Waiting until after the attendant withdrew, Reina opened the envelope and glanced at the single sheet of paper within. After she skimmed the page, she set it down on the table.

“No.”

“No?”

“The Cloud Orchestra won’t take this,” Reina said as she pointed at the piece of paper. “You should have already known that before you asked.”

Unfazed by her reply, Julia smiled. “No is just your opening part of the bargain, isn’t it?”

Reina frowned as she picked up the piece of paper again. Reading it in more detail, she looked over the top of it to meet Julia’s eyes. “Why isn’t Alan taking this?”

“I didn’t ask him because I’m sick of owing him favours,” Julia replied as she crossed her arms and stared into space for a moment as though she was remembering something. “He doesn’t buy the little sister card anymore.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have started to compete for business with him then,” Reina shrugged as she placed the paper back inside the envelope. “This is too dangerous. I don’t want to put my team at risk, so I’ll have to tell you that I’m not interested.”

“You haven’t even seen my offer yet,” Julia pouted as she took the envelope herself. Extracting the page before glancing over it, she set it back down before picking up a pen. “I admit there’s an element of risk, but what about for this figure?”

Seeing the amount that Julia wrote on the paper, Reina sighed as she took a second glance. “And how exactly are we supposed to bring this stuff through?”

“Isn’t working that out part of the job?” Julia laughed even though she knew that she was asking for a lot. Contrary to her expectations, however, Reina ignored her and instead pressed the button that activated the speaker.

“Pack up, we’re leaving,” she said as her voice was transmitted to the other side of the soundscreen. While Nina looked confused, Svanda seemed to understand as she quickly grabbed the second bottle of wine before leaving the discarded weapons on the bench. After taking a swig from the opened bottle that she hadn’t had time to fully enjoy, she moved into Nina’s booth before grabbing the other unopened wine bottle and picking up the magazines for the pistol.

“Put them away, let’s go,” she said as she dropped the magazines in Nina’s hand, who then stuffed them into her jacket. After sliding the pistol in her other pocket, Svanda guided her past the now rising soundscreen and up the stairs. With a curt nod in Julia’s direction, the pair headed out the open door to find that Reina had already made it halfway down the hallway while clutching a manila envelope.

“Here,” Svanda said as she handed the bottle of wine she had taken from Nina’s booth to Reina. After glancing at it for a moment, Reina snatched the bottle from Svanda’s hand without a word after they had entered the elevator.

Nina felt awkward as the three of them stood in the elevator. It was obvious that Reina was annoyed, but she didn’t want to ask why. As someone that had always seemed so composed, what had happened? When she thought back to Julia’s smile when they had left, she wondered if Julia had actually got one up on her.

“Didn’t go well, did it?” Svanda asked, much to Nina’s delight. While she couldn’t ask what had happened, Svanda certainly could.

“She asked us to go on a suicide mission,” Reina said while waving the envelope around as the elevator descended. “She thinks she can just throw money around and we will jump through as many hoops as she wants us to.”

Svanda chuckled while Nina remained silent as the display on the elevator rapidly approached the lobby. Reina said that it was a suicide mission, but they could both see that she was still holding the envelope.

“What’s worse is that she is trying to move me around like a pawn in some ridiculous game between her and Alan,” she added.

“A Ruryn family dispute,” Svanda whistled. “That is something I would not like to get tangled up in.” Seeing Reina’s expression change, she frowned. “You’re not getting us tangled up in it, right?”

After the elevator doors opened to reveal the lobby, Reina stepped out between the respectful gestures of two attendants while Nina and Svanda both fell in behind her. Crossing the floor, Nina heard Reina laugh from in front before she turned to show the pair a mischievous smile.

“Actually, I was thinking about jumping straight into the middle of it.”