Chapter 3- The Ringer

"Winner! Samantha!" Sakamoto called as I crossed the finish line three steps ahead of anyone else. I stopped and turned to walk back to everyone else, panting and bent over by the finish line. They all stared at me as I breathed normally. Cardiovascular training isn't that hard.

"Whaaaa?! No fair! She's cheating…. Somehow," the auburn haired girl complained. I had learned her name was Shirley. It was obvious she wasn't used to losing races as third place was several paces behind her at the finish.

"She served as a scout and counter sniper in the Marines. They train rigorously in stealth and speed, a major part of that is elite conditioning. It's no surprise that even you can't beat her in a race, Shirley," Sakamoto explained.

She grumbled under her breath, probably mocking what Sakamoto had just said, as she stared daggers at me. Then suddenly she exclaimed, "I'd take her out if I had my striker unit on!" Some of the other girls perked up at the challenge. I simply stood there and examined my nails.

One of them was chipped.

"Oh! A race! Yay! Go Shirley!" A small (very small) girl cheered. Her name is Francesca Lucchini.

Sakamoto looked at me. "Are you up to race her, Samantha?"

I sighed and shrugged. "Yeah, whatever."

Fifteen minutes later had us all in the sky in our striker units. Mine was completely silent as I floated next to Shirley with Sakamoto next to us, Shirley's engine was making all kinds of noise that'd get everybody killed in the kind of missions I was used to taking. Someone had suggested that the race should be held while we were both holding our weapons, so she had her Browning in her hands and I had my AK-47 in mine and my sniper over my back.

"First one around that sea pillar and back wins," Sakamoto explained. She nodded to Francesca to take up position as the starter and then moved to hover next to Mina, who surprisingly to me, had come out of her office to watch the race.

Francesca put an arm up in the air. "Ready?! GO!" She exclaimed and dropped her arm.

Once her arm dropped Shirley exploded out to an early lead while I more or less casually took off from the start. I kept a decent gap between us, slowly gaining on her, but not enough for her to notice right away with the number of times she looked back to check her lead. She didn't realize she was just slowing herself down.

When we got to the pillar I went to make my move. The reason I was letting her take a larger lead was because she would have to take a larger turn to complete the 180 degree turn while I could make at a much more direct line. She still completed it before I did but I made up a huge chunk of ground on her and she couldn't even hear me, which I compounded my elusiveness by flying high above her. Every time she looked back, she was looking down and back, she wouldn't see me up above.

I watched for the next time she looked back and noticed the confused look when she didn't see me, which quickly changed to an arrogant sneer. I took advantage of her overconfidence and accelerated right over her head and directly in front of her.

I could hear her swearing once she turned back up to see my butt flying away from her faster than she could accelerate and flew straight towards the finish. I pulled up right at the finish line, no wasted movement. Everyone looked shocked at how fast I had flown and how handily I beat their fastest witch. That is except for Sakamoto, Mina, Barkhorn and Shirley. The first three I expected as the leaders of the group. Shirley just looked pissed.

"Goddammit! How are you so fast?!" She screamed at me as she grabbed the lapels of my black uniform coat.

"I believe I already explained to you what kind of training she's been through, Shirley. Although," Sakamoto paused as she looked directly at me, and I knocked Shirley's hands of my coat. She didn't fight, instead making a semi-apologetic gesture and moved slightly away. Sakamoto continued, "You are much faster than the usual scout witch I've happened to witness flight training of. It shouldn't have been that easy to beat Shirley as she's just as fast as even the faster scouts when it comes to straight sprints like that race."

I shrugged and stopped biting at the chipped nail on my right hand. "I was always having to move really fast. It's become more or less of a habit for me."

Everyone nodded at that like it was some kind of profound thought. Nobody stopped to think about it, or anything else it could've meant.

Even Shirley stopped staring at me like I was a leper. "Oh, whatever. If I'm gonna get beat, at least I got beat by a fellow Liberian. But don't get too cocky, one of these days I'll take you down. Count on it," She said with a laugh and patted me on the shoulder.

I put on a fake smile as everyone crowded around me to congratulate me on my victory and properly welcome me to the Strike Witches.

Sakamoto broke up the huddle and ordered for extra flight training, seeing as we were all already flying. Everyone groaned as we began the usual training exercises. But for me it was a good thing. I was out of training after all and it gave me a chance to see what everyone else could do in orchestrated formations. And besides, I was a scout after all. We got to fly solo and out ahead of everyone else so I just had to fly out ahead and come back pretending to be tailed while they all reacted to my flight path.

After another few hours of training we returned to base. Most of the other witches were clearly exhausted, very low on magical energy. But not me. This was nothing. I've spent as many as twenty-one hours in flight training before, and that was pretty typical. Plus, today I didn't even have to use my stealth magic so I was even draining a quarter of my magical energy.

I docked my striker and put up my sniper rifle, but held onto my AK. Mina wasn't too keen to allow me to carry my rifle with me, but I don't go anywhere without it if I could help it. So in the end we compromised and I carried it unloaded and safety on, only one hopper in an ammo pouch on my waste.

"Hey, Samantha! Wait up!" the Miyafuji girl called out as I was about to walk out of the hangar. I turned to see her come running up to me, Lynette right behind her. Once she was caught up, she took a few breaths, then said, "Me and Lyne are going to the bath. You wanna go with us?"

"Yes. A nice, hot bath is very relaxing after a long day of training," Lynette chimed in.

"Bath? I'm more into taking showers," I said and started to turn to leave.

"Oh! We have those too! Come on!" Miyafuji cheered as she hooked her arm around mine and began to lead me down the hall, completely unable to take a hint. Lynette hooked my other arm, completely leaving me with no choice but to follow.

Lynette suddenly had a serious expression on her face as she looked to me. "Hey, Samantha, do you always go by that?" She asked politely.

"Sammi usually," I muttered as I tried to find an escape, wishing I had my arms back.

"You can call me Yoshika," Miyafuji volunteered. "And you can call her Lyne," She added, which Lyne nodded confirmation.

"Okay," I replied.

"Anyways, Sammi, why do you always carry your rifle around with you?" Yoshika asked.

The familiar weight of my most trusted weapon settled on my back, a constant reminder that it was with me. I smirked a little as I said, "I'm always on the defensive."

"That doesn't sound too healthy, Sammi! You should learn to relax," Lyne said, her voice full of concern.

I just looked at her wide, unassuming eyes. I sighed. "I'll take that under advisement."

All of a sudden they pulled me through a curtained door and up to a shelf stacked with wicker baskets. They quickly stripped off their clothes and put them in the baskets and wrapped towels around themselves. I couldn't help but notice that Yoshika stared rather openly, and with a bit of jealously, at Lyne's rather impressive chest.

"Alright then, I guess we'll see you at dinner then, Sammi!" Lyne said with a smile and wave as she and Yoshika entered the room for the baths.

I stripped off my own clothes once I was alone, and placed them in a basket separate from all the others on the shelf. I really didn't want to separate from my rifle, so I pulled a condom out of my pocket and wrapped it over the barrel, then carried it with me into the shower room, through the door next to the one Lyne and Yoshika went through.

The shower room wasn't actually really a room at all. It was open air and the shower heads were all placed on solid brick walls that ran the length out to a cliff, a stone railing serving to stop anyone from jumping off. There was a drain in the middle of the floor, which slanted down to draw all the runoff to gather there.

I chose the shower head nearest to me and placed my towel on the bar to the side between the two shower heads. I placed my rifle next to it, on the dryer side. I twisted the nob and lukewarm water began to rain down on my dark brown, almost black, hair. I didn't really feel like I needed a shower, so I simply stayed under the spray and let it run over my skin.

After a few minutes, I turned off the water and toweled off. Once dry I wrapped the towel around myself and slung my rifle over my shoulder.

As I was walking towards the exit, the curtain was pulled open to reveal Sakamoto. She had stopped just in time to avoid crashing with me.

"Oh? Samantha!" She exclaimed, surprise in her voice. "I thought I was the only one used the showers. Everyone else is just so enamored with the baths, and I don't blame them."

"Baths aren't really my style," I said as I stepped to the side to allow her to enter.

I was about to walk through, but she spoke up and stopped me from leaving. "Oh well. The bath really is beautiful. And relaxing. But I guess it's lucky that it's just the two of us who use the showers and we got all this space," She laughed, and I grunted an agreement. I heard her sigh. "Well, I'll see you at dinner then."

"Yeah, see ya," I said and left the showers to my basket. I got dressed quickly and left, the sounds of Yoshika and Lyne messing around in the baths following me out.

I wasn't exactly sure of where to go or what to do, but I did know that I wanted to find a place to be alone, so I just decided to wander around the halls.

After wandering around for a while, I happened upon a door that was cracked open that lead to one of the side towers that I had always assumed to be abandoned space. There were no lights on as far as I could see and all the furniture in the room I entered was covered by white sheets. There was a layer of dust on every surface, and quite a bit of it floating in the air as well. It seemed as good a place as any to go to to disappear for a while.

As I slowly strolled through the halls, looking at the paintings on the walls, I picked up on a strange noise coming from deeper within the tower. Instinctively, I dropped into a crouch and slammed the hopper onto my AK, leaving the safety on for now. I backed to wall and could see a corner up ahead. As quickly as I could I ran to the corner, stealth magic working, and stopped. I controlled my breathing to be as slow as possible, so that I completely blended into the environment.

The noise that I had picked up on had begun to distinguish itself and I was able to recognize it as a voice. A man's voice. But it was still too quiet for to make out what he was saying.

Before I could move to get closer and be able to make out what he was saying, footsteps began to approach me from behind. I turned with the barrel pointed in that direction, aimed directly at the chest of a girl with sandy blonde hair with her hands raised, Eila. I lowered the barrel and she let her hands down. I made a quick motion to crouch next to me, which she did without question.

"What are you doing here?" I asked so she could hear me but not so my voice would carry.

"Sanya-" She began to say normally but I turned my head like a bullet and patted the air down to tell her to shut it and talk quietly. She understood and corrected herself in a whisper. "Sanya was picking up on some strange broadcasts in this direction so I came to investigate. Is it you?"

I looked at her like she was an idiot. What part of my behavior looks like I'm broadcasting anything to anyone right now? But instead of saying that, I pointed to my ear and hooked a thumb back down the hall, which she seemed to understand seeing as how she nodded.

I got up and started to round the corner, turning back to gesture for her to follow and keep it quiet. But I was kind of concerned since I could no longer hear the voice. I slid my goggles down over my eyes and pressed a button on the side to activate the night vision. There's a small motion radar in the bottom of my vision and the only person showing up was Eila right behind me.

There were only three rooms in the hall in the direction I heard the voice coming from so it was quick to check them all. The first two rooms were unlocked doors and so full of random crap the rooms were basically rendered soundproof if anyone was even able to get into them and hold a conversation with someone else.

But the third door was locked. I slid open a small port on the stock of my rifle and pulled out a lock pick I kept in there. After fiddling around with the lock for a few seconds I got the door unlocked and quickly replaced the lock pick. I gave Eila the rifle, reluctantly, and pulled a ten-inch stainless steel blade out of by boot. I had seen her shooting and she was one of the more accurate shooters so I had a medium amount of comfort of her backing me up.

I got ready with my hand on the doorknob and held up three fingers. Eila nodded and placed a hand to my back. As soon as I felt her double tap, I started to count down. After the last finger went down, I twisted the knob and threw the door open, in case whoever was in here was hiding by the wall where the door opened.

This room was completely empty, save for a single table directly in the middle of the room. Whoever it was that was in here clearly had left already, and left nothing to signify his identity.

"Clear," I grumbled dismayed and pushed my goggles up to my forehead, flicking the off switch in the process. Eila waited until I put my knife back in my boot before handing back my rifle and I detached the hopper and released the round Eila cocked in the chamber, replacing it in the hopper before placing it in my ammo belt. Once done, my rifle went back over my shoulder.

"Okay," Eila said to the air as she turned to take in the whole room again, then turned back to face me. "Sanya said the broadcasts stopped once I got up here as I was in communication with her the whole time. It appears whoever it was has gotten away. For now, anyways."

I noticed something I overlooked before and moved to the conspicuous window. "Yeah," I muttered as I ran my hand along the bottom by the frame. I see anything suspicious outside the window, but I did notice a lack of dust of the sill. I turned back to Eila. "Don't tell anyone about what happened here, not yet anyways. Make sure Sanya knows."

"Why?" Eila snapped. "What good does it do to keep everyone in the dark if we've been infiltrated. We could all be in danger."

'Doubtful,' I thought to myself as I took in her glare. "He knows that we know about him being here but he also knows that he still has the upper hand because we were unable to confront and identify him. So if we raise suspicions then all that's going to happen is that he's going to be even more careful than he's already going to be, which will make it ever harder to catch him. If we leave it be for now, we may be able to catch him slip up. Maybe," I answered calmly.

She was still glaring at me as she seemed to at least be considering what I had just told her. Then the tired sounding voice of Sanya came through my earpiece, "She's right, Eila."

Eila's glare softened immediately upon hearing Sanya's voice. She sighed and said, "I know. And even if we took this to Mina or Sakamoto, they wouldn't even believe us without any proof. They'd probably chalk it up to paranoia and then punish us for coming into this tower. It is off limits after all."

"Alright. Then we're all in agreement. Keep your eyes and ears open. If you see or hear anything even remotely suspicious and in any way related to something like this, call me and call each other. Nobody acts alone. That goes for you too, Sanya. Agreed?" I asked.

Eila simply nodded and in my ear I heard Sanya say, "Agreed."

Before anyone else could say anything else, there were three chimes. I looked out the window and saw that the sun was slipping below the horizon and looked back to Eila.

"Dinner time," I said and left the room, heading back the way I came, Eila following a few steps behind.