Kira sighed. “I knew I couldn’t outdraw Sanchez, but I knew I could turn pretty fast. So I thought if I showed up in an unexpected spot, I might have a chance.”
“So you were thinking about tactics.”
“I guess. But it didn’t work.”
“You didn’t have the speed or the skills to carry it off. But when you weren’t where Sanchez expected, he panicked and killed you outright.” Again, Diana grinned a little. “All his other opponents in your group, too. It was a short session.”
So that hadn’t been as big a disaster as she thought. What else was she wrong about?
“Were we . . .” Kira shifted uncomfortably, searching for both words and an emotional position. She forced herself to look at Diana again as she delivered her question. “Were Chloe and I ever as far down as we thought we were?”
A smile stole across the instructor’s face. “No. You were both always in the top third.”
“Then what about—?”
“The class rank people were talking about?”
“Yeah.”
“That was a hearing test. It’s measured in the percent of your original hearing you’ve lost. You and Chloe have good ears, which put you near the bottom.”
Heat rose in Kira’s chest. “You knew that.”
Diana remained calm and silent.
“But you let us think . . .” Kira trailed off, not trusting herself to say more. Did she even want Diana as a mentor now?
Diana folded her arms and leaned on the table. “I don’t know who left the results out, or why, but I knew what was happening. I let it play out because it told me something I needed to know.”
“Which was what?” Kira couldn’t keep the suspicion out of her voice.
Diana leaned back and swung one leg over the other. “There are three things to do when you’re down: quit, keep doing what you’re doing, or do what it takes to get back up. Any one of those can be right, but most people are too quick to quit. Especially if they’re identified as talented and gifted.”
Kira’s jaw twitched. That tag had followed her all the way to graduate school, and it had done at least as much harm as good.
Diana continued. “You have potential, but that’s nothing if you can’t recover after a setback.” She smiled again. “You recover well.”
“So you want to mentor me and Chloe.”
“I want to mentor you.”
Kira frowned. “Look, if you think I’m scrappy and recover well, Chloe is like twice that. She got the tip that got us into the training center.”
Diana took a breath. “Chloe’s a scrapper, I’ll give her that. Life dealt her a shitty hand, and she’s busted her ass for everything she has. But she doesn’t have your raw ability. I’m looking for people to take as clients when I rotate off instructor duty. You’re right about the AI. If we work together and request each other, we’ll probably be matched. I can only take five, and I need to be selective.”
Kira stared at the tabletop. If she took Diana’s offer, was it really betraying Chloe? She’d done what she could do. It was Diana’s decision, not hers. Besides, Chloe didn’t even like Diana. She was still afraid of her, even after the prep sessions. Anyway, there were nearly ten months until graduation. She could broach the subject with Diana again later, after she had the chance to feel things out a little more . . .
Diana folded her arms and leaned on the table again, continuing in her matter-of-fact tone. “It’s your decision, but you should know some things that aren’t public record. First, I’ve never worked with a trainee who failed to graduate. Second, my clients live. In a typical class, only about a third stay alive to complete the twenty-six matches they owe TKC after graduation. For my clients, it’s half. That’s the best record in the Guild.”
Kira’s throat tightened, and she struggled to get the words out. “A third? They keep telling us we have a 96 percent chance of walking off the field alive if we’re good enough to get through training.”
Diana got that amused look again. “Six and a half years of college, and you never took a stat class.” It wasn’t a question.
“No, but how . . . ?”
“If you lose 4 percent of the class on every match, by the time you complete twenty-six matches, only a third are left. Cumulative odds are like compound interest. It’s a little worse at the beginning and a bit better at the end, but that’s how it works.”
Kira folded in on herself. To stay in the program, she needed to pass three quarterly evaluations, and Diana could help with that. With any luck at all, something would turn up on the outside before survival rates became important to Kira. For Chloe, though . . .
Kira read the scene. Her teachers had always said acting was as much about what your partners were giving you as what you did. Across the table, Diana’s face remained calm, but tight shoulder muscles showed through the uniform. Though her arms lay in a relaxed-looking fold, two fingers tapped her forearm. All of which meant . . . Diana had something at stake here, too. Kira would never have more leverage than she had right now.
She stood. “Thank you, Ms. Reynolds. You’ve been a great help, and I appreciate the offer, but Chloe and I are a team. It’s both of us or neither of us.”
Diana rose in turn, the faintest flicker of surprise crossing her features. “You don’t have to decide right now. Talk it over with Chloe, but understand I’m doing what I need to do.”
“I know, and I understand. But Chloe and I promised each other. I’m doing what I have to do, too.”
Kira turned and walked to the door.
Wait for it . . .
She put her hand on the door handle, pressed down—
A voice from behind her: “All right.”
Kira stopped, but didn’t turn. Diana shouldn’t see her face right now.
“Both of you.”
Kira let out a breath, composed her expression, and walked back to the worktable. “Thank you. You won’t regret it.”
Diana pointed to the chair. “Sit down. If we’re doing this, we need to talk.”
She then moved back toward the table but didn’t seat herself. “Here’s what I’m offering: Work with me a couple mornings a week, maybe some evenings. We’ll drill, assess your performance, and see if I can help. If we like working together, we request each other at graduation. If the AI matches us, you become my client, and I become your second.”
Diana paced in the tiny open area on the far side of the table as she continued. “You’ve got natural talent, but that’s nothing without work. My job is to make you the best gunfighter you can be. To do that, I need you to follow my orders. Ask questions if you don’t understand, but I expect you to follow through even if you don’t. Can you do that?”
Kira nodded. “Yes.”
Diana stopped pacing. “I’m going to ask Chloe the same question, and she needs to agree, too.”
“I’m sure she will. I’ll talk to her.”
“All right—good. Let’s start by meeting Wednesdays and Fridays at 6:00 a.m. Wednesdays at Simulator Four, Fridays at Firing Point Three.”
Kira keyed the dates into her handset.