Operative II:  Intensive Training

By:  Julie

“Wade, get out of the damn bathroom!”

“I’m taking a shower!”

“You are NOT! You’ve been— HEY!”

I threw my pillow at Heath. It connected with the back of his head. It was to early for their bullshit.

“Shut the hell up and let me sleep!” leaning over and stealing Heath’s pillow before burrowing under my blankets.

“You have to get up anyway,” Heath said, momentarily ceasing his incessant bathroom door assault. “New recruits. Can’t have them turning out like Trevor.”

I groaned. Boy was that guy a fuck up. “But I don’t want to get up. I deserve to get to sleep all day after last night.” I replied.

“Dan that good?” heath asked. I could HEAR his smirk. Hear it. From beneath three quilts and a sheet.

I snorted. “I’m sure Heath.”

“Then what was he?” Heath jiggled the knob on the bathroom door. “WADE!”

“Convenient,” I replied, sitting up and throwing the covers off. The chill in the room hit my bare skin hard. “Someone turned the heater off,” I remarked, scratching my ribs.

“We have a heater?” Wade asked, opening the bathroom door a crack. Heath practically ripped the door off the hinges getting it open then. I sighed.

“We used to,” I said. I slid off the bed and walked over to the closet. Bins of clothes. How… not civilized.

“The newbies stole it last March. Couldn’t take the cold.” Heath said.

“Mm.” I said. Recruit clothes, finally. Standard issue solid black GI pants. Black sweatshirt. So very… operative like. Half the new recruits would never even make operative teams.

“Why do you always go out there?” Wade asked. “You could be sitting up in the building with us, warm and bored, instead of working your ass off.”

“He likes to make them feel inferior,” Heath said. “Don’t you, Ash?”

“You know it. Also, Trevor. Need I say more?” I asked Wade. He shook his head. “Good. I’m taking you jacket.”

“But—“ Wade began.

“You’re going up to the main building, remember? To be warm?” I asked him.

“Yeah, but—“

“Cope,” I told him, then grabbed it off the rack and sprinted out the door and out to the quad.

“Nice to see you could join us,” Richardson said when I walked up. Chris gave me a look of curiosity, probably wondering why I was joining the ranks of kids about to be tested.

“Why—“ Chris began, but Richardson cut him off.

“It’s always like this. Has been for about seven years,” he explained cryptically. Chris nodded.

“Any questions?” Chris shouted at the recruits. They actually raised their hands. I almost laughed at him.

Richardson pointed to a blond kid a few people to my left. He looked weak. He looked scared. His voice cracked and wavered when he spoke.

“Why aren’t we wearing standard army gear sir?” he asked. “I mean…”

“You think this is the army?” I asked, before I could stop myself. Richardson glared at me.

“You’re disrupting.” He said, glaring at me. I glared back. Of all the disrespectful… “This is clearly not the army.” Richardson explained. “Once you are here, whether you make the team or not, you remain here. You are here because you are the best.”

“Or because you think you’re the best,” I muttered. Again, Richardson glared at me.

“You got something to say kid?” He asked.

“Yeah. These kids are here because they think that they’re the best. Because hey passed the tests.” I said. “Tomorrow they’ll be crying for their mommies and wanting to go home.”

“You disrespect him.” Said a man behind me. I turned around.

“You don’t know anything about that,” I said. It was Dan. Here to ruin my fun.

“Both of you be silent,” Chris said. Everyone around us was staring with wide-eyed shock. “And turn around,” he added. I could see it was a joy for him to order me to do something, especially after the night before when it was me giving the orders.

“We’ve wasted enough time,” Richardson said. “Let’s begin.”

The group progressed to the field, where various tests of strength and intelligence would be performed. The wall would be first. The wall was always first. To complete a mission, you first had to get inside. This often required the climbing of walls.

“Why don’t you go first?” Richardson said to the blond who’d asked the question about the uniforms. I smirked.

“But this isn’t climbable. There aren’t any handholds!” he cried, panicking.

“Most walls don’t have them. In your new line of work, you have to make do with what you have, and this is what you have.” Richardson told him.

“I can’t do it. I can’t go first.”

“I’ll go first,” I volunteered. At the same time:

“I can do it,” Dan said. I turned and glared at him. He glared back.

“Both of you can do it,” Chris said, stepping back. He gave me a nasty look. Dan must have told him what had happened the night before.

“You got tape?” I asked Richardson. If the brick of the wall tore up my fingertips, I wouldn’t be able to work with wires and electronics for days. The group behind me whispered among themselves.

“Race you to the top,” Dan said, a smirk twisting his lips as he walked over and began the slow ascent to the top.

Damned if I was going to leave my fingers unwrapped. Richardson handed me the tape and I proceeded to wrap all but my pinkies. They wouldn’t take much abuse on the wall anyway.

Dan was a good half of the way up when I was finished. This wall was easy. I ran at it and jumped, catching the ridges with the toes of my boots and digging my fingers into the ridges above my head. I could hear the boys on the ground below, talking, discussing.

I caught up with Dan easily. “Hi,” I said, looking directly at him. He was searching for his next handhold. I passed him quickly.

“Dammit Ashley,” he yelled after me. He speeded his climb to try to catch me, but didn’t make it. I was sitting on the top when he arrived.

“I hate you,” he said.

“That’s to bad. I liked you a lot.” I told him. I grinned at him. “You were rather enjoyable.”

Dan glared at me. I just kept smiling.

“Good job boys, you proved yourselves. Now get the hell down from there,” Richardson shouted.

“Thank you sir,” Dan said. He smirked at me and began to lower himself down.

“Suck up,” I told him. “Watch this.”

I stood up on top of the wall.

“Angel, what the hell are you doing?” Richardson shrieked.

“I’m getting down from here like you told me to,” I said, then jumped off the wall.

There was a collective intake of breath. I heard it as I sped toward the ground. I landed on my feet, bending my knees and putting my hands down to brace myself and prevent injury. I looked up at them through my lashes then stood.

Some of the boys applauded. Chris’s face was white. Richardson’s was as read as… well… blood, I guess. Needless to say, Richardson was pissed.

“Don’t you ever fucking do that again,” he shouted, getting up in my face.

“Oh come on Kevvy. It’s not like I don’t do that every year. You’d think that by now, you’d be used to it.” I said. “I mean, I have to do shit like that all the time, so what’s another jump? I mean, I jumped off a balcony last night. Scared the shit out of Dan here, but I did. Rode a chandelier to the floor, all secret agent-y like. Made me all hot and stuff.”

“That’s sick, man,” the blond who couldn’t climb the wall said.

“Well, we all gotta get hard on something,” I replied. He turned bright red. “Tell ‘em what you do, Dan.”

“Fuck you, Ashley,” Dan said, finally off the wall and walking over to the group.

“Not regularly,” I replied, smiling at him. He narrowed his eyes. “I mean for real. Tell them about the driving and the hotwiring and the holding a guy down so that he knows exactly what you want.”

“I don’t have to listen to this,” Dan said, his face flushed, two hot, bright spots of red above his cheekbones.

“Oh, but you DO have to listen to this,” I said. “Because who do you think is the brains on the team?”

I shouldn’t have left it an open question. “Wade,” Dan said.

“Bad example,” I said. “Who do you thing the brawn is? The strength of the team?”

Then I just wanted to hear what he’d say. It was my damn team. “Heath,” he said. HEATH? What? No.

“Then what am I?” I demanded. I yelled. I lost my cool. “What the hell am I?”

Dan smiled at me, happy that he’d been able to render me insane and defenseless.

“A pretty boy who thinks that he’s god.”

I stared at him. For all of three seconds.

My fist connected hard with Dan’s face. The center of Dan’s face. Dan’s nose.

He went down hard, sprawling onto the ground, in the snow and the mud. No one tried to stop us, no one tried to pull either of us away. I think some wanted to see Dan go down for that remark, and others wanted to see me go down for everything that I’d said all morning. Some of them probably just wanted to see a fight.

I had Dan down on the ground, both our fists were flying, snow was flying, mud and chunks of the ground were going everywhere. I did have the upper hand. I was tougher, had trained longer. I cheated.

I had my knee strategically placed at Dan’s crotch. If he hurt me, I was going to make him feel it. I didn’t mean to be a dirty fighter.

Yeah right. I always fought dirty. Fought hard, fought dirty, and won.

I thought I had him down. But suddenly, it was me who was on his back, me who was being ground into the dirt.

But Dan wasn’t really fighting. His body shielded mine from view and his hands were doing nastier things where the other people couldn’t see. I felt dizzy and hot, and suddenly I couldn’t move.

“Get off me,” I hissed.

“Why should I?” Dan asked. “I should humiliate you right here like you did me last night.”

I could taste blood in my mouth from the one good hit he’d gotten. “I’ll make it up to you. Just let me the fuck up.”

“No.” Dan said. “What was it to you? Why’d you do it?”

“It was fun,” I snapped. “It was for fun.”

“Your boyfriend was mad.” I rolled my eyes.

“Shit happens,” I said. “We’ve both done it, you learn to live with it.”

“You’re a fucking asshole,” Dan said. He was just realizing that?

“Yeah, I am.” I said. I shoved him off of me then sat up. “It comes with the territory.”

He was lying on his back in the snow. “What territory?”

“Doing this your whole life.” I said. Neither of us acknowledged the fact that there were about thirty people staring at us. “I took this test for the first time when I was twelve.” I told him, getting to my feet. “So did Wade. Heath joined a year later.”

Dan stared at me.

“Now you know.” I told him.

He launched himself at me again, tackling me to the snow. “I’m not through with you yet,” he snarled in my ear.

“I’m through with you,” I said back.

He licked the back of my neck. I froze.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked him.

“What’s it feel like I’m doing?” he asked.

“Licking me. STOP.” I shrieked, squirming and trying to get away. I managed to shimmy out from beneath him and take off running. Dan pursued, leaving a group of shocked new recruits and Chris and Richardson staring after us.

Later that night, I was buried under my quilts again, looking over Heath’s shoulder as he looked for information on our latest job—kidnapping a pretty little singer girl from Louisiana. I wondered how Heath could sit in the icy room in just his pants and not freeze to death. Maybe I was a wimp.

“Dan’s outside,” Wade said, coming in. I rolled my eyes. I had bruises all over my chest and my lip was swollen, I did not want more, thank you.

“Go talk to him,” Heath told me. I didn’t lift my head from where it rested on his thigh.

“No,” I said.

“Yes,” Heath said. “Or I’ll pick you up and carry you out there.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would.”

I looked at Wade for confirmation.

“I’d help,” Wade affirmed. I sighed and again slid from the warmth of my blankets into the iciness of the room. I could swear I saw icicles forming where the ceiling and wall met. I pulled on Wade’s coat and Heath’s sneakers.

I stepped out on the porch.

And Dan attacked me.

Sort of.

His mouth met mine hard, hurting my lip and making me grunt with pain. I was thinking that maybe it was get hurt or give in. So I gave in.

“Look,” I said, when he finally let go of me. “What do you want.”

“You. After last night…”

“I fucking BURNED you last night man. Why the hell…”

“I liked it.”

He liked being ripped apart like that? This guy was a bigger fuck up than me.

“Go back to your building,” I told him. “And leave me alone. There is something so seriously fucked up about this man. Just.”

“You can’t deal.”

“I have a boyfriend!”

“You said you both cheat!”

“Out of necessity and convenience!”

“That’s not love!”

“I KNOW!”

Dan stared at me. I stared back.

“You know?”

I knew. “I don’t want love. I could die tomorrow and then where does that leave him? He could die tomorrow, and I’m stuck with nothing.”

“That’s wrong.”

“No. Loving someone and then getting ripped away from them is wrong. It hurts. I don’t like it.”

“So a relationship is a convenience to you?”

“Yes.”

Dan looked confused. Dan looked disgusted.

“Now go back,” I told him. I turned and went back inside.

Wade raised an eyebrow and looked at me. I had no doubt that he had heard every word that had been said. I shrugged. Heath clicked the laptop shut and set it on the nightstand.

“Sorry.” I said. “But you know—“

“Just shut up.” Heath said.

“Shutting up.” I said. I rolled my eyes and crawled over him back into my warm little cocoon of blankets.

They were warmer with him in them.

Even if he was mad at me.

Even if everyone was mad at me.

I wasn’t alone.

Read Operative III