Chapter 24

“We get instructors, and for every ten tickets, we get a Silver key, lockbox or silver and one in twenty Silver lockboxes I open, I get to choose an item.”

“And who in the hell is her?” Nat felt she had held her tongue long enough.

“She,” Matt corrected. Earning a death gaze from Natalie.

Matt and Nat went at it again.

“This is Natasha Kozlov. She is our new teammate.”

“And a spy,” Jude didn’t like her.

“Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows what the future holds?”

“But we do have two Nats. Natasha, is there anything else you go by?” Heather asked. She and I had discussed the inclusion of our latest addition on the phone at length.

She had been expecting that question, “Koz.”

It was probably better than the other nicknames she earned growing up.

“Koz over there is already Level 4, 3 in dual Sais. She can keep up with Ed pretty well, so I don’t think that ability will be an issue. Trust, like for the rest of the newcomers, will need to be earned.”

“I still say she is a spy.”

“Jude, I’m a spy,” Lt. Kozlov deadpanned.

“See! She is a spy.”

Natasha-Koz grinned. Even Ed liked Natasha’s response.

“Jude, they can haul me off at any time and ask their questions. This way they get their information and we, too, can ask ours.” I tried to placate the girl.

“I don’t like it. Or her.” Honestly, I thought that was the issue. Jude felt threatened.

Or Jude was speaking for Kate and her authority issues. Or in place of Kate, who also felt threatened by Koz’s beauty and the intelligence officer’s proximity to me.

Being a pretty spy didn’t help the girl’s confidence levels at all. Only Nat seemed immune. Matt was truly growing on her.

“Alright. Everyone introduce yourselves and let’s get to practicing. Heather took a busy evening off of Mount Everest-sized paperwork pile. Let’s not waste it.”

Koz came prepared. She wore the same special forces combat clothes as the rest of us. Only Heather, Ed and I differed. I preferred my black skintight Kevlar undies to work out in, Heather added combat fatigues over hers and Ed would need a crowbar or five to separate her from her long-sleeved chainmail minidress. No one else even got to try it on, regardless of how they pleaded and begged.

We had two hours, and it had already been a long day.

We did spend an extra thirty minutes after our familiarization allotted time playing ‘Kill the Ghoul Lord’. They died, but did better with Ed, Koz, and Marshawn all on the same team. Marshawn’s shield could take one solid hit and only get seriously staggered. The second was a death knell for the man.

In that time between the first hit and recoil on the stand in ghoul lord; me, Ed, and Koz got some great shots in.

If only we could get the Lord to cooperate. If he went after anyone other than Mar first, they were toast.

“We need to figure out a way for Mar to attract the Ghoul Lord. A good taunt Skill or something.”

“Girl Ghoul pee,” Beau with a broken wing sat to the side and threw out that terrible sounding lure.

“I’ll pass, you ass.” Marshawn agreed me with me.

“Something to work on. Tomorrow, we have new sets of Indigos to play with, courtesy of our spy’s paymasters. The teams are as follows...”

...

“Ed, give the tickets to Austin. We need real cash; have him see how much he can get from his friends.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, there will be more in the future. Heather can’t always support all of us. Besides, we all need the best body armor like mine.”

“Okay.”

“And have him keep it quiet.”

...

Three days later, a pair of retired Army Ranger DI’s arrived. Deke was built like an American Indian Clint Eastwood, without the cigar and the hat. The other, a bald, black Hulk Hogan, was Jamison. Both barely under fifty and serious as all get-out.

We all liked them. Well, maybe not Cait who still missed Tol and his teachings.

Everyone was required to put in a minimum of four hours a day for the first two weeks with one or the other. Heather excluded. Even Beau, with his broken arm, wasn’t exempt, nor Toff, with all of his experience, although he was drafted as a co-instructor more often than not.

On day one with me, there was a problem. It wasn’t my fault.

“Jamison. I have an Endurance of a 14 and a Strength of a 12. Sit-ups, laps, and pushups won’t cut it. Just ask Toff.” Not that he was asking me to do any of those, but even basic warmups didn’t warm me up.

“What does a strength of a 12 mean?”

Toff replied, “We never tested Jason, he seems resistant to put a number on his strength. A quarter-ton maybe, maybe more. Think of him as stronger than any human that has ever lived, and he could run around the world and not get tired. His football buddies are in awe of what he can do.”

“Like Heracles?” Jamison sought clarification. I saw his beady eyes thinking on how to make me suffer the most under the guise of improving the fastest.

“Something like that.” Noticing the direction of Jamison’s questions, Toff grinned his reply.

“Okay. So, we don’t need to work up a sweat. Let’s begin.”

It sucked. My practice weapons kept breaking. My control wasn’t good enough for him.

“He doesn’t get tired, does he?” Jamison noted aloud.

“He does need to eat, Jamison.” Ed sat on the sidelines recovering from a lengthy sparring session and eating my sandwich.

And not sharing.

“Builds character. NOT like that, Blakely. Block as I showed you.”

Even the Terrible Quad went through this. Caitlin was melding better and better with Kate and the crew and put in long hours the first two weeks. Our sparring was to get better acclimated to what actions our teammates would do in a given circumstance.

I wasn’t sure if it was working, but Ed and Toff were pleased.

We were also getting better on the ‘Kill the Ghoul Lord’ practice sessions.

David’s Skills were decent, but his power Levels were lagging behind and not being cleared for reentry into gates didn’t help. He was having issues catching up, plus his attitude didn’t help. He felt that he should be in charge of the hunting teams and couldn’t understand why I had taken over what he considered his place, as easily as I did.

The obstacle courses were interesting. Avoiding the hits were cake at first, until Deke drafted Ed and Koz to help out.

Both women had 11s in agility. Ten was still human, elevens weren’t. The difference sounded slight, but in practice it was a massive gap.

Both Ed and Koz enjoyed tormenting me and everyone else that went through the course. Even Beau of the broken arm wasn’t allowed to rest on his laurels or, in his case, a really fat ass.

When it was Koz or Ed’s turn, we did our best to give them as good as they gave, but both women were just that more agile than we were, even numbers on our side could not make up for our lack of Agility.

But we persisted, and I came to understand that that was part of our training too.

Deke had Jude swap out for me in the Ghoul Lord practice. She was just as fast and didn’t really need strength. Any hit was considered critical. One was all anyone besides me and Mar would get. And for Mar, only if he was ready and in the block stance, did it not count as a kill. Learning to angle the shield to deflect instead of completely absorb the blow would take the man a while.

Jude, Koz, and Ed ended up getting a lot of personal coaching from Deke. Of all of them, Jude wasn’t all that pleased with his teachings initially, but Deke knocked that attitude out of her.

Only Kate remained steadfastly in the anti-Koz camp, and it had been over two weeks already.

When Heather had had enough, she took our teenaged super-healer out alone somewhere. After midnight the two returned home drunk and smelling of a bar. With Kate poured into bed, Heather joined me in my room. Drunk.

“We don’t like her.”

“I gathered.”

“She is too pretty.”

“About the same as you and Ed.”

“She is too Skilled.”

“About the same as you and Ed.”

“She is too accom ... Accom dating you. We don’t want her to date you.”

“She isn’t.”

“Good.”

“We don’t want Ed to marry you.”

What the hell?

“We haven’t even been on a single date.”

“You met her mother.”

“Ed’s mother met David, too. I don’t see them getting married.”

“David is a jealous ass. I’m relassing. Fire, firing him.” she slurred.

“I agree. Too bad that the Quebec guys didn’t come, they would have fit in well.”

I blatantly changed the subject; she was too drunk to stay on her current track.

“They got a sponsor.”

“How about a shower?”

“It’s my period.”

“My shower won’t care.” It didn’t. Jude shared one of her pads. I recommended that she shower Kate too. Water and aspirin were necessary for both. Heather confiscated my bed and I spent the night on the couch. Even after showering, she smelled like 100 proof.

Kate didn’t show up for lessons that day, and Heather went to work late. I didn’t realize until that next day in training, that Nat did not spend the night at my house.

“Nat?” I cornered Jude while making breakfast.

“She’s good.” Jude was tired, I suspected, from dealing with Kate, who I heard vomit more than once last night.

“Will you two be good?”

“Yeah, we are sisters. Is that okay?”

“As long as you guys are happy, I am all good.”

“Cait’s family is here this weekend. DB is going to meet them,” she grinned.

“He has no choice. That girl will run his life, not that he will mind.”

Giggling, Jude skipped away.

Everything was good on my team. For now.

Heather stopped by after work, David was paid his severance and quietly escorted out of the building with a glowing recommendation for his next employer.

We had a problem with DB. And it was a big one, and it wasn’t his ass or stomach.

A Halberd was a polearm: an eight-foot-tall weapon with an Ax blade on the head. We had a ton of trouble adjusting to its presence and room to move and swing. Deke ended up placing him in the middle of our formations, which began settling some of the issues, yet that caused issues of a different sort.

He was fine if solo or given enough room. Tight formations were the killer. Especially our typical boxes or diamonds. His size of nearly seven feet made reaching over people too easy for him. Both Koz and Ed moved around a ton in combat, and hitting them almost became the norm. That had to stop.