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Chapter 10: Training

This is an expert from a book I am writing:

Finally, I was on my way to training again. I was waiting for this all week. I was in the lamborgini next to Jack with Richard in the front, it shined from the lamplight. I looked at my watch, it was 12:30. I couldn’t bring my phone, Richard had said, in case it was being tracked.

“Anything happen this week?” Richard asked, looking at me from the front mirror while raising an eyebrow. He was wearing his multi purposeful sunglasses that were on night vision mode.

“No, it was all clear,” I smiled. I was so happy about this but I knew that, that happiness could end real fast. I looked at Jack, he turned away, but he was smiling too.

“That’s good, does that mean these tests are over?” Jack asked his father.

“I think so, but be on your guard Victoria, you’re already doing well with that.” Richard answered with a mischievous smile. Of course he noticed how I had been acting this past week, I’ve been on full alert.

“Thank you,” I said with pride, I was glad that Richard noticed I was being more alert. We got out of the car and I saw a small light coming from the Spy Agency building.

Jack turned to me, “Thank you,” he whispered.

“For what?” I asked, confused.

“For being careful, like I asked,” he was whispering so close to my ear. He put a hand on my shoulder. The light from the building illuminated his sharp jawline. He looked me in the eyes, and then turned around to follow his father.

I caught up with him, “Anytime,” I whispered back.

“Today,” Richard exclaimed with great enthusiasm, “is the day we are going to talk about the things that you guys will be interacting with the most, people.” Jack and I looked at each other at the same time, he shrugged and I turned back to Richard.

“When a group of people laugh,” Richard continued, getting straight to the lesson itself. “Each one of them will instinctively look towards the group members they feel closest to, or want to feel closest to.” At this, I tried to think to when I was in a group when we all laughed and who I looked at. I couldn’t remember but I knew this fact was going to be useful in the future.

“I want you to take a look at people's feet when they’re talking to you.” Richard said as he looked down, gesturing with his hands toward his own feet. “If they are pointed away from you, the person you are talking to wants the conversation with you to end. If their feet turn to point toward you, they are okay with you talking to them and want to talk to you.” I will definitely use this, although it might be weird if I directly look down at people’s feet while saying hello. I just have to look at the person but also notice their feet in my peripheral vision.

“If you make yourself be really enthusiastic and excited to see people, the next time they see you, they’ll probably be a lot happier about it.” Richard kept putting different scenarios in my head for every fact but then quickly gave me another one to think about.

“Lastly, I’m just gonna tell you guys to try to stay on everyone’s good side, it will definitely help.” I looked at Jack, he was squinting his eyes and thinking hard about something. I turned my attention back to Richard so I wouldn’t be caught staring.

Richard clasped his hands together excitedly, “Now let us go to the gun room, we also just call it the G.R.”

I got up and Jack shook his head out of his thoughts and followed behind me. Richard let us back to the grey room that had an array of multiple guns on the wall. He grabbed two pistols and handed one to me and one to Jack. He then took one for himself. Richard went to one of the sections with the human dummy and we watched closely.

“First, you guys are going to pull this top part back,” he pulled it towards himself and I heard a small click. “Then, you cock the gun like this.” He flipped the small hook on the back of the pistol downwards, I again, heard a faint clicking noise. He then looked at both Jack and me and held to gun a full arm's length away, pointing at the doll with his finger on the trigger. He pulled the trigger and shot to dummy straight in the, “heart,” with perfect aim. He shot again and again, getting it right in the middle of the, “forehead,” and on the, “knee.” I marveled at his aim and saw Jack look at the doll with raised eyebrows. I looked down at my own gun and imagined myself being able to aim with such skill.

“Now you try,” Richard said, gesturing to me and to pistol with his hands. “Aim for the ‘heart’.”

I walked over to the section where Richard was standing, and he moved out of the way but watched me closely. I pulled the top part of the gun back, held it an arms length away with both hands, and cocked it. Hearing the two faint clicking sounds assured me that I must have been doing this right. I aimed and pulled the trigger. I was not expecting the force that came from the small gun. I was knocked backwards but managed not to trip and maintained balance.

“That part is always fun to watch,” Richard smiled. He looked at the doll and nodded his head, “Not too bad. At least you hit the general target.” I looked at the doll, my bullet hit it down in its waist, near the right hip bone. I frowned a little but shrugged at Richard and Jack.

“Your turn, Son,” Richard said gently, placing a hand on Jack’s shoulder and using his other hand, which still held the pistol, to where I was standing. I took some steps back and Jack walked over to where I was standing. He looked uneasy, as if he didn’t want to shoot the doll. He looked at it as if it was a real person. I looked away, his instability made me uncomfortable.

Nevertheless, he took a shaking hand and pulled the top part back. Why is his hand shaking? I noticed he didn’t pull the top part back all the way.

“Pull it back farther,” I whispered. He looked at me and nodded, then pulled it back again, farther this time. I saw Richard using the corner of my eyes. He was concentrating, hard. He was crossing his hands with his free hand on his chin. I looked at Jack again as he held the gun at arms length and cocked it with his thumb. The gun was shaking. The image of him sweating, shaking, and and close to tears the day we met the judges went through my brain. Something was bothering him, something was hurting him. He pulled the trigger and the bullet went through where the collar bone would have been. The gun’s force threw him back a couple of steps but he maintained his balance just like I had.

“You two are not too bad.” Richard said with an amused smile. “With a little work, you will eventually be able to shoot like me and every other trained spy here.”

“We haven’t seen any other trained spies,” Jack sighed, waving a hand in the air, “the most people I’ve ever seen were you and Victoria and the judges.”

“That’s for a reason, you aren’t going to see anyone else here until you two complete your first mission. I’m not talking about one of those small ones where you just get some classified information or something, I’m talking about real missions when you spy on people and help us with a serious problem.” Richard said this passionately, but to me, getting classified papers already seemed hard enough.

Richard took me back to my house after Jack and I worked in the gym some more. His legs and my arms were getting stronger and we were becoming much faster.