Chapter 3
1155 Words
Chapter Three
‘Why do you still want training?’ Damien stood between two large oaks and faced Aviary.
‘Our last lesson was months ago, in Nevada,’ Aviary said. ‘I think I need more than that.’
‘It’s not a requirement.’
Aviary stared at him. ‘You don’t want to train me, do you?’
‘I will if you want me to.’
She placed her hands on her hips. ‘So what’s today’s lesson?’
‘Awareness.’
‘That sounds … not exciting.’
‘Your awareness isn’t fully developed yet,’ he said. ‘And that’s because of your anticipation. It’s interfering.’
‘Is that supposed to encourage me?’
‘What do you think makes a good pickpocket?’
‘Speed.’ She nodded. ‘Real speed.’
Damien stepped forward and grasped her elbow. She stopped breathing, looked down at her elbow. As she did, he took her phone from the other pocket and waved it in front of her.
Her eyebrows narrowed. ‘Ha! Cheap trick.’
‘Distraction.’ He handed the phone back to her. ‘When you’re out in the field—and the field is anywhere—you need to spot an operative as early as possible.’
‘I thought you were going to teach me how to fight,’ she said.
‘There’s a lot more to it than fighting.’
‘You take the fun out of everything.’ Aviary chewed her lip thoughtfully. ‘Isn’t spotting an operative really hard? I mean, the whole point of their training is to never be seen, right?’
‘That’s true,’ Damien said. ‘They have a range of disguises and if you know what they are, you have a better chance of spotting them.’
‘Oh, like in Mission: Impossible?’ Aviary asked.
‘No, that’s stupid,’ he said. ‘More like a spy movie.’
‘Right.’ She tilted her head. ‘So what should I be looking out for?’
‘The most effective disguise is none at all,’ Damien said. ‘The extremely ordinary person. This is how an operative blends into the baseline. Same clothing as everyone else. Same attitude as everyone else. Same movement as everyone else. They dissolve into their environment. There is nothing remarkable about them. They look—’
‘Boring?’ she said.
‘And your job is to identify boring before it’s too late,’ he said.
Aviary frowned. ‘How?’
‘Intention,’ Damien said. ‘You need to learn to see their intention.’
‘Yeah, well I’m not Sophia. I can’t smell their emotions like some sort of bloodhound.’
‘You don’t need to,’ he said. ‘Even with a trained operative in a crowd, you can see their intention, if you know what to look for. And when you’re fighting them, you can feel their intention before they strike. That makes you faster.’
‘Sounds out of my league,’ Aviary said. ‘Are you going to teach me that? Can you even teach me that?’
‘Close your eyes.’
She did so and smiled. ‘What are you going to do, huh?’
‘Attack you.’
‘Oh, right. What about your neck?’ She pointed to the wound from the Purity rally.
‘It’s healing, don’t worry about me. Now I want you to relax and breathe how I’ve taught you.’
Aviary exhaled noisily through her mouth, then her stomach expanded as she inhaled.
‘That’s good,’ he said.
‘I sound like Darth Vader.’
‘You’re engaging your vagus nerve when you exhale,’ Damien said. ‘The same thing cats do when they purr. It will calm you, and increase your focus.’
‘Fine.’ She kept breathing. Damien observed her arms were rigid and her body still carried tension. That would slow her down.
‘Close your eyes.’ He circled her. ‘I’m going to touch you, but I want you to react with minimal energy. Don’t overthink it. Just brush me off or counterattack.’
Aviary nodded. ‘All right, got it.’
‘Relax.’
Her shoulders slumped. ‘Got it.’
Damien grabbed her arm. She tensed, then clamped down on him with her other hand.
‘Minimal reaction,’ he said.
She released her grip, and seemed about to apologize, then turned her body. The movement broke his grasp.
‘Good.’ He padded softly around her again. ‘Keep talking. Don’t focus on me, just let it happen.’
‘At the rally … Sophia saved me,’ Aviary said. ‘I could’ve died yesterday.’
‘And you saved me,’ he said.
‘Not really, she saved all of us,’ she said. ‘Especially on the roof.’
Damien reached out to her chest, hesitated, then shifted his hand higher, placing his palm on her collarbone. She flinched, then grasped his hand firmly and turned away from him. Her shoulder pushed his arm out, locking it; just a little more pressure would break his arm.
‘Very good,’ he said.
Aviary released him. ‘Did Sophia rescue you? Like the others?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Did she grab you in the middle of some black operation, then whisk you off to her secret bat cave so she could deprogram you?’
‘Keep contact with my arms, even when I’m not touching you. You need to feel my intent before I make my move.’ Damien moved gently around her. ’Why would she have a cave full of bats?’
Aviary sighed. ‘Forget that bit. But everything else I just said.’
Her fingers ran lightly across his arm. He watched as she turned with him—eyes closed and hand still on his arm. She was getting good at this.
Gently, he grabbed her collar with one hand. She didn’t flinch this time. Instead, she slid her hand down his arm, her fingers closing over his elbow. At the same time, her other hand ran up his body. With one hand, she pulled his elbow out. With the other, she pushed his head away. He dropped to his knees.
Damien brought a knee up to rest his arm. ‘Not quite like that.’
‘Did I do that wrong?’ she asked.
He rose to his feet. ‘No, that was good. I mean I stayed with the Fifth Column for a while. Sophia didn’t abduct me or take me anywhere. So…’
With her eyes still closed, she smirked. ‘So you were like an undercover spy?’
‘For a little while.’
He shifted around her, while she maintained contact and tracked his movement. When he got behind her, he lightly pressed his fist into her shoulder blade. She yielded to his movement and turned. His fist slipped along her back, over her shoulder. She grasped it and pulled down on his arm, lightly.
Another arm break, with the right pressure.
‘You’re getting the hang of it.’
She released him. ‘I’m glad you think so, because I have no idea.’
‘Are you sure you want to learn this?’
‘You don’t want me to?’
‘I don’t want anything to happen to you,’ he said.
‘Yeah, well same with you.’
Damien hesitated; she would have felt the change in his movement.
Her hand touched his wrist. ‘You don’t think I can handle this,’ she said. ‘Do you?’
‘I never said that. Right now, you’re completely aware of my intent. That means you don’t need to guess my next move. You feel it.’
Aviary’s fingertips traveled lightly across his arm.
Damien raised his arm to attack.
Aviary stepped in close—eyes closed—and cut him off. ‘What if I can handle it?’ Her breath was warm on his neck.
He leaned slightly in. ‘That’s what scares me.’
A sharp buzzing broke the silence; Aviary’s phone. She stepped away from him, opening her eyes and reaching for the device. With his sensitive hearing, Damien could hear Nasira’s voice—both from Aviary’s phone and all the way back at the porch.
‘Sophia’s back,’ Nasira said. ‘You might want to get in here.’
- Writer
