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  Horchoff, watched as Daniels facial expression changed from one of misery, to one of delight. Daniel smiled and opened his eyes to look at the doctor.

  “Do you feel it?” Horchoff asked, a smile of his own forming upon his face.

  “Yes,” Daniel replied cheerfully. “It feels like something’s pressing against my skin.”

  “No pain?” asked a hopeful Horchoff.

  “No pain,” replied a confident Daniel.

  Horchoff laughed out loud as he took the shock stick off of Daniel’s body. He couldn’t control himself as he went in for a hug.

  Daniel laughed as he accepted the embrace.

  “Maybe I should poke you with that thing just to make sure it’s not malfunctioning,” Daniel suggested.

  “I don’t think that’s necessary,” Horchoff responded with a smile. “Daniel my boy – you are truly remarkable.”

  Chapter 14

  It only took a day for Daniel to get used to his new training routine of breakfast, Krav Maga, lunch, pain management, dinner, and then drinks with the guys. He found having such a structured routine sometimes made it difficult to tell each day from the last.

  Daniel had really come to enjoy his Krav Maga lessons. They were exhausting – Elise worked him hard – but he greatly appreciated her efforts to turn his body into a lethal weapon in just a limited time period.

  He found that his training with Elise sometimes took more out of him than his workouts with Robby had, but he found them exhilarating. Each day he was learning new moves that would help him kick some serious ass come the day he actually found himself needing to use them. Whether he was learning side hammer fists, knees to the gut, elbows to the head, or how to get out of a choke hold – Elise taught him how to survive.

  He got really excited the day he found out he was going to learn how to disarm an armed assailant. Elise had brought in a real gun for them to practice with, though it was not loaded. She told Daniel she had done so in order to get him familiar with the feel of taking a real gun rather than a dummy.

  “Make sure you grab the slide when you reach for the gun,” she told Daniel, having him hold the gun up to her while she slowly went through the motions of taking it from him. “This way it won’t be able to fire once you get a grip on it.

  “Also make sure you are moving your body, and more importantly your head, out of the line of fire as you reach up with your grabbing hand. This should be the opposite of whatever hand they’re holding the gun in,” Elise instructed as she slowly reached up and grabbed the gun while moving her head to the side.

  “Bring your other arm up at the same time and smack the inside of their wrist, making sure you use a sloth grip to keep from breaking your thumb.” She narrated her movements as she brought up her other hand, making sure to keep her thumb extended and tucked in next to her index finger as she pushed against the inside of his wrist.

  “Then simply twist the gun with your grabbing hand, ripping it from your attacker’s grip,” she concluded, as she twisted the gun out of Daniel’s hand.

  “Now hold it up again and watch me do this at full speed,” Elise said as she handed the gun back to Daniel and took her position in front of him.

  Daniel pointed the gun at her in a threatening manner.

  “Be sure to keep your finger away from the trigger or I’ll break your finger,” she warned with a half-evil smile.

  Then, before he could blink, she was smacking his wrist and twisting the gun out of his hand before turning it around and pointing it back at Daniel.

  “Let this also be a lesson on staying out of arm’s reach from your target should you be the one with the gun,” she quipped, keeping Daniel in her sights. “The bullet is fast enough that a few feet isn’t going to make much difference. Now you try.”

  She disregarded her own advice and stepped in closer to Daniel so that he would be able to reach the weapon.

  He moved his feet beneath him so that they were shoulder-width apart. He took a deep breath, then struck.

  He was able to grab the barrel of the gun with his left hand and move his head away, but was clumsy with his right hand as he tried to make solid contact with Elise’s wrist and use it as leverage when twisting the gun around.

  Daniel’s attempt at the maneuver was a miserable failure.

  Elise brought the gun back up, and motioned for Daniel to try again.

  He tried to move six more times, and each time he was unable to pull the gun from Elise’s grip. Finally on the seventh try he successfully took the weapon from her, though it didn’t look nearly as fluid as when Elise had done it to him.

  “This one will take a lot of practice to master,” said Elise. Daniel thought he could hear a trace of laughter in her voice.

  “If you’re not entirely confident in the move it can also be effective to grab the gun, move it aside, and follow with a swift fist to the face before ripping the gun away.” She was smiling as she said it but Daniel had come to know her well enough to know that it was meant as a serious point of advice.

  Daniel liked that he didn’t have to use his abilities during his time with Elise. Every move he learned he would practice with his own natural ability, though he was always cognizant of where he could use increased strength to an advantage when faced with a real fight. But there was no need to do so while with Elise.

  He was using plenty of his talents in his time with the good doctor. Learning to deal with the pain of injury was never supposed to be pleasant, but Daniel had come to find it rather dull. From pokes and prods to cuts and bruises and burns – it was all the same thing: Find the signal being sent from his nerve endings to his brain and rather than translating them into the feeling of pain interpret them as simple touching. It seemed rather complicated when spelling out the process, but the actual process itself was quite easy for Daniel to complete.

  In working with Horchoff he had also learned to prevent himself from feeling extreme hot or extreme cold. His body temperature would rise no matter what – there was nothing he could do to prevent that – but he could change the way the temperatures felt on his skin.

  It was a bizarre experience. He could feel his insides getting hotter in extreme heat, but he didn’t feel hot. That is, he couldn’t feel the heat on his skin.

  That would come in handy with sunburn, he thought to himself.

  “Be sure not to abuse that ability,” Horchoff warned. “Feeling those sensations is our body’s way of telling us to remove ourselves from a harsh environment. Without it you could collapse from heat exhaustion or suffer from frostbite without even knowing you were in danger.”

  After completing his second week of self-defense and pain management training, Daniel could not wait to settle down and have a drink or six with his fellow agents. From the moment he stepped into the lounge he could feel a buzz emulating from the agents in the room that he hadn’t experienced previously.

  All of the seats were full, both at the bar and those scattered throughout the room. A number of agents had taken to standing or leaning against the nearest wall as they talked to their friends and fellow agents.

  After grabbing a beer from Theodore, the regular Friday night bartender (don’t call him Teddy), Daniel noticed Shifty and Charlie sitting at one of the tables along the glass wall that looked out into the challenge arena. They were accompanied by two other agents.

  Daniel recognized the chiseled tan man with black hair and facial stubble as Tobias, a former Seal. The other was a pale, brawny woman with dirty blonde, shoulder-length hair that Daniel had never seen before.

  “Well this place is hopping,” Daniel said as he approached the table.

  “Third quarter rankings, dude!” Charlie responded enthusiastically.

  “Is it time for that?” Daniel asked.

  Daniel remembered the ranking board he had seen when Blank had lead him down to the medical level to meet with Horchoff for the first time. He had always known that Titan was the number one agent at Elite, but beyond that he
had never given a whole lot of thought to the rankings, probably because he hadn’t been around long enough to be ranked. In fact, he hadn’t even thought to inquire as to when the rankings were changed.

  “Hell yeah, man!” Shifty shouted. “Tomorrow is the first Saturday in October. Rankings day.”

  “Is it October already?” Daniel asked in disbelief.

  For the first time Daniel realized that he had not been outside of the complex in over nine weeks. Nine weeks. He had not had even a whiff of fresh air in over two months. He had completely lost track of time.

  “You’d better believe it,” Charlie replied. “The quarterly rankings are a big deal, and the night before is always kind of a celebration for a lot of us.”

  “We don’t get many chances to celebrate,” the woman spoke, sipping on a glass of red wine. “So we make it a kind of an event. Like a homecoming football game.”

  “Daniel,” Charlie butted-in, “this is Isabella. She is currently the highest ranked female at Elite – fourteenth overall.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Daniel said, extending his hand to shake Isabella’s.

  “You as well,” she returned the greeting. “And come tomorrow at noon I plan to be higher than fourteenth,” she added, directing the remark in Charlie’s general direction.

  Isabella seemed like a charming woman, Daniel thought, but a little too rough around the edges to draw any sort of romantic interest from him. Her build gave her the appearance of being physically strong, and he could understand how she would be the highest ranked female agent.

  “Most of the agents who aren’t out on assignment come in to hang out the night before and crash here for the night, then we all get up and head to the arena for the unveiling at noon,” Charlie explained.

  The group went on talking as they downed a few drinks, directing almost the entire conversation toward the upcoming reveal of the latest rankings. After finishing her second glass of cabernet, Isabella excused herself and left the lounge.

  “Two glasses of wine is really letting loose for her,” Charlie commented after she had left. Daniel didn’t mind as he was able to occupy her now vacant seat.

  From what he could gather from the conversations around the room, everyone was guessing who would be ranked where after Saturday’s reveal. There were currently forty-three agents at Elite, and the only thing everyone was absolutely certain of was that Titan would remain at the top. There was also little question that an agent named Ace – who happened to be the most tenured agent – would be number two, followed by the agent who had climbed to number three after finishing the obstacle course for the first time in the last quarter’s rankings – an incredibly athletic guy called Tiger. Daniel had never seen Tiger before, but he had heard quite a lot about him and his impressive physical talents.

  Then things got dicey around four, five and six. Most agreed that three men; Grog, Diamond Dave, and Jefferson – the only man in the top-ten without a nickname – were in the running for the fourth place ranking, but it was unclear which would win it.

  Jitters was going around the room spouting about how he felt he had earned a top-five ranking this quarter, which would have been a significant improvement over his current standing at number nine. Everyone seemed content to let him live in his own little fantasy.

  Everyone had their own opinion of where the rankings would line up from there. Being new to the agency, Daniel had no clue how the rankings would play out, but he enjoyed listening to everyone else debate them. He couldn’t help but wonder where he might fit in to all the mayhem that was the Elite Personal Security Force agent rankings.

  “You my friend, are the wildcard,” Shifty said pointing at Daniel, as if reading his mind.

  “What do you mean?” Daniel asked, genuinely curious.

  “Well,” Charlie began, expanding on Shifty’s thought as one often did for the other, “this is your first rankings. Generally that would put you toward the bottom, or considering that you haven’t even been out on a mission yet, at the very bottom.”

  “But you finished the obstacle course,” Shifty cut-in, taking back the control of the monologue that he had initiated. “You are physically superior to the majority of us and we all know it.”

  “Everyone knows it,” the generally quiet Tobias added.

  Daniel couldn’t help but smile at the compliment as it always made him feel good to receive praise from an agent other than Charlie or Shifty. The previous week had marked one year at Elite for Tobias. He was currently ranked in the eleventh spot and had his sights on the top-ten.

  “It will be interesting to see where Richfield decides to put you,” Shifty added, finishing his thought.

  “I guess twenty,” Charlie stated boldly, taking a swig of his brew.

  “Top half?” Tobias countered.

  “Yes sir. We all know he’s Richfield’s golden boy,” remarked Charlie with a smile.

  Daniel returned the grin. It was an ongoing joke with the other agents, and it was one that Daniel found difficult to rebuke. It was no secret that Richfield was determined to see Daniel succeed, proving that his investment will have paid off.

  It was said that Richfield and Blank spent the entire night before the release of the rankings locked up in his office, reviewing mission and training reports, analyzing and agonizing over how each agent stacked up beside the others.

  It was an important decision, and one that Richfield did not take lightly. Where an agent ranked determined which jobs they would be offered and ultimately how much money they would have the opportunity to make.

  “So where are you ranked Charlie?” Daniel countered with a jab of his own.

  That got a reaction out of both Shifty and Tobias. Daniel knew that Charlie was ranked near the bottom with his skinny build, a resume that didn’t quite stack up to some of the ex-military guys, and a work-ethic that left him with no motivation to improve his standing.

  “Hey, forty is a nice even number,” he said half-heartedly as he took an extended swig of beer.

  The festive atmosphere in the lounge continued deep into the night, and when Daniel left around midnight at least half of the agents who had been there when he arrived were still going strong, including Shifty and Charlie.

  As Daniel made his way down to his room he considered how far down the big board his name would appear in just twelve hours. He believed inside that he should be in the top-ten based on his unique talents, but he also knew that his total lack of experience would work against him, as well it probably should. It would seem unfair to many of the agents who had time and again put their lives on the line for this job to see themselves ranked behind someone who was completely unproven.

  If he fell into the twentieth spot like Charlie predicted, he would be extremely satisfied. Even if Richfield decided to rank him dead last he would understand the logic behind it. Could he even technically be considered an agent at this point? He was still in training.

  He fell into bed and closed his eyes knowing that he would soon find out just how much Richfield thought of him.

  Daniel woke up at ten, feeling extremely well rested. He loved being able to sleep in on Saturday mornings after a long, hard week of training. The bathroom was far more crowded than usual this morning, filled with all of the agents who had stayed for the pre-rankings festivities.

  The cafeteria was alive with activity as Daniel walked in to meet Charlie and Shifty for breakfast. There was an energy in the room that Daniel had never felt before at Elite. Usually the general mood throughout the complex was all-business, but today the atmosphere was festive and filled with excitement. One couldn’t help but feel energized in the midst of it all.

  Daniel was starving, so his first order of business was to fill two plates with eggs, sausage, bacon, toast, and fruit, before spending a couple minutes searching for where his friends were sitting. He found them at a small table in the back corner.

  As they ate the conversation was still entirely on the rankings, which were now on
ly an hour and a half away from being revealed. Charlie acted as though he didn’t care, but Daniel thought he sensed that his indifference was only an act. When Charlie got up to get more juice Shifty confirmed Daniel’s suspicions by telling him that Charlie really wanted to move out of the bottom five.

  Around eleven, the trio had finished their breakfast and made their way to the challenge arena which was already quickly filling up with not only agents, but all of the employees who worked at the complex. Medics, trainers, cafeteria workers, janitorial staff – they were all there.

  The three men walked into the arena through the north entrance, which led them to the bleachers on the wall opposite the rankings board. They found Norma sitting in the far, upper corner, saving them seats. As he took his seat Daniel looked over the top of the cage which sat upon the octagon-shaped ring in the center of the arena, at the giant rankings board on the far wall. There were currently no names up on the board, just the numbers one through forty-three down the left side. His eyes trailed down to the number twenty, and he imagined seeing his name there in the middle of the board, signifying his position in the top fifty-percentile of agents at Elite.

  Norma was sitting one row up over his left shoulder and must have noticed him staring at the board.

  “So I hear you’re number twenty now,” she said to Daniel.

  He turned to her with a lopsided grin, “That’s what Charlie seems to think.”

  Her expression was one of concentration, as if contemplating the prediction. “I can buy that,” she finally said.

  “You won’t be jealous, will you?” Daniel asked in a mocking fashion.

  Norma laughed. She was currently ranked twenty-second, but the consensus was that she could possibly climb her way into the top twenty today, representing what was apparently a significant pay increase.

  “Only if they put me at twenty-one,” she responded.

  She had been smiling when she made the comment, but Daniel had a feeling that there was some truth behind her statement. He would feel pretty terrible if he were the reason she remained outside the top twenty. He would gladly relinquish the position to her if that were the case, but he had a feeling that wasn’t an option.