The Queen Of Spades

Chapter 8, Continued, Again

In the early dawn light I could see the outline of Gideon's face looking down at me.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep." I started to stand to leave but he was still holding my hand and didn't let go.
"What happened in your nightmare?"
"What? Nothing, I didn't have a nightmare. We should probably go before we get in trouble. I'll see you later, Gideon."
"Bye Lyn, be careful okay? I don't think I could live with myself if something happened to you."
I rolled my eyes and kissed him quickly on the lips before jumping down to the sand below the playground and leaving to go back to Nada's house.

I snuck in the back door quietly and was immediately faced with Nada's scowling face.
"Sorry I’m late." I said, walking past her.
"Training room. Now."
I've never passed up an excuse to stay up but still I found myself asking, "What? Why?"
"Go." I held up my hands out to either side of me as if to say okay, okay, I'm going! and opened the basement door to go to the training room. Nada followed behind and put her hair in a ponytail while stalking over to the mat. I rolled my eyes, knowing what was going to happen next and took off Aiden's ever present hoodie. The bell rang and Nada lunged at me, knocking me to the mat. I twisted my body so that my legs were around her neck and pulled myself up to flip her over. Then Nada was on the mat and I was on top of her. She headbutted me and hit my nose, sending me backwards with shock. I gritted my teeth and found myself attacking with no plan or reasoning at all. My fists flew and made contact with Nada's skin while she sent punches my way, I dodged many but still got hit.

We went for hours without stopping until I finally couldn't keep going. We sat down panting and assessing our bruises. My knuckles were bloody and swollen and there was dried blood on my face.
"Why did we do that?" I asked Nada after a while.
"You haven't been in the field in a while, you're losing your edge." She replied.
"I am not losing my edge. I'm fine. And it's summer, I don't really want to show up to work with bruises everywhere." Not that I had a job. Yet.
"You're losing your discipline, would you have done any of the things you're doing now if you were still active?"
"I did all of these things while I was active. Even on mission."
"This is why you'll never be a good operative."
"Are you serious, Nada! You did not just say that to me. I’m an amazing operative. You know the things I’ve done for the job, the things I've lost! I’m going to be better than any other spy since World War Two. I will be better, even, than mom and dad. Better than you and your old agency, better than Oliver. And I will shut down the bloody family program so that no more freaks like me are created. Ever." I stomped upstairs and slammed the basement door. Nada followed to try and talk to me but I ignored her, going to my room to change my clothes before running out the door.