The Recruit - CHERUB (Book 1)

6. Sweat

James soon noticed that fifteen laps of 400-metre track is six kilometres. James had no time limit; he could walk it in about an hour but that was boring. He wanted to go fast. The first day he raced off and died after three laps. He staggered the rest of the way with his legs aching and it took nearly an hour and a quarter. Next morning James' ankles were puffed up and eve walking was agony. 

That morning he was supposed to meet up with Meryl Spencer the handler, as well as the head instructor of the athletic department. But instead of her, it was Kyle's sister: Amelia. To be fair, he directly felt like the time he knew Amy was going to be his swimming teacher. Those two girls were different but still beautiful and he didn't want to risk being ridiculous in front of them. In spite of the fact he thought Amelia was beautiful, he couldn't stop wondering why she was there, instead of Meryl.

"I'm the one who's in charge of supervising you while doing your laps today. And as I have other things to do, you better be fast and do well, James."

"Glad to see you too, Amelia." James ironized. "But what are you doing here?"

"You're not happy to see me? I get it. You'd probably have liked Meryl or Large."

"No, no. I was just wondering. That's all."

"Meryl had a last-minute stink. So, she asked Jessica Smith to take her place but she had been asked at the eighth floor right after having accepted Meryl's proposition. So, Jessica asked me to take her place to supervise you. But don't get your hopes up. You're going to have same treatment as if you were someone else. The fact that I know you and that you are Kyle's best friend won't change anything."

"What's at the eighth floor?"

"That is where missions are planned. Which means that she's leaving on mission soon enough."

"Anyway I wasn't expecting anything else from you."

"Yeah, sure, don't fool me. Meryl wrote a report about your warm-up and cool-down stretches. And let me tell you that it's pathetic."

"What do you mean?"

"You could gain more energy and time if you were doing it differently ... for instance, you could only run every third lap, then gradually to move up; running a lap and a half out of three, then two out of three, and so on until you can run the six kilometres without a rest."

James got out of the cabin which served as locker room and reserve for the athletic department. But rained so hard that day that James could hardly see through the wet hair stuck to his face. Amelia and the other athletics coach hid in the dry. James figured nobody was watching and after thirteen laps went into the changing room where the other drowned-rat kids were diving under the shower.

"Was that fifteen laps?" Amelia asked as she entered into the room.

"Come on, it's belting down."

"You cheated, James. I told you before starting yesterday that you won't have any favour from me. You start again since the beginning. Fifteen laps. Get going!"

"What?

"You heard me, James. One smart word and I'll make it thirty laps."

"You don't have the right to add laps on my list."

"Wanna see? Last summer, I worked with Meryl here on the athletic tracks. Consequently, I now have the right to do whatever I want to do. But we can talk about it with Mac if you will."

"You're tough in business, Amelia. Okay, I'm going."

By the end, James' lungs felt like they were going to explode. Kyle and Bruce told him that Amelia was one of the most feared qualified agents that supervises youngsters. Amy, her, said it was good to learn early that discipline at CHERUB was stricter than James was used to. 

A fortnight later James was getting fitter. He could run two laps out of every three fast and jog the other one. This Friday, the pulse in his neck felt like it was about to burst. His body was begging him to quit, but James wanted to do his laps in under half an hour for the first time and he wasn't giving in so close to the end. Coming towards the final bend, he overtook a set of identical twins who were doing their warm-up near the final line. He sprinted to them. But when he went further the line, he put a foot down awkwardly and overbalanced. The track slashed the skin off his knee, ripped his T-shirt and grazed his shoulder. The pain from the cuts wasn't as bad as the pain in his lungs, but James didn't care because he'd broken half an hour. The twins stopped to help.

"You're OK?" Asked one of them.

"Fine."

James hadn't seen them before. He noticed they were wearing pale blue shirts.

"You two starting basic training week after next?"

"Yeah. We arrived last night. I'm Callum, this is Connor. You want us to help you back to the changing room?"

"I'll manage."

*

When Kyle had been sent to Nebraska House for his recruitment mission, a mission controller had given Amelia a pass access to the eighth floor. For a month, she's been preparing her new mission, but she couldn't leave without having a younger agent to pretend to be her little brother. And unfortunately, she hadn't found him yet. But they were running out of time, and she thought she finally found him, so, she went to her controller's office to let him know.

Arrived at the eighth floor, she went to the controller's office with the sign: Ewart Asker, mission controller. While knocking, she felt happy and anxious at the same time, since she didn't know how he would react to the name of the agent Amelia thought would be perfect.

"Hi, Amelia. You wanted to see me, right?"

"Yeah. I think I've finally found the agent for the Fort Harmony mission."

"Ok. And why are you so anxious if you've found him?"

"Well, I don't really know if you're going to confirm the choice. Officially, he's not a qualified agent yet."

"Amelia ...," started to reprimand Ewart.

"Listen to me till the very end, please."

"Fine. Go ahead."

"He's taking basic training next week and I know he'll make it to the end. He is meant to be a CHERUB agent, I know it."

"He could get injured and give up basic training, Amelia. And you perfectly know it."

"Yeah, I know. But in the hypothesis he'd succeed, he would be the perfect match for the mission."

"And who is your miracle boy?"

"James Adams. He has been recruited a little more than two weeks ago. ... please, Ewart, say yes. Anyways, we are in a dead end about who could be the second agent."

"You are an experienced agent and one of the best at CHERUB, Amelia. I trust you. So, I'll go to talk about it with Zara and Mac concerning the possible first mission of James Adams."

"You're agreeing with me, aren't you?"

"Yeah. But he better not mess it up."

Amelia thanked him and got out of his office so that he can go talking to Zara and Mac. Zara was the chief missions controller, as well as Ewart's wife. The both of them were former agents of CHERUB converted as missions controllers, like many former agents who had the will to work at CHERUB after their university's studies.