KIA: Keri In Action

Chapter Three

I guessed earlier there was a camera and microphone hidden in the room. Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner – again. Great.

            Hansen let loose a string of curses. The big man was like a teddy bear on the inside. Since I was the only girl growing up in the alcove, most of the men took me under their wing. He was protective of people he allowed himself to care about. I prided myself on being one of his favorites. He was always tough on me when I trained but that was because he cared and wanted me to succeed, like a father would any child.

            Hansen followed me out into the hall. I was hunched over, using the wall to steady myself. I never thought a kick could hurt so much. I thought I had the wind knocked out of me until I heard the unnatural crunch of a bone.

            He put a massive hand on my shoulder, concern clear in his eyes. His gruff, raspy and deep voice asked me if I was alright. I managed a slight nod and tried to straighten from my lonely huddle only to collapse onto the floor. It was times like these where I felt the fatherly instincts kick in for him. He helped Uncle John raise me.

            Knowing I lied right away, Hansen scooped me up and walked me to the infirmary unit which was set up on the opposite side of the alcove. He kicked the doors open and ducked through, making sure to hold me out from his body the entire trip so as not to bump me.

            “Broken rib. At least one, how about we fix her up?” He didn’t baby me and I liked that I was only about twelve and I was scared. He made sure to be honest but sugar-coat the situation for me. He was a giant teddy bear to me, ever since I had known him.

            I had to stay in the hospital-like bed for two days to make sure that nothing else was wrong and that anything hadn’t been punctured. And every time my eyes opened, I saw the behemoth of a man sitting next to me holding my stuffed Tigger. It made me laugh and he stayed and kept me company until I was released.

            No matter the time or situation, Hansen played more of a father figure in my life than Uncle John did. I loved him like I think I would have loved my father had I known him.

Jimmying the locks:

            I always needed more food before bed than the others. Unfortunately, the first time I snuck out of my bed and down to the kitchens, I found a padlock securely placed on the chain that circled the refrigerator.

            My stomach growled at me all night. The next night, again, I became very hungry. I grabbed a paperclip from my desk and casually strolled down the halls, knowing I was the only one awake. It took me twenty minutes that first night to get the lock to pop open.

            Being an assassin, a teenager, and having a rebellious nature lead me to a path of midnight fridge meetings to cut down on the time of opening the lock. If I did well, I would reward myself with a pudding cup. About two weeks into my ‘practice’, I found that three locks had been placed on the door. They had noticed.

            For three months I went to the kitchens, jimmying the locks just for something to do. After the few weeks, I didn’t even bother taking food for myself anymore.  I had too much fun with the locks to eat. One night I stayed there for two hours just opening and closing the lock.

            I could almost see the steam rising off his head. “That bastard had you there the entire time?! He was hurting you right under my nose!” Poor Hansen, now he blamed himself.

            “Who the hell is John?! I am going to kill him. I am going to cut out his tongue and spoon feed it back to him!” Will didn’t even know. None of them did. Uncle John was someone you didn’t want to mess with.