Conbellia

Chapter 12

18 boys and 2 girls assembly at 7 am in the gym. The latter is filled with boxing bags and mats. A certain tension can be felt in the air as they all quietly sit down to wait for instructions.
One of the girls is me. Jeremiah dropped me off at the fighters' dorm at 2 am leaving to some special secret meeting. In the morning those who hadn't passed the tests of part one of training left for the athletics section while the rest of us came here.
A man about 30 years old enters the gym.
"My name is Tim. I'll be your instructor instead of Jeremiah Dameron who is at a meeting today. As you all know this is the first period of part two of your training. Therefore I need you all to find a partner."
Kayla, the only girl, except for me, who passed the part one tests already turns around. I nod.
"You will start with boxing bags. One of you will practice while the other watches and corrects the first. We switch every 30 minutes."
He then walks over to one of the bags. "This is how it works."
He gets into position with one leg slightly to the front. "Pay attention to keep the upper part of your body tense. If you don't do that your hits won't be strong enough nor will you be able to entirely control the motion and locate the exact point of the impact." He shows us a hit without tension and afterwards one with. The second time he pinches the bag it goes swinging about a meter back. He stops it with his hand and turns around.
"I'll go around correcting you while you practice. Start now."
Kay takes my hand a jerks me up. "C'mon you lazy thing."
We both giggle while going over to a boxing bag.
I start punching it while she sits down on the floor.
"I think you should move your leg a bit to the front." She suggests after a while. She's right. The bag swings a lot more now.
"Everybody turn around" Tim instructs after about 15 minutes. He is standing a few meters behind Dan, watching him. I see the sweat run down Dans face.
"What's your name?" Tim asks him.
"Dan" he replies quietly.
"Dan, would you show them what you do?"
Dan nods slowly then turns to the bag and punches it a couple of times. Even from this distance I can see he has no tension in his upper body.
Tim watches him warily.
"Does anyone see the mistake?" Tim asks.
I raise my hand almost anxiously at his tone. Tim nods in my direction.
"Dan, you don't keep your body tense." I say trying to make it sound like advice more than tauntingly. He flashes me a grateful look.
"Exactly" Tim says. "What's your name there?" The question is directed to me this time.
"I'm Jane." I tell him. Jeanine isn't a fighter's name it sounds too girly.
"Jane, would you show Dan what you mean?"
I turn around and walk over to the nearest boxing bag.
I get into position. I feel the blood pulsing through my veins.
This is your time. Show them what you can.
I punch. The bag flies back at the impact. I punch it again as it comes back and again and again. It almost feels easy even though the sweat runs down my face like a waterfall.
"Excellent, Jane" Tim looks at me approvingly.
"30 minutes are over. Next one."
Kayla certainly learned something from watching the first group. She gets the technique right immediately and after about ten minutes her hits become well placed and strong. Put of the corner of my eye I notice Tim standing there.
"You two have a lot of potential for this." Then he turns to me. "You seem to be talented for a lot of things." He tilts his head a bit. "Any ideas which of the ranks you have potential for you'd like most?"
Does the whole world know I'm a Conbellia?
"Actually I'm not sure yet. I don't think I'd be a good leader. I'm not sure about the rest though. I'd love to be a fighter but I enjoy music as well. I didn't get the chance to hunt yet so I can't judge about that. I suppose I'll let my scores decide." He smiles sympathetically at my response. And suddenly I recognize him. It's hard to in the clothes he wears because I only saw him a couple of times on TV but I'm very sure this is no one else but Tim Glamph, a close friend of Vincent Damer, one of the highest ranked fighters as well. He has quite a few things to say in the politics of our state too.
I think of what Jeremiah told me. That every question I get from his dad might be a test. Tim is as influential as Vincent. It is well possible that the same goes for him.
"Why isn't Jeremiah here? I mean he told me he had a plan for this period just a few days ago, so I assume this wasn't planned before?"
"Yes, indeed, this wasn't planned. There's a meeting of special forces because of something noticed tonight. We don't think it's worth worrying but we decided to better be safe than sorry."
I wonder whether I should ask for more. I want to, desperately. But would it be a wise move?
Finally I can't help myself.
"What happened?" I ask almost in a whisper. If he gets angry or defensive I can pretend I was talking to me. He eyes me for a few moments. Then he seems to make a decision.
"I want all of you to keep practicing. I'll be back soon."
"Follow me" he adds solely to me. I get up. He leads me out of the door. "This is something you'll have to keep to yourself. It is very serious. You should know that your potential for leader is very big. When someone gets the result for leading we tell them they are fighters. We watch them and then decide. There was an emergency. Jeremiah was called to the meeting to discuss it. On the phone he said this might be a good chance to take you into this. Steven, the leader of our country as you surely know, decided to send me in. My task was to watch you and decide whether it was a good idea to bring you in. All leaders are trained fighters. And they need it sometimes.
This emergency state 1 as it has been called out today is about the special software which controls the servers of our town. When Conbellia was founded, the founders developed a special system for scanning specific parts of the body. Including the brain. This kind of scan allows us to see potential diseases long before they start. It also allows us to see how the brain is built and how many nerve cells are still in it. With this scan we can say how long a person will approximately live and what the best job for him is. We are able to say which cells are in which body part in what concentration. We use it for the tests for ranks but also in hospitals. The development of this scan was sponsored by the United States in the beginning. Conbellia was founded in the middle of it before the tests were finished. We are in the very heart of the US. Ever since the method was found the US have claimed it as their own. All the valuable information of our state is on the servers. Including the data for scans like that.
Tonight, those servers were hacked."