A Life Remade

The Acquisition

"Sir! I believe I've found four suitable recruits for Operation Rekindle!"

I look at Marshal Jackson lazily from my desk. "Marshal, this is the fourth time you've told me this today... are you absolutely sure you've found a team?"

Jackson gets a hesitant look in his eyes then looks back at his computer for a few more minutes, allowing me to go back to what qualifications the commander said he wished for these recruits to have. First, she wants at least half of them to be or have been in training for some form of martial arts. The second, they must all be single men younger than 22. Her third request, all of them have to be athletic in some sort of way, whether that be football, track, swimming, or anything else that requires endurance. Then her fourth and final specification, they must absolutely not know about each other. I don't know what he plans to do with the recruits, nor do I want to know, they'll be taken in and taught the same mindset that has been drilled into my head: Shut up, listen, follow orders and don't you dare question them.

A few moments after I've gone through the commander's list again, Jackson turns back to me. "Sir... I really think these are the recruits we could be looking for!" The look on his face is genuine, if he's wrong on this, it's going to be his ass for wasting my time again.

I stand up and casually walk over to his desk once more. With my hands behind my back, I bend down to get a better look at his screen. After inspecting the four men that appear on the screen, I'm shocked, they fit all of the requests.

First off, Roy Manson: 19 years of age, currently residing in the Untied States, martial arts instructor for seven years, goes to school in California with a scholarship for Wrestling, gold medalist for the past five years, impressive, we can build on that.

Second recruit, Raphael Schwitzercon, turned 20 last month, spends his days as a rock climbing coach in Germany, has a background in professional fighting, what a wonderful plus.

The last one, a familiar name, Nermon Franchest, an Australian who we have found snooping around important data banks, a fantastic hacker at only the age of 20, he is also off the radar, but it won't be a problem to find him at all.

I look back at the Marshal, "Surprising, Jackson, these are exuberant picks, you did well this time, now the last thing to hope for is that the commander approves this team, and you know how picky she is with her men."

He chuckles a bit, "That's for sure, sir, seeing as how this is the umpteenth group I've found and there are hardly any other people working on these missions, yeah, she's definitely picky."

I have him print out the four men and hand them to me as I stroll back to my desk. I send an email to the secretary requesting a meeting with the commander to talk about a mission I've been assigned to. Now, it's time to kick back and wait.