Chapter 22

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"So tell me," Caspian says, the next morning. "What's it like to be a spy?"

The two decided to be bums during the day and do something later that night. Johanna was still in her pjs and hadn't even put her contacts in. She stretches for a moment while she comes up with an answer.

"Do you want the nice answer or the real answer?" She asks finally.

"Uhhh," Caspian thinks for a moment. "The real answer."

"Trust me that'll change your views on spies." She snorts as if that was funny somehow. "Come here this might get emotional."

"Oh emotional time with Jo my favorite time," Caspian smirks and walks over to sit down next to her. "Ok I'm ready."

She glares at him before taking a deep breath and beginning her story.

"I started at the Agency right after I got kidnapped and that whole thing happened. I was in- what 5th grade? I think I was 10 and that is really young to start training to be a spy you know? Anyways my stubborn ass was bitter when they turned me down in 5th grade so I worked my butt off and basically made it so they couldn't turn me down. They accepted me when I was in 6th grade."

"Wow," Caspian says breathlessly. He should have guessed that Johanna would be incredibly stubborn and wouldn't even let a spy agency tell her what to do.

"Yeah," she says awkwardly, avoiding eye contact and rubbing her neck. "This is when training started. First they drill you through school work and all that stuff. That's where I basically proved myself and I was technically able to graduate high school at 7th grade-"

"Seriously?" Caspian interrupts. He didn't mean to interrupt, it's just that he couldn't imagine a 7th grader being able to intake any more knowledge than required.

"Yep," she says matter of factly. "That's where I learned to be 'Sherlock Holmes' as you say. Of course I did a little better than average but everyone had to go through those classes. I learned very quickly and I surpassed people double my age. After that hell was over, we went into the more physical training. Training is randomized so you know what you can learn just not when."

"What things do you remember?"

"Um, I learned a hell of a lot of stuff, half of which I don't remember whoops," she laughs quietly. "The entire time I remember we had to do intense workouts every other day which sucked. One of the worst training things had to include swimming and starvation training-"

"I'm sorry what?" Caspian squeaks. He knows he sounds like a young boy, but he can't help it. It's still kind of surreal that spies are a real thing that exist in this world.

"Starvation training," she explains casually. "One day they just strip your food portions and you survive on scraps. However, now that I think about it more, the worst was definitely the torture training-"

"They tortured you?"

"Yes now continuing on-"

"What age were you? They can't just think torturing teens is morally correct!"

"I think I was 14 for that one. It sucked."

"Well yeah I bet it did," Caspian couldn't believe how casually she was saying all of this. He can barely handle a paper cut, how can she handle torture? "What did they do to you?"

Johanna bites her lips before replying.

"I remember it wasn't that bad. It was minor just cuts and a few whips every now and then," she shrugs. "They healed us right after though so it was fine."

Caspian shakes his head in disbelief but doesn't interrupt again. Part of him wondered how she got through that after being kidnapped and tortured by the man who killed her parents.

"However bad the training was, the final initiation sucked absolute ass," she shakes her head at the memory. "Being the FBI, CIA whatever the heck we are anymore, we have access to very special drugs. After you complete training, everyone knows you might be drugged while you're sleeping. Basically it's like those movies or whatever that put you in a simulation of an actual case. That's the test to see if you can actual make it real time."

"Do you get multiple tries or anything?"

"You get 10 tries. Still can't solve the case, you're out."

"How many times did it take you?"

"2."

"Serious?"

"Dead."

"What about phil?"

"5."

"Dang."

"I know." She smirks proudly at him. "One of my most prized moments."

"Has anyone ever passed it on the first try?"

Johanna sighs in annoyance and rolls her eyes.

"Fucking Alex Gabriel Sinjer, the leader," she rolls her eyes again for emphasis. "He's a dick."

"The guys that bailed us?" Caspian asks raising an eyebrow. "How can you hate someone who saved your ass?"'

Johanna snorts again.

"Awhile ago we're pretty sure he betrayed the Agency during one of his cases. Plus he's a dick," she repeats. "Anyways, the final initiation was set up to make you believe it was real. You had to solve a case that they've already solved in the past. You have to go out and actually do stuff. The first time I didn't pass because I got shot while trying to sneak into the house the murderer was keeping the captives."

Caspian raises an eyebrow but doesn't say anything.

"And after you pass, you're in! They basically give you a few days to recover and then they put you on cases or whatever. When I began, they had me training new recruits. The recruits did not take me seriously because I was... 15? At the time yeah." She rolled her eyes at the memory. "So basically no one took me seriously and then I overheard one of the big guys in my class say that he could break me like a toothpick."

She stops talking and cracks her knuckles, remember the fight she had with the guy.

"So I challenged him to a fight, and he laughed in my face." she scoffs. "Note that I was beyond pissed so as soon as he stepped in the arena I went at him," she pauses for dramatic effect. "I had him down in 24 seconds."

"Wow," Caspian breathes. He can't believe how much Johanna could do at such a young age. When he was 14 he was worried about passing his math class and girls. He never even had to think about fights and cases and all the awesome stuff Johanna had to worry about.

"It wasn't much," Johanna shrugs. "And you would've thought that would scare everyone off but nope, that only scared half of them off. So I had fights nearly everyday but I could beat everyone in under 2 minutes 30 seconds."

"Hey J?"

"What?"

"You're awesome."

She smiles at him, a genuine smile, a rare one.

"You too Cas."

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Heyyyyy guess who's back.
I have a plan that after I finish this book I'm rewriting the first few chapters before they come to L.A. If you have any suggestions feel free to comment!
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