Salvation Mercenary

Chapter 1 - Liam (present)

I walked into the dark long room in order to prepare for the lesson that I was about to teach in the next five minutes. The cadets were still going to be coming from there south wing obstacle races and will be rushing for time to finish there last course to attempt getting clean and changed and arriving for my class on time. They were currently with Lucas. He was a nice enough commander, he works with me closely in meetings and I couldn't help but be quite fond of him. There being only three moths difference in our ages. Me being the older one, both at twenty one years of age. Both extremely young to be the ranks we are at. Me being a general. And him being leading commander. In a way we are first and second if the Salvation Mercenary.

I flicked in the lights to the indoor shooting range. And the lights came on row after row. Starting from the door way ending at the target dummies one hundred and twenty yards away. I fiddled in my pocket to find the selective keys inside of my pocket to unlock the bullet proof cabinet.

They key glided in with ease and twisted with the slightest click, alerting me that it was in fact unlocked. The class had ten students in. Despite the fact that there is one hundred plus members of the south wing. But their lessons are on a rotor that goes around in a circle between myself, Lucas and a lovely woman (although she didn't look it) called Aylin Mathers - even I am slightly frightened of her. Maybe that's because she taught me, to this day I still call her Mrs Mathers.

I opened the cabinet and pulled out two guns by the mussel. I placed these on the large hard wooden desk at the back of the room, I repeated this five more times until the table was full of ten guns, each perfectly straight and at an equal distance apart from one another. I then proceeded to collect twenty magazine clips from the cupboard and place two in the right hand side of each gun.

Having finally emptied my hands, I turned around and locked the cupboard again. Now searching for a different key in my key chain. Once I had found the key that had 'YALE' (a American brand style lock and key to match) engraved into its side. I approached another cupboard. It slid inside just as easy as the previous key I had used. This cupboard door slide to the right behind a wall and inside it was coated and full to the brim with wires and plug sockets. I reached out and switched on the plugs labelled screen one all the way through to ten. Ten screens whir into life behind me. The flash silently and then simultaneously showed me the live camera feed of the target dummies.

There was a soft knock at the door. The class had arrived. Sliding the cupboard door back and locking it with my key. Taking my time I turned and placed the keys back inside of my pocket. I reached the door and grasped the handle firmly before twisting and greeting the students. They walked in single file and silent. They each walked over to the desk at the back and took there place behind each gun.

"You know what to do, one minute, go!" I slammed a timer on the table. Everyone scrabbles into action picking up the gun and taking it apart. Then putting it back together again. Everyone had finished in time but a few finished a few seconds before. And one Cadet a whole five seconds. We repeated this activity five more times. Improving on the handling of a gun. We used different brands, style or type of fun each lesson. So each student has experience with every type of gun. Today it was a classic Smiths and Weston gun.

We soon moved on to the next part of the lesson. Shooting.

We were now doing her favourite part of the lesson, she loves the shooting range. She's such a good aim, incredibly accurate, she has excelled to the top of the class in just over six weeks, she's the best at disassembling and reassembling the guns in a record time and the best on the obstacle course as well. Her posture while shooting is without a doubt the best I have seen, something that I didn't even need to teach her. She is a natural with a gun. She will make a great soldier, and a great assassin. But do I want to risk her life like that?

I can tell that she didn't want to be here. You can see it in the way she holds herself while walking down the corridors. On her face you can see that she enjoys the feel of the gun in her hand and the way it recoils and kicks back into her body, but she doesn't want to use it, ever, never on a real person. I could give her the way out of here, only I can, I would only do it for her. But if I wanted her, which I do, I would have to tread carefully.

Composing myself back to what the cadets were doing I realised that the whole time I was thinking about her, I was focusing on her legs, legs, legs and more legs, curves. Her head was tilted, one leg back and the gun held out in front of her, held parallel to her shoulder, perfect. I just wanted to touch her any excuse. Going behind her I ran my hand down her arm and held the gun with her, lowering her arm a little, she looked at me with ocean blue eyes, contemplating me.

"Thank you sir." Her voice softly spoken like silk. Just as smooth and beautiful. I took a step back and observed her. Just one more excuse. I placed my left hand gently on her lower back and pushed gently forwards while simultaneously running my right hand up the centre of her back and then slightly pulling back in her shoulder. Her back straightened further, not that it needed it and she seemed to have gained height.
"There you go, cadet, that's perfect, keep your back straight!" She gave a sharp nod and the bullet flew out of the mussel and hit the target dummy in the centre of the forehead, that was placed over one hundred yards away. She smiled enjoying the kick of the gun and the accuracy of her shot. So she let another one fly. Hitting the dummy in it's target heart. She glanced up at the screen above her. The screen that showed you a close up view of your target dummy. She smiled a second time. A smile that imprinted in my brain over the last ten weeks.

Over the past ten weeks I had grown to like her more and more. More than I like most people. More than I should like my south wing students. Being a general comes with many responsibilities and being enchanted by a student distracts from that. But either way she had came to me everyday asking for advice to improve herself. Accompanied me on my midnight runs. She made me laugh, I never do that, not often. This job means so much to me. One day she brought me lunch, it was her day off, and I had given myself a rest from work. She had been at the 'walks' - a large area of grass that many cadets lounge around on, often eating lunch or going on dates.

"Cadets!" Everyone turned around and looked at me, "lesson dismissed and the EDU is being assessed by the QAS." Silence followed this. "The guys from base two!" Cadet Louise took a step closer to me to attract my attention, she titled and cocked her head in an inquisitive way.

"So base one is being assessed by base two?" She said, I nodded my head sharply wishing for the class to leave. "Like we - EDU assessed the QAS a few months ago, we make sure each other get on?" She paused for a moment, thinking. "So -''

"Cadet why don't you stay behind and ask your unfiltered questions, while the others can be relived of your stupidity and get their lunch. Everyone except Cadet Louise, leave, dismissed!" I stared at her as the others walked past me, only adverting my attention when 'she' walked past. The door shut and I turned to the skinny lean girl with the ridiculous shade of purple dyed upon her wiry head of hair, God only knows the amount of time she has dyed it a stupid colour. Personally I prefer natural hair colours, like a nice blonde or brown, like Kathy's. Thoughts of Kathy's long blonde silky smooth hair softened my face, to the point of an almost smile.

I snapped back into the room, I grimaced at the Cadet before me.

"So, what?" I asked sternly.

"So, sir how long will they be with us?" I smiled at what I thought to me an actual thought and planned out question.

"Two weeks Cadet!" I replied, she nodded, muttered a 'sir' regarded me and left. Wow she actually took the hint to leave.

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