Phoenix

Training 101

An hour and a half later, training was about to start. I had managed to pull together a prototype for my F.I.R.E device. I knew that I still had to do a lot of testing on the device, but I didn't have the time at the moment. Nomad had introduced me to all the operators that we would be working with and who we would be going against. I was a little nervous about being a part of this training, but I tried my best to be calm and relaxed.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when a male voice came through the intercoms. "All defenders make your way to the arena. Attackers insertion in thirty seconds."

I could feel my heart start to race, and the palms of my hands get sweaty. Thousands of thoughts went through my mind. I took a deep breath and thought about being back home with Jonathan. The thought of being back home made me feel a little better, but I was now starting to feel homesick. I wanted to make the feelings away but I couldn't. I looked around at all the operators that stood near me. As I looked at them all I started to feel out of place again. You don't stand a chance against these guys. I thought to myself. The feeling of a hand on my shoulder snapped me out of thoughts. I looked to my right and was face to face with Sanaa.

"You okay Amber?" She asked with a concerned look on her face.

I quickly nodded. "Yeah I'm fine. Just a little nervous."

"Just stick with me. You'll do just fine." She paused and glanced around the room. "Come on, we're about to go in."

I quickly took a deep breath and spoke, "Lead the way."

Before I knew it, Nomad and I were scouting out the building we were about to breach into. As I drove my drone around the building nothing stood out to me. I wasn't expecting to find anything, since there were four other drones in the building, but I still searched anyway. I glanced up from my phone and looked over at Nomad. The woman was crouched next to me and kept her attention on the phone she was holding. Nomad knew what she was doing, but part of me didn't want to follow her around for the whole section.

"Okay, rooms clear. Let's move." Nomad said as she slid her phone into her pocket and walked over to a barricaded doorway.

I did the same and stood on the other side of the doorway. Nomad broke down the barricade and walked in the room on high alert. I followed her and glanced around the small room we were in. We stood in a small office with only a deck and a few shelves hanging up on the wall. The sound of gunfire rang from upstairs, then the building went silent. Nomad and I started to clear the area as much as we could. We were on the first floor, and so far everything was clear.

"Bomb spotted. Basement." Buck said through the intercoms.

Nomad glanced at me then spoke, "Stay here. I'm going to go make sure upstairs in clear."

I looked at the woman confused. "Kali was supposed to clear upstairs."

The woman hesitated at first then spoke, "I'm just going to go double check."

I nodded and watched as the woman swiftly climbed upstairs. Part of me wanted to stay where I was, but I was desperate to go out on my own. I knew where most of my teammates were, and I knew where we had to go. The sounds of gunfire echoed from down stairs. I looked down the staircase that led to the basement and took a deep breath. I tightened my grip on my vertical grip and cautiously walked down stairs. The gunfire had stopped and it was silent again. Right as I got to the end of the stairs the gunfire continued and was followed by two shrieks of pain.

"Doc and Rook are out. Site is clear." Kali said through the intercom. "Also why isn't our hard breacher getting the wall?"

The intercom went quiet then came back to life. "Just forget about the wall, Kali just get into the site." Buck said through the intercom, as gunshots echoed in the building.

Without hesitating I made my way through the basement. I could hear people running above me but I tried to ignore it. Kali turned the corner and looked over at me.

"Cover me." Kali said as she pushed past me onto the site.

I took out my F.I.R.E and started to trap any doorway that led to the site. "F.I.R.E is up and running."

The sound of a high pitched beeping came from the bombs that sat in the site. I could hear the sound of running right above where I was standing, the faint sound of shouting. Swiftly, I crouched behind a shelf that was covered in boxes, and kept an eye on the main door to the basement. I tightened my grip on the gun I was holding, and kept my eye looking through the ACOG that sat on top of the AR. Footsteps came closer to the door that kept a firm watch on. It felt like years were going by as I watched the doorway, but I refused to look away.

After waiting a few more seconds, someone finally ran through the doorway. The room was instantly lit up, and was followed by a loud bang. I couldn't tell who was in the doorway from all the smoke and little flames that filled the area. I took a few shots at the person while they panicked to put out the flames around them. The person instantly fell to the ground. Part of me couldn't help but feel a little bad, but I knew that all of this wasn't going to kill any of us. A few seconds went by and the beeping from the bomb site stopped.

"Bomb has been defused. Attackers win." A males voice said through the intercoms of the building.

I couldn't help but smile. This might have been the first time I ever did training like this, but I could tell that I would soon get used to it.

Training had just ended and I was about to go grab some lunch. It had been a busy day, and the day wasn't anywhere close to being over. After I finished my lunch, I would be going to Harry's office for a meeting. I didn't know what the meeting was about but I tried not to think about it too much. As I walked down the hall towards the cafeteria the sound of someone running came from behind me. I turned around and saw a man running towards me.

The man was wearing a flying helmet and a mask covered the rest of his face. He looked at me and slowed down. "Are you Amber?"

I nodded, "Yes that's me."

He stopped in front of me and spoke between breaths. "I'm Jager. I heard that you used to be a pilot."

Everything in my body froze as I listened to the words that came out of the man's mouth. I could feel my heart start to race and my hands get sweaty. "Yeah I was. But I'm not anymore." My voice was a little shaky as I spoke but I attempted to keep it steady.

"Well I'm also a pilot, and I'm also the only pilot here." He paused for a few seconds and continued to speak. "But now that you're here, maybe I can help you rejog your memory and you can start flying again. To be honest it's not fun being the only person that knows how to fly a helicopter and airplanes around here."

I could feel myself starting to freeze up as the man spoke. The last thing I wanted to do was fly an airplane again. Especially an airplane with some of the world's smartest and strongest antiterrorist group on board. "I don't know it's been a few years since I last flew a plane, and I don't know if I want to fly a plane again."

"Oh come on. It'll be fun."

I sighed. "Just give me a couple of days to think about it. Okay."

"Sounds good. If you decided to do it, just let me know." Jager said as he started to walk away.

The thought of flying a plane again scared me. There was no way that anyone could convince me to fly a plane again. I couldn't afford to crash another plane, let alone a plane with other people on it. The thought haunted me and sent a chill down my spine. I knew that it would be a good idea to try and fly an airplane again, but I couldn't risk getting myself or anyone else hurt in the process.