Agent 024

I'M FLOATING

"Hi.", he said after a long pause.

"Hey.", I said with a tight smile.

"I know you heard our conversation. And I know you are smart enough to figure out that something is going on. But I'm going to have to ask you to keep this to yourself."

"Of course.", I said.

"I mean it, Tisha. This will be a verbal contract of a confidentiality agreement enforceable by law. Whatever you heard, doesn't leave that room.", he said in all seriousness.

"What shady business is going on anyway?", I asked backing away. I was not one to go looking for trouble but I wasn't going to stay silent when some shit was going on right under my nose.

"You don't need to know that-"

"Oh I do. If I'm going to be a party to this legal contract of yours", I said air quoting the term, "I need proof that you're not doing anything illegal.", I said crossing my arms.

"Illegal.", he scoffed. "Earth to Tisha.", he said waving his hand in front of my face, "This Academy doesn't exist on a map, these Agents - the names they tell you - they don't exist either, half the work you'll be doing once you're out of here, will not be legal. Heck what did you expect, Tisha - a government approved certificate stating they're training deadly killers. What did you think - we follow the UGC guidelines too?", he said.

"I know what I signed up for. I'm not naive.", I said walking up to him and looking at him. "I know you have a history here, you don't like the Agents here, and it's not a simple dislike - you have a grudge against the Academy, I know you're here because of some kind of bargain and I don't care. But if I get one hint, that you're doing anything to hurt the Academy or its Agents,and  I will bring down hell on you.", I said pointing my finger at his chest.

"Careful, Tisha.", he said with a threatening tone in his voice, "You have no idea what you're talking about.", he held my finger and brought my hand back to my side.

I looked back at him dauntingly. If he thought his tough exterior could crack me, he was in for a big shock.

"Irrfan.", came a familiar cheery voice from behind me. "Tisha.", the same voice shouted. "Oh I can come back later.", the same voice said fading.

I turned to look at the source of the voice and found Aradhya there slowly backing away.

"Oh Irrfan and I are done here.", I said breaking my hand free and walking up to Aradhya.

As we started walking, Aradhya said, "So what was that about?" she asked in a suggestive tone.

"Oh.", I realized how it would have looked to Aradhya. Irrfan and I standing close holding hands - if only she had a context.

"I knew you guys almost kissed at the party but I thought there was no follow-up after that.", she said.

"You're right, nothing's going on between us.", I said as we entered the swimming class.

"Sure.", she said although her voice clearly indicated that she was unconvinced.

Agent Rawat had finally allowed us to enter the pool. 

"Stand on the pool, let your feet touch the floor.", Agent Rawat said and we nodded.

"Now let pull your legs up and stretch your hands such that you're floating vertically on the surface of the water."

"What?", I asked the Agent for clarification on this bizzare instruction. 

He shrugged and pointed to the other cadets who had already started floating. How the hell were they floating again?

"What if I drown?", I reasoned. Jumping face front into the pool was not how I planned on going down.

"It's the shallow end of the pool, you couldn't drown even if you tried to.", he said.

I nodded and did as the trainer instructed.

I pulled my leg backwards and loosened my hold on the railing. I took a deep breath and stretched my arms. Stretching my hands, I kicked my legs further back until they were almost vertical. But my legs kept dropping down and I couldn't reach the perfect vertical position. I kicked harder and tried staying afloat but the more I did, the more I went down.

When I couldn't hold my breath any longer, I held on to the railing tightly and brought my body up. I gasped for breath and looked at Agent Rawat.

"What do you think the problem is?", she asked kneeling down.

"I don't know, I kick hard but every time I do I just go down deeper.", I said.

"That's what the problem is. You're trying too hard. You have to calm yourself, let yourself rise to the surface and just float, the harder you kick, the harder it's going to be maintain a static afloat posture."

"We still talking about swimming?", I asked. Agent Rawat gave me a stern professional look and I nodded and did exactly what I was told.

This time, I quit the thrashing and let myself rise. Surprisingly, I felt myself rise to the surface automatically with no push from my side. Finally I was floating on the water my hands loosely held the railing and holy shit I was floating!

"Okay, now kick your legs hard. Keep your grip on the railing firm and thrash your legs up and down."

I followed the Agent's instructions and realized the reason why the Agent had made us sit on the side of the pool for two weeks just thrashing our legs in the pool. My legs now had the strength and training that would be required in swimming.

The class got over and I was still struggling to complete my target which was to thrash my legs up and down for a thousand times and it had taken quite a while.

"Today, Tisha.", Agent Rawat called out and I continued creating waves in the pool. After I had finally completed my task, I got out of the swimming arena and Agent Rawat followed.

"I know I'm your slowest trainee maybe even the worst, but I promise I'll work twice as hard than the rest and improve.", I sad solemnly.

"I don't doubt that.", she smiled.

"But won't just telling me to loosen myself to let the water bring me afloat earlier reduce the practice time?", I asked pointing back to the empty pool which the rest of the class had left 30 minutes later.

"You know that's not how we train here at the Academy.", she said as we walked out of the building.

"Yeah, the way we work here is to let the cadets fall from the rope and then teach them how to climb it.", I shrugged.

"We can only teach you how to get to the pool we don't know what's inside you'll have to figure out how to get out on your own. That's how it works in real missions. We can back you up with all the armor you want but anything can go down there. So we want you to figure out what went wrong and then fix up your own errors because that's the survival skill you'll need out there.", she said as she parted off to the teachers' wing and I proceeded to the mess.

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