Imperatrix

chapter 17

Flashback

Jack breathed heavily as she crouched down low and ran quickly across the room, making sure to keep her feet light. She dived for a wall and hid behind it. Taking a deep breath, she peeked but quickly retracted her head when a shot was fired and the spot where her head was moments before now had a dart sticking out of the carton wall. She brought out a grenade from her vest and held it for five seconds before throwing it. It deactivated, and she ran through the smoke to the next room.

Lucas was hot on her heels. She leaned her back against the wall breathing heavily, Lucas was on the other side, the doorway was between them. She signalled to him to have her back, and he nodded. She took in a deep breath, and with her gun at the ready, she ran into the room, shooting anything on sight, Lucas did the same. He got shot in he stomach and he died.

She didn’t look back, didn’t stop running till she finally reached the last room where the hostage was held. Jack rushed to the immobile figure seated on a chair and untied the dummy.

The lights came on, and Dominic, who had been sitting all through watching them stood and walked to the edge and leaned on the railings. Lucas got up slowly from the ground and pulled of the rubber dart he had been shot with. They both looked up at him from the training pit. Dominic clapped his hands twice, and the fake walls fell apart, and the dead men stood up and left the room for them.

Dominic looked down at them, “Well done children,” he said, and they smiled.

“But,” their smiles fell, and he continued, “You wasted time. You spent twenty minutes on the first training, but now,” he glanced at the timer on the wall and they looked at it also. 20:00:40. Dang it! She heard Lucas mutter under his breath.

“You took forty seconds extra. You are supposed to be breaking your record, not spending even more time. I have told you times without number, timing is everything. If you are out there on the field and you exceed your time, it could cost you your lives!” He was raising his voice.

“And you,” he said pointing a finger at Lucas, “You died, how could you die! I might as well start mourning my son now if this is how you will be out there.”

He sighed and looked at them once more and said, “I am disappointed niños.” And then he walked away. Just that word disappointed, and Jack was ready to start crying. She knew Lucas felt the same way too because he was cracking his fingers, something he did when he was nervous or getting ready for a fight.

Jack sighed and Lucas tucked his dart gun into the waistband of his black trouser, a frown on his face. She looked at the automatic rifle in her hand then glanced at the dummy they had just saved before shooting it twice in the head.

Lucas laughed, “Yeah, like that would help.”

She grinned and said, “It made you smile.”

Whenever they got something wrong, Lucas would always get into a bad mood and become sulky. And that bad mood would go on for days affecting everyone around him, including Jack. She wasn’t ready for anyone to affect her negatively.

“Don’t worry brother, we’ll make things right the next training,” she said laying a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. Lucas glared at the hand and shrugged it off abruptly. Jack hid a smile.

“Ok, but that doesn’t mean you have to touch me,” he grumbled walking away.

Lucas had never been touchy-feely. So just to annoy him sometimes, she hugged him or kissed him on the cheeks. She wasn’t much of a hugger herself but seeing the reaction on Lucas face when she did it was definitely worth it. He always scampered off to wash the places she had touched or kissed, claiming that he did not want girly kisses. But when Dominic hugged him and kissed his head, you could see the happiness and satisfaction on his face.

Idiot, what was the difference.

She dropped the rifle on a table and pulled off her black protective vest. Raising her black shirt, she tenderly touched the place where she had been kicked during the training and groaned. This was little compared to other trainings.

During the last training, she had sprained her ankle and couldn’t walk for a few days. Of course Lucas had been there to laugh at her pain. Another time, she and Lucas had fought, and she had dislocated her finger. Sounds like a little thing, right? It hurt like a bitch. Her chance had come to retaliate when she broke Lucas’s rib while training. It wasn’t deliberate but he had cried like a baby, and she had laughed like a hyena. Revenge is sweet.

Jack sat on the floor and laid back, placing her arms behind her head. During the trainings, it was two of them against fifteen, sometimes twenty men. They never knew the number of men they were to fight till it was time, they never knew the task. Sometimes Dominic gave them a team, just so they would know how to command one.

Teamwork, he said was the key to a successful mission.

And sometimes he made the team turn on them during the trainings which made it harder. But most times, it was just both against each other. The trainings she hated most was when she had to fight Dominic, or Dimitri, or even Lucas. They never complained though. They had become accustomed to the rigorous trainings.

Lucas liked to use the trainings to beat her ass, especially if she had wronged him. The trainings then turned into real fights, and Dominic let them fight it out. Let them settle their differences. But that was it, they never let their arguments and disputes turn into something more, they never let it pass that day.

She sat up and went to find a bandage for her bruised back, a band aid for the cut on her cheek and some pain killers. She took a warm shower after that and went to bed.

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Who missed Dominic? I know I did. Too bad, this is gonna be the last flashback chapter.

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Anyway, I hope you liked it. Not one of my favorite chapters.