Subjects

56 - It's Training Men

Roa loves training.

It is almost as good as actually going out to the field and kicking ass. Maybe even better. When she trains, she does not need to talk to anyone or even think. Just her and the punching bag, and the track, and the weights, and the gun, and... Whatever, you got the point. Objects can't talk.

Roa agreed to train some of the newer recruits, not clear why. They seem to only get worse over time. Once she demonstrated strangling with one of them and he started to cry. Cry! Can you believe those recruiters? She may be good, but they have to give her something to work with.

That human wasn't terrible at fighting. Of course, he didn't stand a chance against her but at least he tried, which is more than she can say for most of her students.

NO.

She can't think about the humans.

She can't let them ruin training for her. This is the thing she doesn't like about running, it gives her time to think. She decides to recite the latest rules of behavior she learned at human studies. It's ridiculous they still make her take that class. She it the best agent they have! So what if she failed the final exam two or twenty times. It's not like anyone is going to care if she crosses the street on a green light before she kills them. Or was it a blue light?

She finishes her fourth time rounding the training center and goes straight to her room. She has a weapons class to test in fifteen minutes. She curses the stupid human shower, gears up, and jogs back to the center.

All of her trainees are standing against the wall when she walks in. At least that they learned.

In the middle of the test, the head of the training center walks in. He is watching Roa grading and mostly scolding her untalented students. Roa is ignoring him, usually he goes away after some time, but this time he doesn't.

"What do you want?" she is barely heard over the sound of shooting.

"What?" He yells at her.

"What do you want??" Roa yells back.

You know those times when suddenly the entire room goes quiet all at once and everyone can hear you? This is what happened. Only now, the student that stands in front of Roa gets the full blow of her scream and nearly faints. Guess who's not going to pass the test.

"Come to my office after you are done," the head of training says.

Roa walks to his office after the test is over. She is already dreading the talk, whatever it is he has to say. For some reason, he has a fondness for small talk. Seriously, if she wanted to tell him how was the class, she would. She actually said that to him once, he thought she was hilarious.

"Oh, Roa, there you are."

See? Five whole words that have absolutely no meaning. What a waste.

"So tell me, how have you been?"

"Great," Roa keeps standing at the door. She isn't making any effort to make her answer sound convincing.

"Pleasure to see you, as always," he walks over to close the door and force her inside the office. "No new snipers will come out of that course, I see."

"They are more likely to hit someone else's target than their own."

He laughs even though she wasn't joking. This pisses her off even more. Just to clarify, Roa is always at some level of being pissed off.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Roa wants to get this over with.

"Oh, yes. I just noticed you were gone for a couple of hours yesterday."

Roa was never a good liar, "there is this cabin that I used for mission 04783. I got an alert about a break in, turns out it was a... Squirrel."

He nods in a way that makes it very clear that he doesn't believe her. "I know it was hard for you to hear about what happened to your brother. Just know that if you need to talk to anyone, or if you need some time off, just say the word."

"What word?"

"It's an expression."

"Oh."

"So... Are you sure you're okay?"

"Is that all?"

"I believe so."

"Then yes, I'm fantastic."

Roa walks out before he can stop her. Bringing up her brother like that, like he even knows anything about him. She knows what everyone says behind her back about him, about how he treated humans. It's not that she doesn't agree with them but that still doesn't mean they get to judge him. Or kill him.

Great, now she is mad again.