The bright light of the dining room startled her awake. Much like any hotel breakfast area, food was stacked on counters, as well as a microwave and toaster. Lorna sat reading a book. Three more books sat on the table, along with a couple piles of papers. She reached out an arm and swept the stack to one side so Arena could sit down.
“Tough day, yesterday, eh? I wish I could say it gets better, but it will be a few months before that happens.” Lorna was voraciously eating an egg on top of a piece of cantaloupe, with ketchup and peanuts sprinkled over it. It was so odd Arena felt a little ill. The meal about matched her outfit, which was a black skirt over lime-green tights and a red and white striped shirt, and long dangly red and green earrings. Arena had the impression of a Christmas elf. She flashed a giant smile. “Did Nate teach you anything fun?”
Arena smeared cream cheese onto a sesame bagel and bit into it, trying not to look at the cantaloupe. “Not really. Mostly he just answered my dumb questions. I am still trying to understand how everything works.” She took a sip of coffee and her eyes watered. Tar would have been a charming description.
“That’s okay. There will probably be a lot of physical training. He’s really good at combat ops. One of the best I’ve seen. Has like three black belts and stuff. Each of us has a little different specialty, you know. Though I suspect you might take more after him with the physical stuff, what with the surfing and all.”
“What’s your specialty?” Arena already suspected the answer.
“Covert ops,” Lorna said. “I like spying on people. Dressing up. Wearing costumes. Playing the idiot.” She grinned. “I really like playing the idiot. Might surprise you, but Nate’s actually a pretty good master of disguise, too. He’s fooled more than one person he’s known for years.”
Sterling entered the room, gave them both a piercing look, and grabbed a banana and a cup of yogurt from the fridge. He turned and walked out without a word. Arena swallowed slowly, uncertain what to think of him. She hoped they wouldn’t have to work together very much, at least in training.
“Don’t mind him,” Lorna comforted. “It takes him a while to warm up to people. He’s protective of the group, and he gets afraid that a new person is going to mess it up. Work hard, show you can be part of the team, and you’ll win him over. He still hasn’t accepted Nate yet, and you might beat Nate to that task.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Because Nate was a field agent?”
“Oh, he told you about that, did he?” Lorna looked up for a moment, wobbling back and forth on her chair. “Yes, but more because of the politics of the CIA than Nate himself. There’s always a good chance they will cut us just because they don’t like us, or send someone in to mess it up from the inside. I think Sterling is afraid they will stick us all in dark rooms sorting through files and never let us out again.”
Nate came in at that moment, flashed a smile at both of them, and grabbed a banana, apple, pear, a cereal cup, and milk carton. He sat down at the table, oblivious to everything else that was on it.
“Good morning, ladies. Sleep well?” he asked, winking at both of them. He took a large bite of the pear. Juice ran down through the dimple in his chin. He swiped it off with the back of his hand.
“Perfectly lovely,” Lorna answered.
Arena just nodded. She had slept exceptionally well, exhausted beyond her brain’s capability to worry about everything that was happening. Nate was right, the beds were amazing. Must be that expensive foam. Much better than the dorm or her futon at home.
“ ‘Fraid to tell you we start off on combat after breakfast normally, and will for a few weeks.” Nate managed to eat all three pieces of fruit in about a minute while speaking without appearing to chew. “Then you’ll do computer training simulations, then you get an hour and a half for lunch, but you’re expected to do some of that reading during that time. Then more combat practice. Then dinner, then you’ll work with a member of the team for an hour or two on various tasks. But today, you get an early reprieve because they need you to explain how the hoverboards work. Fun with Sterling.”
“Don’t scare her too much! We need her!” Lorna chutted and swiped at his arm. She turned to Arena. “How do they work, anyway? I’ve been dying to know? It’s like surfing?”
Arena nodded, looking at Nate in case she wasn’t supposed to say anything. But he leaned forward, also anxious to learn. “Yes, very much like surfing, but it seemed a lot smoother to me. You just use your body to shift the board and turn. Then there’s a section on the side you push with your foot to make it go faster or slower. It’s really not complicated. Maybe there’s more you can do with it, but I didn’t really have a chance to find out. I--I just wanted my roommate back.”
“Well, the complicated part comes in that most of us don’t have the ability to surf like you do,” Nate frowned. “I’m sure there are people in the CIA that can surf, but not many who know about the technology already. They don’t like telling any more people than they have to. Plus, you were already on the recruit list. I wish we had a board to practice with.”
“What about the one I was on?” Arena looked confused.
Lorna answered, “The CIA snatched that one away almost immediately and sent it to the labs to be taken apart to try to figure out how it works.” She groaned and rolled her eyes. “Probably never get it back together again.”
“There’s supposed to be two more prototype boards out there,” said Nate. “You saw one of them. We don’t know where the last one is.”