Elite (28 page)

Richfield’s demeanor never seemed to change, and this morning was no exception. He greeted Daniel politely, and moved very calm and cool-like around the cafeteria as he gathered his breakfast. No one seemed to pay any special attention to the boss-man being in the
cafeteria that morning, and he didn’t act as though he expected anyone to.

As they sat down at a table, Daniel noticed that this was the first time he had ever met with Richfield without Mister Blank present, and wondered where he might be.

“I wanted to talk to you about what I’m expecting from you during your combat training, because it isn’t the same as what I expect from everyone else,” Richfield said.

Daniel nodded in understanding, waiting for Richfield to elaborate.

“The type of self-defense you’ll be learning is a variation of Krav Maga,” Richfield explained.

Daniel had heard of
Krav Maga before. It was supposed to be pretty intense, and also very violent.

“
Krav Maga originated with the Israeli military, where they wanted to train their men to be prepared for hand to hand combat, without needing years of training to master skills like with most forms of martial arts, and things of that nature.” Richfield continued. “Perfect, right?”

Daniel nodded again, this time with a smile. It was indeed the perfect thing for Daniel to learn on the fast-track to becoming an Elite agent.

“Now Krav Maga is about inflicting damage on your attacker. A lot of these special ops guys here learned it in their military training. I chose this form of self-defense training for Elite because when you’re out there in the field all I care about is that you’re able to keep yourself, and your client safe. I don’t care about fighting fair or looking pretty when you do it. If someone attacks you, you take them out,” Richfield instructed.

Daniel sat quietly, feeling almost guilty that the concept of “taking someone out” created a sense of pleasure within him.

Richfield continued, “With you – I think you need to worry even less about technique and focus more on your strength. You have the ability to deliver harder blows than anyone else. You should have no problem knocking a guy out in one shot. I want you to put the majority of your focus on two main things – how to protect yourself, and how to find the opportunity for that one knockout shot. Got me? Make it easy on yourself. Use your hulk-like strength to your advantage.”

Daniel smirked as he scooped up some more eggs onto his fork. “I can do that,” he said before shoving the forkful of scrambled eggs into his mouth.

“Good,” replied Richfield. Then they went on to talk about other subjects like how Daniel was feeling both physically and mentally, and how far his confidence level had grown in regards to using his ability.

Once breakfast was done, the two parted ways as Daniel headed toward the sparring area which was located in the space between the fitness area and the obstacle course, and Richfield went up to his office.

Elise, Daniel’s combat instructor, was standing just inside the door as he walked into the sparring area. Daniel had seen her working with the other agents many times before, so he knew exactly who she was when he saw her.

Elise, in the most polite terms possible, was a beast of a woman.

“She makes Xena look like a Barbie Doll,” is the way Charlie had put it.

Elise stood six-feet tall, with square shoulders, and had muscle mass that rivaled some of the thinner male agents at Elite. Daniel expected that she probably weighed more than Charlie, and was more muscular than Daniel himself had been when he first walked through the door. At least it appeared that way.

Elise was utterly “cut,” with not an ounce of fat to be seen anywhere on her body. When she worked up a sweat her muscles glistened perfectly as the light reflected off the moisture built up on her muscular physique. If she were made of stone she would have easily been mistaken for a Greek god – yes god, not goddess.

Though her body was unusually ripped for that of a woman, her facial features were quite feminine. She had gorgeous bleach blonde hair that would have reached her shoulders had she ever worn it down, but every time Daniel had seen her she had it up in a short, messy ponytail.

Her skin was smooth and silky, with a very mild complexion. Not too tan, not too pale. Just right, in Daniel’s opinion. Had she not looked so masculine from the neck down, he probably would have considered her an incredibly attractive woman.

“There’s enough to work with there that you still think about it,” Charlie had once said about Elise, and Daniel agreed. Though it created questionable feelings within him, he couldn’t help but imagine what it might be like to be with Elise.

The woman was in shape, to say the very least.

“So, Golden Boy,” she said to Daniel as he turned to greet her. “Mister Richfield wants me to put you on the fast-track to becoming a badass.
Says you’ve got more potential than most.”

Daniel shrugged off the comment, trying not to blush. He didn’t want to come off cocky right from the get-go.

“I have a unique skillset,” he said with less modesty than he had intended.

Elise cocked her head and stared at him for a few seconds with a lopsided grin. She wore a black sports bra with a purple elastic band around the bottom, and matching black workout pants with a purple waistband.

“So I hear,” she finally responded, sounding a bit suspicious.

After a few more seconds of staring at each other awkwardly, she finally said, “Well let’s get started then, shall we?”

Daniel nodded and gestured for her to lead the way.

Elise spoke with a voice that carried just a hint of rasp. It sounded similar to that of an adolescent boy. Her words also carried a noticeable California “surfer-dude” flavor to them.

“So in Krav Maga,” she began, as they took their place in the center of one of the sparring mats, “the weapon always leads first.”

“Sounds pretty badass,” Daniel blurted.

“It is,” Elise agreed. “It’s not about playing nice, it’s about causing damage. If someone attacks you, who gives a shit about fighting fair?” She said emphatically, as if she had some experience on the matter. “The object is to use whatever part of your body can cause the most damage – knuckles, forearms, shins – and use them to attack whatever spots are most vulnerable to damage on your attacker – the face, throat, thumbs and groin.”

Daniel felt his eyebrow reflexively shoot up after that last one.

“We ask that you please don’t use any groin attacks in the challenge ring or while sparring,” she explained. “We don’t need to be neutering our fellow agents.

“But if someone out on the street is threatening either you or more importantly the client, take the fucker down by any means necessary.”

Daniel forced back a laugh and instead downgraded it to a hearty smile. He had heard that Elise had a potty-mouth. He wondered if she was ever in the navy.

“Let’s start with our fighting position,” she said, jumping right into the training.

Daniel nodded and shifted his weight, preparing to lift his fists up in front of his face or something of that nature.

Elise just stood in place, staring at him, her feet shoulder-width apart and her arms down at her sides.

“Like me,” she finally said after Daniel had sufficiently embarrassed himself.

Daniel did as he was told and stood with his feet shoulder-width apart and his arms at his side.

“In Krav Maga we always start from a point of disadvantage,” Elise explained. “When an attacker comes at you on the street, you’re never going to be prepared for it. So we always start like this, and all of the moves I will teach you are based off of our natural reflexes.”

“Cool,” Daniel said, beginning to really respect the Israeli who had thought up this aggressive, yet intuitive form of self-defense.

“Now when I say, we are going to take a few steps like we are walking down the street, minding our own business. Then when I give the signal, I want you to jump into position like this…”

And with that she sprung up with her feet, moving her right foot into position behind her body but still in line with her shoulder, and he left foot out in front.

“Now when you do this, make sure your back heel is off the ground, so that you’re ready to push off with your foot at any moment,” she said, pointing back at her right foot. “Then when I say ‘forward,’ I want you to push off and throw your body forward. When I say ‘back,’ I want you to push off the ground with your front heel and send your body backward, like this…”

As she finished her sentence she pushed off with her front leg and sprung her body backward.

“Got it?” She asked.

Daniel nodded in understanding.

“Okay, then let’s get into position,” she said, moving over to the edge of the circle on the mat.

She continued lecturing as she moved into position. “You always want to use the ground for leverage. Everything in
Krav Maga starts from the ground up.”

Daniel again nodded, anxious to dive in.

“Okay, here we go,” Elise said as she started moving forward. “Step, step, step, and…attack!”

And with that both Daniel and Elise sprang into action, moving their feet into combat position.

“Now forward!” Elise shouted, commanding Daniel to push off with the ball of his back foot.

“Back!”
She yelled, and both her and Daniel pushed off their front foot and jumped a few feet back.

“Forward
!...Back!...Forward!...Forward!...Back!...Back!...” she continued, until she was finally satisfied that Daniel had gotten it.

“Good,” she said, taking a breath and placing her hands on her hips. “See, not that hard.”

“You’re right,” Daniel agreed. “What’s next?”

The rest of the moves that Elise showed Daniel were simple, but there was a lot of information for Daniel to absorb, such as how to properly throw a punch.

“Keep your elbows down and attack upwards, which gives you better leverage and more power behind your punch.
Also to make contact with your second knuckle so as to cause more damage and leave you less likely to break a finger.”

Elise also showed Daniel how to properly shift his weight while kicking to deliver the hardest blow.

She ran him through those exercises multiple times and before Daniel knew it his two hour lesson was up. On his way over to the door he noticed Doctor Horchoff standing there waiting for him, a grim look upon his face.

“After lunch, meet me down on the medical level for your next training,”
Horchoff told him.

“What training is that again?” Daniel inquired. He had forgotten that the third three-week stage of his training consisted of combat training as well as something else.

“Pain management,” Horchoff answered plainly, glancing up at Daniel with his grey eyes, his face looking more pale than usual.

Then he turned and walked out the door as Daniel watched him go. He was suddenly a little afraid of what the doctor might have in store for him.

Daniel sat and ate his lunch in near terror as he contemplated what things
Horchoff could have in store for him in his “pain management” training. He had remembered Richfield listing it off as one of the aspects of his training back when this whole thing began, but hadn’t really considered what that might entail.  The concept was for him to learn how to control his body’s ability to feel – or in this case not feel – pain. It hadn’t crossed his mind that to do so he would have to learn from actual experience.

He hoped that whatever
Horchoff had planned it wasn’t too sadistic. The expression on his face after Daniel’s combat training had been rather concerning.

Horchoff was waiting for Daniel just outside the elevator when Daniel came down to the Medical level after his lunch. Without speaking, Horchoff gestured for Daniel to follow, and lead him through the maze that was the medical level. The route they took was one that was vaguely familiar to Daniel.

After a minute of walking,
Horchoff opened the door to one of the operating rooms and held it open for Daniel. With slight hesitation, Daniel slowly walked through the doorway.

While the route to the room may have been vaguely familiar, the image of the room itself was one that Daniel would never forget.

Dim, translucent lighting filled the room, giving it a blue tint as it reflected off of the many metallic surfaces that lined the edges of the walls. The ceiling was two stories high. Windows looked down on the lower half of the room from two of the second story walls.

In the middle of the room sat a padded chair – like a dentist’s chair. It was the very same chair in which Daniel had sat during his operation just two months prior.

“Look familiar?” Horchoff asked, breaking the silence that filled the room as he made his way past Daniel and over toward a rolling metallic tray that sat next to the chair.

“How could I forget this place?” Daniel responded, trying to make light of things.

The truth was that he felt a little creeped out being back in this room, recalling how scared he had been in the moments leading up to his procedure, not knowing if he would ever wake up again once the anesthetic took effect.