Chapter 9 - Kendo

"Again, Michael."

Michael pivoted left while striking with his right leg. Kendo blocked the blow and jabbed hard with his right hand. He step forward and grabbed Michael's raised leg before knocking the other leg out from under him. Michael crashed down to the ground and took a moment to catch his breath.

"You committed too soon. You already turned left when you started to kick. It gave away your intention. Again."

The two squared off again and recommenced sparring. Michael got past his block and landed a hard kick against his jaw. Seeing his grimace, Michael hesitated briefly and stepped slightly back. Seeing the opportunity, Kendo advanced forward and knocked him down and pinned his arm against Michael's neck.

"I'm sorry. What, did you think we were taking a break? Never hesitate to finish the kill. That hesitation will get you killed and most likely your team."

Kendo eased the pressure from Michael's neck and helped him up. They sparred again, each landing a couple of blows with neither claiming dominance. He signaled the end of session, both stepped back and gave a respectful bow.

"Good. Your technique is improving. You got to keep working on it so that the moves come from within. Go on and work with Master Chou for a while."

Kendo moved to the side and watched Michael go through the forms with Master Chou. He surreptitiously worked his jaw, which was already sore from the kick. The beginning of a headache was already developing and his ears were ringing.

He continued watching Michael with grudging respect. In two short months, Michael had already graduated to red belt level in Tae Kwon Do. At the rate he's improving, he will be a 9th degree black belt, the highest level, within a few more months.

Kendo had trained many recruits in the years he had served as a team leader in Section 8. Never before had he seen anyone with as much potential as Michael. He thought wryly back to his initial objection to this assignment. It was after the initial meeting between Elsbeth, Caroline, Jurgen, and himself.

Elsbeth: "That's all for now. You're dismissed."

Kendo stayed seated as the other two operatives left the room. Elsbeth raised her eye brow imperiously toward him and asked: "Something I can help you with?"

"I wasn't satisfied with your answer. Again, why are so many resources being spent on one recruit?"

"You've reviewed Michael's compatibility assessment yourself. How would you have approached his training?"

"We are spending a lot of effort to train a Valentine ops recruit. There's no guarantee that he would even complete his training."

"Yes, that's true. However, Madeline at One and I both feel Michael is capable of more."

"You discussed Michael with Section One?"

"Madeline is the one who came up with this training course."

"Why would she take an interest in this?"

"I suspect that she hopes to one day use Michael's services."

"Then why not just send Michael over to One now?"

"Because he's our resource. We are the one who recruited him. Also, there are a lot of eyes watching One right now and they can't afford to look like they're poaching from other Sections to boost their numbers."

"Plus he's of no use to them as a recruit?"

"Exactly."

"What's the story with Jurgen?"

"I'm not sure. He's record is solid and there's no noted deficiencies in his file. Keep an eye on him will you, Kendo?"

"Of course."

Kendo was initially annoyed that he had to spend time to train a Valentine ops recruit. His annoyance had slowly changed to respect as Michael's innate skills shown through. He, along with the weapons master Smitty, have been putting him through the typical training associated with a Field operative: hand to hand combat, weapons, and munitions. Michael was excelling in all areas, so much so he was on his way to promotion to provisionary status way ahead of the curve.

As much as he was impressed with Michael's natural physical abilities, what really impressed him was his mental acuity. Kendo was already teaching him how to profile missions, something not typically taught to a recruit until after the first year of training. How Michael thought up unconventional approaches and seemingly can foresee all possible scenarios without ever partaking in a live mission was beyond his comprehension.

He had even given Michael a relatively simple mission to profile. Kendo had sent Michael's mission profile up to Elsbeth for review and it was approved without any changes. He had Michael observe as he provided tactical oversight for the mission. It was carried out flawlessly without any deviation or complications.

Michael had quickly become the best recruit he had ever trained. Of course he would never tell him that fact. The man was getting enough compliments already from Smitty and Dusty, the head of Comm. Not that Michael was letting the compliments get to his head. He seemed completely unfazed by the superlatives heaped on him. Michael doesn't seem to have any vanity and simply committed to doing the best he could regardless of subject matter. It was that trait that Kendo respected the most.

He called an end to the session and Michael walked toward him.

"That's all for today. Go get cleaned up and get some rest."

Michael bowed respectfully and left the exercise room.

Kendo walked back to his office and made a notation on Michael's personnel file. Turning his thoughts away from his prized pupil, Kendo absorbed himself with preparing for a new mission.