A/N:

Thanks to loss4words for beta'ing!

Bella

2 August 2010 Camp Peary

The drive from the dormitory area to the firing range was longer than I anticipated. The instructor who'd pulled me before breakfast hopped out before we'd fully stopped at a large building. He still hadn't introduced himself. I quickly followed him. The driver pulled off as soon as my feet touched the ground.

"Come on, let's see what you've got," the instructor said. He led me into the building. "Normally, you'd do this test with a couple of other trainees, but since you're so special that you get the abbreviated course, you'll be doing it with some instructors who volunteered to help you."

I didn't like the way he said help.

"We're going to make sure you know the basics and then move up from there in difficulty." He grinned, and handed me eye and ear protection.

The grin seemed more than a little sinister for my taste.

He led me to a firing range.

"For each of the handguns you're going to give me 6 shots prone, 3 shots strong side kneeling barricade position, 6 shots standing, and 3 shots weak side kneeling barricade position all at 25 feet. You will have 75 seconds per handgun. This does not include loading. When you are ready you will nod and I will start your time."

I loaded the first gun in line, donned my ear and eye protection and nodded at him, before dropping to the ground to begin. The site seemed slightly off but I managed just fine.

On the second weapon after I nodded someone began yelling to my left. I tuned it out, focused on my breathing and the target instead. After I finished the series it was pretty obvious that the yelling was meant to distract me. My aim had been fine – not perfect but good enough.

He seemed disappointed when I picked up the next firearm. He pulled in the target and swapped it for a new one while I loaded the clip. After a couple of shots someone in another cubicle started firing something very large caliber. I could feel it resonate in my chest, but it didn't mess up my aim too much. Whatever it was shook the floor.

I went down the line of weapons that had been laid out pretty much the same way.

The distractions stopped after a while. When I turned to look behind me after firing the last weapon in line, I realized that I had an audience. There were four guys standing with their arms crossed and jaws open. I smiled at them and turned to my instructor.

"Was that okay?" I yelled.

He removed his ears* and I followed his lead.

"That'll do," he said.

We moved to the other end of the range. I had to qualify on a couple of rifles, including an M16. I wasn't much of a rifle girl, but I passed.

My audience had followed us. I tried not to get cocky. I was starting to feel a bit shaky after a morning without breakfast and all of the adrenaline going through my system. When the crowd and I started to leave the range I felt myself sway, and for a brief moment I felt myself disconnect, but I stamped my foot down and clawed my way back into my body.

The guy standing next to me put an arm around my shoulders for a moment to steady me. He was a short, slim guy with red hair.

"Swan?"

"I'm fine," I said.

"Here." He handed me a protein bar from his pocket.

I promptly scarfed it down. There was a water fountain in the hallway and I made the briefest of pit stops to wash down the bar.

Mr. Irritable, the instructor who'd collected me from the morning run was tapping his foot when I looked up. I acknowledged him with a nod.

"What's next?"

"CQB," he answered.

Closed Quarters Battle was something that I was only kind of familiar with. I knew what the book said, but I also knew what my dad said. Charlie had some thoughts on what one should do firing at close range. I was fairly certain that we were still talking about firing handguns.

I was wrong.

"This is a tactical course," he explained. "Your objective is to rescue the hostage, and neutralize all threats on the course."

I nodded.

He inclined his head to where the guys who would be running the course with me were. They were gearing up. I noticed a pile of untouched gear and stepped up to it. I strapped a Kevlar vest on over my sweats, and followed with the gun belt and helmet. I realized that it must look comical over top of a pair of sweats but I shrugged it off. Honestly, who was I going to impress with my looks? I was fairly certain that no one would care about whether or not I looked cute, so long as I took out the required targets.

"Have you done this before?" the red haired guy asked.

"Not this exactly." I grimaced. "Once in high school I did a similar exercise with my Dad's friends on the police force buddies as part of IPSC."

"IPSC is an interesting hobby for a teenage girl."

"I only did it once. They needed another person for a team event."

He nodded. "Targets are going to pop up as we go through the course. If we don't fire on them, they disappear. You'll be on a point system. If the hostage gets shot you fail."

I nodded.

Looking around, I noticed that the other guys didn't seem too pleased that red was giving me advice.

"I'm not being set up for failure, am I?"

"I have your back," he whispered.

~V258~

Having my back didn't prove to be too helpful, as the other guys in the group didn't seem too motivated to shoot at much. Essentially, two of us were doing the bulk of the shooting meant for six. I passed, but just barely.

On two separate occasions Red and I stormed into a room only to find that the others hadn't followed because they were needlessly checking their gear. Red was notably upset.

There wasn't much of a break following the course. I was ushered into another Jeep with Red, whose last name turned out to be O'Brian – I still didn't know his first.

"I'm positive that I know your Dad," O'Brian blurted out when we were alone.

"You do?"

"Charlie Swan, Forks Washington Police Department, right?"

"Yeah…"

"You hold a pistol the same way he does." He smirked.

"Is that good or bad?"

"It's interesting."

"Okay," I laughed.

"Honestly, it gets the job done. A lot of instructors would try to correct it, but it seems to work for you."

I nodded.

"I'm kind of surprised to see you here," he confessed. "Charlie's not overly fond of the intelligence community."

"I'm aware."

"Dad's giving you a hard time?"

"Not really. This kind of qualifies as extenuating circumstances."

"That's right, you're with SpecInt." He grinned. "So, how weird are you?"

"SpecInt isn't weird."

"Riiiiggghhttt… That's just where all of the stuff we don't want CIA stamped on goes."

"Just because you don't understand it –" I started to yell.

"Don't get your panties in a wad," he interrupted. "Given your personality and the way you shoot, we could use you if you're interested in the legitimate spy business. That and there's a recommendation in your file…"

I shot him a puzzled look.

"An inquiry was made… you've impressed people before even reaching The Farm, which isn't completely unprecedented, but it's rare."

"Oh, that." I was fairly certain that Liam's request to work with me had been noted.

"You're very modest," he observed.

We drove through a wooded area and then past an airfield to the driving course. There were three driving courses situated together.

"If you want to jump ship, let me know. Since you're Charlie's kid I'd be willing to go to bat for you."

"Thanks."

I turned my attention to the courses and gulped. They looked so much more intimidating that the cones that Rosalie set up in the lot at SpecInt.

"You'll need to test on all three today," O'Brian informed me. "We start tradecraft training tomorrow and you need to test out of all of the paramilitary modules today, except for jump school. You can do that while you do tradecraft. It'll be tiring but you'll get out of here faster."

It was going to be a long three months.

~V258~

Jacob

2 August 2010 Atlanta, Georgia

They dropped Seth off first, then me. As soon as they'd left my parking lot I was out the door heading back to the studio to track down my phone. The runner had left it in the control room for me. I went from there to find Seth.

"We have to have been drugged," I said.

"I don't know how." Seth shrugged. "They didn't stick me with a needle, I didn't eat or drink anything…"

"Maybe we inhaled something?"

"But wouldn't they have been exposed?"

I grunted, acknowledging that he was probably correct.

"I know one thing," Seth said. "I am never hacking into anything remotely government related again. Especially, nothing connected to that Ren girl."

I cocked my head at him.

"She's scary," he admitted.

"She smells like cookies," I said.

"You sniffed her?"

I nodded.

"Bro, that is disturbing on so many levels."

I didn't think it was all that disturbing. She obviously wore some sort of cookie scented perfume or soap or something. I kind of liked it.

"You buying me dinner?" Seth asked.

"Yep," I said and led him to my car.

The one good thing that had come out of the day was that I knew Bella was alive and well. Granted, they wouldn't tell me if she was with Edward again, and I couldn't get any details, but she was okay. That was all I really wanted to know.

It's hard to grow up with someone, spend most of your time with her, and then just stop caring. I was so used to taking care of her that I hadn't known what to do with myself for months. I went to work. I called her. I took some photos. I sent her an e-mail while I processed them.

It seemed like she was taken care of. For the first time in a long time I didn't have to worry about her. I didn't want to admit it, but it was a relief. I just hoped that she didn't get screwed over again.

"Have you heard a single word I've said?"

"No," I admitted.

"Dude, The Varsity*, getting kidnapped by a team of spies warrants a chili dog and a frosted orange."

I corrected my course and headed back toward The Varsity. I was going to have to work out a lot to compensate for the amount of fat we were about to ingest, but Seth was right getting kidnapped by spies and escaping with all of ones fingers and toes warranted some sort of celebration.

"So, I was thinking about how to get your girl back…"

"She's not my girl, Seth."

I could feel Seth staring at me.

"Do not tell me that we just broke all sorts of laws to try and rescue a girl you don't even like."

I sighed as we pulled into the lot.

"I do like her," I said, "but there's no amount of affection on my part that's ever going to make her love me. I should move on."

"I hate you."

"Come on, I'll buy."

"Yeah, you'd better be buying," he scoffed and hopped out of my car, slamming the door behind him.

~V258~

6 August 2010 Atlanta, Georgia

It was late and I'd logged into a demo server for a game Seth had been working on when someone sent me a tell*. I glanced at it for a second before I realized that the gamer wasn't Seth or any of his friends. It was from LochNessRen. I momentarily blinked at the name. It couldn't be.

LochNessRen : I'm watching

BlackWolf: You're aware that this is a private server?

LochNessRen :That doesn't seem to bother you.

BlackWolf: …

LochNessRen: I can find you anywhere.

BlackWolf: How is my friend?

LochNessRen: She's off at tradecraft training, but she was fine before.

BlackWolf: Thank you.

LochNessRen: You should leave her alone.

BlackWolf: I will, I just wanted to know that she was alright.

LochNessRen: it's only two steps between concerned friend and scary stalker.

BlackWolf: I'll keep that in mind.

LochNessRen: This game looks cool, do you want someone to raid with?

BlackWolf: As long as you don't slow me down.

LochNessRen: ;)

Thus, our raiding party started. I actually started to like her by the end of it.

LochNessRen: Will you be on again?

BlackWolf: Maybe next week. I don't play on this server unless Seth wants me to check out new features.

LochNessRen: Next week it is then. ;)

BlackWolf: l8r

LochNessRen: l8r

I didn't want to admit it, but Renesmee was actually pretty cool. After I logged out actually marked off the following Friday night to game with her.

*The Varsity is a restaurant in Atlanta. It opened in 1928, and serves the best hot dogs and fries. They also have a drink called a frosted orange. It's better than a Frosty. Mmmmm… I can feel my arteries clogging just thinking about it.

End Note:

Dangit… I just gave myself a craving for The Varsity, which is trouble since I'm heading back to Atlanta sometime soon.

Okay, so since I didn't do a lot of review replies last week I tried to get to everyone this week. If I missed you, I'm sorry. Next week we'll be back to my norm of responding if I have something relevant to say, otherwise, assume that I appreciate it and I'm saying thank you. I honestly read all of them at least twice.

I'll have something up on the blog later. Mainly, part of the research I did for Bella's portion of the chapter.

Mwah! Have a great week!