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We spent the rest of the day sparring on the summit of the mountain undisturbed except by the occasional passing goat herder. We trained and we laughed, the raging war and savant scheming long forgotten in this untouched place of beauty. We both flopped back onto the grassy floor as we finished, exhausted from our efforts.
"I bet you've never seen mountains like these, have you Soraya?" Razi said, obviously proud of his homeland. I bit my lip, recalling the last time I'd been up a mountain. I'd lay there similarly like this, but with Victor beside me not Razi.
"Actually I have." I murmured. "The Rockies, in Colorado." I didn't admit it, but these mountains had nothing on the Rockies.
Razi immediately realised his mistake, glancing over at me worriedly gauging my reaction. He decided to make light of the situation, when I didn't say anything further.
"You didn't exactly strike me as a mountain girl is all, I apologise."
There he went again. The last person that called me mountain girl was Victor. Sighing I sat up, wrapping my arms around my bent knees.
"Just, stop talking Razi. Before you make that hole any bigger ok?"
"Sorry." He said grimly, joining me in the sitting position. He craned his neck looking up at the sky. "We should head back, it's a long way and it'll be getting dark soon." I nodded, accepting Razi's hand to pull my weary body up off the ground. Razi gathered his backpack and we set off, down the steep trail back towards the heart of Kabul. It took half the time to get back, mainly as we skipped down the mountain like little goats.
Haseem wasn't around when we returned, Razi mumbled something about going over plans with him as he disappeared into Haseem's office instructing me to take an ice bath. I didn't see the two of them for the rest of the night, so I was left feeling very sorry for myself eating on my own. The next morning, I went running, again on my own, and it wasn't until Razi found me sat on the floor of the gym cooling down after my practise session that day that I had any physical interaction with another human in nearly 24 hours. He sat down opposite me on the floor, crossing his legs as he looked at me.
"I'd say it's nice to see you, but I think it'd be nice to see just about anyone right now." I complained sarcastically as he sat there. I only earned a disapproving look for that comment.
"I was busy with Haseem. Forgive me."
"Forgiven, I suppose." I said rolling my eyes. "Did you need something?"
"I want to talk, first of all."
"What about?" I groaned as I moved positions, tucking one leg underneath me as I reached out with my hand to touch the toes of my other outstretched foot.
"You, mainly. And your involvement in the ops we're planning." That got my attention.
"Oh?"
"Haseem wants you to start getting some field experience, we think you're ready." He added nervously, as if expecting some outburst from me for that comment.
"Really?" I squeaked, surprising him.
"Yes. How would you feel, about coming on the op to the states, for the intel?"
"Are you kidding me?!" I looked on in disbelief. I was going to ask to go in for that op, but didn't for minute think I'd get to go. It was America, after all.
"No, definitely not, kidding." Razi replied with a hint of humour lacing his voice. "I need to make sure you can work with the team we're assembling, but that's beside the point. Your knowledge of the Net and their systems could be invaluable. We just need you to finish up the profiling."
"I'll get on it tonight! I only have a few, it won't take me any time at all." I gushed.
"Ok." Razi said smirking. "Get them done, and just focus on working on your techniques and train as much as you can. Haseem and I need to get it all fine tuned, so just sit tight until we say so, alright?"
I nodded a little too enthusiastically, I would welcome a change of scenery even if for a short time.
"Make sure you get an ice bath tonight, sooth your muscles." Razi said as he stood up. Pausing in the doorway, he turned back around. "I'll see you at dinner, thought you might prefer some company tonight." He said with a smile which made tingles run down my spine. I looked down, smiling happily to myself.
Haseem was still working when I went down to dinner, to find Razi reading over some papers which he immediately put away when he saw me. Dinner was a much cheerier affair than my lonely meal last night, Razi and I had flowing a conversation and laughed over our pointless chats, the looming op not being mentioned once. For one night, we were just two friends, having dinner like in any other normal situation.
It didn't last long though, the next morning after my run I found a note from Haseem asking me to join one of the training classes down at the centre, somewhere I had only been a handful of times. This time I would be training with a group of other participates. I did firearms training in a group, and Haseem had taken me down to train there several times, but only the two of us. This would be the real test of my abilities, to see if I could hold my own against other trained savants besides my uncle and Razi.
One of my uncles drivers dropped me off, and I headed into the main training room with my bag over my shoulder. Peeking around the door, I saw a handful of people around my age stretching and warming up whilst chatting, with a shirtless Razi heading them up. He spotted me lurking in the doorway, and waved me in with one of his smiles.
"Soraya, good to see you. Sorry I missed our run this morning, I had to take a session here. Was it alright?" He said coming to meet me, and drawing the whole of the rooms attention to the two of us. I was also wondering when it had become our morning run.
"Well it was nothing on the treacherous mountain pass you dragged me up, but it did the trick!" I joked, trying to keep the mood light. Razi grinned, his whole face lighting up with laughter.
"I hope you're not too tired, you need to show us how's it's done." He said with a wink which made my heart flutter.
"Thought that was your job?" I said following him back to the front of the class. I could feel every set of eyes on me as Razi and I bantered back and forth, as we normally did. This was nothing new for us, but apparently the other people in the room were surprised.
"Guess it is. Everyone this is Soraya, she's been having privates to catch up as she was a late entry to the program. She'll be joining us today." Razi announced to the room, which earned a few mumbles and waves of hello. There was a mix of different ethnicities among the people, demonstrating that the program's reach stretched far beyond Afghanistan. I went to join the others in stretching when Razi grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to him.
"Don't mention Haseem's your uncle to anyone, it probably won't sit well with a lot of people." He murmured in my ear, his head bent low so his forehead was almost bumping against mine.
"Ok." I whispered, gulping quickly as I pulled away. I could see how being Haseem's niece would seem like I would be getting preferential treatment – I was already getting incredulous looks for apparently being friendly with Razi.
I sat at the edge, starting my stretches just as everyone else finished up and stood around chatting. I was still getting a great amount of looks, this time as I was mirroring the same stretches Razi was going through. We'd both been taught by Haseem who was apparently very set in his ways. Razi looked over at me, his eyes full of laughter.
"Don't worry about it. You're new meat for them, they'll settle down soon enough." Razi said to me. It was the first time he'd ever spoken telepathically and as much as I hated to admit it to myself, his voice was a very welcome visitor in my head. It felt, right.
"Well they're probably going to kick my ass so actually they'll have more reason to stare." I replied grimly as I straightened up, ignoring the fluttering feeling in my stomach at Razi's voice in my mind.
"I'll protect you, they're all terrified of me." Razi smiled at me again before facing the group.
"Alright, spread out everyone, I want you to go through the motions and I want them inch perfect, ok?" Razi was completely in charge here, and looking at the face of the people jostling around me, they really were terrified of him. Dropping my head to hide my smirk, I took a space near the front – I for one wasn't afraid of Razi and apparently the back of the room was reserved for the regulars. I glanced worriedly around, as everyone got into stance.
"Ok, and begin. One, two, three, four, five, six. Again." As Razi counted, the entire room moved in unison into a different position on his count, from stance to an high block, to a upper strike, and a drop kick and repeated it – all the fundamentals of hand to hand combat. They moved in perfect synchronisation, completely focused as Razi began weaving through the well practised group.
"Emm, Razi?" I called, not knowing the routine. His head snapped around to look at my helpless figure standing stock still. He didn't come to me, so as not to draw attention to my lack of knowledge but instead continued his rounds.
"Forgive me. I forgot you weren't aware of the motions. I'll call them to you."
Thankfully, Razi did call out each movement telepathically as he wandered, and I soon picked up the order. I knew all the techniques of the moves, so I had no trouble once the order was mastered. Razi was silent, except for the occasional correction in someone's technique. As he called time, the chat broke out once more as I went and grabbed a drink. I turned around as a girl came over, smiling.
"Hey, Soraya wasn't it? I'm Lucy." She said kindly offering a hand. Her accent was English.
"Hi, nice to meet a friendly face!" I joked.
"Well yeh, they're not exactly the most welcoming bunch huh?" She laughed nervously. "So you seem pretty friendly with Razi? You know him?"
"Razi?" I glanced over to him, briefly making eye contact. "Yeh, we train together. He's been giving me privates." As I spoke more people gravitated towards us, presumably drawn by Lucy making the first move by talking to me.
"No way? You've been training with Razi?!" A blonde very brash young girl had joined us, startling me with her high pitched voice.
"Err, yeh?" I said nervously, unsure what answer they were looking for. More had joined our growing group, with a burly short man wrapping an arm around the little blondes shoulders as he gave a high pitched whistle. He glanced over his shoulder, checking Razi wasn't in hearing range before leaning in close to me.
"Razi is one of the toughest-"
"Roughest!" Jumped in another guy.
"Strongest," added another man.
"Hottest," smooched the blonde.
"Son of a bitch that's going here!" Lucy finished. Their descriptions did anything but match the Razi I knew. I couldn't help giving a little laugh.
"Razi?" I asked astounded.
"Well ya. He's terrifying?" The blonde said. "I admire you for the way you act with him! I'm Kat by the way." She said sticking her hand out. I shook it, still struggling to hide my laughter.
"I told you they're terrified of me." Razi's smug voice entered my head. I glanced over confused, and he surreptitiously tapped his temple with his finger.
"Ugh. Stay out of our heads please. And bring that ego down a notch, I thought we talked about that?" I chastised, as I dragged my attention back to the chattering Kat. She was so bubbly and vivacious, I was struggling to keep up with her.
"Ok fall in!" A visibly laughing Razi called out interrupting whatever nonsense Kat was spouting now. "I want you to pair up, we're going through the basics, quickly but thoroughly. C'mon, hurry up!"
I was looking around for a potential partner when Kat grabbed my arm.
"Go with me?" She gushed, earning a nod from me. She smiled ridiculously like a four year old on their birthday.
We ran through the basics, with Kat owning me. Despite her tiny size she was very good, and strong. We were practising blocking when Razi came round, taking his turn to assess us. Kat came at me, and I easily deflected her jab with my arm. Before I could blink, she had rearranged her stance and delivered a high kick to my neck, which I just managed to avoid with a block and a slight dodge to aid me. She pulled back as Razi took a step in, coming to me.
"You know what you're doing but do it with more conviction, Soraya." He murmured. He placed a hand on either side of me, one on my lower back and one on my stomach. "Use all your strength, from here and here particularly." He said applying a slight pressure with his hands to indicate what he meant. I nodded, brushing the loose strands of hair off my face as he retreated, and pulled my hands up into stance. I could see Razi wanted me to perform – in the eyes of every single person in the room I was his protégé and I needed to be something special to warrant the VIP treatment I was receiving. This time, when Kat ducked to deliver a spin kick I watched the arc of her leg and timed my block to perfection, bringing my arm through to cleanly deflect her leg with such gusto that Kat was knocked off balance from her supporting leg and crumpled to the floor.
"Perfect." Razi declared, saying nothing else but walking off with a smirk gracing his lips. The majority of the hall had stopped to see my demolishment of Kat and quickly returned to their work as Razi's gaze scanned over them.
"Well I see why they're giving you the special treatment now!" Kat grinned up at me from where she was still kneeling on the floor.
As the end of the session drew around, Razi called us in for a debriefing.
"Good work today. I expect you all out tomorrow morning for a run, then into here straight after. We'll be working through some situations, uneven matchings, hostage situations and the sort. We'll be working together a lot for the foreseeable future, you've all been selected for an op shortly. Off continent."
Hushed whispers and cries of excitement broke out at his words, understandably. This is what we trained for, sacrificed everything for.
"But do not think you're guaranteed a place on the team – slack with your training and I won't hesitate to remove you." Razi brought the excitement down a notch with this statement. "That will be all. I will see you tomorrow." Everyone began packing up, gathering bottles and towels. As I headed to my bag, Razi called out.
"Soraya how are you getting home?" He asked concernedly.
"Oh. I emm-" I hadn't thought about it, in all honesty. Razi must have read my thoughts, as he bent down to pack up his own things before I replied fully.
"Didn't think about it? Thought so, it's alright. I'll give you a lift back." He looked under his arm to throw me a sweet smile, while the rest of the room gawped on at us once again.
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