I walk to guns class. I'm actually excited for it. We are doing building of guns relay. Everyone is partnered off. I'm partnered with Leslie. I'm really fast at it. She sometimes struggles. I find it super east because the teacher only puts the parts you need on the table making me able to put the guns together without needing to think at all. I'm hoping I can beat Grant and his partner.
"Hey, nice to have you back, maybe now we can win," Leslie says.
"You been practicing to bring your speed up?" I ask.
"Yeah, entire last relay cause you weren't here," she says.
"Good, who's Grant's partner?" I ask. Leslie gives me knowing eyes.
"His partner is Miles. They won last relay day," She tells me.
"Well, lets give them a run for their money," I say with a smile.
I love competitions. I see Grant and Miles talking. Leslie and I walk over.
"Ladies," Miles greets.
"Ready to get defeated?" Leslie asks,
"You didn't compete either times I did," Grant points out.
"That's because Sam was away," Leslie replies.
"Sam carries their team." Miles tells Grant.
"She does not," Leslie argues offended.
"I kinda do. Nat has me doing gun rebuilds that are a lot more complicated." I say.
"Garrett had me doing the same," Grant says to me with a smile.
"It will be nice to have some real competition." I reply.
"Will you two just make out already," Leslie says with a sigh in annoyance.
Grant and I back up from each other in bewilderment. Miles laughs at our reaction.
"Yeah, you two will get together before the end of the year," Miles says.
"They will be together long before that." Leslie predicts.
"Well, it's your expertise so I defer to you," Miles says.
"Her expertise?" Grant asks confused.
"She's better at social." Miles tells him.
"If you're hiding something she will know within an hour without you knowing," I say.
"Yeah, I'm pretty good," Leslie jokes. We all laugh.
"Give yourself a little credit Les. You are a force in social. You stack up to the best of the best in that area. You will be amazing at getting the locals help," I tell her.
"Alright, class as you know today is the weekly gun building relay. Sam it's good to have you back." The teacher says.
We line up ready to start.
"Now, remember play safe. Shoot one round from each gun and don't sabotage." The teacher informs us. "Go!"
We take off as fast as we can. Well, Leslie does. I make up her time in the end. Grant and I are using the same strategy. He winks at me, and I giggle. I look up to a shot. I notice Leslie got her gun seconds before Miles. That's good, seconds are good. We have to build four different guns. Handgun, Rifle, sniper and another handgun to finish. That will be fun. I know how to build those easily. Leslie and Miles are on their last gun.
Some students are still on their first. I chuckle nudging Grant and point to one of the students. He has put his gun together and taken it apart a few times. He is trying to figure out what he did wrong. He forgot to load the gun with the round.
We aren't allowed to give hints or tell other students what to do. We can only shout encouragements. Miles and Leslie are now running back to Grant and I. they smack our hands respectively and Grant and I take off. I then focus on myself. I need to beat him. I line up my first shot and take it. I move on to the next gun. I put it together and make my second shot. I run to the third. I put it together relatively quickly, take my third shot. I head to the last gun. I put it together. I feel like I'm moving slow. I shoot, then run back. I hit Leslie's hand and I look behind me seeing Grant run back and smack Miles's hand.
"That was a close match," the teacher tells us. "James, enough you forgot the round otherwise your gun was right."
"What?!" James exclaims. He picks up the bullet. "Oh," his partner looks pissed, rightfully so.
"Sam you may have some competition with Grant now," the teacher points out.
"Yeah, it was nice to know someone was on my heels," I agree.
"Let's take a look at your shots. See, where on the target you hit." She says pulling down the papers. She hands our paper to us. "I think the best shots are Grant and Sam. Congratulations both of you."
Grant and I compare our sheets. They are both very close. He must have practiced shooting while in the forest. That does make sense because he would have to hunt for him and his dog. I wonder if I should gift him a new dog. I think first I'll get him into a better dorm. I will talk to Nat and Clint about Garrett. The way he is teaching Grant is setting off alarm bells in my head.
"Samantha, you in there?" I hear Milles calling. I shake my head clearing my thought.
"Sorry, got lost in thought. What were you saying?" I ask.
"I was saying we should all get together and practice it would be fun," Miles tells me.
"I'm up for it if you are," I agree.
Everyone else agrees. We decide Saturday after lunch to meet here. We all walk to cyphers and codes.
"I love the old codes. They were so simple yet so undetectable." Miles says. He is strong in the class. This is by far his best class.
"It's so boring. All we are doing is reading coded messages." Grant says.
"That's the whole point. We need to be able to talk in codes and syphers. I also heard our final is going to be making a dead drop then getting one and decoding it." Miles says excitedly.
"That will be fun," I reply, thinking of all the stories Nat and Clint have told me about dead drops.
I will have to replicate one of the crazier ones. They will appreciate that, definitely. We arrive at the class. We all get handed a thick book. Probably communications from a shield assignment that we have to decode.
"You will work in groups decoding all 100 pages. It switches codes twice in it. Once your team figures it out and give me the entire decoded booklet you get some classes off," Teacher says. Must be an ongoing case if they need it that bad.
"How big are the groups to be?" Another student asks.
"Four people to a group. Only four," the teacher tells us. Grant, Miles, Leslie, and I all decide to be in a group together.
"I think this is an ongoing case and don't have time to decode," I say.
"Naw, they would never," Miles disbelieves.
"Then also would never give the first group done classes off," I point out.
"You're right," Leslie agrees.
"We can be the first," Grant says getting competitive.
"Or they are trying to get Grant engaged in the class and to stay awake." Leslie jokes.
"Well, they are going to do it anyway. This is the way," he says.
We all laugh.
"We should start by figuring out vowels and common words like the, and, I, A, like that." I say.
"Good plan. We can start with that," Miles says.
We start to attempt to decode we get the vowels quickly allowing us to easily figure out the and and. We then slowly work out the other words. By the time class ends we finish one out of three sections.
"I can work on it tonight," Miles says.
"We can meet you in the library after dinner and finish it." I say.
Grant and Leslie agree with me. We head to targeting. We are learning about spotting our target in a crowded room. He usually starts off the class with a booklet, a little like where waldo. Were we have to find our target. It's a human wearing different clothes each time. We are to circle the answer and hand the booklet in at the end of class. I sit at my desk and start to find the target while the rest of the students in the class stream in. I get pretty far in when the teacher turns off the lights.
"Today we are going to watch a series of short shows. You have one target throughout them all. Here is a fie on descripting feature. Find out who they are. You are also to tell me everything they do." The teacher tells us.
He turns on the clips. I quickly write down what two people that look like they are like target are doing. I know one of the two have to be my target. Taking them, both down allows me to have the information I will need either to figure out who I need or just have the stuff I need as my target.
"You're taking two people down. Why?" Leslie asks.
"Because the target is possibly two people. I don't want to get it wrong." I whisper replying.
"Oh should I be doing that?" she asks.
"If you want," I offer.
We finish up and I've decided on the person I think is most likely the target.
"Did you get Douglas as your target?" he asks us.
"Yes," I reply. I notice only Miles, Grant, and I got it.
"I tried to trick you with two possible people because you can come across that in the field. You have to look closer to them both for the details of your target that fit which person better. Don't just pick the first one. You could end up getting the wrong target and ruining the entire mission." He tells us. "That is one of the lessons you shall be learning in this class."
The class ends. Grant and I head to the kitchen to make dinner. It looks like Leslie and Miles decide to join us. I decide to make lasagna for us all. It's easy enough to make. Miles cooks the meat. Leslie and Grant cut the veggies and I grate the cheese. I add spices to the meat to add flavour. I toss everything in layering it and putting it in the oven. We all sit down at the counter. Miles pulls out the code we are meant to decipher.
"Might as well work on it if we are just sitting here," he suggests.
"Yeah," Grant agrees.
We work on deciphering the second code none of us are getting it. Nothing makes sense.
"Could it be in another language?" I suggest.
"No, we would have been told and this isn't a language I understand." Miles says.
"Why aren't we getting this?" Leslie asks in frustration.
"This reminds me of the world war one code." Grant says off headedly.
Miles's eyes light up. He pulls out his world war one notes.
"You're a genius," Miles says to Grant.
"I am?" he says confused.
"It's a cypher from world war one. See?" Miles says showing us. We all split up the pages and start writing the answers out.
"This is about Captain America and his best friend Bucky Barnes," Leslie says.
"He's on the wall. I've seen it," I say.
"In the science division. You're right." Miles finishes.
"How do you know that?" Grant asks.
"I started in science," Miles replies.
"I've visited," I say like that explains everything. I get up and pull the lasagna out.
"Mmmm. That smells good Sam." Leslie says. I cut everyone slices. They all thank me.
"It says here that Bucky Barnes maybe is still alive," I say.
"I guess they will have to take his name off the wall of honour," Miles jokes,
"I have it here that he is being held by HYDRA," Grant says. "But that's impossible HYDRA no longer exists."
I notice a slight change in his tone. Grant lied about HYDRA not existing anymore. What does he know that shield doesn't? Why would he hide it? It must have something to do with Garrett. His loyalty to Garrett is keeping him quiet about HYDRA. I think I need to start keeping notes in my journal about these things, so I can put it together easier.
.