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Warning: SASCH
Chapter 6 - Schedule
The sky above Wales was covered by clouds which brought rain and wetness into the area. The emerald green of the grass seemed grey in the faint dawn light – it must have been less than four o'clock. The sun was yet nowhere from rising, the air was chilly and misty. Everything was motionless just as the man, sitting on a hill. He was watching the world under him, the valley covered by tents, huts and barracks – an SAS camp.
It was peaceful now, as nobody moved; the men were sleeping in their hard beds knowing the daylight would bring exercises needing all their strengths.
Meditation was something he had learnt at Scorpia, then at his six months with Mossad he discovered the usefulness of this ability. When you couldn't chase away nightmares or had a bad feeling about the upcoming day, you could gain some energy with it, more than from a restless sleep.
He sat there for another half an hour before he stood up heading down towards their hut.
The soldiers were still asleep, but Rose was awake searching in her bag. Alex went to his own to find himself a shampoo, then grabbed a towel and his uniform. They walked to the little building between the two neighbouring huts in comfortable silence.
Ama sighed knowing she was not going to have the luxury of hot water for thirty minutes for a long time again. She took off her clothes without flushing. At Mossad, almost all the agents they had trained with had seen her naked – Alex had often had to take care of tall men considering her only a sexual tool. But then again, she was not going to pretend. They were not on an assignment, they were living here. It was too early for the other soldiers though.
She fought the urge to run over to him and kiss him, but she knew if somebody had opened the door…
Just for a minute, he thought, taking her into his arms kissing her deeply.
They had to draw back too soon, finishing the shower with racing pulses and flushed faces. The air outside was cold and misty when they silently took their sleeping clothes and towels beside the door of their hut and dropped into a slow run. After a minute, as their muscles warmed up, they started to run faster and rushed through the forest following the pace Alex remembered.
It was a long route. After about a mile running up the hill with full speed, they slowed down switching to a quick jogging. It was comfortable and familiar, something that felt normal for them. Their footsteps made a quiet thudding noise as they ran, soles against the Welsh soil. The forest was silent, mist was whirling around mysteriously. It didn't bother them: the whiteness might have been able to hide anything, but covered their shapes as well.
The couple was only two dark shapes in the thick mist the tall oaks gathered from the air, two ghosts motioning with the elegance of a deer. They kept their breathings even and when they returned to the camp, slowing down to a mild walk, nobody could have guessed they had already run five miles today.
Their stuff was where they had left it. When they got in, their team-mates were about to dress up. They didn't ask anything although it must have bothered their curiosity. Alex packed something in his bag while Rosalie combed her hair and arranged it into a strict tight bun again. The men's faces were unbelieving at this sign of female personality and exchanged astounded and tortured expressions amongst each other. Eagle seemed to be about saying something but then he just shook his head again. It was too early for a quarrel.
The men were even more surly than otherwise. The fourth, replacement member of K Unit whose name was still unknown for the spies, glanced towards them often, but didn't say a word. The soldiers cast a last glance at them then walked out of the hut, telling them by the unspoken communication they were not going to take care of them. Alex didn't mind it the least: they hadn't wanted to go with them and do what they did anyway.
He didn't know if Wolf had heard their silent conversation last night, but again, didn't care.
"We should take all the classes this morning to see which is going to be usable. I guess you don't care where our units go or do, right?" Rosalie asked.
"Yes, why?"
"Then we can simply go for the vacancies. During the classes we will have found useless most of the fields is going to be free. Also, when it's getting too crowded, we can go out for outside practice to somewhere in the forest. We don't need to cross anybody's way." Alex simply nodded in agreement. It sounded better than his last time here.
When they reached the group of soldiers waiting for today's PT, the men quickly turned their backs towards them and the boy let a bit of smugness appear on his handsome face. Stepping into the line they automatically stood at attention. The Sergeant arrived just half a minute later shouting his orders around. Alex rather ignored him leaving himself on his instincts as when to shout a YES, SIR to the man.
The Sergeant was not the same he had had, this one was older, his hair turning grey from the original black. He had hard wrinkles on either side of his mouth which gave him a rather grim look. He stepped in front of them, but chose rather not to say anything.
"DISMISSED." He yelled at the men, but the two spies didn't move. They stood there as motionlessly as two statues. The eye of the sergeant started twitching.
"Could we see the others' schedule, sir?" Alex asked calmly. Only his mouth was moving, his body froze in one place.
"We could plan our own schedule in order not disturb anybody else so." Rose added. The man thought for a moment, visibly not wanting to give the 'children' what they wanted, however the temptation to get them out of the five miles area of his men was very strong. Finally, he gave in and handed her the schedule.
Rose ran her eyes through it, nodded and gave it back to the man in fifteen seconds. "Thank you very much. Sir." He raised his brow at her but soundlessly watched as they headed back towards the barracks. He was still staring towards their direction long after they disappeared in the mist.
"I suggest we should take all the lessons today to see which are usable. We would both get… four blue points with this." Her mouth twitched to a mocking smile.
"For a week, we need twenty." Alex recalled their order. "So... blue points are got with lessons. The green ones are with field-work, needed nine per week. Red ones, reachable with shooting practice or tool use practice, fourteen." He moaned. "So much about our cover. We'll need every time there's a vacancy spent at the shooting rage."
"That's not my only favourite. Have you seen the forty brown points? Each for a round at the assault course. It's like a joke."
"If you complete six ones each day, it takes about… one and a half hour. It's just to take our time, nothing else."
"Okay, blue - lessons, red - tools, brown - assault course, green - forest time, what else is there?" She quietly moaned. "Tell me we don't need combat experience!"
"Sixteen black points, each for half an hour practice." He frowned. "Somebody was very high finding this out. It means more than an hour per day! With teachers we can easily beat?"
"Charlie is insane. That's all, right?"
"No, another one's here," He read the paper carefully. "driving for ten purple – purple! – points, I don't know what this should mean… Driving a car?" She shrugged.
"It's not like MI6 would have found this out alone… I guess they gave the case to some kindergarten not to hurt our… immature part. The next will be a school psychologist telling us to draw our fears out of ourselves with a couple of colourful pencils, I can see now. The drawings could decorate the dining barrack's walls later."
He smiled. "See you after your medicine." The woman nodded and comfortably walked to the appropriate barrack. They shared their abilities at work, cooperating better than anybody else at the secret agencies. She had a steady knowledge about most of the usable parts of sciences while he was proof with Geography, General Politics, Strategy Planning and kept up with the latest military news and developments. They learnt a language till they reached a comprehending level of it, then left all the polishing fluent-learning work to the other.
Working as a team, they needed to learn only the half of everything after they reached the intermediate level. It spared them a lot of time and energy with reaching a highest level of expertise possible in case of assassins and spies. Last year in Tel Aviv, she had studied some at the Sackler Faculty of Tel Aviv University(i) and now, although she had no official degree in medicine, she knew everything in general. This wide-stretching general knowledge had been upgraded at special parts and now she would have been able to write a book titled "All the things that you need to be able to survive – medical guide for spies/SO agents and assassins/terrorists".
Maybe this was why she got nothing new at the lesson although she had chosen the highest class. In the contrary, she could feel the annoyed and angry glances she got from the soldiers. This lesson was designed for the unit medics and most of them had had some time spent at hospitals or having medical degrees – yet, their knowledge about the use of medicine on the battlefield was a bit… dull.
She had to realize, again, that most of the men was indeed working, fighting for their country at military, and despite that, SAS preserved their feeling of a job. For them, this was a job. At Christmas, they returned to their family – and they didn't need to worry about exploding their house, about assassins shooting their children, about their wives being raped in their absence. If they had decided, they could quit. They could sign a pile of papers and they were free.
Despite everything, these men preserved their normality. They were average men having a special job.
She sighed as the class ended – she hadn't learnt anything new – and headed towards the barrack Alex had had Strategy lesson at. She leant against the wall next to the door until she heard the grating of the chairs. The teacher left with a strange expression and Rose knew Alex had managed to put himself in a situation as always. She sighed and opened the door.
The soldiers all looked funny and despite their struggling to hide their emotions she discovered the disbelief in them. Her husband was sitting in the last row, his eyes closed, his expression relaxed. So quietly it was barely audible, she softly whistled once using the same signal they had had at Tel Aviv letting the other know about their presence. Slowly, he opened his eyes and she could see the mental exhaustion in them.
"How was your class?" She mumbled wishing she could come over and massage his shoulders as she would do. She sat down onto the side of his desk.
"Nothing particularly interesting." His gaze wondered on Wolf who had this class as well, though his chance to be here was the outcome of hard work for months. "The teacher was quite irritated with me here and thought to spare my time and show I was just not capable keeping up with them." For a moment, his eyes burnt her neck where he would gently bite and kiss the smooth white skin, embracing her fragile figure, had they not been here.
He quickly snatched his gaze away and bit his lip smiling joyfully while she blushed. The little interaction did what the five mile run had not been able to: their breathing accelerated, their hearts were racing. She nervously chuckled once trying to hide her rosy cheeks behind her long hair she would do – but her soft pink curls were being forced back to a strict bun.
"Anyway, how was your class?" He said trying to distract himself. Her rosy cheeks were just too sweet a sight. He could feel the familiar desire flame up in him. She pouted.
"First aid of higher level burnt injuries. It was… rather… you know." She sighed and Alex nodded. He understood.
The Sergeant rushed in, attracting their attention on him – the officers never rushed. He motioned towards them and the slightly relaxed look disappeared from their faces. "You two come with me." His voice was trembling with anger. Rose could feel the intense glare on her as they passed by him. They headed out towards the valley to find Mrs. Jones standing amongst a group of interested soldiers.
"Mrs. Jones." His voice was calm and even as always. Their cold and hard assassinate mask had slipped on place the moment they had glanced her.
"Alex, Rose." She greeted them shifting uncomfortably on her feet. "I'm sorry but we have to do this quickly and the offices are just too far." She handed him a black bag. "This bag is containing… some presents from Smithers, he stated you would know how to use them." Alex nodded taking the bag which was surprisingly heavy. "These are your driving licenses; we arranged some lessons for you as you may have noticed. Not only cars, I can tell.
"Your new IDs, some official documents, mostly licenses. I have given a copy of your fund and the… er… transactions onto your accounts happened in the last… one and a half year. Also, I wanted to ask… if you are sure you don't want any official steps in the case of… of the 16th December. Think it carefully." She handed all the papers arranged in grey manila folders. The two spies looked at each other for a moment then Rose was the one telling their decision.
"We do not want any… official steps in the case." She answered cautiously. The soldiers were uncomfortably close trying to catch something about the mysterious couple.
"Right. I think that's all." She looked at them waiting sensing they wanted to ask something.
"We just wanted to ask… if…" He sighed. "Okay. We are supposed to go on combat experience lessons." He stopped.
"You need to stay in shape." Alex struggled to find a way to express their worries in English, but he saw there wasn't many ways for it. He thought for a moment about what language she may speak and almost started German, when he realized some of the men passing, walking and pacing around them were knocked out by him right after he spoke some German… He quickly decided by Arabian.
"We are equally, if not better trained than the men who are supposed to watch for us. You want us to fight with soldiers who don't really know anything about such techniques. I kick one of them and he may be paralysed for his entire life. I'm not capable of watching for not to be too hard when I'm fighting. I fight for my life, not for… fun or for practice. Not with somebody not capable to defend himself against me."
"I will ask Mr. Grant, but-"
"Thank you." He nodded. "That's all. Good bye Mrs. Jones." The woman lifted her brow.
"Good bye Mr. Rider." He emphasised his name. Alex thought for a moment, caught off guard by the answer, then a crooked smile spread on his face.
"Thank you, Tulip." The woman nodded smiling at the gentle tone and the kind smile on the handsome face. As she headed towards the jeep waiting for her, she felt a pang in her heart – she had seen this smile, she had heard these lines. Not only one time, she had heard and seen this every time.
Every time John Rider returned from a mission.
To be continued…
(i) existing university and faculty
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