Later, the group of seven Specialists met in the training grounds. They were in what looked like a huge obstacle course, with large walls, strange shaped monoliths, and ruined sheds. The black paint spattered all over the structures clued Kate in that they were in some kind of hardcore paintball field.
TL walked up with a huge bald man.
"This is Don Zahara. He'll be your chief fitness trainer, and will be instructing you from now on while your out here."
Don stepped forward, and leveled a scary glare at the kids. He said, " Today we'll be playing what we at the CIA call 'Search and Destroy.' It's a lot like paintball, but the rules are a little different. For example, once you get hit at all, you are handicapped in your play. Also, the guns shoot a thick, black tar-like paint. It hurts like hell and will ruin clothes, so you get armor to wear during the game."
Don and TL distributed out the armor, which was made of leather straps, and had a large plate over where the wearer's heart would be. Kate struggled into hers along with everyone else, dreading how she would look, but realized that it didn't look that bad. She glanced over aat Rae, who looked kind of like a red headed "Xena: Warrior Princess", and couldn't contain a giggle. Rae laughed similiarly at her, and kate felt better.
"If you get shot in the heart, you're out. Although it looks really obvious, it's actually a lot harder to hit than it looks. These exercises have been known to take several hours, depending on the skill of the players, and the fairness of the teams. Speaking of that, I don't know your specialties, TL will split you up into teams."
TL surveyed the group, then put Kate with the short Jamaican girl, named Kim, who specialized in electronics(basically, burglary), and a tall skinny guy named Eric, who specialized in decoding.
"Great," Kate thought, "Could I have a nerdier team?" To her dismay, on the other team was Rae, who seemed like she could hold her own in a fight, and Greg, the apparently beastly hand fighter. They also had two nerdy members, though.
"That's not fair! They've got the sharpshooter! She could take us down singlehandedly!" Greg complained to TL. Kate couldn't believe her luck.
"Are you kidding me? We're also down one member to you!" The odd numbers of the group had given Kate's team only three members to the other teams' four.
"It's still not fair! She doesn't even need teammates and she'd have the advantage." Greg still would not let it go. TL sighed, and began removing his jacket.
"Nuh huh. No way." Kate couldn't believe it.
TL just ignored her team's protests and walked over to slip on his armor. He grabbed a gun, and walked over to join Greg's team.
"Fair now?" he asked. Greg just grinned, shot Kate a victorious look, and stalked off for an early celebration of their inevitable victory.
Kate turned to her team to see them staring at her.
"I hope to god you're as good as you're supposed to be, mon." Kim told Kate.
With her statement, Kate's anger grew. Then it turned into determination.
"You know what? I am that good. We got this." Her teammates just looked at incredulously. Kate didn't mind. She was gonna take Greg down, 3 to 5 or not. Professional agent on their team or not.
"Crap." she thought. "We're screwed."

Five minutes later, Kate was crouched behind a short wall on the field. She knew her little team was spread out over the field, across from Greg's could see her opponents moving across the field, but couldn't recognize them. Then, she saw a flash of blond hair, and Greg stood up and walked out with another teen, a light haired girl named Erin.
"Well?" Greg called. "Where's your shooting skills at now, Freebird?"
Kate gritted her teeth, and slowly crawled over to the edge of her wall. She signaled to Eric to create a distraction, and he quickly ran across to another shed, and slammed the door loudly. Greg and Erin whirled around to see his foot disappear around the doorway. As they were distracted, Kate rolled to the nearest object, an old empty trash can. She peeked around the edge, and sighted her gun.
"Damn." Kate thought, realizing that she was still out of range. She saw red to her left, and used her instincts to sight were she thought the persons leg would be. She shot, and the bang drew the attention of everyone on the field. Kate her a yelp and realized she had made contact. The girl, who Kate now recognized as Rae stood up foolishly, and Kate saw that she had hit her in the leg. Kate jumped up, and dove to the side to avoid Greg's shot, shooting agin at rae as she fell. Not knowing or caring whether she had hit her, Kate landed and rolled, hearing Greg running toward her. She heard a bang and flinched, expecting to be hit, but instead she heard Greg cursing. She peeked over her wall, and saw that she had indeed gotten Rae out, since she now sat over by Don, who was ref-ing the game. Kate also saw that Greg had cussed because Kim had shot him as he ran across the open field to get her. He had a large paint splatter on his butt.
"Go Kim,"Kate thought. Shestood up to finish him off.
"Bang!"The numbers were now even.

A half hour later, it was down to Kate and TL. She snuck around the shed, looking for any sign of her opponent. She jumped when she heard his voice from behind a wall across the field.
"Ready to surrender yet?"
Kate laughed. "We got some trash talking up in here, Don! is that allowed?" She masked her movements by throwing a rock over to the wall closest to her, then moved in the opposite direction.
She was tired of sneaking around. Kate decided to take the offensive, confident that her reflexes would protect her if it got into a shootdown. she emerged behind the shed to see TL disappear behind a nearby spool shaped structure. She crouched low, and moved as quickly and quietly towards the structure. She juat registered TL's gun appearing around the strusture before she heard the bang, and dove for the nearest wall. She turned her fall into a roll, and was up and shooting before TL could react. She nailed him on the hand as he pulled his gun back, and knocked the weapon far back out of his hand. He was smart enough to let it go, knowing she would shoot him down if he left his protective wall.
Confident that he had no defense, Kate ran towards the structure. As she neared it, TL suddenly lept out and tackled her before she could react. kate dropped the gun as she fell, TL landing hard on top of her.
Kate tried to catch her breath, her hands thrown above her. TL's arms supported his weight, and his eyes stared into hers.
"Very good, Kate. However, we've got to work on that reaction time of yours."
Kate laughed breathlessly, all the while feeling above her head for her dropped gun. It was suddenly very hard for her to concentrate, as she could feel his body all along hers.
"Looks like we're at a stalemate." TL murmered.
"Or not." Kate had found the gun. She suddenly shifted her weight, rolling so that she flipped TL over, and she was straddling him with her gun pressed to his head.
"I'd surrender if I were you. You wouldn't want word to get out that you were beaten by an eighteen year old girl." Kate laughed at the shocked look in his eyes. She raised an eyebrow, waiting for his surrender, but all the while enjoying her present position.
Finally, TL said, "You win. I surrender." Both could hear Greg's groans from outside field.
"Well played, Agent 22. Very good."
Kate smiled into TL's stunning eyes, and shook her head. She couldn't believe that a week ago, she would have given anything not to come here. Now she never wanted to leave.