Betty Director and Global Justice are the property of Disney corporation, Doctor Seur, Agent Tor, and the other five candidates are my own characters. Feel free to use them, or this storyline, but please mail me about it first so I know to check it out.
Chapter Three
Examination
"Everyone line up on the white line."
Betty was at the end of the line, facing down an obstacle course which started with a crawl through a long tunnel. Each of the candidates had their own tunnel, and a curtain had been put up to stop them seeing past it.
"You will run this obstacle course, your times will be noted, and we will move onto the next stage of the testing." Doctor Seur walked to the side of the course and checked his watch, "In three, two, one, go."
The army men were straight off the blocks, actually diving down their respective tunnels. Betty was a half step behind them, but still quick enough that they reached the tunnel at the same time. Once inside she moved as cautiously as she could, looking around to make sure she wasn't going to be facing any booby traps along the way. She couldn't see the other candidates, and no sound penetrated the tunnel either.
On the other side, a vertical wall rose up in front of her, with a single rope hanging down the middle. She grabbed it and started climbing, panting a little as she reached the top. She was in good shape, but usually her activities didn't include climbing things. At the top of the wall she took a moment to look ahead, and apart from a zip-line leading to what appeared to be a corner, she couldn't see any of the other obstacles.
She slid to the end of the zip-line and bumped into the wall, twisting as she landed to see that the next obstacle was another tunnel crawl, but this time in a small metal space. Betty sighed and threw herself straight at it, slithering a few feet on her belly before she hit a corner hard, and went clattering down, arms curled round her head to protect herself, before she was deposited at the bottom.
The floor was hurting her back for some reason, and as she rolled over and put her hands down to clamber to her feet, she realised it was heating up, and heating up rapidly. She lurched to her feet and collided with a wall that was already hot enough to burn her shoulder through her jacket. She suppressed a yelp and hurried to the end of the passage, where a small patch of light was shining.
The light was shining down a long and completely vertical shaft. Wide enough that she would be able to fit into it, but with no handholds. Clearly she had to climb it, and with the floor starting to hurt the soles of her feet, she scrabbled up, pressing her back hard against one side, using her hands and feet to inch her way up.
She managed to make her way about five feet up before the palms of her hands were roughened and painful. She paused for a moment and pulled her biking gloves out of her pockets, wishing she had thought to put them on at the start of the obstacle course. Gritting her teeth against the ache in her legs, she continued her ascent.
The shaft seemed to go on forever, and the only respite she got was when she reached a slight rim, where one segment of the vent slotted into the next, and she was able to pause for a moment, her weight supported solely on the edges of her feet, before moving on.
Whatever the job, it cannot be worth this. She thought to herself as she carried on moving. She eventually reached a lip at the top, and pulled herself over, her arms shaking with the effort, and crawled out into the next room.
This time it was a simple box, one door, and a light-bulb swinging from the ceiling. She looked around quickly, and saw that there was also a fluorescent light on one side of the wall. Why two lights in one room? She went to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked.
She knelt next to the lock and examined it. Simple, probably only one tumbler, but nothing to pick it with. Her less than reputable past would have let her bypass it in a second if only she had a...
Ah.
She reached up and unscrewed the bulb, then put it on the floor and stamped it open, revealing the filament inside. She stripped off her gloves and picked it up, noticing immediately that it was a little thicker than normal filament wire. Feeling smug at having solved the problem so quickly, she bent the filament to the right sort of angle, and slipped it into the lock.
A couple of minutes later and she was through, opening the door and tumbling into the next corridor, which was dimly lit with a strip of neon blue in the floor.
Wonderful, next they'll put me in an episode of Columbo or something.
She stayed low and moved along the corridor to the next door, which opened straight up into a wide arena. There was a door level with her on the other side, but the entire centre of the room had been dug out to form a pit. There was only one way across, a thin beam set at shoulder level next to her.
No time like the present.
She shimmied along it, wondering what exactly was going to come next, but nothing happened while she was on the beam. At the other end, she swung down and kicked the door through, emerging into a floodlit room, another arena, but this one had a table set in the middle. Cautiously she approached it, and saw a pistol lying on it.
Her first instinct was to pick it up, but even as she was reaching out a hand she rethought. The examination had delighted in subverting her expectations, so why would now be any different?
She was still pondering when a gunshot sounded from one of the far walls. Behind her a bullet sparked and she flinched involuntarily. A second shot rang out, but missed again. She kicked the table out, spinning so she was hidden behind it. The pistol clattered to the floor a few feet away, but she was at least protected from the shooter.
No time, must move.
She cast her eyes about and spotted an alcove on the closest wall. She looked back to the pistol, but decided against it. They wouldn't make the test lethal, and if she was supposed to get the gun and didn't, it would only mean she failed their examination, and right now that was looking like a much better option.
She rolled the table over to the alcove and crawled through, only to find herself staring at a pair of boots half a foot away from her face. She raised her head to see Doctor Seur looking down at her.
"Well done Ms Director, you finished the course." He didn't offer a hand, and she struggled to her feet, her body reminding her just how much it had been through in the short amount of time. As she looked around she saw that all but one of the leathernecks were already there, and all looking at her with clear disdain.
She kept a sneer from her face, but inside she wished she could have a chance to muss up their perfect uniforms. As she brushed herself down she realised that while she had picked up scuffs and scrapes from her obstacle course, they had all managed to stay in tip top condition, with not so much as a burn mark or a rip in their trousers.
The final marine walked in from a door a little way down the hall, and Doctor Seur turned to them.
"Right then, the final part of the test is an interview with myself, which will be conducted one at a time, and you will each be kept isolated until then."
"I thought there was going to be a shooting test?" Betty asked, remembering what Tor had told her.
"You've already had it Ms Director."
Oh crap.
"This way please."
AN:- As you can probably tell, I was running out of ideas pretty fast at this point, so to shed some light on this rather bizarre test:
The idea of the tunnels was because that seemed to be something GJ agents did a lot, and I wanted to include it in their intitial examination.
The climbing rope was from the Halo original novel Fall of Reach, one of the obstacles the Sprtan children climb, the zipline was an idea I had from the Tomb Raider training course in TR3, the heated floor and vertical climb are both taken from Ian Fleming's Doctor No, the first Bond book I ever read, the filament lightbulb is from MacGyver, tested and proved to work on Mythbusters, the narrow beam was just to add something else for some filler, and the arena shooting gallery was inspired by the shooting gallery in Men in Black, mainly just for the idea of the gun on the table.
No, I don't know how the military folks went through the test and emerged without a scratch, dramatic convenience, that's how. Betty needs to feel inferior. Anyway, this one's a little shorter than the others, but I quite liked where it ended, so the next one should make up for it. Also, I will introduce Anne and James, just give me time.