Liability

Chapter 3

STANTA (Stanford Training Area) was crawling with soldiers on exercises. Rounds could be heard being fired off at rapid rates in the distance; though the five agents would be using a set of houses in the training village known as Eastmere.

They arrived in their black Toyota Hilux and grabbed their kit out of the back. Alex jumped out and went to meet their commanding officer for their two weeks of training, it was an understatement to see how young he was but the man did not mention it. He didn't have much interest in the secret service or what they did unless it involved any of his men.

"Okay, this is your first task; this one will form a baseline for everything else that you do. We'll pick up strong points and weak points throughout the exercise. Understood?" He informed them. All nodded.

"Inside the building are four hostages and several enemy. You will need to get all the hostages out and kill all enemy in the least time as possible. You will need to be on the lookout for any traps that may have been set by the enemy. Understood?"

"Sir!" They said. The man walked away and climbed into his truck leaving two NCOs to 'look after' the five agents.

"The time will start as soon as the first person enters the building." One of the NCOs said to him.

The team of five closed in on each other to discuss their plan of action.

"So," Dylan started. "There are four windows on this side of the building, three on the left and two on the right. There might be as many as four at the rear of the building. Front door, two of us can go through there, start clearing the corridors. Windows, the other three, Luke and I can take the door. Ava and Alex, you take the bottom right window. Ben the bottom left. Search from bottom to top; kill on sight and leave the hostages until every single enemy is dead. Single shot to the mouth, another to the gut. Got it?" The plan sounded good to Alex. He nodded and tapped his shoulder signally for them to go.

"Let's go." Alex said as all five jogged towards the house. The house was simple; two floors, wooden stairs, bare minimum of furniture. The windows had no glass as it would be too expensive to have to keep replacing it every time a soldier threw a grenade in the room.

They all wore dark clothing, black trousers with a holster for two knives and a SIG Sauer P226 handgun. Thick soled, sturdy boots, also black to keep their feet and ankles in good working order. A dark grey, long-sleeve t-shirt and a Kevlar vest was worn on top. A thick black belt was worn around the waist; it would contain their leather-man tool, a combination tool used by soldiers, and other useful items including smoke and grenades.

They entered the building; it was lit only with the light coming through the windows. Alex threw a smoke grenade into the window before hauling himself over the window ledge and into the building. Ava jumped in right behind him after she shot one of the enemy that had been hidden round the side of the building. Dylan and Luke barged through the door, weapons high in their shoulders. Each fired off a single round to the two enemy in front of them, then another, lower, shot to the stomach. Luke moved forward to the kitchen, knocking the door open with his foot so he could keep a good aim with his P226. Once inside he fired the two shots. Alex pointed his weapon up the stairs and immediately spotted a dark figure and took two shots and carried on up the stairs, Ava just behind him. He rounded last few stair carefully, gun trained on the bathroom door and also around the corner. Alex kept good control of his weapon as he fired yet another two shots. He moved back to the bathroom door to check it was clear and Ava went into the bedroom. Inside were two hostages and also an enemy behind the door. She shot the enemy and waited for the signal. Alex checked the last bedroom upstairs. It was clear. Ben had gone through the left window, throwing in smoke just like Alex had done. Inside were no enemy, just two hostages tied up, one was lying on the sofa and the other was sat up against the wall. Ben untied the hostages and called Dylan in to take the second hostage. Both moved out of the house and Ava and Alex were close behind with their hostages. Luke followed behind. All were out of the building and they laid the hostages down on the ground.

The NCO in charge came over to them.

"Ten minutes, that's five minutes too long." He said. "Again!" He commanded. The team did the killing house several more times, each time getting quicker and more efficient. The time finally came down to just under five minutes and finally they were able to go down to the shooting range.

Alex and his team were stood in front of their targets, twenty-five metres away. They held their P226 horizontally facing the target. Each of them wore ear defenders and safety glasses in case a round ricocheted. Alex stood one foot slightly in front of the other, making sure his position and hold were correct. He held the P226 with one hand and used the other as support.

"1, 4, 3, 2!" The range officer shouted loudly. As soon as the command was given four circular targets spun out with numbers on and all hit them in the corresponding order. Alex missed two.

"Focus, think, aim, shoot." The officer said, standing behind Alex and adjusting his position slightly so his arms were straighter. He stood back.

"2, 3, 4, 1!" He shouted, and once again the targets came out and all four were shot by all of them this time. "Better, keep this up Alex."

Alex had learnt how to shoot at Malagosto, and achieved impressive aims at targets. However, when shooting at targets showing figures of people his score dropped dramatically. To say they were unimpressed was an understatement. They kept him on the figure targets until his score was as impressive as it had been earlier that day when shooting at the non-human targets.

Dylan had been taken outside to the long distance range where he would be able to perfect his Sniper shooting. First he shot closer that he would normally with his Accuracy International Artic Warfare Magnum rifle. He shot at 850m. Five shots all perfectly centred and on aim. Both he and the range officer went over to the 1100m point and he took five shots. Again they were near perfect, with only one being just one inch outside the desired aim. The range officers aim was to push him, make him shoot from distances he'd never shot from before, because in the field you never know what the terrain is going to be like and how far away you'll have to shoot from the only position available to you.

Training was very nearly over, they had advanced significantly in their current skill and also learnt new ones. All five worked quickly and efficiently as a team, the killing house taking them only three and a half minutes by the end of the two weeks.

Alex was exhausted. The fourteen days had taken more out of him than the training with the SAS a year ago when he was just starting out. Though he felt more comfortable around the team and starting the mission, he was anxious to get it over with even though he knew it would take them at least a month or longer to finally take down all known Scorpia associates and board members. He still had that sick, uneasy feeling resting in the pit of his stomach. Ava and Dylan, the more experienced agents didn't seem to be too anxious and didn't show much emotion towards the daunting mission ahead of them. Luke had resorted to constantly asking questions, a sigh he was worried and reminded him of one of the K-Unit he had met a year ago. Ben had stayed close to Alex through the training, checking up on him and making sure he was coping and was up to the task. The last time they had worked together was Snakehead which had ended up with Ben being shot and leaving Alex facing Major Yu and his Godfather Ash. Sice then he'd learnt that Alex's guardian had been killed, and Alex had been forced to watch by the sick and twisted-minded Razim.

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