Chapter Five

It was 6:30 AM when his alarm rang the next morning. It took him a minute to remember where he was. He groaned when he remembered all the events that had led to him being here. Getting out of bed and running a hand through his sleep-mangled, long hair, Birkhoff figured that Simon or someone had set the alarm when they brought him there. He got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to get ready.

After a shower and brushing his teeth, Birkhoff wandered to the cafeteria. Some of them he had not seen before. Going to the far side of the cafeteria, Birkhoff got in line for breakfast. Curious, he tried to get a gauge on what kind of food they were serving and he didn't hear Lana come up behind him. "Hi again." Lana cheerfully greeted him.

Turning quickly, Birkhoff was pleasantly surprised to find Lana behind him. "Hi Lana." He replied.

"So how has Division been treating you so far" Lana asked as the cook handed Birkhoff his tray.

"It's been okay." Birkhoff replied, "A lot to get used to."

After Lana got her food, they headed to a tale. Birkhoff notice right away how Lana did not seem to fit in with the other recruits. She did not attempt to sit with anyone else and did not even attempt a smile at any of the other recruits. He figured maybe it was because of her sordid past- since she may not really be a killer. "It is a lot to get used to." Lana replied, taking a bite of cantaloupe.

"So how did you get here?" Birkhoff wanted to try to find out more about Lana's situation; his curiosity was getting the bed of him.

"Same as everyone else." Lana simply replied, taking another bite of food. "You had better start eating, they don't give us a lot of time and you'll need the energy."

Even though the food was a little healthier than what Birkhoff usually enjoyed, he figured that Lana knew what she was talking about. He took her advised and started to eat. While they ate in silence, Birkhoff still observed Lana. Her head was down; he could tell she was shy and lonely. That made him curious why she was opening up to him. "So how long have you been here" Birkhoff finally asked.

"Only a month." Lana replied. "I'm told I have a long way to go."

"Training's about a year, right?"

Lana nodded. "About. It depends on some other things too."

"Recruits!" One of the guards shouted, causing Birkhoff to jump in his seat. "Get to the gym. You have five minutes."

Almost immediately Lana stood up and Birkhoff followed her cue. "To get there on time, we'd better leave now."

They got rid of the trays and started heading down to the gym. As they walked quickly through the halls, Birkhoff decided to ask more questions. "So what kind of things do we do in gym?"

Lana laughed. "Really? You can't figure it out? You are in a spy organization- be a better spy."

Rolling his eyes, Birkhoff replied, "I was only looking for confirmation."

"Hand-to-hand." Lana replied.

"Great." Birkhoff groaned.

"Not exactly your strong suite?" Lana teased back, stopping in front of a pair of doors. "Here's the locker rooms. Come back out here after you change- your workout clothes are in your locker, it will have your name on it."

"Thanks." Birkhoff made sure to thank her as they parted and he headed into the men's locker room. He quickly found the locker marked with his name and pulled the workout clothes out. With everything he knew about Division so far, he wasn't surprised when his workout sweats fit perfectly like they had been tailored for him. They had probably measured him while he was passed out- and that caused a shiver to go down his spine.

As he changed Birkhoff saw the other recruits nervously eyeing him. They were all a lot bigger than him- in muscle and in general size. He wasn't sure if they were eyeing him because he was hanging out with Lana, their outcast, if it was because he was new, because he was small and out of shape, or because of a mix of the three. There was the special training that he was getting for technology that didn't make him any less of a target. Once he was changed, he headed out into the gym. Ana had not come back out, so Birkhoff just headed over to the mat. A couple of guys were already sitting there waiting for the teacher. "Hi new guy." One of the guys greeted him.

"Hi." Birkhoff tentatively replied back. He wasn't sure if the guys were planning to be nice to him or not.

"I'm Wesley." The first guy introduced himself. "This is Danny. We've been here about eight months."

"Nice to meet you." Birkhoff replied.

"So do have any hand-to-hand experience?" Danny asked him.

Birkhoff looked down at his body. At least he thought the answer was obvious. These guys were twice as big as he was with muscles on their muscles. It was obvious that Birkhoff didn't do much training unless it was in front of his X-box. This wasn't going to be good."

An hour later Birkhoff found himself back in Simon's room, an icepack on his black eye. Daniel had Birkhoff to dual against and Birkhoff was as inexperienced as he had suspected he would be. Before he had caught on how to protect himself successfully and predict his opponent's moves, Daniel had gotten one good poke in at him. "I see there is a reason that they want you as a tech." Simon teased him as he came into the room.

"Ha-ha." Birkhoff sarcastically replied.

"Today I want to show you some of the programs we use during missions." Simon replied.

It had only been a day, but Birkhoff was already annoyed. All of the programs that Simon had were way less powerful than the things that Birkhoff had built at his apartment to help him with his hacking. He wasn't sure what kind of organization this was that they would settle for the meritocracy this technician was providing. If this was how he felt after only about a day, he wasn't sure what else he may be in store for. "Will I get my own equipment or will I be sharing?" Birkhoff was already itching to work and hack on a computer again.

"For all the major programs and equipment, you'll work on the communal stuff. But-"Simon reached behind his desk, pulling out a laptop bag, and assumedly a laptop inside, handing it over to Birkhoff. "You will have a personal laptop."

Birkhoff was excited to get the computer set up. He pulled the laptop excitedly from its case and hit the power button. It was the nicest computer he had ever had. It was completely blank for Birkhoff to set up how he liked. "Awesome." He finally replied.

"Just make sure that you don't flaunt the computer around other students- keep it in your room." Simon told Birkhoff. "You are receiving special training and other students may not understand your special treatment since you are so new- and have failings in other areas."

Glaring at Simon over the top of the computer, Birkhoff wasn't too pleased with his subtle dig. Simon didn't think anything of his comments since he was Birkhoff's superior, so he could say whatever he wanted. He started teaching Birkhoff all the programs, Birkhoff only half paying attention as he set up his new toy. After a couple of hours, Simon finally announced, "That's all I have for you. Amanda would like to see you now."

Amanda was sitting at her vanity when Birkhoff arrived, his computer bag around his shoulder. The laptop was okay to go with him to Amanda's office since he would be the only student in there. When Amanda heard Birkhoff open her door, she replied without even looking up, "Come in Birkhoff, have a seat."

Once he had sat on the couch, Amanda turned around to join him. He placed his laptop at his feet as Amanda sat in her usual place across from her. "How are things going?"

"Okay." Birkhoff replied, "I'm not sure how much I fit in with the others."

Amanda smiled. "That's okay. When you are promoted to the technical team, they will resent you anyway."

Birkhoff laughed. No matter what Amanda said, he knew it would be awhile before he would be promoted, so that little factoid was of no use to him for now. Unless there was something they weren't telling him. Shaking the feeling off, Birkhoff replied, "I suppose that might make them jealous."

"Of course." Amanda smiled. "You safely back in Operations, while they are risking their lives in missions. From my experience it tends to bring out a little bit of resentment. So how was working with Simon been going?"

The eye rolls gave Amanda all the information she needed. "Interesting." Birkhoff replied.

"How so?" Amanda was genuinely interested to hear what the young man had to say about Simon.

"There is a lot of room for improvement." Birkhoff replied, "Some of the systems could be redesigned to work much more effectively."

"You've worked with more advanced systems?"

Birkhoff gave her a smirk. "I have designed way more advanced programs."

Amanda was glad to hear Birkhoff was gaining a little bit of his confidence back. He was a great hacker, that's why Division grabbed him, but so far he'd been a lot shyer than she had expected. She was glad that now he was becoming more comfortable, the confidence was coming back. "Do you have an example?" Amanda asked.

"Right now he appears to have techs running checks for all the information you need or to hack each place as you need. I had a program at home that I hack a place once, and I own them- I don't have to waste time redoing work. For information- it's pretty easy to set up a program to search for anything within certain parameters instead of having agents scan and watch for the information."

Amanda was impressed. Instead of just replacing Simon for his indiscretions, they would also be upgrading to this young man who might greatly improve their technology. She would have to talk to Percy about this. It was possible they could move up their timeline- this kid wouldn't need much training- maybe just a loyalty test. Her and Percy would definitely need to talk about this, Amanda grinned to herself.