8. Sergeant Wolfie
Dog helped me up and attempted to get me to lean on him. I of course refused. I wasn't happy about going to the infirmary. I hated hospitals with a vengeance. Uncle Ben and Aunt Tamara had always laughed at this telling me how like my Dad I was. Uncle Ben had said that they had to practically tie Alex to the bed to get him to stay in the hospital. I had inherited the hatred for all things medical. I suspected there was a reason that none of us Riders had been nurses even with Helen Beckett's blood in us.
Helen Beckett was my paternal grandmother who had died when Dad had been a baby. We had a picture of her and my namesake's wedding in the living room on the mantelpiece. She was fair haired and dark eyed like Dad compared to her husband with dark hair and lighter eyes. We couldn't see the exact colorings as they were in black and white. Dad had told us that our grandmother was a nurse whilst our grandfather was in the paratroopers. I had wanted to be like him when I had seen his Military Cross.
Dad had been very proud of that and proud to be his son. I hadn't told him that when I was thirteen and looked up his details I found that he had been dishonorably discharged for getting drunk and murdering a civilian. By that time mum had already been murdered which was the main reason I wanted to join the army even if the original reason when I was eight was out of respect for my deceased namesake. I still knew that my grandfather had been a brave man despite what he had done.
We reached the infirmary. The residing doctor an Asian looking man in a white coat had ordered me into the bed. I had tried to resist. But I couldn't so was forced to spend the rest of the evening in the bed. However, there were two things that cheered me up. The first was the fact that I got to eat something other than gruel! I would have to thank Pigeon for the fact that he had allowed me to eat salmon and potatoes. They were very tasty. It would be disappointing to going back to eating gruel tomorrow.
It was brought in by the second thing that cheered me up; the resident nurse. The nurse was a fair haired blonde girl who looked like she had only just graduated with bright blue eyes. She was almost half the size of me and really thin. But I almost drooled at her. She laughed at my look and asked if I liked the look of the food. I could only nod thinking that she had a beautiful laugh. Her name was Elena Greene. I had watched her leave with a regretful feeling. I had never had much in the way of a steady girlfriend.
I liked girls but I didn't do relationships. I was very different to Dad in that respect. He had met a girl three years older than himself when he was seventeen. Then he had dated her for about six months before getting married to her. I had been born when he was only twenty-one and the twins when he was twenty three. To think had I been my father I would already be married with three children; a toddler child and two winning babies. But people had said that Dad had always been very mature as a young man and older teenager.
Later that evening the Doctor reluctantly let me out. I was very pleased to be getting out even if I would have liked to spend some more time with the enticing Elena. But a soldier can't have everything. I was heading past the sergeant's office when I heard the sound of talking come from inside the hut. I knew I should walk past after all it was none of my business. But I couldn't help it. I was just too inquisitive for my damn good. It had got me into trouble enough times with Dad when I attempted to eavesdrop on him.
But Dad always caught me. I honestly had no idea how that man's instincts were so good nor why he always seemed not want me to listen into his phone calls or talks with Ben and Tamara. And I knew that Ben and Tamara were the same. What were they involved in? I thought slightly that they were Assassins. But surely assassins wouldn't speak about killing people where we could listen. I remembered that when I was twenty-one and had come back I spoke to Nelly who I was convinced knew something about Dad.
"Nelly," I had caught my fifteen year old sister's attention.
"Oh, hi John. What's up?" Nelly had asked.
"You know how dad teaches us to shoot when we turn seventeen,'I had said hesitantly.
"Yeah,'"Nelly agreed sounding tense.
"Did you know the technique is the same as assassins use?" I had asked.
Nelly had blinked at me, "What?" she had asked looking genuinely shocked.
"What do you know about Dad?" I had then asked.
"Nothing," Nelly had lied almost as convincingly as Dad.
"Um, Nelly, do you think Dad is an assassin?" I had asked nervously.
At this Nelly had burst out laughing, "Dad?" she asked hysterically. "Trust me John, Dad is no Assassin!"
I didn't know why had believed my fifteen year old sister but I did. It had relieved me and Jake quite some bit. But sometimes odd things would come back and make me wonder whether Dad was an assassin and had convinced Nelly he wasn't. I knew dad had found out about our conversation. Dad had even confronted it about me a few days later. He had entered my room with his eyes shining with a strange mirth that I had never seen in Dad's eyes before. I had been getting ready for a night on the town and thought that he was going to tell me to be careful.
"John," Dad had said.
"Look if it's about going out tonight-" I had begun.
Dad waved me away, "I was twenty-one once."
"You were married with an infant child then," I had said.
"Well, I drank when I was younger," smiled Dad. "Just as long as you're careful; don't go into dark alleys with strange men-"
"Dad, I'm a soldier, and you taught me how to fight," I groaned. "I think I'm stronger than any mugger."
"Well, I could always tell you to remember to-" Dad began.
"Dad," I had blushed.
Dad laughed then his eyes turned serious. Dad had this scary thing that he did where he turned off his emotions. He could go from having tears of mirth in his eyes to wearing such a blank expression it was as though he were wearing a plastic mask. I had to say that look still scared me today and I had been to Afghanistan. It was a look that he shared with Uncle Ben and Aunt Tamara. It was that that furthered my suspicions that my father was an assassin. And I really did not want to believe that to be true.
"Nelly told me of your suspicions," Dad said.
"Um, yeah," I said nervously.
"I can only assure you that I am no such thing," Dad had said.
Then Dad had stormed out of the room. I stared after him. I hadn't enjoyed myself as much as I thought I would have when out on the town that night. I shook off thoughts about Dad as I snuck closer to the voices in the sergeant's cabin. I could now recognize the two voices as the sergeant's (naturally) and Eagle's. I wanted to know what they were talking about. Were they as hard as they were with us in private? Plus I wanted to see if they said anything about me or the legendary Cub I had heard so much about.
Eagle was speaking, "So what do you think of the new recruits?" asked Eagle.
"There are some very good ones," admitted the sergeant. "There are some good fighters like Lion, Polar Bear and Pigeon if he remembers who the enemy is," chuckled the sergeant.
The sergeant seemed to be a lot friendlier when he wasn't dealing with new recruits. Or maybe that was just his friends with. At least he wasn't shouting and growling at everyone. That was certainly more than you could say about Polar Bear. I wondered how my fellow trainees would deal with a chuckling sergeant. They'd probably faint although Swan the sergeant's nephew wouldn't have seen anything new. There was a silence and then the sergeant spoke again obviously answering an unasked question from Eagle.
"Oh, he knocked out Tiger," admitted the sergeant sounding almost disappointed.
"Tiger?" asked Eagle.
"Yeah, why?" the sergeant sounded suspicious.
"He must be better at shooting than he is at hand to hand combat," Eagle sounded like he was boasting.
I felt annoyed at this and more than a little embarrassed. Okay, I was pleased at the fact that Eagle had told how good I was at shooting. How could I be anything else with my father obsessively teaching me how to shoot? This was a subject I still hadn't dealt with. Dad may have said he wasn't an assassin but there was something in his eyes that told me he wasn't against killing. Neither was I but only in the heat of battle or to save innocent lives. It wasn't the same as assassination I told myself.
"That's the problem," the sergeant sounded exasperated. "He was my favorite."
I felt saddened. I hadbeen the sergeant's favorite. But it sounded like he had changed his mind after that disastrous fight with Pigeon that afternoon. But at the same time I had actually made the sergeant recognize my skills as a more than good soldier. And Eagle too was pleased with me. Well he had noted on what a good shooter I was. I heard Eagle actually laugh at the sergeant. I knew they were friends. I knew that the sergeant had a softer side he hid from us recruits. But I also knew I'd never have the nerve to laughat the sergeant.
"Aww, is little Wolfie feeling let down," laughed Eagle. (1)
"Wolfie"? I questioned. I guessed that the sergeant's codename was Wolf. I had to say that it didn't half suit the sergeant with his wolfish glare and growling voice. But I don't think that anyone in the right mind would call the sergeant "Wolfie"! It probably helped that Eagle was the best sharpshooter so if the sergeant attacked him all Eagle would do is shoot the man. Oh yeah and they were old buddies. I waited to hear what Sergeant Wolfie (I snickered internally at my nickname for our sergeant) would say to Eagle.
"You can't say he has great potential," growled Wolf.
"Just because he got knocked out once doesn't mean he isn't a good soldier," Eagle defended me. "Look how many times you've been knocked out by Cub, even when he was fifteen."
"Point taken," the sergeant didn't sound happy about admitting to being knocked down by a fifteenyear old.
Fifteen? This Cub person had been in SAS camp at the age of fifteen! And Cub had somehow managed to knock out Wolf when he had been in the prime of his life. I hadn't even known that children could become spies. Or was he just in SAS camp at that time. When I was fifteen I had been sweating over exams not sweating over the training. I didn't think anyone would be able to get a one over the sergeant. It just shows you doesn't it? I was desperate to hear more about myself or Cub from the sergeant and sharp shooting instructor.
"He shoots like Cub," Eagle said.
"Apart from today I thought he fought quite like Cub too," added Sergeant Wolf.
"He looks like him too," added Eagle, "Same blonde hair."
"Eyes are different though," Wolf said. "But where did he learn instinctive firing?" asked the sergeant.
"He said he met someone on the field who taught him it," I heard the frown in Eagle's voice.
"You don't believe him?" asked the sergeant.
"How many soldiers do you know instinctive firing," demanded Eagle.
I felt my stomach flip at this. I didn't want to give my father away. I decided it was time to head back to my hut. I heard the sergeant mention something about spies. But that wasn't true. I've never met any spies. It would be cool if I have but I haven't. I wondered what spies were like. I knew that the SAS had some relations with the secret services but I hadn't passed training enough to know exactly what. How cool would it be to work with spies? I ended back up in our barracks where the other three were already asleep and I joined them in that position.
1 – So who got that the sergeant was Wolf. Congratulations to iFicti0n, Albany, youngjusticefanatic, KathyLove1 you all got it right.
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