Chapter 6

"Very good," Sagramore said, just as Gawain came up the stairs. He was holding a pistol towards a girl of no more than twenty-five, with brown hair and hazel eyes, who was similarly holding a gun at him, from her position on the floor.

She laid on her back, and smiled. "Top of class, remember?"

"What's going on?" Gawain holstered her gun.

Sagramore held up his sidearm, and ejected the clip, showing her the bullets with a white line across each of them. Blanks. "Just testing her reaction time. It's excellent. Holly, stand up."

Slowly, the girl lowered her gun, and stood up. "I could have shot you."

"I removed your bullets."

She ejected her own clip, and looked up in awe. "Oh my god, what? When'd you do that?"

"When you were watching Oberon. Now, Holly, this is Gawain, our other field agent. Gawain, Holly Beckett, Maleagant's replacement."

"Call me Valerie," Gawain said, extending a hand.

Holly shook it, her grip hard as rock. "You're three days late."

"Well, I was shot by a sniper and then had severe internal trauma, so I'm sorry if I'm late."

"Oh." Her face dropped. "I'm sorry, I didn't know…"

"It's fine."

Sagramore clicked his tongue, causing both of them to turn. "Arthur's calling me now,so I gotta go. See you girls later." He climbed the stairs to his office.

Holly put her hands on her hips. "What now?"

"Well, what's Oberon taught you so far?"

"Basic decrypting, a bit of hacking...I didn't know that stuff was so hard! It always looks easy in the movies."

"Oberon and Merlin make it look easy. The rest of us, we've no idea what they're saying half the time. Done interrogation yet?"

"I had some practice on a terrorist back in England."

"That's good. Up for more?"

"Are you kidding me? Of course I am." She cracked her knuckles.

"You met Doctor Fischer?" Gawain started down the corridor with Holly in tow.

"Poor guy, cooped up like that. Hasn't he told you everything yet?"

"Probably the trauma. He doesn't remember who hired him. Maybe you can make him remember?"

"I can only try. And don't quote Yoda."

Gawain chuckled. "I like you already. How do you think we can get him to talk?"

"Take him shopping."

"You're kidding me."

"No, really. He might actually open up to us if he's not under constant stress. Just him and me and that one mall I saw when I took a cab."

"I guess we haven't tried that yet. You think you can handle him on your own?"

"Valerie, I'm the top of the class. I can handle myself."

She shrugged and knocked on a metal door. "Doctor, I'm coming in!" Gawain undid the latch and swung the heavy door open into a clean white room, with a bed stashed in one corner. Doctor Fischer was curled up in another corner, counting the hairs on the back of his fingers.

He looked up as they entered. "Oh, Holly, you're here! Who are you again?" he asked Gawain.

"I'm the one who pulled you out of that compound, Doctor."

"Oh, in that case, thank you. I might remember something, now that I think about it."

"Oh?" Gawain pulled up a chair. "Please do share, doctor. It's important that we find the people who captured you."

"A name. Garth. And a bit of a face. Looked a bit old, with hair like Bruce Willis, you know? When he was younger, I mean. But it was a dark brown and he really liked to snark."

"You think you can do a sketch?"

Fischer shook his head.

"What about words? What did he say to you?"

"It's all blurry."

Gawain stood up. "Thank you, doctor. I'll talk to you tomorrow. But now Holly is going to take you shopping."

His eyes lit up. "Outside! That's good! Where are we?"

"Amsterdam," Holly said. "I'll get you some new clothes, okay? You can't just wear this all the time."

"Excellent!" He rubbed his palms, then looked at his watch. "Although, it's breakfast time isn't it? Can we wait while I eat?"

"We'll come back when you're done," Gawain said, opening the door and stepping outside.

"I'm starving too," Holly said. "And I'm sick of Oberon ordering pizza."

"He just lives off that, doesn't he? Should we go out?"

"Italian?"

"Too cheesy."

"Japanese?"

"I don't do very good with raw fish."

"There's not only raw fish, you know."

"...deal."

"So are you and Dirk together?"

Gawain found herself unable to stop blushing. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Clearly, you are. You cried when he was going to quit."

She dropped her chopsticks on the plate. "Who told you that?"

"Oberon."

"Oh, I'm going to kill him. Uh, no, we're not together. I mean, we used to hook up and stuff, but the job got in the way."

"Ever think of going back?"

"I'm doing fine here, so no."

A smile slowly formed on Holly's face. "You dirty liar, Valerie. I can see it plastered all over your face."

"I'd like to keep my professional and personal life separate, thank you very much." She picked up her chopsticks again and put another piece of breaded pork cutlet in her mouth. "What about you? Have you got someone?"

Holly shook her head. "I've never really been a people person. And aren't a lot of cute girls in England."

Gawain raised an eyebrow.

"I get that reaction a lot. But we live in the modern world, eh?"

"You're right. Sorry. It's so easy to forget sometimes."

"Forget what?"

"What we're protecting. What Kingsman does. This is exactly what we fight for: freedom of speech, liberty and all that other stuff the Americans keep claiming they're all about."

"It's why I enlisted, actually."

"Was Roxy your supervisor?"

"No, it was Perceval. He's very quiet. Lancelot's always laughing and stuff."

"Everybody has their own style of teaching. It's more how you receive it."

"And your style?"

"I don't know yet. But you're going to be doing a lot, not just training."

Holly nodded. "I like it."

"You don't know that yet."

"Well, I like the sound of it. Have you ever trained anyone?"

"No, I haven't."

"How long have you been an agent?"

"Five years. I entered at the same age as you. Dirk's been one for eleven years. And Sagramore...thirty something."

"Eleven? That's some loyalty he's got there." Holly narrowed her eyes. "Wait, you sure Dirk's not serving just to stay with you?"

"I told you, we've no feelings for each other...anymore. "

"Maybe he's staying to protect you."

"That's his duty. It's also mine to protect him, but I'm not in very good shape right now."

"Aw, that's so romantic."

"Can we please go back to talking about training?"

Holly's watch beeped. "That's time. Let's go back."

Gawain stuffed the food left on her plate into her mouth, chewed quickly and swallowed it. "Let's go shopping."

"Seriously, a castle?"

"Hidden in plain sight," Garth said. "You'd never expect such an organisation to be in a real castle, do you?"

Jonas scrunched up his nose. "Yeah, whatever."

Garth flipped the screen showing the UAV drone's display down. "But you can get them outside."

"You have Frenchie. He can kill them."

"We'd rather not get involved."

Jonas tapped his foot impatiently. "You're fucking cowards."

"I'd rather be a coward than have our plans ruined."

"Okay, I'll do it. What do I use?"

"Your friend Mr. Harker has a few...munitions, should I say? I've ordered some from him just for you."

"And my ticket?"

Garth handed him a small slip of paper. "I'll see you in a few days."

Jonas was left staring dumbly at the airplane ticket in his hand.

Gawain waved at Holly and Fischer from the top of the stairs. "Come back before lunch!" She watched as the automated doors closed, and took the stairs to the third floor.

Oberon was still on the comm with Caradoc.

She continued up the stairs, to the wooden door marked "Sagramore", and rapped on it with her knuckles three times.

"Come in!"

Gawain opened the door into Sagramore's office. "Holly's a really bright girl."

Sagramore held up a hand. He was looking at a tablet computer that was propped up on his desk. "Gaw- Val, come here."

Curious, Gawain walked around his desk. A girl who looked a lot like Sagramore was holding up a dress.

"My daughter can't decide on a dress, and I'm terrible at this. Some help?"

"Let me see…" Gawain picked up the tablet, and scrolled through the pictures. "I wasn't aware you had a daughter, sir."

"I'd rather she doesn't know about Kingsman. She deserves a normal life, not what I got myself into."

"That's probably what I'd want if I ever have kids."

"You'd be a good mom."

"Only if I find someone. And settle down. And you know I'm not the kind for that." She flicked through more pictures, until she arrived at a red dress. "This one. It compliments her lips."

Sagramore took the tablet back and brought up the email app. "Thank you, Valerie. I'll credit you."

Gawain sat back in the chair opposite Sagramore. "Holly's got a bright future ahead of her."

"You think so?"

"She's definitely agent material. Really still hands as well, so I'm considering letting Oberon train her as a medic."

"Well, I'd definitely let her perform surgery on me. I'm getting old and that might be sooner than I think."

"You're not old, sir. You're not even fifty yet."

"Not physically, no, but all this work...it's aging me mentally."

"Are you thinking of retiring, sir?"

"Not in a million years! We've got a world to protect, haven't we? Although I'm hoping you or dirk - or both - will take my place when I'm gone."

"I'm afraid I'm not the leader type."

"I thought you'd say that, Maybe I'll bring someone from UK HQ. Galahad sounds like a good idea, though he seems really busy. Oh yes, Merlin."

"Sir, if you bring in Merlin, he and Oberon will probably try to take over the world."

Sagramore laughed heartily. "You and your jokes. I'm serious, though. Merlin's quite capable of running this on his own."

"To be honest, I'd prefer Dirk. At least he'd get something to do once Arthur stops him being a field agent."

Sagramore sighed. "I don't like the new Arthur. He sticks by the rules."

"That's what he's supposed to do."

"I guess it's good in a way. A lot less chaos and a lot more success. But it's also a lot less fun."

Gawain said nothing, crossing her legs instead.

Three more sharp knocks.

"Come in!" Sagramore said.

Oberon poked his head in, holding his tablet clipboard. "We've got a problem."

"What is it?"

He turned the clipboard around, displaying a text message addressed from Caradoc.

Stockholm team is dead except Tristan. I'm bringing him back. Somebody is watching us.

"Jesus Christ," Sagramore muttered. "Can we get a confirmation?"

"Already notified Swedish police, sir. What now?"

Sagramore clasped his hands together on the table. "Now we wait."