A group of five trainees were led into a special room. One of them was Tara King. The others were three men and a girl. In the middle of the room was a raised platform with a round manhole cover in the middle of it. On the left-hand side of the room was a control panel.
"This will be a test of your reflexes," said the trainer. "I would like each of you to stand in the middle of this platform. Who would like to go first?"
"I'll try," said Tara.
"Very good, Miss King."
She walked onto the platform and stood in the middle of the circle. The trainer walked over to the control panel and sat at it.
Suddenly, the manhole cover fell down-and so did Tara. She ended up in a pool of water! She got out and stood up-soaking wet!
"You weren't expecting that, were you?" said the trainer.
"No, I wasn't!" she conceded.
"Who wants to be next?"
"I'll try it," said one of the men.
"All right, Haskins.
He got up on the platform and stood on the manhole cover. Meanwhile, Tara got off and stood with the others.
The result was the same; the trainer opened the cover, and Haskins fell into the water!
The same thing happened with the other trainees. They stood on the manhole cover and ended up in the water.
Finally, the trainer faced the group. "Now, we didn't do this test just to embarrass all of you. We did it to prove a point: To be a good agent, you must always have lightning-fast reflexes. This will save your lives! We'll do more of this later, but for now, you can put on dry clothes and have lunch. I'll expect you back at 1400 hours."
"Excuse me," said Tara. "Can I try this again?"
"If you'd like, Miss King."
He walked back to the controls. Tara quickly took her shoes and socks off. Barefooted, she walked back onto the platform.
Once again, the manhole cover was dropped and once again, Tara fell into the water!
She got out. "Again."
The cover was righted, and she stood on it again. But this time, she nimbly jumped away as it dropped.
The trainer was impressed. "Very good, Miss King!" The others cheered.
"Once again, please?"
In total, she did it five more times. Twice, she fell into the water, but the other three times, she was able to jump away from it.
"That's enough," she finally said.
The others cheered again. She rejoined them and put her shoes and socks on. They all left the room together.
As they were leaving, the trainer walked over to Tara. "You have the potential to go far, Miss King."
"Thank you, sir."