Forever Fighting | ✔️ | [previously Espionage: double-cross]

Chapter 16

"Aah." Alex flopped onto the bed in exhaustion. For two weeks, there had been non-stop tests, forms, practical assessments and all other things that would test the skills of Alex and her fellow recruits. She felt not only drained physically but mentally as well. She had crammed her head chock full with any information that one would count as useful. 

Her Survival test had been particularly exhausting.

Imagine spending 5 days outside, having to forage for all of your food, sleep on leaves and under branches, only given 1 bottle of water and 5 protein bars, gloves, a penknife, a jumper and a hat. Imagine having to wade through a river; have damp clothes for 2 days as a result; then rain drenching you all over again; running around a clearing in the forest while some of your clothes dried so you didn't catch hypothermia; shredding your clothes and skin on a thorny bush while you were trying to get some edible berries and then putting honey from a beehive on the cuts you got from the bush and then having to risk getting stung by bees from a wild hive in an attempt to get honey to use as a natural antiseptic. 

Yeah, it was tough.

Alex had pushed through, hating and loving every single second of it in equal parts. Of course she had passed with flying colours, her skills picked up from hours and hours of reading finally coming in handy. Unlike other, she had managed to come back unharmed (pretty much), healthy and while managing not to lose all of her kit - unlike Liam who had thrown his pack at a fox, stubbornly refusing to let go then when the fox started to play tug of war.

The fox won.

The only good thing that came from those blasted survival lessons was the knowledge that she was being considered for the position of a field agent. That along with cryptography and tracking meant she was also being considered as an analyst or surveillance operative. She had low hopes for surveillance, however, with her tracking skills lacking and her ability to find a small detail on one of a hundred screens below average, far below.

Now, all she wanted to do was sleep, preferably somewhere not on the ground with a rucksack as a pillow. 

Unfortunately for her, that was one wish that wouldn't be granted. 

Just outside her room, the shared comms suit beeped, signalling an incoming message. Just like everyone else on the corridor, Alex got up from her comfortable position and went to the closest unit. She reached it just as Heather arrived. There was no time to exchange greetings as Julie's voice echoed through the speaker.

"Hello all. As you know, you have been taking many test to help us perceive what is your best role in the agency." Many girls nodded their heads at this. "I am happy to announce," Alex could sense a smile at the other end of the line, "That we now have your roles within the agency."

That was quick. Alex looked at her watch to check the date, letting her eyebrows raise in astonishment. Huh, just over a month. Maybe not so quick.

 There was a gush of excited mutterings that washed out the quiet words from Julie, until she raised the volume.

"Quiet! Please," the last one tacked on with little care. "We have all of the results ready in the training hall, come immediately." As soon as Julie had finished, everyone rushed up to the wall, a bottleneck forming when the narrow doorway out of the dorms spilled out into the atrium where many boys were already running. Alex, being in her tired, just muttered her slight disgust at their immature behaviour before deciding to take a slower and more easy-going approach. The only other person to adopt this approach was Heather. She walked beside Alex, neither one of them saying much. 

The two girls hadn't talked, at all really. Alex still got the impression that Heather really disliked her and the forced smiles that were continuously sent her way didn't help at all. It would be better if she didn't do anything, that Alex was used to. But, appearances had to be maintained for the young leader of the junior agent program.