Suicide Mission (Guarded Secrets Series Book 1)

by Sara Schoen

  “You wouldn't dare.” He growled back at her in an attempt to scare her.

  “Try me.” She dared him, as she leaned forward and met his glare with one of her own.

  They were locked in an intense staring match for a while until Raider sighed and broke eye contact. I guess he figured that she would follow through on her threat if he didn't stop and I was thankful for her stepping in. Raider extended a tanned hand toward me and smiled lightly; it was a forced smile, but I accepted it. I extended my hand and we shook to form a truce before Damon took over speaking again.

  “Sara is a thief, and from what I've seen today she has the potential to become the best one we have ever had. We had a rough start, but she has learned. Now I need someone to take over for a while so I can rest and work things out with Whiplash.” Damon sighed as he looked between our two other teammates.

  “What does she need to work on?” Spit Fire asked curiously as she looked me over. While she had been nice and stood up for me, I could see now she was trying to evaluate me as an agent. Her eyes squinted as she tried to measure my worth as an agent and when she got her answer, she looked disappointed in what she saw.

  “She needs to finish combat training, and stealth, then move on to lock picking.”

  “What have you done with her all day? It sounds as if you spent the whole day painting fingernails!” Raider blurted out in annoyance.

  “We did combat, and while she isn't much of a fighter, she isn't meant to be. So either calm down and agree to assist your teammate, or back off and leave it to us to train her.” Damon growled angrily. “I'm not going to stand for this much longer Raider.”

  “I will finish training her,” a new voice said, in surprise to my group. I turned around to see Sharp Shooter behind us with a wide smile on his face as he leaned on the back of my chair. “What do you say, Sara? Want to learn from the big man himself?” He joked lightly as I heard Raider growl under his breath and mutter that I wasn't good enough to train with the director.

  “I would love to have you train me, sir,” I said as I glanced back at Raider with a mischievous smile on my lips. Take that Raider, I thought, as the director told me to finish my meal and then meet him in the training room in half an hour. “I'll be there, sir.”

  Chapter 7

  Spit Fire stayed with me while I finished lunch to take me to the training room. Raider and Demon had cut out quickly once someone else agreed to watch me for a while. It made me feel like a child being passed around from parent to parent in order to keep me under control. Although Spit Fire was happy to have another girl on the team, even if she didn't help train me, because she was tired of this being a “man's job” and was thrilled to see Sharp Shooter taking an interest in me.

  “Why is that a good thing?” I questioned as I followed her through the long and winding hallways. I was thankful someone had stayed behind to lead the way for me, otherwise I would never have found the training room. They needed a map that they handed out to new recruits, then maybe I would have half a chance at finding my way around this building.

  “It means you're going to be in a really good standing once you take on a few missions. He sees something in you that he doesn't see in many people, and that's good,” she said with a smile as she stopped outside a set of doors and pointed to them. “This is where you go. I wish you good luck, you're going to need it.”

  “Why?”

  “The director doesn't train just anyone and it's never been a new recruit because they can't handle it. He's going to push you to the limit, and you'll wish you had stayed with Demon. Just remember, be yourself and don't let anyone here scare you away. You belong here, otherwise they wouldn't have recruited you, so don't let them tell you different, not even the director,” she said with a smile, making sure to get in every last piece of advice she could give me in a few sentences. She winked before she showed off her ability to slip into the shadows, because when I blinked, she was gone.

  “That wasn't helpful at all,” I grumbled to myself as I tried to see her down the hall. I couldn't see anything except the agents that were idly walking the halls, heading to wherever their training or missions were talking them. Suddenly, the doors were pulled open behind me and an angry growl reached my ears. I turned around just in time to start the reprimanding.

  “Sara, you're late.” Mark growled as he grabbed my arm and roughly pulled me inside.

  “Mark, what are you doing here?” I asked as he pulled me to the center of the room and ordered me not to move. “I didn't know you were coming.”

  “I'm here to see what you can do. The director offered to train you, but you don't deserve that as of yet. Right now it would be a waste of time for all parties involved. So, he is instead going to watch you from an observation room,” he said condescendingly, as he shoved me to a different part of the room.

  I was hurt that Mark had just insulted me. He had basically told me that I wasn't worth the director’s time, but it quickly faded when I saw the director step into the room.

  “Wrong, Whiplash,” he said before I could respond to Mark's comments. “You are going to watch from the observation room, your feelings are getting in the way and I can already see it. You will not be going on this mission if you don't sort them out, and then Demon will take over the team, permanently. Now leave,” Sharp Shooter ordered. Mark stood his ground for a few moments and then walked off without a word.

  “Sharp Shooter,” I started hesitantly, but he silenced me by holding his hand up.

  “He needed to hear that, Sara. We have to start training now, and I hope that you can make him see that you belong here. Prove me right and make him see that you deserve this chance,” Sharp Shooter said as he tossed me two small tools.

  I caught them with some difficulty, and prayed that Mark wasn't watching me already. Damon had showed me these tool before, but I didn't really know what they did. He had quickly taught me the basics of lock picking before going to lunch, but we mostly trained in combat. One of the tools I knew was called a rake. It was grooved and flat, meant to be forcefully slid back and forth through a lock hole. Its companion was called a tension wrench. It had a flat head in order to provide a leverage and hold for the other tools, but so far I only had these.

  “You're going to pick a set of locks,” Sharp Shooter said as he gestured behind him as the metal door opened to reveal a wall of almost a hundred safes. “As quickly as possible. Good luck.”

  “You want me to open them all?” I asked as I looked at the wall in disbelief.

  “At one point yes, I would like you to open them all in under twenty minutes. There's only eighty-two, all of different locks, the record for the wall was twenty-three minutes. It was held by our last thief, Hess, but if I'm right about you then I know you'll break the record with ease once you've had some training. Until then we will just work on the bottom row, they are the most common locks used. For the first time I expect there to be some difficulty, so you'll have ten minutes,” Sharp Shooter explained as he glanced between me and the wall of locked safes.

  “It's only safes though,” I said slowly in a confused tone. “Won't I need to open doors?”

  “You'll need to open safes too, but you are right. Only some of these are actual safe locks. As you take a closer look at some of the safes here have been remade to have key locks. Only the last one on each row and the last row is entirely safes. The first row is the toughest especially since you're a rookie, it's completely doors, and the last one is a safe you'll have to feel in order to open.”

  “What's that mean?” I asked just as Sharp Shooter blew a whistle in my ear to start my training. I shook my head for a few seconds to get rid of the ringing that pulsed through my ear due to the high-pitched sound before taking off. I took a deep breath and prayed silently that all those times when I broke into my friends’ houses when they were late would come in handy. Of course, at that time I only had a student ID card to work with and not actual tools.

  I heard a pop as th
e door's lock moved out of place and the door opened. I smiled as I quickly moved onto the next one, it popped without any problem and I continued on. I could tell that the doors were meant to get harder because I was starting to lose pace about half way, but I had managed to get this far and I wasn't going to stop until Sharp Shooter told me to. The doors continued to open one by one until I got to the last safe door. I paused for a moment completely unaware of what I had to do.

  I had never tried to open a safe and didn't have the first clue how to do it. They had been watching me, they would know that I had never done this. So how did they expect me to do it? I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Sharp Shooter had said that I had to feel to open it, and now I prayed that he was talking about touch opening. I had seen it done in movies, but I didn't think it could actually be done in real life. Movies make up things all the time, why wouldn't this be one of them?

  I placed my fingertips lightly near the safes combination lock and started to turn the dial. I took continuous deep breaths to relax me as I waited for a click. The dial slowly turned in my hands until a soft pop came to my ears; I had found the first number. I started to turn it to the left to find the second number and the pop came quickly after. I hesitated for a moment, what if I had mistaken the sound and it was wrong. I'd have to start over and that would give Mark the satisfaction of knowing that I wasn't good enough.

  Without another thought I turned the dial right again and the safe popped open with ease. I felt a smile curl onto my lips, I felt like I had done well and in good time for a beginner, but as I got up I had second thoughts. Sharp Shooter's face seemed to be stuck with one eye brow lifted and a lack of expression. I must not have done as well as he thought I would and now he was having second thoughts about me.

  “Sharp Shooter, I'm sorry, I can do better,” I promised as I waited for him to answer. I had tried, but I didn't know what I was doing half the time. I just kind of forced them open instead of finessing my way through the locks. I wouldn't be able to be as forceful on locks on the mission or I would be heard and the mission would be blown; I'd be dead if I did that.

  “Better?” he repeated as his eyes blinked repeatedly as if to process what I had just said.

  “Yeah, I can do so much better! I promise, just let me practice a little more! I can do it without almost breaking something, or messing up like I did.”

  “I don't think that's possible, Miss Night. You just did that in five minutes and forty-five seconds like eating a slice of cake. For a rookie that's fantastic—most take at least seven to get through the first set of doors. Demon's right; he said you weren't much for combat, but when it comes to this you have a talent,” he said as he turned and walked a few paces away before coming back to me. “I'm sure Whiplash is sitting up there completely stunned. How about we give him something to really be stunned about?”

  “What were you thinking Director?”

  “A fight,” he said simply.

  “With who, sir?” I questioned, fearing that I already knew what he was going to say. I didn't want to fight him, there would be no way I would win. Even if I did, it would be because he took a dive and let me win. If he was the director of the agency I was sure that he was skilled in almost every aspect of this training, and that would mean fighting would be on the list. I was nowhere near good enough to last a few minutes with him in a fight and I knew it.

  “Raider. From what I hear he doesn't think you can handle yourself and that you don't belong here. You just proved to me that you have the potential to excel here. Now you have to show your teammates,” he said as the door burst open to reveal Spit Fire and Raider being led in by Damon.

  “I brought them, Director,” Damon said as he walked over to me and placed his hand on my shoulder. “You will do well, just know that Raider fights face to face, his fighting is wild and unpredictable. Think about what that means for a moment and you'll do fine,” Damon said with a warm smile as he let go of me and walked out of the room.

  “Raider, you'll be fighting Sara today,” Sharp Shooter said.

  I turned to see the menacing grin on Raider's face at the thought of fighting with me. It brought him way too much joy to think about beating me up, and it terrified me. No one should ever be that happy to have to fight another person.

  Raider stepped up to me without another word and waited for me to get ready. I hadn't done any real fighting today, or ever, the combat training Damon did with me was me running away until he was too tired to chase after me and I could get him back. As Raider prepared himself my thoughts caught my attention; I had run away from Damon until he was tired. Damon had tried to hint that because Raider's fighting was wild and unpredictable, because of that he was using too much energy. I could dodge until he got tired and then strike.

  “Ready to end up in the hospital, Rookie?” Raider asked to taunt me.

  “Do you have one of those here, too? Well, I will be sure to send you flowers while you're there,” I responded with a smile as his expression changed to pure anger.

  Without a moment of hesitation he sprang forward and launched his first punch. On instinct I dove to the ground and quickly placed my hands on the ground to give a place hold as I swung my legs into his side.

  I heard the air leave his lungs as my kick landed in his side. Once the hit landed I tucked into a ball and rolled away as I had done with Damon almost all morning. When I looked up Raider was already up and moving toward me again. I put my arms up as his fist sped towards my face, I cringed as it made contact with my skin. There was no time to think, any reaction had to be on instinct otherwise I would be too distracted to see what was coming next.

  Raider grabbed my arm and jerked me toward him. “What's wrong, Rookie? Don't like fighting anymore now that I'm not here to take it easy on you?”

  “I would never want someone to go easy on me,” I said with a smirk, as I ripped my arm out of his hold by focusing the motion to where his fingers met around my arm. With the speed of the movement I spun and landed another kick, this time to his sensitive area. His face dropped and his eyes grew with horror as he fell to the ground in a thud.

  “You little bitch.” He growled as his hands wrapped around the crotch of his pants in an attempt to stop the pain.

  “I will take that as a compliment. Especially since I just beat you, a fully trained agent, in a fight,” I said mockingly as he tried to get up to continue the fight.

  “I think that's enough,” Sharp Shooter said as he stepped forward and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Raider go get checked out by the medical and come back when you feel better. I think it's time for Sara to take a break,” he said with a smile as he glanced down at me.

  “A rest director? We don't have enough time!” Damon shouted in shock.

  “What I say goes. I think she deserves it after defeating one of our better fighters. Maybe she should take your spot and teach a few recruits,” he said to Raider as he led me out of the room and waited for Damon to follow.

  I had noticed the look on Raider's face when Sharp Shooter had said those criticizing remarks to him and pushed his self-esteem into the dirt, and I couldn't shake the sorrowful feeling hanging around me. “Why did you say those things to Raider?” I questioned as the doors slammed shut and we waited for Damon to emerge from the room.

  “Everyone needs a certain kind of motivation. Raider's is competition, Spit Fire's is the success of achieving the goal set for her, and yours is support. It's what drives them to improve and be the agents I need them to be.”

  “Is that why you took an interest in me?” I questioned curiously. Maybe I wasn't as good as I was told I was. Maybe Sharp Shooter had used it to motivate me to do better and I was really as unprepared and unskilled as everyone else thought.

  “No, I do see something special in you Sara, but you haven't trained enough to really let it shine. I support you and push you to become better, because I know you will be the best we can have one day. Until then you simply practice and gather suppor
t from others, then you'll show the world what you can really do,” he said with a fatherly smile as he patted me on the back and walked away as Damon came to my side. “You'll make me proud, and most importantly you'll make your family proud too,” Sharp Shooter said as he turned down a hallway and disappeared from my sight.

  I was going to make the world see what I was capable of and I would make my family proud of me, no matter what.

  Chapter 8

  “Well, here's where you go once you've been assigned a mission,” Damon said as he opened the double doors to reveal a large waiting room that was filled with round tables and plush chairs. The room was a large square that reminded me of the recreation centers I had swam in while competitively swimming. It was long and wide to provide a lot of room for those that had to walk around, others would choose to sit and a few would probably be sitting on the floors. “Ms. De Luca will take care of you from there and then you're ready to get in the plane, car, or however you're getting there,” Damon said with a sigh as he glanced at me. “Now we should really get back to training.”

  “But, Damon…” I whined as I plopped down into one of the plush armchairs. It was soft to the touch and so inviting that I could have fallen asleep from exhaustion. “I'm so tired, and sore,” I added as I sunk into the cushions, unwilling to leave the comfortable seat.

  “Come on, Sara, you know that we have to keep training. This mission is important and we have to make sure you are as prepared as possible. We have no idea what could happen this time and you're a rookie,” he said cautiously. He had been careful to step around the seriousness of this mission, probably certain that it would scare me away. They were training me non-stop to prepare me for anything since they had targeted this group once before. They would have new security measures in place and probably more people in the compound, and my inexperience would be an obstacle to get through especially if I was caught. I shivered, and refused to let the thought go any further. I couldn’t think like that, or I would cause more problems during the mission.