Chapter 10

Kiana’s training continued and she had no choice but to admit it was the toughest three months of her life. Master Gwon worked her like a dog, as did the rest of her instructors. She and the other teens did more things than they imagined possible, including skydiving, hang gliding, rock climbing, SCUBA diving, and even target practice.

“We get real guns?” Kiana asked.

“No,” Harrington said. “The agency won’t allow teen agents to use real guns. Using teens as agents is controversial enough, and it’s feared the teen program would be shut down permanently if we started allowing you to use real weapons. As such you’ll be armed with tranquilizers. At least until you’re eighteen.”

“Tranquilizers?” Jennie asked. “You mean like the ones they use on animals?”

“Similar. The ones the USIA uses look exactly like real guns but they shoot small, bullet-sized darts. Each dart is filled with enough tranquilizer to drop an average-sized man immediately upon impact.”

“What kind of range do they have?” Smitty asked.

“About half the range of a normal pistol. But despite the limited range they are effective if used properly.”

They walked to the shooting range near the far end of the compound. It was really nothing more than a long, flat piece of land with a bunch of benches on one end and a row of targets on the other. Harrington gave them their guns and then a quick rundown on how to load and aim them properly.

For Kiana, it was a completely new experience. She had never held a gun before, even one that shot tranquilizers, and she was surprised how heavy it was. She turned it over and over in her hand and wondered if real guns were as heavy as it and she imagined they probably were. She’d have to ask Michael and maybe he’d let her see his.

That brought up an interesting issue. Over the years, Michael had introduced her to many things, presumably to prepare her for a life as an agent, but there had been one huge, glaring omission. He had never taught her how to shoot a gun. She wondered why. Perhaps he didn’t like guns. Or perhaps he just wanted to put that lesson off as long as possible since guns were so incredibly dangerous.

Unfortunately, however, she didn’t get a chance to ponder it any further because Harrington finished his explanation and told the four of them to step forward and commence shooting.

There were four targets at the far end of the shooting range and plenty of space between each, so all four of them could practice at the same time. Kiana laughed as her first shot missed the target completely and hit a sand bank in the background. She hadn’t expected the gun to have such a kick. It wasn’t overwhelming, by any means, but it definitely had to be taken into account when aiming. Her next shot was a little better and she actually managed to hit the target but barely, right on its outermost edge.

“Very good, Kiana,” Harrington said. “You’ll get it. Like everything, it just takes a little time and a lot of practice.”

From that point forward, he strolled back and forth from student to student, giving each of them tips as they shot and they all improved rapidly. In no time Kiana had gotten to the point where she could hit the target every time and shortly after that she got her first bull’s-eye (it was probably more luck than anything but she bragged about it anyway).

And that was the start of their training with firearms. From that point forward, they were expected to put in at least twenty minutes of practice each day. Kiana usually did more since it was her nature to excel at everything she did, but to be honest no matter how good she got, and no matter how much she improved, shooting never excited her very much.

Taekwondo, by contrast, was a different story. Nothing excited her more than taekwondo. She practiced with Master Gwon twice a day, once at 8:00 am for an hour and once again at 4:00 pm for two. As always, the training sessions were brutal and in no time Kiana’s legs and arms were covered with bruises, but it didn’t faze her at all and if anything it just made her more and more motivated. In no time she had learned a lot and her speed, stamina, and form had all improved dramatically.

But there was one day, about six weeks into their training, when Master Gwon did something that caught her completely by surprise. When she showed up for her 4:00 pm sparring session the other three teens were there, waiting with him in their workout gear. This was unexpected because up to that point he and Kiana had always trained alone.

“The other students will be working with us for the next week or so. I imagine you are growing weary of sparring with me every day so I thought I would mix things up and have you spar with them for a while.”

Kiana chuckled. She couldn’t really believe what she was hearing. The other students were all doing a good job with their combat training, but they had been working with other instructors on simple things like self-defense and basic hand-to-hand combat techniques. None of them had any taekwondo experience and they were no match for her.

And they didn’t look too happy about it either. Especially the boys, who definitely didn’t relish the idea of having a girl beat the tar out of them.

“Here’s how it will work,” Master Gwon said. “We will do twenty rounds. The three of you will take spots on each side of Kiana and you will have twenty seconds each round to take her down. If you do, you win a point. If she stays up for the entire twenty seconds, she wins.”

Kiana raised an eyebrow. As far as she was concerned things had just gotten a lot more interesting. She had never fought multiple opponents at the same time (except for one time when she was eight, but she and her friends had just been goofing around). The idea excited her immensely but at the same time she was a little apprehensive. Was she fast enough to handle three opponents at once?

“This,” Master Gwon continued, “will give the three of you a chance to learn to work together to take down a common adversary. In the meantime, it will give Kiana a chance to push her skills to the limit. Take your places. I will tell you when to begin.”

The other students spread out around her, equidistant from one another, and readied themselves for the start of the first round. In the meantime, Master Gwon grabbed a stopwatch from a nearby shelf.

“Begin.”

It was brutal. Despite Kiana’s far superior hand-to-hand skills, fighting three people at once was a challenge like none she had faced before. She always managed to land at least one good kick or punch, and sometimes two, but usually she could do little more before they grabbed her and pulled her down. Both boys were considerably heavier than her and the minute they got ahold of her she was in real trouble. She lost the first six rounds and was starting to get pretty frustrated before she realized one thing. Despite the fact she had lost each round, a pattern had started to develop. Each subsequent round had taken longer than the preceding one, and Smitty, Jamie, and Jennie were having more and more trouble subduing her. Both boys were sweating badly, breathing heavily, and nursing various injuries she had inflicted on them, and Jennie had a nasty bruise on the side of her forehead from one of Kiana’s roundhouses. As such, Kiana became convinced she would be able to win the seventh round and at one point it looked like she might since she had knocked both Smitty and Jamie to the ground. But then something completely unexpected happened. Jennie, who had gotten behind her while she was subduing the boys, grabbed her by her ponytail and pulled her to the floor.

“Point,” Master Gwon said.

Kiana was livid. “That’s not fair. That was dirty.”

Master Gwon smiled. “When you are in the field, facing a bunch of thugs or terrorists, do you think they are going to fight fair? They are going to do whatever is necessary to defeat you. In the field, Kiana, it is about survival. You would be wise to learn that lesson now.”

Kiana didn’t like it, not one bit, since to her it was a desperate, nasty tactic, but she had no choice but to accept it and continue. For a few seconds she was angry and considered fighting dirty herself (she knew some good places to land kicks especially when facing boys), but she decided against it. She knew she was good enough to eventually win a round and she knew she could do so without resorting to those types of tactics. She just had to stay focused and, as Master Gwon was so fond of saying, “She had to move like the wind.”

It took two more rounds but it finally happened. Master Gwon blew his whistle, signaling the end of the round. Much to Kiana’s delight, she was still on her feet. Jennie and Jamie, however, were flat on their backs, rubbing their sides painfully, and Smitty was on his knees trying to catch his breath. He had lost it when Kiana had kneed him in the stomach.

“Very nice, Kiana,” Master Gwon said. “Now do it without thinking.”

Kiana had no idea what he was talking about. “Without thinking? What do you mean?”

“Let your instincts take over. Do what they tell you. Ignore your mind.”

Kiana really didn’t know what he was talking about but she gave it a try anyway. Instead of trying to form a plan of attack, like she had been doing, she simply let her opponents come at her, then retaliated with whatever move her body felt like doing. The first round was a disaster and she lost quickly, but the next she won, and then another, and then another. By the time they had finished the twenty rounds she had won seven of them, including five of the final six.

As such, she was pretty happy. Despite being outnumbered three to one she had managed to win what she considered a good number of rounds.

“Not bad,” Master Gwon said. “But tomorrow, I will expect you to win at least ten.”

So she did. The next day, she won ten rounds, the day after that she won eleven, the day after that thirteen, and the day after that fifteen. The absolute highlight was the final round of the fifth day. Kiana knocked down all three of her opponents within the first ten seconds, all with blows that were so devastating none of them even contemplated getting back up. She just stood there, for the remaining ten seconds, as the three of them rolled around on the floor in pain.

“What do you think?” she asked Master Gwon. “Fifteen out of twenty. That’s seventy-five percent. That’s not bad, right?”

Master Gwon grinned. “It’s good. But twenty out of twenty would be better.”

With a smile and a slight bow he turned and left.

Kiana sighed. Taekwondo instructors. She had had many over the years and they always had one thing in common: no matter what you did, no matter how well you did, they always thought you could do better.