Chapter 5

Darkness

Pure darkness

That’s all I saw with the blindfold covering my eyes. For our training today, they tied five of us in a room to a chair and blindfolded us. The task is to get out of the building alive.

The Conversion had a separate building for training. The lesson to learn today is ‘team work’. We are expected to work together and look out for each other in order to achieve our goal. That’s the only way we can make it out alive – to support ourselves.

United we stand, divided we fall

Its every Operative for himself, The Conversion for us all

I grunted as I struggled with the ropes that tied my hands behind my back. Being tied it’s a hard thing on its own, but being tied with a blindfold on is a different task altogether.

I had a pocket knife in my back pocket. After all, a spy has to always be prepared, I always keep weapons with me at all times. The only problem is how to reach it.

“Any luck guys?” I asked my teammates

“Nope” They all answered

Dammit! I can’t blame them. What if this was a real-life situation and we really needed to escape or worse, what if I’m alone? What would I do then? I have to be independent. Anything can happen out there.

“I think I got something” Choi said

Thank goodness.

I sat up and reached for my back pocket as hard as I could, trying to get a hold of my knife.

“Argh!” I exclaimed

The ropes were extremely tight. The harder I pull, the more painful it is. My wrists are surely going to be bruised

“You okay, Ada?” Mike asked

“Yeah. It hurts, that’s all”

“Why are you bothered if she’s okay?” Victoria snapped “She’s the leader. She should do this on her own. She’ll be alone out there”

“We’re a team” Choi replied

“But she’s going to be on her own most of the time. She should be independent”

“And who says I’m not?” I retorted

“Prove it then”

“I swear, when I untie myself, I’ll leave you alone here miss independent”

“Not if I untie myself first!”

“God! Everything is not a competition”

“Guys shut the hell up!” Chen screamed

We all kept quiet. Chen is not one to be messed with. She has a bad temper plus she could kick all of our asses if she wants to. I wonder why they didn’t send her instead of me. There’s no doubt that she would do better.

I whined as I desperately tried to free myself

“Okay Ada. Breathe” I whispered to myself “Remember what they taught you in training”

I used my fingers to feel the ropes. We were taught that every knot has a weak point, no matter how tight it is. You have to use your sense to detect where the knot ends, detect the weak point and then pull. I traced the knots slowly and untangled it with all the strength I had.

It is excruciatingly painful but I had to prepare myself for the real thing. As a spy, you must also be time conscious. You never know what’s happening outside, a bomb might even be ticking. Speed and accuracy are keys!

When I managed to free the ropes a little, I wiggled myself on the chair in order to get the knife out of my pocket. When I got the knife, I cut the ropes slowly. The ropes are really hard so it wasn’t easy. I even got injured in the process

“Done” I heard Choi say

I cut the last strand with the knife, setting myself free. I tore off my blindfold and got up. The others were ready as well.

“What next?” Chen asked Mike

Mike is the best at training operations. He should know what to do.

“Get prepared. I’m sure we’ll have to fight our way through” Mike said

“But my arms hurt” Victoria complained

“Deal with it!” Chen snapped

I had to bite my lips to refrain myself from laughing

“Everyone stay close. Watch your backs and be as noiseless as possible. Got it?” Mike instructed

We nodded in understanding

“Come on”

We all left the room staying hurdled together. The corridor was very dark.

“Anyone with a flashlight?” Mike asked

“Nope”

We never even thought of it

“Alright. Everyone put on your spy glasses”

I put my glasses into night mode. It enables you to see in the dark, not very clearly but it gives a green layout and objects become more visible.

A huge masked man appeared in our front. Other men appeared in each side. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by men.

“Attack!” Mike screamed

I went straight for the one in front. In self-defence class, they taught us to always attack first especially if the person is bigger than you are. If the bigger person attacks first, the impact will be much worse. Always catch them by surprise.

I delivered a quick blow to his mid-section. He bent in pain. I used my elbow to hit his back which made him crouch to the floor. When attacking a bigger person, your moves have to be swift because if the person has time to retaliate, you’d end up more injured since your strength can’t match up.

Someone caught me from behind. His full arm was wrapped around my throat. I tried to free myself but his grip was too strong. I tried head butting him but he dodged. I would pass out any second. My legs wiggled in the air as I fought my way through.

Luckily, Chen came to my rescue. She ran to us, jumped and landed a kick to his face.

I held my throat as I gasped for air.

“Yalright?” she asked me

“I will be. Thanks”

We noticed two guys ganged up on Choi. Chen and I ran up to help. I grabbed one off Choi while Chen grabbed the other. Choi had the chance to fight now.

I went behind the man and held his hands firmly behind his back. Choi used the opportunity to punch him then kick him where the sun don’t shine. The man went on his knees in pain. My mouth opened in surprise

“You could have kicked him somewhere else” I said

Choi shrugged

“I just felt like it”

I looked around; all the guys were knocked out.

“hurry before they wake” Mike spoke

The next thing is to find a way out of here. We tried to enter different rooms but they were all empty. The fifth room we entered had red infrared beams across the floor. If one of our body parts come in contact with the lights, an alarm would go off and more men would come to attack us and it also means we failed the mission.

“Hold on” Mike told us

He crawled on his stomach carefully under the light rays as he made his way across the other side of the room. He got up and opened the power box on the wall. It took him a while to connect the wires but he finally deactivated the alarm system, making the lights go off.

Mike opened the door at the end of the room which read “EXIT”. We all cheered and hugged each other.

We made it out…alive.

*

“Mom, I’m home” I announced as I entered the living room. Sweat dripped from my clothes plus my hair is a mess. We trained from 11am to 5pm non-stop. My breathing is really heavy. I just want to lie down and sleep.

My mom was sitting on the couch in the living room. She wore a worried look on her face. I became scared. Did something bad happen?

I sat beside her.

“Mom, what’s wrong?” I questioned

No answer

I became even more scared

“Mom, please talk to me”

Tears streamed down her face. She shook her head as her sobs became more prominent.

“That man killed your father” she muttered “He’s going to kill you too”

“Is that what’s been bothering you?” I asked her “The mission”

“Yes. I begged them to choose someone else but they insisted on choosing you”

“Mom, it’ll be fine”

I’m terrified, more than you know yet I can’t show it. Why? Because that would make her even more afraid. I have to act strong. I have to be strong for the both of us. Its something my dad would want me to do.

“No!” she cried “I can’t lose you too. I can’t” she shook her head

My heart tore at the sight of her tears

“I’ll be careful” I said to her “I promise. I’ll come back”

“That’s the same thing your father told me. They came after him, now look at us”

She turned to face me

“I could send you away” she said “Or I could fake your death or you could go live with your…”

I held her hands in a comforting manner

“Mom. They’ll find me”

“It’s worth a shot”

“Mom” I shook my head “Don’t”

Like it is said in our motto; Allegiance to the agency.

The Conversion doesn’t tolerate any form of disloyalty. You are expected to follow orders at all times. If anyone even tries to run away to avoid the mission, they will track the person down to the ends of the earth if they have to. That’s not even the worst part. The worst part is the penalty which is immediate cancellation. In other words, death.

By proving disloyal, you are not to be trusted and if you cannot be trusted, it means that you are a threat to the agency and trust me when I say they don’t take threats very lightly.

I hugged her and held her tightly

“It’ll be okay. I promise” I said

I patted her back as she hysterically cried

Chapter 6