Page 68 of Bound By Valor

“You don’t have the authority to do that, Lo.”

“Zarek owes me,” Logan’s face turned serious, “And I don’t want you near a firefight.”

“Lo, I am backup. You most likely won’t even need me.”

Logan looked away from me then and sighed, “I just…it’s dangerous, Leo. You’re not fully trained. We haven’t even practiced full combat, with gear and everything. It’s heavy and sweaty,” he gave an exaggerated shiver, “And itchy.”

“I can handle heavy, sweaty and itchy.”

“Fine, then today’s training is you, in gear, doing a one-on-one drill. Shoot to kill, and resort to combat if you lose your gun. Blackthorn has a maze room. If you win, you join the mission. If not, then we’re not taking you.”

I hesitated, but I wasn’t going to back down. I wanted to be on the mission.

“Deal. Who am I practicing against?”

Logan gave a sly smirk, “Delara Booth.”

“Fuck.”

“Indeed,” I heard Delara as she entered the room.

“You planned this, didn’t you?” I gave Logan a lazy smile.

“Maybe.”

Logan left me and Delara in the target practice room. Delara wore a black t-shirt and gray sweatpants. Even though her outfit was casual, she still radiated elegance.

“I’ll go change,” she smiled smugly at me, “You should too, Doc. Your gear is in changing room 3.”

Ugh. What a bitch!

I strode off muttering a string of curses. Why did it have to be her?

I entered the changing room and saw a pile of black clothing resting on the bench, along with a tactical helmet, goggles, boots and gloves.

I braided my hair, slipped on the balaclava, and started wearing the rest of the black colored clothing. I noticed there was no vest which made my brows shoot up. I continued with the boots, the goggles and then finished off with the helmet and gloves. One look in the mirror, and I realized I looked prettybadass. If I had the vest, it would certainly enhance the whole look. I smiled beneath my mask and headed to the maze room.

Delara was already geared up in a vest that had five sensors on her chest, two on shoulders and one on her forehead. She was holding a rifle that pretty much looked like a toy but similar in size in M5.

“Are we playing laser tag?” I asked dryly which earned me a smirk from Delara.

“Kind of,” she said as she handed me my vest and the forehead sensor that clicked into the helmet pretty easily.

“Here’s your rifle, rivaling an M5 in dimensions, recoil and…” she handed me the rifle and my hand dipped not expecting it to be as heavy as a real rifle, “Weight.”

She then turned and headed to a door on the far end of the lobby.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“Come find me, Doc,” she said as she disappeared into the second door.

I exhaled once and entered the door in front of me. The door led me to a narrow white-walled path that turned left at the end. I took my stance, propped up my rifle and stealthily walked towards the left turn. Peering briefly over the corner and finding it clear, I strode towards the open room. There were walls everywhere, partitioning and blocking my view of what’s beyond. I had no schematics, no backup, just me. And all I had to do was find and neutralize my frenemy, Delara Booth.

THIRTY

Zarek

My phone buzzed in my pocket as I stood with Sebastian, Zane, and my squad. Logan, I recalled was with Leora for her training session. I wondered how her written test went. She had practiced more than enough times with the mock tests. I was sure she excelled.

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