Page 27 of Lethal Game

“Hey, did you get any bruises last night?” he asked her.

“Just a little one here.” She unbuttoned the cuff of her uniform sleeve and pushed it up to reveal a greenish-blue bruise the size of a grapefruit on her arm.

“That’s little?” It looked pretty damn big to Con.

Max leaned in and looked at it. “That’s not bad actually. How did you get it?”

“During the demonstration of how to break a hold.”

Max looked at Con expectantly.

“I gave her a Tai Chi lesson and went over how to get out of the most common holds.”

“Hmm.” Max glanced at her then asked Con, “And today?”

“The shooting range this morning and more Tai Chi tonight.”

Sophia moved away to read some paperwork Eugene gave her.

Max stepped closer to Con and lowered his voice a little. “We’re getting some conflicting information out of a couple different refugee camps. I know you just got here, but I may need to send you both out with a team in less time than I’d hoped.”

“I’ll do my best to get her ready,” Con said. “She’s a good student.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, took to Tai Chi like a duck to water.”

“I’m glad to hear it. She’s one of a kind and we’re lucky to have her.”

“Is that why she’s a civilian contractor and not a member of the military?”

Max took a moment to respond. “Yes, she has an unusual skill. She’s able to understand, and even predict, the rapid shifts in a virus’s genetic code. Those shifts make sense to her in the same way music makes sense to a composer. Some things work well together, others not. We were very lucky to have her join the team.”

Sophia waved at him and headed to her office.

Eugene called Max away then, giving Con a chance to observe everyone for an hour or so. There were at least a dozen different people working in the standard lab and another eight in the airtight lab everyone called thebubble.

Some of the tests were the standard sort any hospital would do, others were much less standard.

The staff in the accessible lab were happy to answer his two questions:How long have you worked here?andIf you were a bad guy, how would you get in the building?They all seemed to know he was Dr. Perry’s soldier, like he was some sort of accessory only certain people got.

Eugene said he’d have an updated report on Akbar for him after lunch, so Con went to see if Sophia could spare some time for the shooting range.

She agreed and they left.

“What are you going to have me do?” she asked as they walked.

“We’re going to keep it simple. I want you to practice as much as possible with your Beretta. The chances of you using a rifle aren’t all that great, so let’s stick with your most likely weapon, okay?”

He got her set up, they both put on hearing protection, then he nodded at her to begin.

He let her take six shots before calling a halt and pulling her back from the range where they could talk. She’d hit the target, but her shots were all over the place.

“Your arms are straight with your elbows locked. When you do that, every time you shoot, the kickback moves your arms up and down, spoiling your aim for your next shot. Try keeping those elbows soft, and don’t hold your arms out so far from your body. You want those elbows to absorb the kickback. Make sense?”

“Oh. Yes.”

“Good, let’s try it again, another six shots.”

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