I thought long and hard about what had been said thinking everything through properly. I could tell he was getting impatient with having to wait for my answer but he didn't rush me. "I don't think I can do it sir. I was never cut out to be a recruit." I don't know why but that was the way I had always felt, I was never really recruit material and it was evident from a young age which was why I joined the Marines. I was born to be a marine, it was where I belonged.
"Miss Taylor you left this place five years ago, the day before your sixteenth birthday. You never gave yourself the opportunity to go on an operation so how would you know that you're not recruit material? Think of it this way, you are the only ever female marine who has been trained in any combat position because by law it is not allowed, why would people take such a high risk on you if you weren't any good?"
"I don't know sir but they did."
"They took a chance on you because you were a good sniper and a damn good marine. If you didn't want to be a recruit then why did you come here today?"
"I don't know sir. I don't think I was expecting to be leaving alive sir." I answered truthfully and saw sadness in his eyes. "I'm no longer a marine sir; I have nothing left to live for."
"Hey don't speak like that, once a marine always a marine." Seeing that his words had no effect on me he decided to try something different with me. "Come this way." I followed him out of his office back down the maze of corridors to the barracks. I walked in behind him and the laughter and chatter that had been drifting down the corridor only seconds before went silent, I guess this guy was well respected, or feared. "Is that who I think it is?" Some young man somewhere in the corner of the room asked. "Holy shit its McKenzie Taylor." I snapped my head up to look at him but it was a face I found unfamiliar. "Are you coming back Miss Taylor?" There was happiness and pride evident in his voice and I don't know why, I had never done anything worthy of his admiration.
"I don't think so." I mumbled sheepishly hearing quite a few people start speaking over one another to try and convince me before Boss Man silences them all.
"Miss Taylor here will be our newest recruit. She will be bunking with Daniel Lowes and you will all report to the mess hall tomorrow at 0600 hours." He then turned quickly on his heel striding back out of the room and leaving me in a room full of complete strangers. "Where are the women all staying?" I asked the first person I could get to once they all started chattering again.
"What are you on about? The last of the women in department twenty one left two years ago. You are the sole exception." Why am I always the sole exception, there is nothing special about me.
By now everybody had gathered around me in a circle. "So McKenzie, still reckon you're the best fighter like you used to be." Somebody asked.
"I'm sorry what was your name again sir?" I asked politely.
"I'm Dean."
"Well then Dean, would you like to challenge me?" There were a chorus of oohs as everybody took three steps backwards giving us some more room. "I'm presuming the old rules apply, no shoes, no shirt?" I asked already kicking my shoes away.
"You know it." He smiled. "You can leave your top on if you want though."
"Hey rules are rules no matter what your gender." I shrugged pulling my shirt over my head. Fighting between recruits was how we used to entertain ourselves. It used to be our own personal fight club just like the one in the movie and exactly the same rules applied. First rule, you do not talk about fight club. Second rule, you DO NOT talk about fight club. Third rule, if someone says stop, goes limp or taps out, fights over, Fourth rule, only two guys to a fight. Fifth rule, no shoes, no shirt. Sixth rule, fights will go on as long as they have to. In the film there's a seventh rule, if it's your first night then you have to fight, but that rule doesn't apply to us. Fight Club was how recruits ended up in such a bad state as they usually did, not because of operations like they always tell boss man, but because we get bored in the barracks and fight club sounded like a good idea. It was when I was here last so I'm guessing it still will be now.
We both got into good fighting stances circling each other for a moment, both waiting for the other to make the first move before I finally took a swing at his jaw. It missed by about half an inch as he stepped back swinging his arm around to hit me but I ducked so he punched nothing but the air above my head. Instead of standing straight back up I stayed low down bringing my leg around the back of his and swiping them out from underneath him. He landed on the concrete floor with a heavy thud and I immediately moved to straddle his waist so he couldn't get back up. "I could get used to this." He smirked before flipping us over and kneeing me in the ribs. "But I think I prefer this position."
"I wouldn't get used to it." I flipped us back over punching him square in the jaw and it started bruising straight away. I then put all of my pressure onto my right knee which was resting on top of his hand. Once again he tried to flip the positions, trying to gain some sort of control or advantage, but all that happened was I stood up letting him roll over onto his stomach doing half of the work for me. I then grabbed his hand pushing it up between his shoulder blades holding it there. "Give up?" I asked seeing him writhing in pain.
"No." He gritted out so I pushed his hand even further up and he eventually tapped out. "Jesus I feel sorry for anyone who gets on your bad side." He chuckled rubbing his now sore shoulder,
"You started it." I teased. "So you all kept fight club up and running while I was away." I took a seat on the nearest bunk sitting next to the man who recognised me when I first walked in.
"We tried. It was never as fun without you but it gave us something to do." A voice came from somewhere to my left and when I turned to see who it was, somebody on my right started to speak instead.
"You started the entire fight club thing before some of us were even recruits. You were like thirteen and started your own fight club."
"What can I say the movie was great? Besides there ain't a whole lot to do when we're confined to the barracks is there." Everyone chuckled and murmured there agreements. "Right who's Daniel Lowes?"
"That would be the person sitting next to you." He chuckled.
"Oh, well nice to meet you Daniel, I'm heading to bed." I pulled myself into the top bunk since no bunks had any ladders. I lay my head on the pillow and stared at the ceiling listening to the conversation going on in the room around me and next thing I knew I was being woken up.
"Okay everyone it 0530 time to get up and ready." Somebody shouted loudly making sure to wake everybody up. It was like we had all had some kind of button pushed inside of us because we all jumped out of our bunks and everything turned to organised chaos as we all got ready for breakfast. I didn't have to do anything since I wasn't expecting to stay and didn't have a change of clothes with me, so instead I just sat and watched everybody else. It took twenty minutes before everybody else had left and I was last to make my way to the mess hall. This morning we were being served bacon, sausage and egg sandwiches we which all greedily threw down our necks. "So McKenzie, why did you come back?" Daniel asked me as I drank some water.
"I don't know. I wasn't planning on staying but now it looks like I don't get a choice." I shrugged going back to my food.
"You're a big part of this department you know. Almost everybody knows who you are and they've been trying to track you down for years now so they could recruit you. You're the best we've ever had." I was about to reply when Boss Man stood up on one of the tables to make an announcement and once again everybody went silent. "This morning I would like to formally welcome back Miss McKenzie Taylor." Everybody erupted into cheers and clapping and I smiled around at them all before we returned our attention back to Boss Man. "As you can see Miss Taylor we are delighted to have you back. Anyways I know some of you are out on ops today but anybody who is not must report to a PT session as a given time. Those times will be; barracks one at 0900, barracks two at 1200, barracks three at 1500 and barracks four at 1800. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir." Everybody barked back in unison, it felt like I was back in the marines.
"Good. Now everybody clean up and move out." He jumped down before leaving us to get on with what we had to do. I knew as soon as I laid eyes on him that he wasn't one to help out, he didn't look lilt the type to get his hands dirty. It took an hour to get the mess hall ship shape and ready for when we came back for lunch before we could leave and go back to our barracks.
There were four barracks, one for each of the six hour shifts we completed. It worked on a rotor and at the moment it was barrack one on the midnight to 0600 shifts, barracks three from 0600 to 1200, barracks four from 1200 to 1800 and barracks two from 1800 to midnight. The shifts would be the same for four weeks before being changed again and applied to everybody who wasn't out on an op. A normal shift usually consisted of kitchen duties, planning, PT sessions, weapons training and stuff like that. I was on the 1200 to 1800 shift and my scheduled PT session was at 1800. It was unused to have PT sessions outside of your shift but every now and then they like to throw a spanner in the works to keep everybody on their toes, I remember last time they decided to do that they had everybody up on a twenty four hour shift training exercise saying that there was an intruder somewhere in the department building. We had to go into lock down until we found the said intruder before finally being allowed to go back to our normal shifts. That was the last day I spent within the department. On my way out of the mess hall and back to my barracks I was stopped at the door by one of the men I saw yesterday in the operations room, I think he was in barracks two, and pulled over to the side. "Miss Taylor you must report to Mr Ramshaw's office immediately." I nodded my head before running to HC knocking before entering. "Ah Miss Taylor, I was wondering when you would get here."
"Sorry sir I was helping the other recruits clean the mess hall." I apologised taking a seat at the table, the folder from yesterday already laid out and staring me directly in the face. "Operation Curahee?" I asked waiting for him to tell me more.
"Before I tell you anything else I need to know whether you're going to go ahead with it or not."
"I will." I nodded and he opened the folder pulling out some photos. They were of a university in America that I recognised but couldn't think of a name for.
"There is a person somewhere within MIT that is currently trying to hack into the pentagon systems. We need you and one other recruit of your choice to fly over there tonight and pose as students to find out who it is and stop them. We thought that we had shut them down long ago but they had just been waiting in the shadows, now we need you to take them out, permanently."
"Yes sir, not a problem." The operation itself didn't sound too bad. It was a pretty simple and straight forward plan with very little room for mistakes.
"The operation was named Curahee for a reason Miss Taylor. Once you and you're chosen recruit leave the department 21 building you are completely on your own until the op is finished and you arrive back here. If this person finds out whom you are and what you are up to you will be there next T104. Is that understood?" T104 meant they would kill me on sight, no matter where and no matter when. If they knew who I was and what I was up to then I'll be as good as dead within minutes.
"Yes sir."
"You have twelve hours to choose a recruit and then you can both meet me here for a briefing and will then be on your..."
"Daniel Lowes." I interrupted. "I want to take Daniel Lowes."
"If you wish. Just remember that there will only be us three that know about this entire operation. It ended badly once before because too many people knew about it, I can guarantee I won't be making that mistake a second time around." I was already half way out of the door by this point when he called me back. "Your standard uniform is on your bed along with PT kit, a 9mm parabellum, knife and any other equipment you might need. Don't forget that the briefing will be at 1900." I nodded quickly before heading back to my barracks to get Daniel. I don't know what made me pick him but I knew it was the right decision.