Gifted Connections 4

“We need to evolve our training plan just as our adversary continually develops theirs,” Kirk Ford stated as he mounted the steps in front of the room. “Today’s objective is simple, score the most, find the hostages, and get them out safely.”

This place never ceased to amaze me. Every time I thought I was becoming familiar with it, I found out I was wrong once again. I was aware that the

re were tunnels that led to the adjacent mountain. I hadn’t known that Paul—or Will, for that matter—had been developing it.

Right now, we stood in a room that was larger than the simulation arena, but the similarities were there. Our training group was assembled in front of what looked like standard walls, but even from our angle, we could see that the walls had no roofs. I looked up and noticed that they had a viewing area, lined along the outside, shaped in a U above us. In fact, it was similar to the training arena at Knightstown.

“There are several rooms behind that door,” Kirk pointed towards the double doors behind him. “There are trainers and other teams in there. Today you are on the offense. The scoring is simple.” He pointed to a large screen mounted on the wall behind us. “You have thirty minutes to rescue your people. How quick you do it determines the points you will receive. Not getting injured gives you points. Creativity also earns you points.

“Your teams have already been predetermined. Each team is comprised of gifted and ungifted alike.” He pointed to the screen once more. “We will be giving you each a packet with as much intel as we have, along with who your captives are. Choose a team lead just as you would in the field. Come up with a game plan. You will be given your intel, and I’ll provide you with twenty minutes to study it. The teams are posted on the screen along with the order you will be going in.

“Please don’t take this lightly. There will be healers and doctors on standby.” He held his hand up towards the viewing areas. “The gifted will be using their gifts, and the nongifted will have these.” He held up a gun that looked like one used for laser tag. “Everyone will slip on their vest, and much like laser tag, if you are hit, your vest would light up. But here, if you light up, you’re dead. Good luck!” he yelled gleefully.

I wish I had a gun at my disposable. I always wanted to play laser tag. I would have to ask the guys if they had played before.

“Great, a healer,” Noah groaned, bringing me out of my reflections. “I was hoping for a little action.”

I looked up at the screen and noticed our faces were on display and grouped together. As I looked for my picture, I heard some echoing groans around me, but I couldn’t tell if it was because they didn’t like their teams or didn’t want their assignments. I continued searching for my face and smiled.

It looked like they had put us in teams of ten with a techie. On my crew was Lincoln, Remy, Jace, Troy, Drake, Jaxson, two Non-guys, and a Non-woman I had never trained with. Our techie was Darren, which pleased us all.

“Aww man they’re stacking the deck,” Terrance said in a feigned disgruntled voice.

“Whatever,” Remy said with a satisfied grin. “You have Gavin, Sierra, and Jemmy. You guys will be alright.”

I looked up at the board and noticed they had Marcel, Dawn, and Ford (Rayce) on their team. I believed they were a formidable team as well.

“It was a stacked deck before, not so much now,” Marcel laughed. “It took them over two hours to clear the simulations last week.”

The rumors hadn’t circulated yet, and I hadn’t seen them at lunch since Jaxson and I had skipped. Other than my immediate family and Rachel, no one knew we had our gifts back. They had been part of the team in search of looking for Lincoln and me last night, but they could only speculate what we had been doing. No one really expected me to make the connection with Lincoln so fast. Hell, I hadn’t.

“Eff me,” Gavin cursed under his breath before he nearly tackled me and drew me in close. “They’re back and stronger than ever,” he looked over his shoulder at Marcel.

I looked over Gavin’s shoulder as he embraced me and noticed Jemmy. She was still avoiding me, and I still had no clue what to do. She had been late to class this morning. She sat away from us, keeping to herself. And for the first time in a long time, she was sans makeup.

Rachel had confided in me that Jemmy had her first appointment with Dr. Wong yesterday, but she was uncertain how it went. She said Jemmy was avoiding her and Dawn as well. Part of me felt like I needed to talk to Jemmy and the other part of me felt like I should wait for her to come to me.

“Dammit,” Marcel cursed. “I guess we have to work harder.”

“Guess you do,” Jaxson said with a smug smile. “Although, even your hardest won’t be enough.”

We were given a room twenty minutes before our turn. So far, three other teams had gone before us, and all but one of them were able to successfully complete the mission. It came as no surprise that Adams’ side had failed to achieve their objective. Mike, Adams, and one of her friends had caused their team to fail.

She had been teamed up with Ben, Rick, Mike, Taylor, Georgia, Texas, a person from the SC team that I had yet to meet, plus Adams’ friends. Ben had been the team lead, but Mike and Adams had gone against his wishes and got them caught in a trap.

We weren’t able to see the other teams in action, but we knew each team was given different obstacles. The captives were also moved in each scenario. I’m sure some similarities were inevitable, but they really tried to shake things up for each group. Not that we were sharing notes or anything.

“Here are the hostages,” Darren stated as he displayed their pictures on the screen in our room.

Each of us had a folder sitting in front of us. Darren also had it displayed on the screen in the front of the room.

I studied each one of the hostages’ faces. There was six of them in total. Three men and three women.

“This is the blueprint of the building,” Darren commented before another image was put up.

“Wow,” Drake stepped forward to get a better look at the plans. “They’re pretty detailed.”

“Check this out,” Darren said excitedly as he clicked on one of the rooms. “It’s like we can take a virtual tour.”