A month passed, while we were tucked away in the mansion. Despite my initial reservations, everything had settled down to a humdrum routine that had the voices in my head screaming with outrage. I had chased adventure riddled with danger only to end up in a baby carrier strapped with a safety harness. We spent that time fucking, eating, training and when time allowed getting to know each other. The getting to know one another was purely because we had been trapped in a confined space which left us no choise but to talk to each other.
I wish I could say that the other members of the unit were just as welcoming as Monica had been, they were not. I had expected them to closed up and distant even hostile towards me none of which they tried. They were not full on attacking me but I caught a flash of annoyance everytime I tried to talk to them. They clearly did not want me up in their personal space so I made it my mission to move in their. Outright annoyance turned into painful indulgence and it ended up as a general disregard. They no longer looked like they wanted to kill me mostly because they had learnt to look away from me.
Ruben was their leader, he was a decisive man, who had a commanding presence and a knack for this rooting weaknesses out of someone. He was in charge of the memebers well being as well headed every mission. He was a control freak with a deep hatred for excuses. He expected the very best from his members and he ensured he got it. He was the one who had trained me and for the first two weeks. Each and every single time I left the training room sore and in tears. I had always thought of myself as an active person. I exercised daily and even took boxing and taekwondo classes. Ruben extinguished any sense of false hope i harbored about being naturally good in combat. By the third week I had run out of tears and mainly focused on crawling out of the training room. The forth week I managed to remain upright for the whole of one minute. A vast improvement from the previous sessions. His experience as an army general was evident in the way he carried out himself and in the way he interacted with the rest of the members. He did not talk much but his glare could make a man's blood run cold.
Gerald was the second in command. He was a quiet man who kept mostly to himself. He was also the brains if the operation. He came up with engagement plans and charted out the plan of action for each mission. He was an army brat with an IQ of 168. He was all round technological enthusiast, with a knack for finding patterns even in the most random of occurrences. He excelled in all things except human interactions that required empathy of any kind from him. He had an incredible build, and I may have caught myself staring at him with blurry vision from my tears mixed with sweat. He was the only one who was at par with Ruben in terms of fighting. He was also my favorite, the introvert in me admiring his staunch antisocial nature.
Chris was in charge of arms aquistion. Her bedroom wall was filled with enough firearm to equip a small army. According to Monica, Chris's family were firearms manufacturer and as such she began handling fire arms at a young age. She joined the army and made a name for a herself as sniper. I had only been in her room once and the look she gave me cautioned me from attempting any further exploration. Other than the elaborate emotional walls she had built around herself and her dislike of people with no respect for boundaries, she was a hoot. She was quick to laugh and was constantly teasing the rest of the members. She was also a very attractive woman who took great care of her appearance.
Lucy was in charge of recon and good old fashioned detective work. If anyone or anything needed to be found she was the guy. Lucy was a special agent who had done stints as an FBI agent, a CIA agent and a member of the secret service. She had a cute face with a complimentary bubbly personality, that charmed her victims into a false sense of security. She had proudly declared when we first introduced ourselves that she had the highest kill rate among all the numbers. It wasn't what she said, although the statement in itself was too scary to even contemplate, it was the bright smile she wore when she said although it. The rest of them were pretty easy going but could not even come a yard close to Lucy peppiness. She was an army protege who had taken to war like a fish to water. She was a legacy who had followed the footsteps of four generations behind, that had seen both women and men enroll in the army. She had been the pride and joy of her family taking her family to new heights and her decision to veer off the straight and narrow road had been met with disbelief and disowning. Lucy had not faltered as she described how her family had thrown her rout and had erased every trace of her existence declaring her dead to the public. She said it with a big smile on her face, judging from her family's reaction to her rebellion, no one in her family was sane. She scared me the most.
Eugene was youngest in the group. At twenty five he had already been involved in three hundred heists all over the world and had yet to be caught. If John Dillinger and Houdini had a baby then Eugene was it. He was a master thief whose main MO was carrying out several robberies remotely within a fixed timeline. He would not stop gushing about his biggest loot. Him had his team had carried out twenty bank robberies in a ten kilometer radius. The entire process from gaining entry to escape had taken a total of five be hours. When I probbed further about the details, he clammed up and when I asked about his teammates he changed the topic. All he divulged was the he was the leader of the greatest gang of thieves that ever lived, his words not mine. He was in charge of retrieving anything that required stealing.
Monica had done three tours in Afghanistan and two in Iraq. She had spent a good amount of her life in the army, in the deep bowels of the hell that came with the job. She had shown great promise when she first joined and had risen through the ranks in no time. Her role as a team leader and her persistence in ensuring that every single member of her team made it home had earned her several medals and she had become a bit of a trophy for both her comrades and those in authority. Her experience earned her a promotion which she had declined in favor of the field. She was in charge of keeping everyone safe in the field. Every plan of action was run by her and every detail had to be approved by her. Her popularity was only limited to those who were on her side. To everyone else she was monster whom several people would pay for a chance to put down. She had the second highest kill rate after Lucy. I, however, found that hard believe. When I looked at her all I saw was the woman who held my happiness in her hands, that I would have previously described as dainty, but not anymore.
After a month of laying low, they left me in the house all on my own. They were heading to a top secret mission. The details concerning the mission were on a need to know basis and Lucy kindly reminded me that I did not need to know. They were gone for two weeks with no form of communication, leaving me to bring the my nails as my mind and sense of security slowly unraveled. Had they know the events that would later unfold they would have thrown me in the cargo hold just to bring me with them.