Waking the Dreamer by K. Aten

Author:K. Aten [Aten, K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

The Rise of Us

“HOW DOES IT feel?” Ryan had tried unsuccessfully to surprise me as he walked up but after a month and a half of training with Niko, I felt him approach in my head. Just as I promised her, my request for a trainee was approved with no issues, only shock. Ryan immediately asked if we were lovers and I couldn’t help blushing, which of course answered for me. I’d known him for a long time but he never really knew me. He gave me a strange smile and made a grand show of welcoming on the first day I started training at the facility with her. The in-facility training wasn’t anything Niko couldn’t handle. We used the strengthening equipment and I learned more defensive and offensive techniques from my trainee than she did from me, which seemed incongruous with my position.

Ryan was still looking at me expectantly and I returned his look with the slightest smile curving my lips. He was referring to the completion of Niko’s internship. It was the first time I’d ever trained a courier so he was naturally curious. “It feels fine. She was an excellent student, very capable and intelligent.” Out in the field was where I did most of my teaching and that was where I based my opinions on Niko’s performance. To facilitate with her training I was given a variety of jobs that would take us to every Vanguard facility within a hundred mile radius of Chicago. We practiced different routes to all of them. She memorized both the delivery and security protocols and met all the researchers who would receive the data or prototype tubes. To say that the people at the satellite facilities were surprised to see me turn up with a trainee would have been an understatement. But Niko met each challenge with enthusiasm and grace. She had more than her fair share of confidence and charisma as she joked or just socialized with every new associate we met. We were very different people and she mentioned it more than once.

My thoughts were brought up short again as Ryan spoke. His voice was full of good- natured curiosity and I had to fight that familiar urge to shut down and close him out. Niko wasn’t the only one learning over the past month and a half. “What will she do now? I hear there are a few veterans who have already put in a request to have her join their team.” Ryan was a gossip and he often kept me informed of upcoming jobs and hot item information at Vanguard headquarters, the courier division in particular. And he never seemed to mind that the information only ever flowed one way. By keeping mostly to myself, I rarely had any news of interest so the point was usually moot. But I let my smile widen as he stood staring at me. His eyebrows went up in astonishment. “You?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Of course, I should have known. You’ve certainly changed, Jules.

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