Code Name: Camelot (Noah Wolf #1)(25)
“I don’t have a clue what it’s supposed to mean,” Noah said. “Didn’t really make any sense, to me. How could I be a superstar, and of what?”
Marco paused in the middle of taking a bite of his own sandwich. “Noah, you do know what we do here, right? Our boys and girls kill people, or sometimes they just make people disappear. Seems like Doc Parker thinks you might be the best one yet.”
Noah ate in silence for a moment, then looked up at Marco again. “So, how did you get here? Were you on death row, too?”
“No, but close,” Marcus said. “Third-time loser in California, got my third strike on a breaking and entering charge. Automatic life in prison, and I was only twenty-four. The dragon lady sent somebody in to make me an offer, a chance to have a life again and put my street skills to work doing something good for my country. All it was gonna cost me was everyone I ever loved, but since I was never getting out again any other way, I decided I had really already lost them, anyhow. So I took the deal.” He took a bite and chewed for a moment, as if he was thinking. “I almost flunked out, the first month. I came within a split second of picking up a phone and calling my mother, just to let her know I didn’t really die in the riot at the prison. I was sitting in an office, another interview, and the guy got up and walked out. He left me alone in there, and there was a phone on his desk. I thought about it for a few seconds, then picked up the phone and started dialing Mom’s number. I got to the last number, and froze up with my finger on the button. Stood there like that for I don’t know how long—then I just hung up the phone. A few minutes later, Mr. Jefferson, there, walked in and told me that if I ever tried that again, I’d be eliminated. It was a test, of course, and I almost failed it.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” Noah said. “You seem like a guy I’d like to have covering my back. Maybe we’ll get to work together someday.”
EIGHT
When lunch was over, Marco drove Noah to the PT field, which was about half a mile from the area where the motel was, which Marco called Alley Town. He introduced Noah to several of the other people there, including the instructor, who was known only as Jackson.
“You gotta watch out for Jackson,” Marco said. “He’s one of the most sadistic SOBs you’ll ever meet, anywhere, bar none.”
Jackson, who was standing right there as Marco made his evaluation, laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s what makes me so good at what I do, Marco,” he said. “If I recall correctly, you were a skinny beanpole when you got here, but look at you now. You can run ten miles in just over an hour, bench three hundred pounds, and climb a fifty-foot rope with nothing but your hands in under thirty seconds. Think maybe my stubbornness and cruelty have paid off a bit?”
Marco grinned. “I never said you weren’t good at what you do, I just said you were a son of a bitch.” He looked at Noah. “If anybody can get you in shape, Jackson can.”
“I enjoy a good workout,” Noah said. “What’s the focus here, on this one? General calisthenics?”
Marco burst out laughing, then turned and walked away, leaving Noah with Jackson and a couple of others who were standing around watching the new guy. Jackson smiled.
“Ever heard of parkour?” Jackson asked, and Noah nodded.
“Yeah,” he said, “that’s the stunts you see on YouTube, right? People running up walls and stuff like that?”
“That’s close enough for the moment,” Jackson said. “Parkour is about moving from point A to point B as quickly as possible, while using any obstacles in your path to increase the efficiency of your travel. It began as Parcours du combattant, which is French for ‘the Path of the Warrior,’ and was originally developed as training for French special forces.” He looked Noah up and down. “A lot of the new ones we get here have had little or no physical training at all, but I can tell that is not the case with you. Ex-military, right?”
Noah nodded again. “Army, Ranger. Some of our obstacle course training is probably similar.”
“Okay, then,” Jackson said, “just bear this in mind. A lot of the stuff you see on YouTube that’s called Parkour really isn’t. It’s not about flips and stunts, it’s about what I said, getting from point A to point B as quickly and efficiently as you can, by using the obstacles in your path as tools to help you reach your objective. I can sum it up really easily, like this. The whole time you’re moving, imagine that you’re being chased by an invisible creature that makes Freddy Krueger look like one of the Care Bears. If it catches you, you’re dead, so it can’t catch you. Got it?”
Noah had a huge grin spread across his face. “I got a feeling this is gonna be fun,” he said. “When do we start?”
“Right now,” Jackson said. “Follow me.” He led Noah toward a building that stood beside the field, a two-story concrete structure that might have been some sort of warehouse, and pointed at it. “There are flags hidden somewhere around that building. They could be inside, outside, on top, out behind the building—they could literally be anywhere.” He motioned to one of the other students who were still following along, a young woman. “This is Angie,” he said. “Angie, show Noah how quickly you can bring me one of those flags.”