C-3
Jack Williams didn't sleep the next night.
The adrenaline from the alley fight had faded into a strange, hollow quiet.
He'd replayed the mission in his head so many times that every detail felt sharpened beyond memory — the courier's twitch when handing off the case, the crack of the gunshot, Maya's sudden, perfect violence.
And his own fear.
That part was always the loudest.
By sunrise, the sky had turned a pale, washed-out gold.
Jack stood on the concrete balcony outside Astra's east wing training facility, hands gripping the cold rail. The air carried that sterile government smell — steel, ozone, and old fluorescent lights.
Behind him, the door slid open.
"You're early."
Jack turned.
Maya Rios leaned against the frame, arms crossed, expression unreadable. She looked different out of tactical gear — still dangerous, yes, but calmer. Civilian clothes didn't soften her; they only made the steel more obvious.
"I couldn't sleep," Jack admitted.
"You shouldn't," Maya replied, stepping beside him. "Not after a first mission like that."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"
"No." She rested her elbows on the rail. "It's supposed to make you aware."
Her tone wasn't cruel or harsh — it was simply honest, the way a blade was honest in the hand of someone trained to use it.
"Fieldwork doesn't wait for you to adjust," she continued. "Your mind will race. Your nerves will burn. Everything will feel wrong. That's normal."
Jack studied her profile. Strong jawline, eyes scanning the horizon even when there was nothing there. There was a strange softness in the quiet moment — something she probably didn't allow many to see.
"I didn't freeze because I'm weak," Jack said quietly. "I froze because… I didn't know where to move."
Maya nodded once. "That's fair."
Then she turned her gaze toward him fully.
"There's a difference between fear and paralysis. You didn't run. You didn't hide. You listened. You adapted."
She paused.
"That's why you're still alive."
Jack didn't know why her words mattered so much. But they did.
Before he could respond, the intercom crackled overhead.
"Agent Rios and Analyst Williams — report to Training Bay 2 immediately."
Maya pushed off the railing. "That's us. Come on."
____________________________________
Training Bay 2
Jack had imagined a gym, maybe a firing range.
He was wrong.
The chamber was massive — easily the size of a warehouse — filled with modular walls, holographic projection emitters, and moving platforms.
The floor was marked with sectors: URBAN, INTERCEPT, HOSTAGE, BREACH. It was a war scenario sandbox disguised as a modern training room.
Rafael Rios stood in the center, arms crossed.
"Morning, rookies."
Jack frowned. "Rookies? Maya's not a—"
Maya elbowed him lightly. "He calls everyone that."
Rafael ignored the exchange. "Director Ward wants Williams evaluated for accelerated field-track certification."
Jack blinked. "Field-track? Already?"
"You fought in the alley yesterday," Rafael said. "People with your clearance level don't get to hide behind screens anymore."
Maya added, "If Helix is hunting you… you need to know how to fight back."
Rafael gestured to the far end of the room.
Five drones rose from the floor, humming, their spherical cores glowing a faint blue. Arm-mounted tasers clicked into position.
"These are only set to incapacitate," Rafael said before Jack could panic. "But they hurt like hell."
Jack swallowed.
Rafael held up a small transmitter. "Rule number one: fieldwork doesn't respect fear. Rule number two: Maya is your instructor today."
Jack blinked. "…She is?"
Maya smirked just enough to be unsettling.
"Don't worry. I only break people who annoy me."
Jack wasn't sure if she was joking.
____________________________________
The First Test
"Movement drill," Maya said, stepping back. "Survive sixty seconds."
Jack squared his stance. "Survive? As in—"
The first drone fired.
Jack dove to the floor instinctively, a crack of electric current sizzling above him.
He scrambled behind a crate, heart pounding.
Maya's voice rang out: "Move your feet, Jack! Don't hide — reposition!"
Another drone swooped low. Jack rolled, feeling the shock beam graze his arm.
White pain exploded up his nerves.
"Damn it—!"
Maya didn't stop the drill.
She didn't even flinch.
"You think Helix will give you time to cry?" she called. "Get up!"
Jack forced his legs to obey. He sprinted past a series of modular walls. The drones tracked him relentlessly — chemical whines rising like angry insects.
He jumped over a barricade, slid under another, and nearly collided with Maya, who had silently moved ahead of him.
She caught his arm.
"Breathe. Your mind outruns your body. Slow both down."
Her touch grounded him.
Steady, controlled, calm — the opposite of everything inside him.
The drone fired again. Jack ducked. Maya didn't move. She grabbed the drone mid-dive and slammed it into the ground, disabling it with one fluid motion.
Jack stared.
"How did you—"
"Pattern recognition," she said. "Same thing you're good at. But you use it on data. I use it on people and movement."
The remaining drones converged.
Jack gritted his teeth, stepped forward, and punched one cleanly in the optical sensor just as it fired. Pain shot up his knuckles, but the drone's beam misfired and struck a second drone, disabling it.
Maya's eyebrows rose.
"Good. That's adaptation."
Rafael clicked a timer.
"Time."
The last drone lowered itself harmlessly.
Jack dropped to a sitting position, chest heaving.
Maya crouched in front of him.
"We'll make an operative out of you yet, Williams."
His stomach fluttered in a way he didn't want to analyze.
____________________________________
After the Drill
Jack rinsed off in the locker room sink. His arm throbbed where the shock had grazed him. His knuckles stung. But he felt… awake. Alive. Different.
Rafael approached, tossing him a towel.
"You did fine."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "Fine?"
"For a civilian with one mission," Rafael corrected. "But you're not a civilian anymore."
Jack swallowed. "Then what am I?"
Rafael didn't answer immediately.
Finally he said, "You're something Helix wants dead."
Jack tensed. "…Why? Because of the packet?"
"No." Rafael's voice lowered. "Because of who you are."
Jack frowned. "Who I am? I'm nobody."
Rafael exchanged a glance with Maya, who had walked up silently.
"Not exactly," Maya murmured. "There's something about you Helix recognizes. Something that scares them."
Jack shook his head. "What does that even mean?"
Before either sibling could respond, alarms blared again — shrill, immediate, urgent.
A voice echoed across the training hall:
"Security breach — South Gate Loading Bay. Hostile contact confirmed."
Maya's expression hardened instantly.
"That's Helix."
Rafael grabbed his weapon.
"Jack — stay behind us."
Jack's pulse spiked.
"Is this another drill?"
"No," Maya said coldly. "This is real."
She tossed Jack a sidearm.
Not a training weapon.
A loaded one.
His palms went numb.
"Why give me a gun?" he asked.
"Because if they're here," Maya said, chambering her pistol, "they're not coming for me."
She locked eyes with him.
"They're coming for you."
____________________________________
The First Kill
The South Gate was already a warzone by the time they reached it.
Smoke. Sparks.
Two Astra guards down.
A third firing desperately from behind a supply crate.
A tall, bald man in black tactical gear — Helix, no doubt — advanced on him with an electrified blade humming under the flickering lights.
Rafael fired first.
The Helix soldier whirled, deflecting the shot with the flat of his blade — impossible reflexes.
Enhanced reflexes.
Maya launched forward. "I'll flank him!"
Jack hid behind a pillar, hands shaking around the gun. Rafael engaged the hostile at close range, the two clashing like iron storm against grounded earth. The soldier was fast — too fast — each strike forcing Rafael back.
Maya came from the side, slashing with a combat knife. The Helix soldier twisted, grabbed her wrist, and slammed her into a pillar. She gasped, the air knocked from her lungs.
Jack saw it happen.
He didn't think.
He stepped out from cover.
The soldier turned — blade raised — eyes cold and dead.
Jack barely heard Rafael shout, "Jack, get back!"
He aimed.
Hands trembling.
Breath unsteady.
The Helix soldier rushed him.
Jack fired once.
Missed.
The soldier closed in.
Jack fired again.
Hit shoulder — not enough.
The blade swung —
Jack fired a third time.
The shot struck the man's throat.
The blade clattered.
The soldier collapsed.
Silence.
Jack stared at the body, gun trembling in his hands. The world felt suddenly far away, like he was underwater. His legs went weak.
Rafael grabbed his shoulder.
"Williams. Look at me. Look. At. Me."
Jack forced his gaze away from the dead man.
"You're alive," Rafael said. "That means you did what you had to."
Jack's chest heaved. "I killed him."
Maya walked up slowly, wiping blood from her lip. She looked at Jack — really looked — then nodded once.
"You saved my life," she said softly.
Jack didn't know what to say. His throat tightened painfully.
"You'll remember this moment," Maya continued.
"It's the moment you joined the field. The real field."
Rafael holstered his weapon.
"And the moment Helix officially marked you."
Jack looked between them, breathing ragged.
"What now?"
Maya's eyes were a mix of steel… and unexpected gentleness.
"Now," she said,
"We prepare for the war you were born into."