Two weeks
later Ward was pretty sure that all the promises his handler had made were
possible. His tent-mate and now his
friend, Bobby, had been as driven as he was and they had taken their training
into their own hands even during the their few precious hours of recoup time
daily. It wasn’t above-board but they
had gotten good at reading each other’s emotions and predicting each other’s
movements. It was, if one would excuse
the pun, mind blowing, what they had achieved.
If all this could be accomplished in two weeks then it was hard to
imagine what the full two months would bring.
Ward had noticed though that not all the candidates were having the same
success. Most seemed to be progressing
as expected, but there were a couple that he knew had been put on a watch
list. This new week was going to bring
new challenges. Not only were they
honing their empathic reading skills they had been trained in, not something
that would be hard for Ward as he hadn’t waited to do that, they were focusing
on mediation techniques to rest and rebuild the mind.
Ward woke at dawn already sweating as the heat had
reached an uncomfortable temperature.
Throwing his pillow at Bobby he yelled for him to get up as Ward moved
for the door and flung the flaps open.
There out on the edge of the camp sat one of the men he had rode in
with, Jack. They had spoken a few times
and he was one of the men on the watch list.
He had his back to the camp and their seemed to be a small stream of
smoke drifting off above him. As smoking
and drinking were taboo this made Ward even more curious. As he walked toward him he tried to get a
read on his feelings. If they were going
to train you to do this they had to expect you would use the skills. Jack seemed at peace, calm in a way that Ward
had never felt. Ward was about to doubt
his read when Jack spoke.
“Come and sit and join me, it will help you get
through today.” The idea that the people
here knew you were there before they could see you was becoming more normal for
Ward, so he sat. He saw that the smoke
emanated from a small fire pit Jack had made on the ground. “Old prayer ritual to my ancestors, tribal
beliefs that my mother taught me. I keep
this one up mostly because it focuses me on what is important.” When Ward didn’t say anything he continued.
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