"That's the only reason?"
"It was the main reason. I wanted to serve my country."
"You have combat experience," Elizabeth said. "What we do isn't like what you're used to but there are times when that experience is going to come in handy. If you make the team, you'll find that out."
"If?" Ramirez said.
"Oh, I'm sorry, did you think your assignment here was permanent? That's only if you get through our evaluation. You're on temporary duty until further notice. Stephanie will get you set up in quarters downstairs so you don't have to leave the area. She'll take retinal scans and prints and enter you into the security system. Nick is team leader and your commander in the field. He's in charge of your training."
Nick said, "After you get settled in, we'll begin with a full workout this afternoon. Tomorrow we'll see how you do in hand-to-hand combat. Selena will be in charge of that."
Ramirez looked at Selena. She gave him a sweet expression.
"Are you serious? That's not exactly fair. I was battalion champion in hand-to-hand."
"Then maybe you can show me some moves," Selena said.
"Sure. I'll go easy on you."
Ronnie looked down at his feet and tried not to laugh.
CHAPTER 4
Early the next morning Nick took the team and Ramirez for a run around the property. If Ramirez was surprised by the pace Nick set or by Selena's easy ability to keep it up, he didn't show it. Nick put on a sudden spurt at the end. Selena sprinted past Ramirez until she came even with Nick. They reached the house together, Ronnie and Ramirez close behind.
They went down to the lower level under the house and into the workout room.
"Five minutes," Nick said. "There's water in that refrigerator, Sergeant."
He walked over to Selena. "Give him the works," he said. "Don't hurt him."
"I'll try not to but sometimes people get overenthusiastic."
"Just don't do any permanent damage."
A few minutes later Selena and Ramirez stood on opposite sides of a large mat. Elizabeth and Stephanie had come into the room to watch. They took seats by the wall.
"Okay," Nick said. "Sergeant, I want you to try and take Selena down. Selena, don't let him. No lethal blows. Aside from that, no rules."
Ramirez looked at him. "She could get hurt," he said.
"That's her problem. Don't hold back. Ready?"
They both nodded.
"Begin."
Selena waited to see if Ramirez would bow. He nodded but he didn't bow. They both advanced to the middle of the mat. Ramirez attacked with a combination kick and elbow strike. He was fast, but Selena wasn't where the blows were supposed to land. She swept his leg aside, blocked his strike and landed a kick to his hip that staggered him to the edge of the mat.
He came back and tried a high kick to her head. She moved. His foot swept harmlessly past her face. She grabbed his leg as it went by, stepped to the side and used his momentum to flip him onto his back. Ramirez landed hard and grunted. He bounced up and began circling. There was a new awareness in his eyes as he watched her. His face was getting red.
The next minutes repeated what had gone before. Each time Ramirez attacked, Selena blocked or avoided his strikes and threw him to the mat. He barely touched her with all his attempts. After the last fall, Ramirez got up and looked at her with something different in his expression.
Selena saw that he was losing discipline and meant to teach her a lesson. She decided to end it. He came in and faked a kick, followed by a strike to a nerve center under the collar bone. If it had landed, the fight would have been over and Selena would have been hurt. She leaned back with smooth motion born of more than twenty years of practice. As the strike went by she pivoted and grabbed his right arm. She pulled it down and behind and up at the same time, turning the arm at an odd angle.
Ramirez yelled out in pain. He went to his knees.
"Don't move," Selena said. "If you move, your shoulder will dislocate. The tendons will tear. You don't want that. Have you had enough?"
Ramirez gritted his teeth and tensed.
"I mean it. Don't move."
"Enough," he said.
Selena released the lock, stepped away and bowed.
"Damn it," Ramirez said. He gripped his shoulder.
"Hurts, doesn't it?" Selena said.
Ramirez stood up, rubbing his shoulder. He looked at Selena. Then he bowed. She inclined her head.
"Good," Nick said. "What did you do wrong, Sergeant?"
Ramirez thought. He looked down at his feet, then looked up again.
"I got angry. I wanted to teach her a lesson."
"That's the first thing. Anger clouds your judgement. You can't let it take over. What else?"
"I underestimated her."
"That's right. Why did you do that?"
"I never thought any woman could beat me."
"Now you know they can. It's not just weapons that make women dangerous. Sometimes we go places where the women are worse than the men. You'd better remember it. You should know that, you were in Afghanistan."
Ramirez had the grace to look embarrassed. "I won't forget."
"For what it's worth, you never had a chance," Nick said. "Selena can beat any one of us. Probably anyone you've ever met, including your instructors. She's thrown me down on that mat so many times I can't even remember. But you can learn from her, if you're willing to."
"Copy that," Ramirez said. "What's next?"
"I'll give you an hour to ice that shoulder and let it calm down. There's some aspirin in the bathroom cabinet if you want it. Then we hit the range," Nick said. "Then the urban combat course in the building across the lot."
At the end of the day, Nick stopped by Elizabeth's office on the way out.
"How's the new guy doing?" she asked.
"Not bad. He can shoot, no doubt about that. He was kind of embarrassed about what happened with Selena."
Elizabeth smiled. "See you at the briefing tomorrow morning."
After Nick left the room she leaned back in her chair, thinking about Ramirez. She hoped he would work out. She was fortunate she hadn't needed to break in someone new before now. Over the years there had been plenty of injuries, plenty of close calls for everyone, herself included.
For Elizabeth, the Project team was her family. She'd been married, once. Before the president tapped her to head up the Project she'd worked in the Justice Department. She'd thought she'd found the perfect partner in a coworker who became her husband. That ended when he chose political advancement and a wealthy socialite lover over her.
Elizabeth had given up on the idea that she'd find someone to share her life with. There would be no family in the traditional sense of the word. Nick, Selena, Stephanie and the others had become her family. Now there was a new addition with Ramirez.
I could do worse, she thought.
CHAPTER 5
Nick lifted the lid from a pan simmering on the stove. He stirred, inhaling the spicy odor of the food. He looked out the kitchen window at the setting sun, dark red in the humid, smog filled air over the Potomac. Inside the loft it was cool, pleasant. Miles Davis played in the background.
"A few more minutes," he said.
Selena stood at a kitchen island nearby, putting the finishing touches on a salad.
"It smells good," she said. "Like that Indian restaurant on Dupont Circle."
"Chicken marsala. It's supposed to smell like that."
"I'm sorry I had to do that today," Selena said. "I didn't want to humiliate him. He was getting angry. When people get angry they make mistakes. I thought it was time to stop it before one of us got hurt."
"You did the right thing. He's young and he still has a lot to learn."
"He's twenty-seven."