Something in Rachel’s voice made the others stop and look up.
At one end of the room, a group of younger students clustered by the door, watching them with wide eyes.
Slowly, they all noticed what was happening and stopped fighting. As a group they turned to face the new recruits.
‘What’s wrong with them?’ Zoe squinted at the younger students critically. ‘Why are they just standing there?’
‘I think you’re scaring them,’ Katie said. She waved cheerily. ‘Come in, little ones, come in. Welcome to Hell. Don’t be afraid.’
‘Oh great, Katie,’ Rachel said. ‘Scare them more.’
‘What’s going on here?’ Zelazny pushed his way through the crowd of new trainees. ‘Move along. Move along. Stop crowding the doorway. They don’t bite. Spread out.’
With obvious reluctance, the youths moved a step or two further into the room where they clustered together, surveying this new world with suspicion. Most were twelve to fourteen years old, but a few were younger.
Allie found herself staring at them. They looked so small.
Eloise arrived a few seconds later, with Raj and a troupe of his guards. More teachers poured in, too.
Allie and the senior students stood at the back of the room, arms crossed, surveying the increasingly crowded space as Zelazny and the other instructors took their place at the centre of the room.
The history teacher was in his element.
‘Good to see the advanced students here early,’ he said, with a nod to Allie’s group. ‘And welcome to the new trainees. You’ll find we work very hard here. We will ask much of you, but we will also teach you how to keep yourselves safe. And to fight back.’
He walked the length of the room, studying the new students, who watched him warily.
‘I think we should start by showing you what the senior students can do.’
Crossing the room to where Allie stood next to Nicole, he spoke quietly. ‘The move you were working on last week – the spin and escape. Do that again but slowly, so they can see how it works.’
They went through the steps with ease; Nicole performed the kick while Allie blocked the blows, catching her foot as it neared her face and twisting it, a move Nicole parried with a forearm to Allie’s throat.
The new students looked impressed and terrified in equal measure.
The other senior students applauded sardonically.
‘Now’ Zelazny had turned back to the new students. ‘We’re not starting with something as complicated as that. I think first we must work on your conditioning. We will start, as they say, at the beginning.’
For the next hour, Eloise and Zelazny worked the new students through stretches and sit-ups, while Raj and his guards took the senior students through a complex krav maga and martial arts moves.
Allie was glad to be moving. She was stiff from the fight in the park but her muscles wanted to move.
After a while, she and Nicole stopped to rest, leaning against a wall side by side. A short distance away, Rachel and Katie were trying out a basic spinning kick. While Rachel struggled a bit, the redhead performed the move with easy grace – leaping through the air and landing on her feet with the lightness of a cat.
Nicole and Allie exchanged a surprised look.
‘What the hell?’ Allie murmured.
As they watched, Katie executed the move again, just as perfectly the second time.
A smile of understanding flickered across Nicole’s even features.
‘Of course. I forgot she studied dance,’ she said, her French accent gilding each word. ‘She’ll be a natural at this.’
A short distance away, Zoe and Lucas were speed-fighting – doing the same moves the others had been doing, but much faster. Allie knew they were trying to see how quickly they could do it without missing a step or hospitalising each other.
Raj walked up behind her with soundless steps. ‘I was going to stop them,’ he said. ‘But they’re having too much fun.’
Allie’s gaze searched his face. ‘Anything new from Dom? About Carter?’
‘Not yet. But she’s working on it.’
At that moment, Zelazny clapped his hands to get their attention. His voice boomed across the room: ‘Three mile run. Lucas and Zoe.’ He turned to where the two had stopped mid-fight, fists still raised. ‘Guide the junior students. Don’t,’ he added sharply, ‘lose any of them.’
Zoe dashed for the door. Lucas gave Allie a grin as he sped by.
‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I won’t let her hurt them.’
‘I hope Zelazny knows what he’s doing.’ Allie turned back to Raj, but he’d already gone.
Nicole was gone too. She was over talking to Rachel, whose expression brightened instantly as Nicole whispered something to her.
Seeing the two of them together sent a sharp stab of loneliness through Allie. They were so close now – always together. She and Rachel were close too, of course, but… not like that.