Chapter 35 The Successful Applicant

Jin jumped the sweep.

Bae turned the staff upright beneath him.

The padded end caught his stomach before his feet returned to the floor. Air burst out of him. He landed on his backside and slid through the sand.

“One minute of talking,” Bae said. “Two minutes left.”

Jin drew a breath that tasted of dust.

“Your interview performance has deteriorated.”

Bae came after him.

Jin rolled. The staff thumped the mat beside his ear, came up beneath his forearm and levered him sideways when he tried to catch it. The instructor wasn't swinging harder at random. Each reversal put the other end somewhere Jin wanted to move.

Theo glided past them toward the dummy.

Bae pivoted, driving the lower end across his path.

Theo stopped short. Sand sprayed from his heels.

“Rude,” he said.

“Slow,” Bae answered.

Min-jae went for the release handle.

The staff tapped his padded shoulder before his fingers reached it.

He recoiled. Bae had barely looked at him.

Jin got up.

His new strength had made the dummy's frame look light. Bae still looked like someone he should avoid borrowing money from.

“Together,” Jin said.

“Really?” Theo said. “I was enjoying our three separate funerals.”

Jin walked back to the blue line, putting himself at the start of the route he'd recorded.

Bae noticed.

His foot settled across its last stride.

Jin looked at the boot. The instructor smiled.

“Oh, you little—”

“Less advertising.”

Jin rushed him without activating the route.

The staff met his borrowed practice baton with a crack that stung his palms. He gave ground, then another step, drawing Bae away from the frame.

Min-jae reached the handle.

It moved halfway and stuck.

“The dummy's twisted!”

“Lift it,” Theo said, catching its belt with his good hand.

It was heavier than he'd expected. His knees bent; the sling shifted against his chest.

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Bae turned.

Jin hit the staff's middle with his baton.

The blow drove it an inch off line. Bae stepped around him and used his shoulder to shove Jin clear.

No flourish. Just a man who knew where to put his weight.

Jin had expected to impress the old D-rank. At the moment, he would have settled for breathing through both nostrils.

Jin stumbled into the frame.

Above him, the dummy swung away from Theo's grasp.

Min-jae let go of the handle and caught its boots.

His whole body sagged.

“Now!”

Theo pulled the release.

The latch clacked open. Dummy and Min-jae crashed down together, the boy landing on his padded knees with the stuffed man across his shoulders.

The applicants on the bench made a collective noise.

Min-jae tried to stand. Failed.

Tried again.

Bae put his staff across the path to the blue line.

Jin had a clear view of the red strip at his belt.

One quick lunge might get it.

Behind the staff, Min-jae's right knee began to slide. Theo couldn't lift the dummy and keep his friend upright with one hand.

Jin went past the strip.

He took the dummy's upper body instead.

Bae's staff struck across his back padding. His knees dipped. He kept hold.

“That's a hit,” Bae said.

“Invoice me.”

Jin and Min-jae hauled the dummy toward the line. Theo walked backward ahead of them, watching the instructor.

Bae circled for the opening.

Jin took two ordinary backward strides along the mat's firm edge and set a new route. His elbow brushed Theo's good arm.

“Two steps,” he said.

Theo looked down at his feet.

Then he looked at Bae's belt.

“Oh, that's disgusting.”

“Thank you.”

Min-jae heaved the dummy's legs over the line.

Bae struck at Jin's upper arm.

Jin dropped his end of the dummy beyond the blue paint and went back to the first mark.

Bae followed.

The first stride carried Jin into the staff's reach. Bae shortened his grip, ready to hook him backward.

Theo glided across the instructor's other side.

Bae turned his hips to keep them both in view.

The red strip swung outward.

Jin activated Braced Waypoint.

Two fast backward steps. His feet followed the ground he'd just walked. At the arrival, his planted leg held for one heartbeat while his torso twisted away from the descending padded end.

He caught cloth.

The staff clipped his shoulder instead of his head.

He let the brace go and fell across the line, the strip clenched in his fist.

“Time,” Yu-ra said.

Silence.

Min-jae lay beside the dummy, breathing into its fabric neck.

Theo inspected Jin's prize.

“Does the job include laundering his belt?”

Bae held out his hand.

Jin raised the strip.

“I meant the baton.”

“Oh.”

“I also want my strip back.”

The bench erupted.

Bae's mouth twitched. He turned to the laughing applicants.

“You're next. He just showed you the route. Try watching something besides his mouth.”

Jin sat up.

Yu-ra offered her hand. He took it, feeling the easy strength with which she pulled him to his feet.

“You went back for him,” she said.

“He was under an extremely ugly man.”

Min-jae raised one trembling hand from beneath the dummy.

“I'm still here.”

Yu-ra squeezed Jin's fingers before letting go.

“Tuesday. Rear extraction. You're in.”

Bae glanced toward her.

“Show him why you asked me to test that.”

She took out her phone.

The tunnel footage lasted six seconds.

An armored hunter ran toward the camera. Something passed across the light behind him.

The armor kept running.

There was nobody inside it.