The First Lock - 16. Chapter 16

- XVI -

“I still can’t believe he actually hired you,” Mandy said next morning when Katrena was finishing her toast. “What did you do? Thumb wrestled him?”

Katrena laughed and finished her toast.

“No,” she said, gulping her coffee down. “I just demonstrated something.”

“Uh huh,” Mandy nodded. “The same thing you demonstrated to Danny?”

“More or less,” Katrena nodded and glanced at the clock. It read 7:40. “I gotta go,” she said. “Today will be interesting,” she muttered after she put the mug into the sink.

“You need a ride?” Mandy got up.

“No,” Katrena ran her fingers through her hair. “Paul is gonna get me.”

“Okay,” Mandy nodded. “Good luck!”

“Thanks,” Katrena gave her a brief smile and looked outside. “Paul’s here,” she said and grabbed her bag. “I’ll see you later!”

****

“Okay,” Jackie said an hour or so later when Katrena filled out the last paper he handed her. “Some of the guys might come off as rude assholes, but ignore that,” he glanced at her. “Something tells me you know how to handle yourself,” he muttered, and she smiled without saying anything. “How did you and McGregor meet?”

“He was on duty when we brought Kenny in,” she said simply, and he just nodded.

“All right then, let’s go...”

...“Okay, folks,” he said a bit later when they arrived into a medium-sized room with big windows. “This is Katrena Jett, our new special tactics instructor... This is mostly a test-run. We’ll see how things are going, and if everything runs smoothly, she might become a permanent member of the staff...” He looked darkly at several men in the back of the room. “Don’t be fooled by her appearance,” was all he said. “The stage is yours,” he turned towards Katrena. “Have fun,” he added and left the room.

Katrena smiled at probably twenty people in the room and set down her bag.

“As Captain said, my name is Katrena Jett and...”

“Excuse me,” someone said, and she looked up. It was one of the guys Jackie gave the dark look to before he left. “So, just how special exactly those tactics are going to be?” He looked dead-serious. “I mean, will I need Kleenex or some sort of lube?”

She smiled at him as if he just said the most hilarious thing in the world.

“It depends,” she said, ignoring laughter and chuckles. “I don’t know if your ass had been pounded before or not.”

More chuckles; those were in her favor, however.

“If this is your first time, I’ll go easy on you, I promise,” she finished with a slight nod. “Now, before this turns into an ass-jokes competition, I am going to demonstrate something...”

“Hold on,” the same guy said and moved his chair closer. “I want a better view... Go slowly, will you? Demonstrations like this one should be stretched out for as long as possible... The slower the better,” he nodded with the same dead-serious look on his face.

“Okay,” she agreed immediately. “What’s your name?”

“Brent,” he said. “Ma’am...” he added after a second.

“I need a volunteer for this particular demonstration,” she said with a small smile that would send this guy running if he knew Katrena before. “Would you like to...”

“Absolutely,” he nodded energetically and got up.

Katrena glanced around the room. There were mostly men, but she saw three or four women as well. Her lips twitched with a smile when she saw them wear the same slightly amused and sarcastic expressions as the men were showing. Brent stepped closer, his face almost solemn.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked politely. “I guess I could lean against the desk -- it would make it more comfortable.”

“The safeword is going to be ‘Kleenex’,” she said with the same small smile.

“Got it,” he nodded. “Speak up though; I have a tendency to become lost in the moment...”

“Okay, attack me,” she said and he blinked.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Attack me,” she repeated patiently. “I am here to teach you, therefore, you need to see what I am going to teach you about... So, attack me... I promise I will stretch this out for as long as you can handle,” she gave him another smile.

He shook his head. Finally, there was an ‘Okay-I’ll-Play’ look on his face, and he nodded. She watched him from underneath her eyelashes, and when he suddenly lunged at her, clearly aiming for her neck, she ducked at the last second, and then she performed the same move she used on Paul that one time. When Brent was wheezing for a breath, she dug the knuckles of her right hand into a small hollow spot behind his ear, while her left hand sank its fingers in between his shoulder blades.

“The first move,” she said casually, while Brent was turning white. “Should be used with caution... If you want the subject to be alive and relatively unharmed, that is... The second move,” she nodded at Brent’s ear. “Might be plenty painful, but it’s not necessarily life-threatening, although it could be. By applying more pressure...” she demonstrated just that, slowly digging her knuckles deeper behind Brent’s ear, ignoring small, wheezing sounds that were coming out of his throat. “...you are able to kick the level of pain up, notch by notch. The third move,” she nodded at his shoulder blade. “Is going to cause more pain if the blow is delivered hard enough or the pressure is heavy enough; however, this move should be used with regards to the opponent’s size. If used on someone smaller, and if too much force is applied, it might cause a serious internal injury. If it’s used on the larger opponent though...”

“I think Brent is trying to say something...” one of the females said uncertainly.

Katrena blinked and looked at the man she was using as a demonstration dummy. She leaned closer.

“Kleenex...” he wheezed.

She immediately released her hold on him, and he leaned on the desk with both palms, his body shaking.

“As I was saying,” she continued without asking him anything. “If used on the larger opponent, and there is not enough force applied, then it will only cause moderate pain, and will probably piss the said opponent off, which is not a good thing.”

She looked around the room. Sarcasm was gone; amusement was still present, except now it was more of the ‘Oh-Holy-Shit’ type. “Good,” she thought and tried to push a sudden wave of nausea back down her throat. It worked but not fully.

“All right,” she said in a softer voice. “Let me begin with the head...” She glanced at Brent, but it seemed he didn’t even pick up the word, which would cause yet another dead-serious-looking joke out of him less than ten minutes ago. “The temple area,” she tapped her own temple. “A very vulnerable spot. Not because the skull is at its thinnest, which is a very incorrect assumption. If you look in any anatomy book or examine an actual skull, you will see that the bone is as thick on the temple as it is on the rest of the skull. The thing that makes the temple so vulnerable is the form of the bone. See, right here...” she tapped her temple again. “...the bone is flat. Therefore, the shock delivered to the brain because of the blow, is much more intense...”

...She talked for the rest of the hour and saw several people actually writing some stuff down. When the hour finally expired, the door opened and Jackie walked in. He looked as if he expected to see a massacre of a sort. When he saw all twenty-plus faces glued to Katrena with full, undivided attention to everything she was saying, he blinked several times, as if making sure that he wasn’t dreaming. Finally, he cleared his throat, and announced that the hour had expired and that they should clear the room now and return to their duties.

****

A month later, Katrena became a full-time member of the staff.