Chapter 45: Retraining
Jared was relieved that Five's question was something he could actually answer.
"We have developed a special drill plan. None of you are to engage in hand-to-hand combat with him if you can avoid it. The best course of action is to shoot him with a tranquilizer dart and drag him back to headquarters unconscious.
"The drills we plan to run account for the fact that he may be able to engage with some of you. This mission will require exemplary teamwork. For the next two days you will do nothing but train specifically to complete it."
Five's hand shot into the air again and Jared groaned internally, gesturing for her to continue. "But sir, how could any one set of drills account for everything? There is a high possibility that he could take several of us out even if we do train specifically to go against him."
Great. So this had come up. Since when had any of his agents ever feared for their lives? Even the regular ones knew what they were getting into in this line of work and thought the pay made things worth it.
Numbers weren't supposed to know fear of death. They were better than that.
"Five," Jared said sternly. "Six may be strong but he is not unbeatable. Our best minds have put this training together. It accounts for as much as a training plan possibly can. What is the agent's creed?"
"Kill or be killed, sir!" all of the Numbers chimed in perfect unison.
"You all know the risks in our line of work. You take them on every time you accept a mission. As the greater part of humanity, it is your duty and your honor to carry them out anyway. You carry this responsibility for being better than the rest. Am I right?"
"Yes, sir!"
The slightest bit of skepticism flitted across Five's face but she ended up going along with her comrades. Jared would have to keep an eye on her; he might have to use the code words before this was done.
Asking questions the way she did cast doubt on the glory of the Numbers program. If any of the others picked up on it, they could have a serious problem.
At least for now the others seemed placated by Jared's words. He began detailing the training plan and instructing each of them what they should do based on their own personal strengths and weaknesses.
As he watched the group begin their training procedures, he thought to himself about the importance of recovering Six and killing the girl. The Agency's failure to kill her after so long and losing so many agents in the process was a stain on their reputation.
What was it about that girl that enticed Six away from all he had ever known? He was the best of the best; it shouldn't be possible for him to be distracted by such meaningless things.
Jared was really beginning to question the program's efficacy. Everything could fall apart because of this. But Numbers were typically much more dependable than regular agents, which was why they kept doing this.
In the past thirty-seven years of running the program they had lost dozens of regular agents due to death or arrest but only two Numbers. Three if you included Six, whom they fully intended to get back. And one of those losses was because of an accident with beta testing the retraining program.
Not a single Number had died or been captured on a job under regular circumstances. No matter how inconvenient dealing with these human weapons could be, it was a solid investment. They brought in more revenue than all of the other agents combined.
It was frustrating dealing with constant hiccups training overly emotional young children and later having to handle teenage hormones. The trainers were incredibly patient people who handled all discipline emotionlessly. They had to practice what they preached or the ideology wouldn't stick.
All these years later and Jared still regretted what happened with One and Two. They really should have had a failsafe in play. If they had developed a proper retraining program earlier on then he wouldn't have run away and she wouldn't have died.
But the retraining program was highly effective. Even the moodiest of teenage Numbers only needed the code phrases once every few months.
He was truly perplexed by Six's defection because he had never needed it at all. He made it all the way through adolescence without any problems so why did he suddenly decide to go and have a quarter-life crisis over an insignificant girl?
The Numbers didn't know love. They didn't know friendship. Their natural biological urges were repressed because of their lack of emotions so they weren't interested in the opposite sex either.
In the entire time the program had operated no one had ever tried anything physical with each other because they didn't know any better. They had been programmed to be asexual. The only thing that mattered to them was accomplishing their missions.
They could be controlled with certain code phrases tied into the brainwashing once they had gone through retraining but before that it was all basic psychological coercion and manipulation.
Six couldn't be controlled with a code phrase, unlike the rest of the active agent Numbers, because he had never been retrained. But once they got him back they would essentially have him on a leash for the rest of his life.
The oldest Number still in the program was Three at age thirty-one. He would still be able bodied for quite some time. The Agency hadn't figured out what to do with them yet when they became too old to carry out their duties but they could cross that bridge when they got to it. There were still a good twenty plus years before that would happen with the first of them.
There were other things to worry about in the meantime. Like the successful completion of this mission. Once Six was back under the Agency's thumb and Claire Conway was dead they would be able to smooth things over with this client. She was not someone you wanted to cross.
Regular agents were never given access to client information but members of the board had to know who a client was in order to get paid. And the woman who wanted that girl dead had ironclad backing in New York City.
They needed to finish this mission, get paid, and desperately try to get back in her good graces. Otherwise they would be in a world of trouble.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone