They Called Her the Devil

Chapter 25, Kate

Block. Block. Kick. Hit. Dodge. Block. Kick.

Punch. Spin. Kick. Block. Punch. Punch. Kick.

I delivered a final blow to Derek's ankle and he fell. I'd won as usual.

Derek and I had been sparring for most of the afternoon. He'd been getting better but he was never quite able to beat me. Maybe someday he'd manage.

I helped him to his feet and we walked over to the refrigerator for some water. Normally I had an attendant nearby when I trained to get me water but not here.

Only Derek and I were allowed to go to my mother's old gym. The best and worst days of my life had all been in this room. I could still hear her yelling instructions to me as I fought.

"So how are things going with Silver?" Derek interrupted my mental rambling.

Why did he have to ask about Xander of all things?

"Good," I lied, "he hasn't told us where the base is yet but he'll obviously be terrified of us after what we did to his girlfriend."

"So you killed her then?" he asked casually.

"He thinks I did but I'm adding her to the Ghosts, she's too good of a hacker waste her life on a scare tactic."

Also, I didn't want Xander to hate me even more. What was happening to me?

"Did she hack us or something, 'cause that's not really something we should be encouraging."

"First of all don't tell me what to do, I could kill you. Second she hacked my x-com, as in the one my best people told me was un-hackable."

"We both know I'm too handsome to kill Katie." He joked "Wait, was this your personal x-com or the Devil's x-com?"

"My personal one, luckily the files on it are in code. Still, when we tried to trace her x-com to find their base we couldn't even find her link."

"Wow. I take back what I said before about killing her."

"I'm having Lia show her the ropes, hopefully, she'll be loyal in a few weeks."

"If Lia's with her I'm sure she will be. You know she's one of five women who've rejected me."

I laughed. Derek had always been a bit of a player. I'd had to specifically forbid any of my Ghosts from sleeping with him after he'd broken three hearts in one month. At least they hadn't tried to kill him.

"Lia's a lesbian Derek. And even if she wasn't she is way out of your league."

"You're just saying that cause you're my sister. Nobody's out of my league."

I rolled my eyes.

"I should get going, I'm meeting with some of the Ghosts for training."

"I should go too, I'm seeing Cocaine Larry about the money he owes us."

"Try not to break both of his arms this time. Go for the legs, he can still sell drugs in a wheelchair."

"Good idea."

We both left the gym in comfortable silence.

I took the elevator up to the Ghost compound. I'd set it up with the best equipment money can buy, nothing but the best for my inner circle.

The Ghost's had originally been my mother's pet project. She'd find women and girls in bad situations and teach them to fight back. I'd continued the project after her death and it was probably one of my best decisions.

I walked in through the double doors and into the main training area. I was going to work with a few of the younger trainees today.

When I got to the sparring ring three girls were eagerly waiting for me. I helped with training a few times a week to make sure everyone was learning at a good pace.

We'd gotten all three of them out of the foster system and they were all eager to learn and compete with each other. Kali was the youngest in the group at ten and Ruby and Jaime were both twelve.

"Alright Scout, Fingers, and Ninja, front and center," I said addressing the girls by their code names.

Kali was Scout from her first mission of delivering poisoned Girl Scout cookies. Ruby was Fingers because of how well she could pickpocket. Lastly, Jaime was Ninja because she could sneak up on almost anyone.

The girls scrambled into a line and saluted me. I smiled; I loved working with the younger girls.

"We're going to be doing every girl for herself spar with the fake knives. If you get a shot that would be a kill in a real fight you win."

The girls grabbed foam knives from a nearby rack and entered the ring. I nodded and they leaped into action.

Jaime won the first two matches by sneaking up behind Ruby. Then Ruby won one by stealing Jaime's knife and 'stabbing' her with it. They were doing ok.

"Kali you need to get your head in the game and win one of these. Ruby, you need to watch your footwork. Jaime, you need to speed up and stop overthinking everything." I called.

The next round Ruby and Jaime went for each other and started a routine of stabbing and blocking. Meanwhile, Kali went unnoticed.

Then I saw what she was doing. Kali had climbed one of the weapon racks and was preparing to jump. She launched herself in between Ruby and Jaime and while they were momentarily distracted she attacked.

She quickly disarmed Ruby, who was a head taller than her, and 'stabbed' her in the chest. She then turned to Jaime who she tripped using a move I'd shown them last week. She slashed her foam knife across Jaime's throat and jumped up in victory.

She was exactly how I'd been when I'd started learning to fight. Maybe someday she'd be able to spar with me and win. Maybe.

"Good job Kali, but next time there won't be a shelf to jump off so you need to work on your attack strategies more. Ruby and Jaime, you always need to know where your enemies are at all times."

Just then one of my men came sprinting in. His face was red and he was panting.

"Ma'am we have a code orange situation on B2."

Shit.

***

Hey guys! What do you think of Derek? What about how Kate's training the younger Ghosts? What is a Code Orange situation? Please vote and comment, I want to know what you think!

-Jade