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Left behind, George sighed and looked at her in disgust.
“You’d better be ready,” he said. “There’s no way we’re going easy on you just because you’re a woman!”
“Do you mind if I get dressed first?” retorted Eden, left untouched by his petty remarks.
The young man swore in Italian and left the room.
Eden sighed and finally let Bullet down. Although she was glad to see him fine, she was far from being relieved as his sibling and the fate of her coworkers remained uncertain.
Alone again, she glanced around the room. It was all made of some dark wood, except for that screen wall. She couldn’t reactivate her SIN and call Loir; Eden was sure this place was rigged with cameras and hidden microphones.
She walked to the dressing room and surprisingly, there was brand new female clothes in there. It wasn’t even one of those fancy print-on-demand systems like people had in the Core, but a regular, plain old wardrobe. She quickly found a black sports bra in her size and leggings to put on. She wondered what had happened to her dress... Barefoot, Eden walked toward the door and to her surprise, it opened. Bullet followed her, intrigued, but the puppy was still too wary of their surroundings to walk ahead of her.
Eden stepped into some corridor and wasn’t surprised to find two men guarding it. One of them pointed an index down the hall to her left, and she proceeded in that direction without exchanging one word with them.
It was a strange atmosphere here. Like the bedroom, the hallway had a large window-like screen wall showing the other side of the city, and the floor under her feet was a cold white marble. She wasn’t feeling well here... She didn’t belong here. Eden kept walking until she reached a large square room. The floor was clearly meant for working out as it was made of some sort of braided rubber material.
Her arrival was welcomed with whistles and gross remarks in Italian. Not the gentlemen of the bunch... There were five men, all surprisingly young. Some looked younger than Eden, and she realized those were probably the youngest recruits. On the side, George was waiting, with a smile on his lips.
“Since you sounded so arrogant earlier, I thought it might be better to bring you a real challenge,” he announced with a smile.
Eden didn’t even bother wasting her time to answer. She was used to the petty ways men had to try and show who was the strongest and she wasn’t interested in fueling that fire. Instead, she walked toward them on the red mat. Bullet was smart to stop before and lie down, looking a bit unsure but curious.
She walked until she was standing in the center, with all five men spread like a star formation around her.
“No blades allowed, guys,” announced George. “Let’s be nice to the lady since the boss still needs her...”
“I’d have some need for her too,” chuckled one of the guys, the oldest looking of them.
Eden hit him first.
Right after he had finished his sentence, his jaw had been violently smashed by a rotating kick. He made a weird expression just as he realized he was hit and fell loudly on his shoulder, emitting some gruesome cracking sound.
Eden didn’t even wait to see him hit the mat. She knew all too well that stopping is not an option when attacking multiple opponents. She flipped her body at an incredible speed and sent her fist to hit the next guy’s stomach. She didn’t have enough strength to actually make him fall from this hit, but it was the surprise she was looking for. She twisted her body again, and this time she sent her elbow to his jaw.
Those boys were trained, and she could tell. However, there was one flaw with training: it prepared for many things, but not the reckless fighting style of people who had learned the hard way. Only one of them managed to hit her twice, on the flank and her face. Another one had actually tried to swipe her legs, but his hand made a terrible crunching sound as it was met with Eden’s bionic parts. His screams echoed throughout the training gym. The fight wasn’t over but by then, those young men had already understood they couldn’t win. Eden was clearly scaring them as they began focusing on avoiding her hits rather than trying to hit her.
“...She’s obviously toying with them.”
One floor above, the tinted glass allowed Dante and his second-in-command to watch the whole scene without being noticed. The Italian Tiger was smoking again, with a complex expression on his face. He would squint his eyes from time to time as if to decipher Eden’s movements.
The middle-aged man next to him nodded, looking at his tablet.
“...I think so too, sir. She clearly has the skill to have ended this fight around five minutes ago but... she’s merely hitting them lightly, making sure they can still stand. Except for the first one, of course. I’m... I don’t think he’ll get back up, sir.”
“Get rid of them as soon as this is over, except for the one who managed to hit her.”
“Yes, sir.”
Dante stayed silent for a few more seconds, staring again. His expression was stone-cold but if one was to look at him closely, they could detect the little wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, as if he was about to smile. His micro-expression showed that he was having fun watching the scene below them.
“Looks like someone needed to vent.”
His second didn’t say anything to that but he stared at the little screen in his hands. His eyes would go from Eden to the recorded scene, back and forth.
“...I think you were right, sir. Even with just an initial comparison, the fighting style of that woman is... very similar to the records we have of Ghost’s fights. However, as Ghost’s silhouette was blurred, I wouldn’t be able to say for sure, sir. My apologies.”
“Let’s keep her here, under our watch. Give her the other dog but do not let her out of the building. Record all of her actions and... make sure she has no way to leave until we have confirmed it. If anyone tries to contact her, let me know. In any case, if Ghost doesn’t show up in the next seventy-two hours, it will be further proof.”
