The Karma Project

Chapter 11 - Lenz's Law

Zoe

An hour later. I'm standing in the gym with Max and one of his cronies. Max had to eventually drag me down here because I was addicted to the bacon this morning,

"Who is this?" I ask, nodding towards the crony.

"Ah," Max clicks his tongue, "This is Rico, one of our strongest and most agile guards. You're going to try and put him on his ass." Max explains.

"What?" Rico and I ask at the same time. My voice is laced with confusion, while his was pure cockiness. Mistake one, never be too confident, it shows your hand.

Max just nodded with a smile that shone in deviance. "I don't like to work in silence. Any song you'd like to hear while you kick his ass?" He asks over his shoulder as he connects his phone to the bluetooth speaker.

"Boss, I'm not going to attack this little lady." Rico says in a thick accent I hadn't noticed before. Mistake two, underestimating your opponent is a sign of weakness.

"You will, because she's The Sparrow." Max states casually with a shrug.

"You're kidding." Rico laughs nervously and shoots a timid glance my way.

"Maybe. How about you find out?" Max challenges as he presses play on his phone. 'Adrenalize Me' by In This Moment floods the room with sound. It wouldn't be my first pick for ass-kicking music, but not bad. I shoot Max a nod of approval and  begin to approach my opponent on the sparring mat.

Rico takes an obvious step back from me. Mistake three, never show fear. Rico has shown me three weaknesses in a matter of mere minutes. What an idiot-- it's clear to me now that there is a serious flaw in the Karma Boys' hiring process because they have weaknesses on all points of contact so far. This will be the first thing I'll correct when they start letting me work.

Rico steals a look towards Max. Mistake four, never take your eyes off of the threat. And I am the biggest threat in the room. I took the moment of distraction to my advantage and attack. I jump on top of the pile of mats to my right, and use the momentum to attack from above. I wrap my legs around Rico's neck and cross my ankles to lock in the hold. He doesn't even react until we both hit the ground, and I not only have him pinned, but also strangled.

Rico's eyes begin to bulge and he frantically taps my legs, signing for me to release. But I don't; instead, I look at Max and yell over the music, "Tap out, first blood, or death?"

Max takes his sweet time to answer, only sending Rico into a higher state of panic. I give Rico an evil smile and blow him a kiss as his eyes prick with water and his lips turn to a shade of purple.

"Okay, let him go, Harpy." Max calls.

I scoff at his words, "No." And with a quick movement of my hips-- I snap his neck. The crunching sound breaks through the music and it abruptly stops.

"What the hell, Zoe? I said to release, not kill him!"

I lift myself off of the dead body, "Oh cut the bullshit Maxi Pad." I yell back. "He was not going to leave this room alive. He was weak, and honestly I'm worried if you considered him one of your best." I shake my head and put my hands on my hips. "Do you have any idea how many mistakes he made?" I throw my hands in the air and begin to walk away.

"Four." Max says to my back, "And you counted them as well, didn't you?"

"Of course I did."

"Very well. Let's go to the range now." Max demands and walks past me to the door, and I follow without argument.

We only walk down a hallway past three doors that are lines on the right wall. Eventually we reach a door at the end of the hall and Max leads me in after he scans his palm on a reader above the door handle.

"Here we are." He says.

I step through the door and as the lights slowly warm up I can see better around the room. "Holy..." I trail off.

"This is the personal armory for the Karma's. You'll have to prove yourself a few more times before we can give you free access to the room." MAx says as he begins to unlock a glass case.

"Understandable." I agree. "What are the next tests then?"

"Well you've passed one. Next we'll see how well you shoot, then the rest of the tests are up to the others." Says max.

"Okay." He turns to hand me both a pistol as well as an AR-15 . "All three of them are going to test me? Even Teddy?" I ask.

"Why? Are you scared of Teddy?" He asks in a serious tone, brows furrowed.

I just snort, "Of course not. Amazed? In awe of? Absolutely. But scared? Hell no."

"Now you're the stupid one." Max laughs, yes a real fucking laugh. The sound is so rough, but silky that I might as well call it catnip for my pussy. My pride will never survive in this house, I just know it.

I clear my throat to shake the words out of my head. "Possibly. But for some reason, I just know Teddy wont hurt me." I shrug.

"Don't get too comfortable too quickly." He warns as he grabs an MP-40 for himself.

"No, I'm serious." We begin to grab boxes of ammo. "I see the same darkness that resides in me is in him. Like recognizes like. He won't hurt me, not really anyway." Max only hums in response when he opens another door that leads us into an indoor shooting range, he doesn't say anything for a moment when he leads me to a stall.

"Okay, Harpy." Max grunts, "Show me what you got."