She supposed it also helped that she knew the course well. The first portion was mostly flat woodland, a thin trail that wound through oaks and elms. As she came to the end of the first portion, her heart rate still pretty much normal and her breathing well-managed, she came to a drastic rise in the ground. Here, there was a rope that hung down along the ground, attached to a look-out station at the top of the hill. She made it halfway up the incline before grabbing the rope and using it to leverage her weight.

Next she came to a wooden wall that had been constructed right across the trail. There were two ropes or a series of handholds to choose from. Rachel opted for both, leaping up and planting her foot on the lowest handhold, and then grabbing the rope to propel herself upwards. She kicked upwards using another handhold and was over the top of the wall less than five seconds after touching it. The moment she came down on the other side, she was running again.

She took the following obstacles with the same precision and speed; she blew through the hurdles and scaled the rope wall as if shed been doing it her whole life. She glanced quickly at her watch and saw that she was on course to beat her best time. But she was going to have to push even harder to beat the overall record.

When she came to the top of the incline, her calves were burning, but the sight of the open field up ahead numbed it. She saw the proctor all the way at the end of the field, standing in a protective barricade. All that sat between Rachel and the proctor were three wooden posts, all adorned with typical silhouette targets, and three half-walls to use as cover. She dashed to the first wall and drew her Glock from the holster at her hip.

Before she could bring it up and take position behind the first barricade, a stabbing pain flared in her head. It was so paralyzing and unexpected that Rachels knees went out. As she fell to the ground, for a moment, all she saw was a blanket of white. The entire world went blank and then the sheet of white started to fade. It was replaced by what looked like shooting stars speeding right across her field of vision.

The next thing she was aware of was a man rushing towards herthe man shed seen at the end of the course. Agent Gift! Are you okay?

He knelt down beside her, keeping his distance until he knew what had happened.

Rachels vision slowly came back and she blinked away the last of those little white stars. A deep fear starting to rise up in her heart but she wasnt ready to process that yet. She couldnt even make sense of it.

Agent Gift?