by Kate Banco
“Okay, show me some more things. I do have to go to class soon. It’s going to be hard to get too much done before classes.”
“Yes, that’s why a lot of your training will take place during long weekends and on campus. Sam gave you some classes to look over. This first semester you will start your academic portion of the training. You’ll sign up for your language class, a weight class and a running class if you can fit it in.”
“Weights and running? Is that required?” I ask.
“Absolutely, if you weren’t going to school you could do your weights and running here. Since you spend most of your day on campus you’ll include that portion in your classes.”
“But, how will I get all of my classes I need for my major? I have to complete the sequence in Forensics, if I’m busy studying a language, weights and running…” I question.
Joy interrupts me and says,“Well, who is your forensics professor? Who is the guest speaker for your forensics class?”
“Professor Ricks and you of course,” I answer.
“Exactly, we will be giving you, Marcos and Dana the advanced classes here. Believe me you will learn more here than on campus about forensics.”
“It sounds very organized, how many people have you trained?”
“Only one honest answer per day, you can ask but I only guarantee I’ll tell the truth once,” Joy says and once again walks away.
How exasperating! Why does she keep walking away? Isn’t she supposed to be my trainer? Come on, help me out!
“I know exactly what you are thinking, and yes I am your trainer but I’m not going to spoon-feed you answers. You will need to learn how to prioritize what information you need and ask those questions. Don’t waste your time asking questions you will be able to figure out on your own. Things will start to make sense very soon,” Joy says.
“Okay, one more question you might answer, what language did you study?” I ask.
“Okay, one free answer just because you insist. Korean. I studied Korean and continue to work with a tutor. No more questions.”
Korean? Why in the world would she study Korean? Who needs to speak Korean in Oswego? I think there is a Korean restaurant in the mall, other than that I’m not sure I know if there are any Korean students on campus. If I’m honest with myself I’m not sure I know the difference between some of the Asian students. I bet there are Laotian, Thai, Vietnamese, Hmong and Cambodian students here. I should get to know them so I can learn about their cultures. I really don’t know that much about that part of the world.
“What are you thinking? Which question you can ask tomorrow?” Joy smiles.
“No, I was thinking I’m not sure if I know anyone Korean students. Then I was thinking about some of the other Asian students.”
“Yes, there are Korean students on campus. One works with us as a teacher and tutor. Even when you sign up for a class you will also get a personal tutor in your target language. Some of these languages need private tutors. Believe me it helps a lot. Don’t worry about it now, it will start to make sense.”
Marcos joins us in the locker room. I see he has his new gear and it fits him well. Joy walks over to him and starts to explain about the locks and how we use the locker room every morning.
“Joy, when do you think they will recruit Dana? He is going to wonder about us, isn’t he?” I ask.
“Not really, he works every morning and will just think you are taking a class together. Our next recruitment starts next week,”Joy says.
Joy moves closer to us and she says, “Now for the fun part, follow me. I can show you both at the same time.”
We both follow Joy and she seems very excited to show us the next part of our training. She walks to another building, uses her badge to open the door and turns the lights on as she passes by.
When our eyes get accustomed to the light we see some stalls lined up in front of us with a table and plexiglass. On the opposite end of the room we see shooting target. I look at it and start to worry. Do we have to shoot a gun? Do we need to learn how? I know we have pockets to carry guns, but I’m afraid of guns. What if I can’t do this part, what if I don’t want to do this part?
Marcos grabs my hand and squeezes it and says, “Don’t worry. Just pretend it’s a video game. You can do it. We’ll talk about it tonight, okay?”
“Okay, I guess I can do that,” I say.
“Margarita, are you nervous? Just pretend you are in a video arcade or shooting gallery. You aren’t shooting anyone and it’s not live ammo. It’s target practice. Both of you come here and pick up a pistol. I’ll show you how to load it and how to unload it. Here is the safety. You need to have your safety on your pistol when not shooting. But here, take the safety off because we are going to shoot some targets. Watch how I do it.”
Joy picks up the pistol, takes the safety off, puts on safety glasses and headphones, gets in to a stance I recognize from many TV cop shows. She raises her arms and takes aim. She lets off a barrage of bullets. It’s noisy and fast. There is no way we can see if she hit the target or not.
She pushes a button and the paper target moves toward us on a wire. When she grabs the target we can see she has hit the target nine out of ten times. Her target is the heart and the heart on the paper is shredded. There’s no mistake that she got her target.
“Okay, Marcos come here. Put your safety glasses on and these noise-reducing headphones.”
Marcos takes the glasses and headphones, he doesn’t seem nervous at all. He raises his arms and takes aim. He squeezes the trigger and we hear the same noisy gunfire. Once again there is no way of knowing if he hit it or not. Joy pushes the button and the paper target comes flying up from the back of the room. We can see that Marcos didn’t hit the target as well as Joy, but he did get one of the ten shots in the heart area. The other shots were in the arms and one in the head. They were all over the place.
He turns and says to me, “Its fun, you’ll like it.”
I step forward and put on the safety glasses and headphones. I try to imitate Joy’s stance and raise the pistol to shoulder height. I gently squeeze off a round of bullets. I see the paper target moving around with each hit. I realize I want it to be perfect. I want to be as good a shot as Joy.
She pushes the button and it flies to me. I grab it and look. All of my shots are dead center in the brain. No stray shots, they are all in one spot.
“Wow, Margarita. That’s good, but were you aiming for the heart or the brain?”
“The heart,” I say sadly.
“This is great, you are a good shot. You just aimed higher. Next time you will zero in on the heart and see if you can do it again. I’m impressed,” Joy says.
“Can we…?”
“No, no time today. Tomorrow you can try again. Remember you have class. Let’s get changed and get back to campus.”
We didn’t have to worry about Dana’s recruitment because the next day when Joy picked us up Dana was already in the car. He was seated up front next to Joy. He smiled when the car stopped to pick us up.
“Before you say anything, I called your Papá to let him know I had a class this morning. I didn’t want to lie, but Joy said it was okay to say I was on a case related to our class. Why didn’t you two tell me about this?”
“Good morning to you too, Dana.” Marcos smiles as he gets in the back seat.
“Hi Dana, we weren’t allowed to say anything to you until now. We wanted to but it was part of the deal,” I say as I get in on the opposite side behind Joy.
“I’m still not sure what this is, but since you two are involved I’m not worried. I hope I don’t have to miss too many more days of work.”
Joy turned to look at Dana and says, “Not too many, but you are about to start a new chapter of your life so things could change. You may have to eventually give up your job at the taco shop.”
&nb
sp; “Really? I need the extra money. It helps a lot. I hate being poor. Maybe I shouldn’t go with you today,” Dana says.
“Nope, too late. Besides you’ll find out soon enough there are advantages to this job. Go today to see what you think,” Joy says.
All four of us are silent. I know what Dana is thinking, I went through the same thing. Is this the right thing to do? Will it affect my family or jeopardize their safety? He probably thinks he won’t have time to study. It’s a big commitment to take on. Once again Joy pulls in the parking lot at Bev’s Sweet Treats restaurant. The parking lot is empty. Exactly the same as the two times she stopped here previously with me, and then Marcos.
Dana turns and looks at us. Joy pulls the same documents from her bag and hands them to him, “This is a non-disclosure agreement you need to sign before we go any further. Marcos and Margarita have already signed theirs and started their training. If you want to continue with them you need to sign yours too.”
Dana takes the papers and before looking at them turns to see what we think, “You guys think I should sign this? I don’t even know what I’m signing. I really would like more info. I need to finish my degree and work. I don’t want to sign up for something that will take me away from my goal.”
“Dana, it’s okay. You’ll find out more today. I think it’s okay for you to sign. You’ll be able to finish your degree. We want the same thing,” Marcos reassures him.
I hear the papers rustle in the front seat and see Dana sign on the bottom line. What a relief, now we are all working together. We don’t have to keep secrets from Dana. Dana hands the papers back to Joy and says, “I sure hope I didn’t sign my life away.”
“Well, you did. But I think you won’t regret it. Let’s go, each time we recruit a new person it seems to take less time to convince them. Let’s go and get started for today.”
Of course Dana is just as impressed as we are when we roll up the driveway of the lake house. He looks at us again with disbelief. He has no idea what he is about to learn.
“You two should come inside too, Sam will want to talk to you about your schedules. Did you bring the list of classes you picked out?”
“Yes, I have it here,” I say.
We enter through the front door, welcomed by the same young man like every other day. He says hello to all of us and calls each one of us by name including Dana. This surprises Dana, it won’t be the only thing that surprises him today.
We are ushered in to Sam’s office by Juan.
“Hi Dana, I’m Sam Mason. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Please sit down and I’ll explain everything. I know you have a lot of questions.”
“Nice to meet you. Yes, I do have so many questions.”
“This is my assistant Mary Ellen. Mary Ellen will be taking some of your blood today and giving you a physical. Nothing to worry about,” Sam says.
Dana looks at us and raises his eyebrows. He looks very confused, I feel bad for him. I wish we could have all started on the same day. But, I see why they don’t do it that way. As a group we may have said no or asked more questions. One by one, it’s easier to convince one person.
“I’m going to explain a few things to you Dana by using Marcos and Margarita as examples. We are going to look at their schedules today and get their classes for next semester done. We take care of it here for all of you and we pay your tuition.”
At the mention of tuition Dana smiles and says, “What? You pay my tuition? In exchange for what exactly? Did you know this ?” He asks as he turns to us.
“We just found out last night, Dana. We didn’t know until then. Don’t worry, I think it’s going to be beneficial for all of us.”
“You all had recommendations from more than Joy.”
“Okay, if you’ll let me explain the class part first, it will start to make sense. We ask our employees to enroll in a language class and try to become as fluent as possible. We have reasons for this which you will learn later. What languages did two choose?”
“I’d like to learn Japanese and Margarita wants to learn Russian.” Marcos answers for both of us.
“Perfect, I think that will work. Dana, you haven’t had time to think about it, but is there a language you want to learn?”
“Well, I know a little Spanish but how about Mandarin?”
“Since Marilyn already speaks Mandarin maybe you could choose another language like Thai or Vietnamese. We need to cover those languages as well. You have time to think about it.”
Dana and Marilyn had already spoken since her rescue but he didn’t know she worked for Sam. It was a total surprise. Marilyn walks through the door and sits next to Dana.
“I’m so glad you are working with us now, I wanted to tell you but we are sworn to secrecy. Now we can work together,” Marilyn says.
Dana is shocked to see Marilyn sitting next to him. The look on his face is disbelief.
“I don’t understand Marilyn, were you really kidnapped? Or was that not real?”
“Believe me Dana, Marilyn was kidnapped and we helped get her back to Oswego. It was very real. Marilyn was working for us before the kidnapping,” Sam says.
“We can talk later, Dana. I’ll explain it all to you,” Marilyn says.
I decide it’s a good time to change the subject and say, “We were thinking we could take the same sections of weight lifting and running, maybe Dana would like to do that too.”
“I’d like that,” Dana says.
“We both have to do a sequence in science and thought we could do that this summer. We can cover a year of science in summer school,” Marcos says.
I see Joy and Sam exchange glances before Joy speaks up, “You’ll need to keep your summer open. You won’t be able to take classes this summer.”
“But, we need to get those classes to get our degree,” I say.
“Don’t worry about that, you will graduate on time. Our recruits always do,” Sam says.
“What will we be doing during the summer?” Dana asks.
Sam stands up and pulls down a map on the wall and points to an island off the coast of Canada, “We all will be spending the summer here in Forensics Camp. It’s a six-week intensive camp. You will be learning hands-on techniques. You will be earning your science credits there. Professor Ricks and Joy will be the instructors. You’ll earn enough credits to graduate on time.”
“Mary Ellen is going to take Dana now for his physical. Dana, I’ll see you tomorrow. Think about which language you are going to study,” Sam says.
Marilyn stands up and grabs Dana’s hand, “I’ll go with you.”
Joy points to Marcos and I and says, “Come with me you two. I am about to knock your socks off.”
We follow Joy out the lakeside doors and walk past the gym and pool. A few hundred yards away is another building I didn’t notice until now. A knotty pine sided building with a metal roof. Metal bars cover the windows, the door is a large metal door that looks like it would be bullet proof.
Joy runs her card through the electronic reader and the door buzzes open. We walk into a room that has a bank of computers on the far wall. There is another gate where Joy runs her card again to enter. She tells us to do the same so we are registered as visitors. We step up on the platform where there are three people seated at computers. They don’t acknowledge us and continue their work.
“Okay, what you are about to find out here will blow your mind, so sit down and let’s take in a little bit of information today, a little more tomorrow. Okay?”
“Sure, but we think we can handle it,” I say.
“Really? Okay, use this code to get on this computer, you do the same with the other computer.”
We both sit down eager to find out what Joy is so sure will leave us speechless. When the screen pops us it shows the logo for Oswego Forensics Camp.
“Click on the arrow on th
e bottom of the page. See where it takes you,”she says.
We both click on the arrow and find ourselves looking at a WITSEC logo. We both look at each other and start to worry. What if Joy finds out about our past? Will the job offer go away? Will we have to move again? No, this can’t happen, I don’t want to move and change identities again.
“Okay, you two see, where you can search names? Go ahead and search your name and see what comes up.”
“Joy, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Marcos mumbles.
“No, we shouldn’t be here. We need to go,” I say as I stand up and try to move away from the computer.
“Sit down, Sara, you too Teodoro,” Joy says.
Oh no, she just used our old names. No one should know our names. What is happening? How do we get out of this without causing a huge scene?
“It’s okay. Sit down. We know about your involvement with WITSEC, we have a very high-security clearance here. Not everyone can just open up a WITSEC data base.
“But only two people are supposed to know where we are and who we are.
“If you don’t want to type your name in, go ahead and put mine in. Joy Malone,” Joy says.
Marcos and I look at each other and wonder what we are doing here. Have we sabotaged everything for our family? I type in Joy Malone and Marcos does the same. What pops up is a picture of Joy, but with a different name. The other name is Chancey Delaney. Who is Chancey Delaney? I click on the next link and I see the warning pop up that says for security cleared employees only. I turn to look at Joy and she gives us another code to type in. We both do that and see a file open up with Chancey Delaney’s name at the top. It is a younger picture of Joy and shows her address as Tucson, Arizona. The date is 2001 and it shows a relocation to Oswego, New York.
Across the top is a witness number. Joy has a witness number just like we do. What? Is she a WITSEC participant too?
Marcos speaks first, “Joy, or Chancey are you saying you are involved in WITSEC too?”
