The Agent's Daughter Read Free Page B

fast as
possible by any means possible, even if it meant poking out the
opponent’s eye or breaking their neck.
    At first Melina did not like the sheer
brutality of krav maga. She liked the beauty and grace of taekwondo
while this new form of martial arts taught how to harm anyone that
was a threat to her in the most efficient way. It did not help that
she was at least ten years younger than anyone else that was in the
class. Melina pleaded with her dad, to allow her to go back to
studying taekwondo, but he insisted that she stick with krav maga.
“You will need to be able to defend yourself,” he told her. His
explanation didn’t make sense, but he would not discuss it
further.
    She continued attending krav maga classes
all throughout elementary and middle schools, in time progressing
up through the different levels of belts. At each belt level, the
students were expected to spar with each other and try out what was
learned during class on each other. Though Melina was in a class
with students that were much bigger than she was, she held her own
during the sparring and developed a reputation for having a
particularly fierce fighting style.
    Her ability gave her tremendous confidence,
and it was reflected in her manner both in the studio and at
school. In sixth grade, she once was confronted by a group of
eighth grade girls that took offense to her trespassing in the
eighth grade hallway. After getting shoved around the hallway a
bit, Melina unleashed a fury of fists and feet that resulted in
broken bones for several of the girls involved. Reviewing the
hallway security tape, the principal remarked that it looked like a
clip from a Bruce Lee movie.
    When she was a freshman in
high school, she finally reached the level of black belt. While
this is the highest belt level that can be achieved in krav maga,
there are nine dan levels of black belt. Each new level being achieved with more
intensive training that included the study of advanced weapons.
Melina was studying for her black belt, third dan when her mom’s accident
happened. At that point, her dad had become too busy to take her to
class, so her mom had been taking her. Her dad made it clear to her
that it was crucial that she continued her martial arts training,
so he said that he would leave work early to take her. But she
decided to quit. She had lost the desire. It just wasn’t the same
without her mom.
    Melina looked up at her friend. “Many things
changed after my mom’s accident. I’m just not that person
anymore.”

Chapter 2

     
    Melina woke up just before the alarm was to
go off. For a brief moment, while she was still in that half-awake
state, she smiled, as she believed that it was the weekend. But, as
she gained full consciousness, she realized that it was another
school day.
    Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz went the alarm clock as if to rub it
in.
    With her eyes closed, Melina flailed with
her left arm until it found the clock and then she pounded on the
top of it until it stopped buzzing. When she opened her eyes, she
was staring at a sea of light purple. Periwinkle, actually. This
was the color of the walls in her room. When she was eight years
old, she pleaded with her parents for them to paint the walls of
her room light purple. They agreed, but told her that because of
the expense, she would have to live with that color for a long
time. When she reached high school age, she had come to regret that
decision. A few years earlier, she convinced her parents that she
had reached the age where she should scrap the ‘little girl’ walls
for something older. Perhaps a shade of deep blue. They were in the
process of lining up a painting contractor when her mom’s accident
happened. Her dad said that he would still have the room painted,
but Melina told him to leave it how it was. It was now somewhat of
a comfort to her. They would paint it when Mom came home from the
hospital.
    After an extended and exaggerated stretch of
her arms and back, Melina got out of bed