Operation 4: Arnold

I took a long, deep breath in and finally walked inside.  I passed many boxing rings, shooting ranges, martial arts training rooms and so on.

As I walked down the long hall of  training rooms, all I could hear were screams, bullets being fired and punches being thrown.

The scents of sweat, blood and burnt gunpowder combined together to form a rotten and disgusting smell.  If I could, I would have turned around and bolted out of the room.

Obviously, I couldn't do that.

Begrudgingly, I tramped down the hall.  This was going to be a long day.

After a minute or two, I reached the end of the hall.  It was a lot more quiet down here, despite still being able to hear the gunshots.

I looked around the hall, trying to find the door to the training room but I couldn't.  All I could see were pictures of famous assassins, like John Wick, and Mr. Bradson's family (only the ones that were assassins, though).

While looking for the door, I started to feel a cold breeze on the back of my neck. I swiftly turned around to make sure no one was behind me. I didn't want to be an open target.

Thankfully, no one was behind me.  It was just a door to a room that was ajar.  A neon blue light was illuminating inside the room. When I looked down at the ground, I saw that icy smoke was escaping from under the threshold of the door.

Curiously, I took a few small steps closer to the door. Just as I was about to open the door to go inside, someone quickly grabbed my shoulders and flipped me away from the door. It was a man.

'You must be looking for me, eh?' asked the man cheerily. He quickly shut the door and used my shoulders to steer me towards a room I didn't even know was there.

'Who are you?' I asked, trying to break out of his grip but he was holding my shoulders too tightly.

The man laughed, 'Oh, how rude of me. My name is Arnold. I will be your trainer.'

'Trainer?' I repeated, not believing him.

'That's right,' smiled Arnold, guiding me into the room. 'I will be helping you train to be a nanny.'

I looked him up and down, not entirely convinced he would be training me of all people.

He wore black tracksuit bottoms, a very creased black t-shirt, his hair was messy and dandruff fell from every part of his head.  He also stank of grease.

'I have never seen you around here before,' I stated, trying not to sound rude in case he was ranked higher than me.

Arnold shut the door behind me and started to lock it.  There were hundreds of locks on the door.  'Well,' he began, beginning to crouch to reach the lower locks, 'that's because I don't normally leave this room.'

I nodded, looking around the dark room.  The neon blue light had completely disappeared now but I could feel the cold smoke's presence around my ankles, even if it came from the room down the hall.  The whole place was cold.

'Why not?' I asked, knowing it was better to ask questions than stay silent and regret it later.

He was on his hunkers, his hands rapidly locking each lock like a perfected routine.  'Boss doesn't like me walking around looking like a sewer rat.'

I started to walk around the dark room, trying to find a light switch of some sort.  'You mean Mr. Bradson,' I corrected, knowing it was far more polite than just calling him "boss''.

'Yeah, yeah,' brushed off Arnold, swatting his hand in the air at me.  'You lot treat him like royalty.'

I scoffed, rolling my eyes, 'Royalty? Please, he is just our boss. We don't exactly go into his office and say "G'day to you, boss".'

Arnold chuckled and pointed at me, 'That's a good one.' He stood up after locking the last lock on the door and dusted himself off. 'Unfortunately, I actually do say that.'

'How informal. No wonder Mr. Bradson doesn't like you.' I finally found a light switch and flicked it... but it did not work.

I could tell Arnold was kind of hurt, though. Did I care if I hurt him? No. Would I ever apologise to him? Unlikely. Could he have killed me on the spot if he wanted to? Absolutely.

Thankfully, he didn't.

Arnold cleared his throat, 'Anyway, please follow me.'

I could see the outline of his silhouette walking in front of me. I don't even know how I saw it because he blended in perfectly with the darkness of the hallway. But of course, I followed.

The room slowly got colder and colder the more we emerged into the darkness. I could feel the cold smoke now wrapping around the bottom half of my body like a blanket.

At one point, I could not see Arnold's silhouette or hear his footsteps, so I had to follow him purely based on the smell of his ill-odoured clothes.

After around three to four minutes of walking down the bleak hallway, I bumped into something hard—Arnold's back.

'Why did we stop?' I asked with slight annoyance, trying to regain my balance.

'We're here,' replied Arnold.

I stared at where I assumed he was, 'Now, where exactly is that? It would be nice if you were more specific.'

Suddenly, bright lights blinded me and a warm breeze was thrown against my face. Arnold had flung a door open. I could hear the loud bang of the door hitting against a wall.

When my eyes finally adjusted to the lights, I looked up to see what was in front of me. It was indeed a room. A lot more friendly looking than I would have expected for such a gloomy place.

I followed Arnold into the room and started to look around. There was a sofa in the middle of the room, just a few metres away from the TV. Beside the sofa was a dog bed where a dachshund was sleeping peacefully.

The room was filled with warm colours such as amber, cream and beige. It was nicely decorated (unlike its owner).

'Welcome to my crib!' smiled Arnold, jumping up and down.

I began to rapidly scan the room, clearly trying to find something.

'Um, where do I train?' I asked, continuing to look around.

Arnold pointed to the ground, 'In this room. I will be bringing my niece over as she is easy to look after.  It will also let me see how good you actually are with kids. It will help me see how much I actually need to train you.'

I groaned internally. This was not going to be good, especially for someone like me who had never even touched a child, let alone spoken to one.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***