Alarm clocks. Are. The worst.

　　Blat! Blat! Blat! Blat! Blat! Blat! Blat! Blat!

　　"Make it stop!!"

　　My night time self was prepared for my morning self and hid the stupid thing in a far corner of the room that would force me out of bed if I wanted to silence the blasted alarm. I cursed my night time self as I kicked the blanket off. And I cursed my night time self as I rolled onto the floor. And I cursed my night time self as I blundered across the hard wood.

　　Click.

　　Relief.

　　I was tempted to flop back onto my pillow and return to the sweet oblivion of sleep, and then I remembered: ninja training.

　　Eyes bleary but mind determined to rouse itself, I stumbled into the bathroom, emerging a few minutes later showered and more awake. The clock read 5:43 AM. I found a change of clothes in a bag that I hadn`t bothered to unpack from the prison storage, slipped a pair of running shoes on, and made my way to the elevator where a chubbier Kane than I`d remembered from the day prior was already waiting, the down button on the wall panel to his right illuminated.

　　"Mind if I join you?" I asked in place of a greeting.

　　"Hello again, new guy," Kane said with a nod.

　　"Oran," I corrected quietly, and Kane chuckled.

　　"Yes, I know, but new guy` just rolls off the tongue, don`t you think?" he teased. "Are you ready for your first day, Oran?"

　　"I& guess?" I offered with a shrug when a more accurate response eluded me. "Do you know what training is going to involve?"

　　"I told you yesterday, didn`t I? Today is going to be a mock operation."

　　"What does that mean, though?"

　　"We`ll be given targets to locate and apprehend," Kane stated the obvious.

　　"But& how-"

　　"Oh, great. You`re here."

　　I turned to find Daman approaching the elevator from behind me with a large crossbody bag at his hip, his hair no longer greasy but wildly sticking out in all directions as though he`d slept on it funny while it air dried. Pudgy and still wearing a sour expression behind poorly cleaned glasses, Daman looked about as happy to be awake as I felt, and I resisted the urge to laugh, instead biting my tongue.

　　"Daman, good morning," Kane said in the silence that followed.

　　"But is it?" Daman hissed.

　　The elevator door opened, and the three of us entered, spreading ourselves out as much as possible in the enclosed space. The single-floor ride was awkward, and I made a mental note to find the staircase for future reference so I could avoid a reprise of that ride. One flight of stairs wasn`t a bad commute.

　　Kane`s brisk pace led the way to room 4L. I don`t know what I was expecting, but a cozy room holding nothing but five chairs arranged in a semi-circle around a large mirror on the wall wasn`t it.

　　"Ah! Good. You`re both here." I turned to see Argus walking in behind the surveillance nerd and carrying a large black backpack. "Oran, I forgot to give you your equipment yesterday. And Kane, I have the training file ready for you." Dropping the backpack on one of the chairs, Argus pulled out a manilla folder to hand to Kane, then a hand mirror and full face mask to give to me. "Right," he said with a heavy exhale, "your mission is to find and bring in as many of those targets as you can by evening. Kane, usual training procedures, and, Daman, I`ll expect a report on my desk by morning. I have other things to attend to today. Call me only if there`s an emergency. Also, don`t call me."

　　"Understood," Kane acknowledged.

　　"And, Oran, good luck," Argus added, almost as an afterthought on his way out the door.

　　While Kane and Daman flipped through the file together, I took one of the chairs in the semi-circle and started fidgeting with the mask Argus had given me to distract myself from the temptation of the mirrors in the room. The mask was a hard, matte plastic material- white with dark holes around the eyes, thin slits below the nose and at the mouth for oxygen, and black straps that would wrap around my head and sit above my ears to hold it in place- a mask to maintain my anonymity should someone happen to catch a glimpse of me in their mirror. I could appreciate the value of that in a secret ninja group. (A secret ninja group!)Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

　　"You can`t sit there," Daman`s impatience cajoled me out of my thoughts.

　　"Huh?"

　　"It`s not a big deal, new guy," Kane chuckled with much more forbearance. "There is a specific order to where everyone sits for efficiency, and Daman was tasked with setting up the assigned seats. So, Daman, where should Oran sit?"

　　Daman rolled his eyes and sighed in aggravation. "He can sit on the end. Kalak needs to be in the middle, obviously, with me between him and the creep; then you and Daisy will take the other side."

　　"I can hear you," I snarled, angry about being called a creep and being required to sit next to Daman.

　　"What? Do you want a medal or something?" Daman returned my vitriol with interest.

　　Before I could muster up a snappy comeback, Daisy and the one guy I still had yet to meet, or so I assumed, walked in at exactly 5:59 AM, their own eyes heavy from a sleep hang-over. I decided that, for now, retreat was the better part of valor, and took the seat to the far right where I would be able to sit in peace and watch the dynamics of this team I`d just joined. It annoyed me that no one else got chewed out for sitting in the wrong seat, but, then again, they seemed to automatically know which seat was theirs now that I`d been positioned.

　　While Kane and Daisy struck up some casual small talk and found their seats, Kalak took his spot in the center, directly in front of the mirror, Daisy to his left, Daman to his right, but rather than taking the center-of-attention role that would have made sense in this arrangement, Kalak naturally and intentionally faded into the background- the kind of phantom that at once seemed inconsequential and brimming with unspoken power. And it suited him. Pale and wispy in build with shaggy black hair and dark eyes behind black, plastic-rimmed glasses, he was quiet, his eyes lowered to his lap where crossed arms and feet lazily tucked behind the legs of his chair only added to his smallness. He blended perfectly with the shadows of the room, so easily overlooked despite being front and center; he was probably the most ninja-ly among us, and in my experience, people who were talented at seeming invisible usually had a reason to hide& and usually didn`t take kindly to having attention drawn to them.

　　"Alright team," Kane called the group to order and drew my attention away from the recluse two seats over. "We are all here, so let`s get this party started. Oran, let`s start by giving you a proper overview of what we do together and how we do it. Our team is an adjunct branch of the Universal Intelligence Bureau here in the capital. When the UIB identifies a threat, we get a case file. Our job is to locate and eliminate those threats. Any questions so far?"

　　"Yeah. When you say eliminate the threat`, what does that mean?"

　　"Most of the time, it means we arrest people and bring them in. Occasionally, it might mean deadly force."

　　"Ah," I nodded with a sudden squirmy sensation roiling in my gut, and Kane continued.

　　"Everyone on our team has been hand picked for specific roles. Oran, you find people, I chase them, Kalak and Daman help with all of the logistics, Daisy fills in the gaps& which would probably be easier to show you than try to explain, so let`s maybe jump right in? Shall we start with target number one?"

　　"Kane," Daisy interjected, "where the objective is to find as many targets as possible, it might be prudent to identify the locations of all the targets so we can strategically position you to maximize resources."

　　"Good call," Kane nodded. "Well, uh, I guess, Oran, that means you`re up first."

　　"Kane, sorry," Daisy interrupted again, "how many targets do we have in that file?"

　　"Six," Kane said with a frown. "Why?"

　　"Huh. That`s ambitious," Daisy mused softly before explaining herself. "Well, I`m not certain what Oran`s limits are, but we are asking him to identify the locations of six targets just to plan the order of operations, and then we will need him to track those targets` movements on the chase? I don`t think that`s realistic. He`s going to burn out."

　　"Well, that`s what the cameras are for," Kane countered.

　　"So we are still using the cameras?"

　　"Well, of course we`re still using the cameras," Daman answered irritably before Kane could respond, pulling a thick, pewter-colored laptop out of that bag he`d been carrying as though to prove the point. "Just because we added the convict doesn`t mean we aren`t using all of our resources. If he identifies their locations initially, I can track them on the video feeds and guide you like normal." He reached into his bag again, now leaning against the side of his chair, and withdrew a small case, opening it up to reveal six small earbuds spaced evenly across a foamy packaging surface. "Kane, take your usual two. I made another one for him."

　　I rolled my eyes, excusing the group from defending me when Daisy winced in apology, and I accepted the earbud Daman shoved my direction, sticking it in my left ear canal as the others had done. "Well, if we are starting with me locating the targets, can I see the file?" I asked, my question directed at Kane. He nodded and stood up to pass me the folder.

　　Inside, I found brief, one or two page reports and correlating headshots of varying quality for each of the targets. They were all male, which was disappointing to me, and they all looked like UIB agents playing a role for the purpose of this exercise. Cropped hair, trim build, nondescript but fitted clothing, neither young nor old- they all fit the same mold. Kane was going to have his work cut out for him chasing six of these operatives.

　　The reports indicated that all of the targets` last known locations were within the city, which meant that finding them shouldn`t require more than five minutes each, assuming they were visible at all. Six targets, five minutes- if all of them took the full time, I`d be cutting it close. But it was doable. In theory.

　　Before even touching the hand mirror, I studied the faces of each man I`d be hunting, picking out identifying features in each picture, committing them to memory. "Do I just& start?"

　　"No," Daman grumbled to my left. "I need to finish setting up or your search will be pointless."

　　"You know, that`s the nicest thing you`ve said to me yet," I jabbed cheekily at the nerd, earning a chuckle from Kane and a sharp side-eye from Daman. Feeling smug and self-satisfied, I slouched more deeply on my chair and remembered to put on the mask while Daman booted up his software.

　　"Computer`s ready," Daman eventually announced. "Let me know when you`ve found a target, so I can do what I do."

　　"Sure," I said, sitting up straight again and collecting the pictures from the file, looking them over one last time. I was nervous. The sweat was already starting to bead behind the plastic of my mask when I flipped the little hand mirror over and entered the network beyond my reflection.