Alexa - Legionnaire : Training an Assassin: Prequel to Alexa - The Series by Arno Joubert

of another plane in your life if it depended on the general,” Voelkner said with a chuckle.
    She laughed. She stretched her arms then massaged her leg muscles. The fitness regime had intensified. If she thought they would let off on the physical training, she was sorely mistaken. The Legion liked to keep their troops trained and battle-ready. They believed a bored troop would get into trouble, so they kept them in a permanent state of fatigue.  
    She smiled and popped a piece of toast in her mouth. “Enough about me, are you excited to join the French Marine Commandos?”
    He shrugged. “Not really.”
    She frowned. “What do you mean, it’s an honor to be chosen—“
    “I didn’t exactly volunteer, Lieutenant.”
    “What?”
    “Laiveaux commanded me to go.”
    “Laiveaux, why?”
    He sighed. “He said I needed to keep an eye on you. He was afraid you may get hurt or something.”
    “Hurt? How?”
    Voelkner chuckled. “You have developed the reputation of being quite the daredevil, Lieutenant Guerra.”
    She waved a hand. “Bah, that’s rubbish. I’m going to end up babysitting you, Voelkner.”
    He chuckled, glancing at her shyly. “That better be a promise, Lieutenant.”
     

French Naval Base
    Morocco

    Alexa crawled out of the ocean on all fours and collapsed on the ground, sucking in deep breaths. Captain Kristian Le Roux sauntered towards her, jotting notes on his clipboard. He dragged her out of the waves by her belt and dumped her on the beach, then he strolled to a whiteboard and updated the rolling record of the divers’ efforts.
    “No one can catch up with you now, Guerra. It seems you’re going to graduate top of your class.” He rolled his eyes. “Again.”
    She rolled onto her side on the scalding white sand, coughed up some saltwater, and then slipped out of her army fatigues and removed her boots. The sun was beating down mercilessly, and she cupped her hands over her eyes as she spoke. “Good.”
    The first men appeared behind the waves, and Alexa glanced over the shiny ocean surface. “Shit,” she said and jogged back into the sea.  
    “What?”
    “Voelkner’s taking strain,” she shouted, wading deeper.
    Le Roux lifted his binoculars to his eyes and scanned the horizon. “Leave him.”
    “Then you’ll need to tell Laiveaux you allowed one of his men to drown,” she shouted and dove into a wave.  
    “Whatever,” he mumbled, scribbling some more notes.
    She returned a few minutes later, dragging Voelkner out of the waves by his collar. Coughing and spluttering, he collapsed on his back on the beach. “Thanks,” he said between breaths. “I thought I was going to be a goner.”
    “You going to save the others as well?” Le Roux asked, checking the progress of the men in the water.
    She rubbed her arm over her brow. “Voelkner was my only concern.”
    Voelkner nodded appreciatively, wiping the water from his face, struggling to slip off his backpack.
    The captain sauntered to where Alexa sat on the beach, her arms on her legs. “Are you ready for a real challenge, Lieutenant?”
    Alexa sat back with her hands in the sand and studied him for a moment. He was tanned and sinewy. She smiled and nodded. “I’m always ready for a challenge, as you put it, Captain.”
    He tapped his clipboard with the pen. “Free dive, the deepest man wins.”
    Alexa considered this for a moment. He was good. He held the record at a hundred and twenty feet. But he was also too smug to her liking. “Or the best woman,” she said as she wiped her hands on her pants.
    “We shall see,” Le Roux said with a grin. He ruffled her hair. “See you in five minutes, at the quay.” He glared at the ocean then spoke into a two-way radio. “Pick them all up, no one’s coming out today, by the looks of things.”
    A couple of minutes later, she met up with Le Roux, Voelkner accompanying her, and they took an inflatable rubber speedboat to an area clear of coral and rocks. Two assistant divers