Hard Knocks Read Online Free PDF Page B

sternum. The injury had been without undue complications and had largely healed, but having my arms forced back like this made my ribcage feel as though it was being slowly torn apart up the middle. I closed my mind to the possibilities of what might happen if they were planning on manhandling us at the other end.
     
    After only a few minutes the truck swung round in a half-circle, the engine cut before we’d stopped. Doors opened, people jumped down, doors slammed. The latches of the tailgate were shot back and we were hauled out.
     
    I managed to roll so that I landed mostly on my feet, going down onto one knee. I was dragged upright and hurried over gravel, concrete, and up a short rake of steps at such a rate that I tripped blindly over my own feet. Then I was being forced to my knees. Someone jostled into me and I heard a hiss of indrawn breath that sounded like Elsa.
     
    The change in temperature was enough to tell me we were indoors, never mind the squashy layer of carpet under me. Even through the hood I could tell the light level had gone up dramatically. I tried to prepare my eyes for the change I knew was coming, but it couldn’t be done.
     
    When the hood came off, the brightness stung like when slicing strong onions. I screwed my eyes shut for a moment or so, then opened them cautiously. In front of me were probably twenty-five people, including another two women. They were all watching the three of us as we knelt there coated in filth and anxiety. There were some smiles, but it was mostly sympathy I saw spread among them.
     
    A man was standing in front of us, wearing immaculately-pressed khaki trousers and a green army jumper with a regimental belt over the top of it. He had smartly brushed back fair hair, a long aristocratic neck, and the kind of crinkled up eyes that he would like you to believe are more suited to staring out over a battlefield, or an ocean.
     
    “Good evening, ladies and gentleman,” he said, smiling a wolf’s smile, revealing teeth too white and too even to still be his own. “I’m Major Gilby. Welcome to Einsbaden Manor.”
     
    “Oh for feck’s sake,” I heard Declan breathe, “can the man not just shake hands?”
     
    The Major nodded to the men who’d brought us in. Two of them moved forward to release us. The rest fell in neatly to one side, as though this was a show they put on often enough for everybody to know their places by heart.
     
    Now I had a chance to look at them in full light, I saw they were all big men, dressed in black assault gear, with cammed up faces and woollen hats.
     
    One of them had pulled a combat knife from a sheath on his thigh and sliced through our bonds. I swear I heard my breastbone creak as the pressure on it eased. At least they helped us up with rather more care than they’d shown putting us down.
     
    “You may think this is a little drastic introduction to the course,” the Major said, nodding, as the three of us eased our shoulders and surveyed our sodden clothing, “but I assure you that everyone here has been through just such an experience.”
     
    He glanced round. The other people who were obviously not staff were grinning at us in rueful embarrassment that they, too, had been caught out. Gilby turned back to us and switched off the smile, fixing us with a serious gaze.
     
    “Let there be no mistake,” he said, “by the time you’ve completed your training here you can be absolutely certain that nobody will be able to take you by surprise like that again!”
     

Three
     
    It seemed that Declan, Elsa and I were the last ones to arrive at Einsbaden Manor. Major Gilby launched into his full induction talk right away.
     
    The Major might have been a charismatic speaker, had not someone obviously once told him what a charismatic speaker he was. As a result he tried too hard and found his own jokes just a little too funny. Most of us dutifully folded our lips back and showed our teeth to order, but for the instructors it