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

severely as it did with the bigger men. Many quit after collapsing during a strenuous day. Others were admitted to sick bay, never to return again.  
    She realized she had a higher pain barrier than the men when it came to prolonged exertion. She was thankful to her female body, her Y chromosome aiding her tremendously.
    She cared deeply for these men. They had been through many trials and tribulations together, and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would be willing to sacrifice her life for them. Well, most of them, anyway.  
    She sauntered to the mess hall; she needed some caffeine. There always had to be an exception, didn’t there? And his name was Benedict Pascoe.  

It had been another excruciating session. Men were falling like targets on the shooting range. Natalie had been spraying herself clean with a garden hose, trying to get rid of the caked mud on her boots and uniform. She was three months into her training, another month to go before being accepted as a Legionnaire, and it felt like the physical torture was intensifying on a daily basis. As she turned to leave, she noticed Pascoe standing against the fence, leering at her, scratching his balls.  
    “Hey, mademoiselle, I love dirty women.”  
    He was a short, tattooed Italian with shifty eyes topped with a unibrow. People said he joined the Legion to get away from the cops. He had apparently murdered his fiancée.  
    “I don’t have time for this, Pascoe. It’s been a long day and I’m tired.” She turned around, planning to ignore the loathsome dick. “Leave me alone.”
    Pascoe ambled closer and put his hand on her shoulder, pulling her around to face him. “I’m only saying, if you want a good time, you only need to ask.” He cupped his sack. “Pascoe has been known to cause many a lady to die of pleasure.”  
    Natalie turned her back on him again. “Only dictators and schizophrenics talk about themselves in third person.”  
    He grabbed her neck from behind. His other hand fondled her breasts. He was quick.
    “Don’t get smart with me, mademoiselle. You might end up in a—what do you say?—a compromising situation.”  
    “Let . . . go . . . of me,” Natalie hissed through clenched teeth, trying to pry his arm loose. He stank of onions and sweat.
    “Oh, but I can think of so many nice things to do with you, mademoiselle. No one will care.” He breathed into her ear, touching it with his lips. “You shouldn’t be here, you little whore. You’re out of your depth, bad for morale.” Pascoe slid his hand down her stomach and undid her belt. “Everyone will thank me for breaking your scrawny little neck, dispatching the little temptress to the choir in the sky.”
    She gasped as he tightened his grip around her neck.  
    She swallowed hard, stomping her heel down in the general direction of his foot, connecting on her third try. His grip slackened as he yelled out in pain, which gave her enough leverage to smack her head back into his nose. He let her go and clutched his bleeding face as she spun around to face him.  
    She finished him off with a kick to the groin. He crumbled into a pitiful, moaning heap.  
    She left him convulsing in pain. She was a big girl and she had expected this to happen sooner or later.
    “You watch your back, bitch,” Pascoe shouted as she marched away.

     

CHAPTER THREE

Becky22, Zach’s scouting program had lost all traces of his daughter. Total communications blackout. Natalie Bryden, AKA Rebecca Cohen, had disappeared.
    It hadn’t stopped searching though. The botnet was more than three million computers strong, and analyzing vast amounts of data took a fraction of a second to process. After four months it found a positive match. A voice message to a certain General Alain Laiveaux, division head of the French Foreign Legion, Geneva. It said:
    “Hi, General, this is Dessetaux from Home Affairs. Natalie Bryden’s identity has been discontinued. French citizenship is confirmed,