"So you're my colleague?" I asked Valerio whose back was facing me. He wore a grey t-shirt and ripped jeans which complimented his porcelain, cool skin tone.

When he turned to me, I noticed he was strapping some kickboxing gloves on before he replied, "Yes. You know John Elmer is in a way our boss, but actually he's a Spymaster so he's in charge of handling Spies like me and you depending on the rank you'll be in - I'll talk about that later - although, Elmer told me you have great potential."

"But I haven't done anything yet to show great potential." I told him confused.

"Oh, you have done a lot of things," he said throwing me a pair of kickboxing gloves, "from being such a good convincer to being able to solve scrambled words in record time."

"How did you know all of this?" I asked concerned for my privacy.

He thought carefully before placing a finger on his lips which sparked my curiosity.

Putting on the kickboxing gloves, I asked, "Aren't we supposed to train?"

He passed me the head guard, shin guards and mouth guard before he frowned and replied, "If you haven't been asking too many questions, we would be training by now."
I apologised before he continued, "It's fine, because according to your profile, you are no stranger to boxing so you'll learn quite quickly."

I was going to ask him how he knew, but I stopped myself otherwise he would complain again.

As he was putting on the head guard and shin guards, he sensed my hesitation to ask him another question and merely smiled at me.

"Lead the way." I told him and we went to an area in the studio where punch bags were hung from the low ceiling.

"I'm going to show you the moves for kickboxing which is quite similar to boxing. Watch. Jab," he demonstrated the Jab, "Cross," he demonstrated the cross, the uppercut, the shin block, the knee, the high kick and the duck stance change and then he said, "Do the same."

I repeated all the moves for about half an hour this time punching the punch bag and when the time was up, I was breathing heavily.

"Take five." He said.

"Can I at least go buy some energy drink from the corner shop?"

He took a sip of his energy drink before replying, "Yeah, sure. Just be very cautious."

"Ok, thanks." I turned heading towards the door / lift then I stopped walking thinking, oh crap I have no money.

I turned on my heel to ask him for some and he threw me a £2 coin causing me to whip round and my mouth to hang open slightly, my eyes follow the coin as it barely touched my palms.

"Oh, thanks." I say as I caught the coin.

"No problem."

I entered the lift which was hurtling this time upwards which forced me to cling on to the rail just to try not to lose my balance and fall on to my knees again.

As I exit the building, I felt a breeze which tousled my hair telling me it's late afternoon. I practically speed- walked out of the alley to the nearest corner shop and bought Lucozade (Yes, it also still exists).

Just as I was walking through the alley back to the Victorian building, a would-be rapist grabbed me - instantly I reacted with a roundhouse to the groin, I continued to turn and thrust a heel kick to the throat, kicking him down where he laid unconscious. I debated in my mind whether to finish him off with a stomp to the head or to just leave him there. I backed away choosing the second option not wanting to go to jail. Where did I get those moves? I got them from Karate lessons as a young teen earning myself a black belt and I am proud of it.

As I got out of the lift, I was greeted by Valerio whose arms were crossed impatiently tapping his foot, "You took 10 minutes," he said checking his watch.

"Is that a crime?" I asked laughing nervously.

He just rolled his eyes and put his arm around my shoulders guiding me towards the kickboxing area, "We got half an hour so try to strengthen your blocks; I'll be the one attacking so be prepared. After this, I'll take you to the HQ."
"Ok."

For the remaining half an hour, I practiced blocking and I was getting better at it. Once it was over, Valerio put on his coat (which resembled the ones detectives wore in crime fiction such as Sherlock Holmes), his shades covering his charcoal grey eyes and his hat which covered his medium blonde, slicked back hair (with short sides).

"Your hair's nice." I unconsciously commented causing him to crack a wide toothy grin.

"Glad you like it. Let's go."

*********

I climbed into the passenger seat of the newest black Range Rover which was parked on one of the smaller roads branching off the main road. Yes, Range Rovers still exist in this day and age.

"My grandmother said that her mother's mother told her these cars existed back in the 21st century and they were quite expensive." I told Valerio observing the sleek interior.

"I'm glad your family has a thing for cars." He chuckled turning the key, bringing the car's engine to life.

"Where are we heading?" I asked him after a few moments of me staring out of the tinted windows (which I could barely see through) and Valerio driving in silence as we passed Camberwell, East Street, Elephant and castle and so many other areas I couldn't remember, but the point is as soon as I realised where we were heading I asked him, "We are going to Holborn?"

"High Holborn," he corrected, "To be exact, we're going to Chancery Lane Underground Station."

"Why there?"

"You'll see."

Since London is quite an overpopulated city, the Underground is quite essential for Londoners. So over the recent years, they developed magnetic levitation replacing the tracks also entirely rebuilding the models of the trains.

We passed the ticket hall, stood on the escalator taking us down and found ourselves staring at a blank tiled wall.

I asked Valerio, "Why are we looking at some stupid wall?"

He did not reply and waited until the coast was clear of people. That was when he ran his gloved hand along the tiles. When he found the right one, he pressed it which revealed a passage big enough for two people which was made of marble with fluorescent lights every few metres.

"Wow." I say awed by this grand place.

Without a word, he grabbed my arm (gently) dragging me along with him into the passage; the opening closed behind us. As we were walking down the passage, he told me, "I'm going to take you to the Virtual Reality Dome where new recruits like you, train for a thing called "The Spy Games" which is an alternate of "The Hunger Games". It's a way of ranking new recruits," we stepped into a lift made of glass which a voice requested where we were going, "To the VRD," Name, Spy Organisation or Agency? It asked, "Valerio Ungaro member of U.I.S.A." There was a high beep and the lift door closed behind us. I closed my eyes and let out a shaky breath because the part that I dreaded the most was when the lift dragged us deeper and deeper underground.

*******

We exit the lift to find ourselves in some sort of control room with a glass separating us from a room (or more like an indoor dome) with the ceiling and floor made up of white hexagons. I couldn't put my finger on what they were made of.

In front of the controls were people frantically pressing buttons and shouting orders into their earpieces. As we neared the glass, I could make out a blonde girl in her late teens standing on a platform in the middle of the dome.

"What's going on?" I asked Valerio in a hushed voice.

He whispered back, "This new recruit is training to try and get one of the highest ranks in the ranking criteria."

"What is the ranking criteria?"

"The highest rank is the Spymaster- like Elmer, with the score of 10, a double agent with the score of 8, a Case officer with the score of 6, a Sleeper with the score of 4 and a Cobbler with the lowest score of 2."

"And what rank are you?"

"I'm an unranked agent," he gave me a quick smile, "This means I cover every rank from 2 to 10 or in other words, I scored an 11."

"Wow."