TM prompt 269: Outsmarted
Write about a time you were outsmarted.
Sure.
Be glad to talk about one of the best things that ever happened to me.
I was twenty-six years old, the year was nineteen sixty-one, and I'd made Major years before. My COs didn't want me going much past that rank -- they'd have to chain me to a desk, and everyone seemed to already know how bad an idea that would be. I wasn't made for a desk job. But things were heating up all over the world, so there was some advanced training they wanted to put me through. I'd had the orders to ship to Camp Washington for a few days, and been there about fourteen hours. We'd finally been set at that first obstacle course -- damn the thing -- and I thought I was just about home free, with how far I'd made it. Tricky course, I already wanted to meet the mind behind it because they'd set up some nice traps, but I though I had it beat. Just had to get through that water and I'd be to the objective... quick check didn't show me anything in it, and --
Best laid plans. I hadn't been in that rib-deep water for more than two minutes when my world went sideways and these strong, fast hands had my gun out of my hands and then had me. I couldn't believe what I saw once I could get the water out of my eyes and here was this soaking-wet woman in uniform standing there with this knife of a smile on her face. "Bang, Major. You're dead."
Yeah. I was. Just not in the ways she meant when she proved just how good she was. Tricky, cunning, brilliant professional.
...I sound like a besotted teenager. I wasn't that when I met her. --Alright, alright. I was infatuated, but I wasn't a teenager anymore. Hadn't been in... over a decade. The topic was being outsmarted, not your lady, Wilson.
We wound up breaking down just where I'd screwed up, how she'd gotten me then, and then she said the damnedest thing. "You're good, Major. I can make you better."
She did, too. Half of the things the Titans have cursed me for over the years, I picked up from Captain Kane, US Special Forces. I have had moments to wish I'd taken the lesson about arrogance and assuming I know what's going on a little more to heart, but then... I am that damn good.
She made sure of it.
Sure.
Be glad to talk about one of the best things that ever happened to me.
I was twenty-six years old, the year was nineteen sixty-one, and I'd made Major years before. My COs didn't want me going much past that rank -- they'd have to chain me to a desk, and everyone seemed to already know how bad an idea that would be. I wasn't made for a desk job. But things were heating up all over the world, so there was some advanced training they wanted to put me through. I'd had the orders to ship to Camp Washington for a few days, and been there about fourteen hours. We'd finally been set at that first obstacle course -- damn the thing -- and I thought I was just about home free, with how far I'd made it. Tricky course, I already wanted to meet the mind behind it because they'd set up some nice traps, but I though I had it beat. Just had to get through that water and I'd be to the objective... quick check didn't show me anything in it, and --
Best laid plans. I hadn't been in that rib-deep water for more than two minutes when my world went sideways and these strong, fast hands had my gun out of my hands and then had me. I couldn't believe what I saw once I could get the water out of my eyes and here was this soaking-wet woman in uniform standing there with this knife of a smile on her face. "Bang, Major. You're dead."
Yeah. I was. Just not in the ways she meant when she proved just how good she was. Tricky, cunning, brilliant professional.
...I sound like a besotted teenager. I wasn't that when I met her. --Alright, alright. I was infatuated, but I wasn't a teenager anymore. Hadn't been in... over a decade. The topic was being outsmarted, not your lady, Wilson.
We wound up breaking down just where I'd screwed up, how she'd gotten me then, and then she said the damnedest thing. "You're good, Major. I can make you better."
She did, too. Half of the things the Titans have cursed me for over the years, I picked up from Captain Kane, US Special Forces. I have had moments to wish I'd taken the lesson about arrogance and assuming I know what's going on a little more to heart, but then... I am that damn good.
She made sure of it.