Chapter 643:
Two hundred students dropped to the gravel. The sun was already baking the stones.
“Plank position,” Gordon ordered. “Hold it until I say stop.”
Elbows hit the rocks. Backs straightened.
One minute passed. The groans started.
Two minutes. Muscles began to shake. Brittany was already cheating, her hips sagging to the ground when Gordon wasn’t looking.
Aurora was a statue. Her core was engaged, her breathing shallow and controlled. She stared at a single pebble on the ground, her mind reviewing the code for the latest Apex patch.
Five minutes. People were collapsing. Rolling over. Crying.
Gordon walked through the rows, kicking at feet that weren’t straight. He stopped at Aurora.
She hadn’t moved a millimeter.
“Comfortable, Vance?” Gordon sneered.
“Adequate, Instructor,” she replied through gritted teeth.
Gordon didn’t like that answer. He wanted to see her break. He wanted to see the arrogance leave her eyes.
He stepped up. He placed his heavy combat boot on the small of her back. And he pushed down.
“How about now?” he asked, adding his body weight.
The students nearby gasped. “That’s dangerous,” Maddie whispered, her own arms trembling.
Aurora felt the pressure. Her spine compressed. The gravel dug into her elbows, cutting the skin. Pain flared white-hot.
But she didn’t collapse.
Continue reading at gⲁ𝅘l𝗇oν𝖊𝗅𝘀⧸𝓬𝗈𝗺
She engaged her deep abdominal muscles. She visualized her spine as a steel rod. She pushed back against his foot, locking her structure.
Gordon frowned. He pressed harder. He was a 200-pound man. She shouldn’t be able to hold this.
Aurora let out a sharp hiss of breath, but she held. She turned her head slightly, looking up at him from the ground. Her glasses had slid down her nose, revealing eyes that burned with a cold, terrifying fire.
“Is that all you’ve got?” she whispered.
Gordon froze. He looked down at her. He saw the definition in her arms, the unnatural stability of her core. This wasn’t gym fitness. This was combat conditioning.
He stepped off.
“Recover!” he shouted.
The students collapsed in a heap of groans. Aurora stood up slowly. She brushed the gravel from her bleeding elbows. She didn’t look at Gordon. She looked at Brittany, who was lying on her stomach, pretending to faint.
Gordon walked back to his podium. He was rattled. He pulled out his phone and texted a contact in the admin office.
Run a check on Aurora Vance. Deep background. And check the plates on that black truck from Sunday.
.
.
.