Chapter 1
“Ready! Set! Go!” The instructor blew the whistle.
Tobin whirled around and raised her gun. The clock was ticking, and points were on the line. The first target in the form of a criminal holding a gun popped up twenty feet in front of her, and she immediately put it down with a single shot to the head. A second criminal target popped up to the left. Another single shot and that one went down as well. Two more criminal targets popped up to the right. Tobin dropped to one knee and fired off two more shots, and both targets went down. Another target popped up, this one to left. Tobin pivoted and went to fire but registered that the target was in the form of a frightened unarmed civilian, so she held her fire. A split-second later another criminal target appeared right behind the civilian target. Tobin fired at the criminal target and landed a bulls-eye in the head.
Three minutes and fifty rounds later, Tobin holstered her weapon. Around her were fifty spent criminal targets, each one put down with a single shot to the head. The four civilian targets that had popped up were unmarked.
“100 percent, Heath!” the instructor yelled. He gave Tobin a thumbs up, and Tobin smiled back. “You’ve got two minutes to rest, then onto the hand-to-hand combat course”, the instructor yelled. Tobin nodded her head and allowed herself a couple more seconds of smile, and then she closed her eyes and exhaled deeply, preparing herself for the next challenge.
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WHOOOSHHHH!!!
The wave surged behind the beautiful brunette, and she reveled in the feeling of weightlessness as the wave took hold of her. She charged down the face and then stalled at the bottom, shifted her weight slightly and applied pressure to her back foot, carving out a solid bottom turn. The wave, slightly taller than her, pitched over her as she finished the turn, and then it propelled her forward as it collapsed into foamy whiteness behind her. The brunette raced to stay just slightly ahead of the white water, gliding up and down the face of the wave. She rode for maybe thirty seconds, and then, when the wave started to lose steam, she turned towards the horizon and propelled herself over the crest of the wave, landing behind it. She settled down onto her stomach on her board and watched the back of the wave she had just ridden as it continued its journey towards shore. As she watched, she took in the scenery of the beach and then the Los Angeles skyline behind her, and her thoughts started to wander. She had endured a lot through her twenty-six years on this earth, and she often found herself struggling to find peace and happiness, but she had found both with surfing. All of the pain from the tragedy that had befallen her disappeared as soon as she paddled out into the water. Out here, in the ocean, amidst the waves, she felt free, even if for only the moments that she was in the water. Out here, riding waves, nothing else mattered.