Okay, I will admit that in this chapter I may have pandered to the immature male psyche just a little bit. However, I felt like this was an important part of Sarah’s story.
Also, there is some mature content in this chapter. Mostly implied, but it's still there. Read on at your discretion.
* * * * *
Sarah Walker had been in training to be a deep-cover operative for five months now. She had undergone hundreds hours of classroom training for fieldcraft, training on how to drive a vehicle in an emergency situation, how to fly an aircraft in a DIRE emergency situation, and over a hundred ways to kill a man.
Her physical training had been continued with Gunny Adams. He turned out to be a much more pleasant individual in a one-on-one situation when the trainee was eager to learn. In a strange way, he reminded her a lot of her father.
Her martial arts skills had been highly refined. Several martial arts masters were in the employ of the CIA, and they had fine-tuned the skills she already had, while teaching her other skills that she didn’t even know existed.
Her language skills had been increased. She was no longer fluent in seven languages and could speak passably in seven more; instead, she was now fluent in all fourteen and was learning Mandarin.
Unfortunately, she was not looking forward to the training she would be undergoing in November of 2002. She, along with a number of other female deep cover and field agent trainees, would be attending a training program run by the CIA that was jokingly known as “The Sparrow School.”
The Sparrow School was what spy novel author Tom Clancy had dubbed a certain school within the training program for the defunct Soviet Bureau for State Security, otherwise known as the KGB. The role of the Sparrow School was to train KGB agents in the art of sexually manipulating individuals in order to further their mission.
And that was precisely what the “Sparrow School” in Monterrey, California, did. The top deep cover and field agents, those who were expected to draw the most advanced assignments, were sent to the program.
For Sarah, of course, even though her sexual addiction was part of a person that no longer existed, it was still very, very real for her. She knew that the only way to keep that from re-awakening was to shut her mind off during the training, become completely inured to sex. This prospect in itself concerned her, because she was afraid she would lose the capacity for the emotional intimacy that went with a sexual relationship, and she wanted to actually have a worthwhile relationship with somebody SOMEDAY.
The school trained both male and female agents, but never at the same time. At any given time, the population of the school would be made up of the trainees of one gender. The staff of the school were a group made up of both genders, all of whom – from the housekeeping staff to the program director – were Agency employees who had volunteered with the knowledge that they might become a mark for seduction. The idea of the school was to teach the agent to seduce anybody, either gender, any where, at any time.
The identity of the program director was a rather unexpected shock. She introduced herself as a rather well-known adult film star, and explained that she had been training CIA agents for nearly twenty-five years. She said that since she was good at what she did, she figured she’d give it a shot in the public sector as well. She had become a millionaire in the process, but kept working for the CIA out of a sense of duty.
“In its most basic form,” the program director explained, “it’s very simple. Have any of you seen any episodes of Joss Whedon’s new show, Firefly?”
Every trainee in the room raised a hand except for Sarah. “No, Agent Walker?”
“No, ma’am. Sci-fi’s just not my cup of tea.”
“Fair enough. Anyway, within the show, there’s the concept of somebody known as a Companion. This individual’s primary objective is to be a sexual companion, but with training in intelligence gathering and fighting. Now, obviously, your primary goal as agents of the Central Intelligence Agency is to gather intelligence, but when you leave this program, you will be sexually trained in the same fashion as a so-called Companion.”
The director paused and looked around the room. “Are there any questions before we move on?”
No hands were raised.
“Very well. Let’s start off with a very basic question, and just get this out of the way first thing off the bat. How many of you have had sex?”
A quiet giggle ran through the room, as every woman there raised her hand. “Alright, how many have had more than one partner?”
A couple of hands went down. “More than two partners?”
A couple more hands went down. “More than five partners?”
Half the hands in the room went down. “More than… ten partners?”
All but three hands in the room went down. Sarah’s was one of the ones still in the air, and she could feel a warm blush moving up the back of her neck.
The director continued. “More than twenty partners?”
Sarah’s was the only hand remaining in the air, and as she realized that, she quickly pulled it down, the blush climbing the rest of the way up her head and enveloping her face completely. She battled back tears.
Seeing this, the director quickly said, “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Agent Walker. I think it’s shameful how our society demonizes women who have had multiple sexual partners, when it’s considered a sign of virility in men.”
She looked around the rest of the room and continued, “Quite frankly, Agent Walker’s experience puts her at an advantage. She will likely require less training, and finish the program well before most of you, meaning she will have to endure less.”
As small a consolation as that was, it was nonetheless a ray of hope for Sarah. The sooner she got out of Monterrey, the better she would feel.
“You will each have a personal instructor,” she went on. “This instructor will teach you the art of seduction, will judge your progress, and will decide when you have completed the program. Are there any questions?”
There were none. With that, the director went outside, and when she returned, a group of women trailed behind her. They appeared to range in age from about 25 to about 40. All were dressed in black.
“These are your instructors,” she said. “You have each been paired with an instructor based on an evaluation by the Agency. Some are Agency, some are not.”
She had each of the women come forward one at a time. As each came forward, she would call off one of the trainee’s names, and they would go off within the facility to become acquainted with their instructor.
A tall, statuesque red-headed woman stepped up. “Sarah Walker,” the director called.
Sarah got up from her seat, and went forward. “Carina Hansen, DEA,” the woman said, extending her hand.
“Sarah Walker, CIA,” she responded, shaking the woman’s hand.
“Pleasure to meet you, Agent Walker. Let’s go for a walk.”
* * * * *
The identity of Carina Hansen was to this woman what the identity Sarah Walker was to Sarah. However, she had come to fully live it. Her cover story was practically identical to her real life story – born in 1977 in Finland, came to the United States with her parents when she was a small child. An almost unpronounceable Finnish name had been changed to “Hansen”, and after watching two of her best friends die of overdoses in high school, she had decided to join the Drug Enforcement Administration to help put a stop to those types of events.
“I volunteer a month of my time every year to this program,” she explained. “It’s important to have agents with these types of abilities, and honestly, it’s really fun teaching inexperienced kids how to seduce people.”
Sarah laughed. “I am, um, far from inexperienced.”
“Is that a fact,” Carina replied. “How many sexual partners?”
Sarah held her breath for a moment. “Twenty-nine.”
“REAL-ly,” Carina breathed. “You’re right up there with me. Well, not quite, but close. Any group encounters.”
“Uh-huh,” Sarah said quietly, nodding. “There was one, but I was so drunk that I don’t remember it.”
“Ew,” Carina replied, wrinkling her nose. “I hate it when that happens. Those are the worst.”
Sarah just looked at her. “I take it you’ve had these experiences?”
“More than once, Agent Walker. I’m a big fan of sex.”
Sarah raised an eyebrow. “I see.”
“Come on, it sounds like you are too.”
She sighed. “Not really. When I was in high school, I used sex to escape my life. Things sucked at home, and sex took my mind off of it. The thing was, I had sex and without any sort of, you know, emotional intimacy that I would get bored with one partner quickly, and move on to the next. Of those twenty-nine, twenty-six were during my last three semesters of high school.”
“Ah,” Carina said. “I stand corrected.”
“I went into counseling when I went off to college,” Sarah continued. “They told me I had developed a sexual addiction, so I pretty much quit cold turkey. I started going to group meetings – they called it Sex Anonymous, if you can believe it. I had a… a relapse, I guess, right after 9/11, with one random guy, and then, the last two were the… um, threesome I told you about, right before I dropped out of school and joined the Agency.”
Carina was quiet for a moment. “So, I’m assuming you really don’t like the idea of being here.”
Sarah laughed bitterly. “I’d be lying if I said I did.”
Carina looked at the younger woman. “Then don’t do it,” she said. “Tell the program director you can’t do this program. I’ll talk to Director Graham. There are plenty of worthwhile things for agents to do that don’t involve seduction.”
Sarah shook her head emphatically. “If I’m going to be trained, I’m going to go the whole nine yards,” she replied. “I’m not going to do a half ass job. Either I’m an agent, or I’m not. If I can’t complete this course, I don’t deserve the title of Agent.”
Carina raised her eyebrows. “You really are dedicated to this, aren’t you?”
Sarah nodded.
“Then let’s do this thing.”
* * * * *
Sarah really didn’t have the first clue about seducing somebody. Carina had to really go from the beginning. In high school, Sarah hadn’t had to really work at it – just wear a low cut blouse and a tight skirt, and the boys kind of developed a flock-and-fuck mentality.
Carina decided that Sarah needed a practical demonstration, and so she went to the motor pool and found one of the chauffeurs. She put the moves on him smooth as silk, and before Sarah knew it, Carina was dragging the chauffeur into an empty office – and making Sarah come in as well.
Sarah couldn’t believe her eyes as she watched what essentially amounted to live porn. She felt very odd watching two people have sex, live and in person, but it was like a bad car wreck – she couldn’t look away.
Afterwards, Carina made a point of one thing. “Always, always, ALWAYS convince your mark you had an orgasm,” she emphasized. “It will make them think that they’re hot shit, and they will probably tell you just about anything.”
“Oh, joy,” Sarah replied drily. “That should just be a blast.”
After a number of classroom lessons with textbooks and videos – SO much fun – and a few “practical demonstrations”, Carina informed Sarah that it was time for her to give it a shot.
Sarah had picked out her first mark days before – nobody who was anything like the chauffeur. She had decided, instead, to go for a kind of nerdy looking guy in the administrative offices.
“Why, exactly?” Carina had asked.
“Let’s think about it. A chauffeur might overhear his boss talking about something. MIGHT. But an administrative assistant is going to handle hundreds of sensitive documents, be privy to top secret information… a much better source of intelligence.”
Carina had nodded appreciatively. “You’re good, Sarah, you’re good.”
When Sarah approached the admin guy at the copier one day and started flirting with him, he almost broke down and wept for joy. Nonetheless, he did put up a bit of resistance, making Sarah work to get him into her bedroom.
When they had finished, Sarah kissed him good night and sent him on his way. As she turned around to prepare to get ready for bed, something very strange happened.
The full length mirror on the wall swung outward, and Carina stepped out.
“What. The. HELL?” Sarah asked, her eyes widening.
“Well, I have to judge you SOMEHOW,” Carina replied. “And you did well, mostly. You looked kind of bored, and you need to not look bored. You need to be completely into it. But for the first time in that sort of situation, you did pretty well.”
Carina told Sarah to be a little more ambitious for her next mark. Sarah went above and beyond ambitious. She decided to go for the department head, a CIA career man with twenty years of service who was in charge of the facility.
He was a little surprised, but pleased to be approached by one of the trainees. It took Sarah even longer with him than it had with the guy from the admin pool, but sure enough, by the end of the night, he was walking out of her bedroom with a very satisfied look on his face. He made sure to report Agent Walker’s superb performance to Agent Hansen.
“You did extremely well with the department head,” Carina informed her the next day. “In my observation of your performance, you markedly improved over the last time. You looked like you were enjoying yourself and having fun, and he said it was the best he’s ever had.”
As ambivalent as Sarah was about the whole program, that remark did please her. It was nice to be regarded as “the best.”
“Quite frankly, I think one more, and you’ll be ready to be done with the program,” Carina informed her. “But I get to pick this one.”
Sarah frowned. “How will I know who it is?”
“Simple,” Carina responded. “Your mark will meet you at the Taphead Pub, Saturday night, at 10:00. He or she will greet you with the remark, ‘How ‘bout them Packers’.”
“What?”
“As in the Green Bay Packers, Sarah. And do make sure not to actually wear any Packers gear, so that nobody says it to you on accident.”
“Right.”
* * * * *
Sarah arrived at the Taphead Pub at 9:30, wanting to get the lay of the land first – just like any good intelligence officer would. Having figured out the layout of the pub, she took a seat at the bar and got a Long Island Ice Tea.
Looking across the bar, she saw what was clearly a college-age couple – a taller, kind of nerdy, but still good-looking guy with curly brown hair, with his girlfriend, a striking brunette with nerd glasses that she somehow made look sexy. They were laughing and clearly having a good time.
That could be me, she thought. She sighed when she overheard the brunette say, “Love you Chuck,” and heard him respond, “Love you too, Jill.”
Why couldn’t that have been me? I could’ve had a normal life.
“How ‘bout them Packers?”
Sarah’s eyes widened at the voice, and she whirled on her bar stool. Carina stood behind her in a low-cut slinky black dress.
“Are you kidding me?!” Sarah hissed.
“Not at all,” the DEA agent replied. “Get to work, Agent Walker, you’re not getting this one for free.”
And so Sarah got to work, all right. Her anger made her more aggressive, and it wasn’t long until Carina Hansen was like putty in her hands.
When they began to draw lingering looks from a number of the men in the bar, she knew it was time to go. She didn’t stop on the drive back to the School, though. By the time she and Carina got back to her room, Carina was practically tearing her clothes off.
What Sarah didn’t know was that this time, the program director was behind the mirror. “Here we go,” she muttered as the door opened and the two agents practically fell into the room.
* * * * *
Three days later, Sarah Walker left the Sparrow School. She had passed with flying colors, and was certified to move on to the final stage of mission training. She was VERY happy to leave Monterrey in her rear-view mirror.
