contained all the complaints I received imposing them on my clients as well as any letters of appreciation, which was running three or four to one against.
"Witton will tell you how out of control I can get when I'm bored. Christ, I hadn't shot anyone in years. Well maybe one but that's a long time." That elicited several smiles. They had all been there-months of doing nothing waiting for that life and death encounter that lasted only minutes. "Here's the version I'm sticking with," I said and proceeded to give them a detailed account of my encounter with the gang bangers.
"What about the women candidates you've brought to the Hill?" Kazak Fred the Panther asked when I finished. It was a question I knew they all had on their mind. "Are they as devious as you were Fox?"
"As far as I'm concerned, they are nine candidates competing to be Kazaks, who have passed the first Challenge. The Kazak school is excellent but it was designed to evaluate men not women. The special first Challenge was only intended to level the playing field. Now, they deserve no special treatment. If they can't be as tenacious as Kazak Herbert or as stealth as Kazak Fred or as devious as me, they will be eliminated. For your information, the program consisted of..."
"I think you have equalized the men's inherent advantage. I'm looking forward to watching how this class will progress. Are you going to start another group next year?"
"No! Well, maybe if Witton will provide a new group of gang bangers every month or so." I tried to look like I was considering it. "No. Witton wants me to monitor this group for a long as he and my soul mate, Clare, can keep me here and sane. They think four years. I think two, so we'll probably compromise at three.
***
The next several months went by slowly. The first two years on the Hill was primarily academic, an accelerated college education in core course: languages, English, economics, psychology, math, and technology. Courses considered necessary to function in our elite clients' environments. The women and the men seemed to be having equal difficulties. During break one day, Jody approached me, bowed, but stood silent. After several minutes, she whispered, "Master Lynn, I know I'm not suppose to ask for help, but..."
"Jody, we've told you we understand you don't all have the same educational background and we will help. We just won't do the work for you. So?"
"I can't seem to learn a language. I'm managing with my other subjects, but I can't seem to learn the language I picked." Her eyes were misty, a rare sign of weakness. It must had cost her unbelievable agony to admit it.
"Jody, what does that cluck gots her hood pierced, mean?" I asked. Jody responded without thinking.
"The girl got her clit pierced."
"No one else up here knows what that means, because it's another language-street language. So you already know two languages. Consider any other language as just another street gang's language. That's all it really is. You need that slang to fit into the street gang." I waited as she digested that. Slowly she nodded agreement. "Let me make a suggestion. Listen to each of the core languages you have to pick from and select the one you like the sound of. Disregard the one you have. It will take you a lot of extra work to succeed. When I arrived here, like you I hadn't had much in the way of school learning. I did it and you can too if this is really what you want to do with your life. Start by allowing yourself a half-hour less sleep every couple of weeks. You will find you can exist on four or five hours of sleep and still be functional the next day. That will give you a couple of hours more to study."
"Thank you, Master Lynn." Her face was a picture of determination when I left. By the end of the first year she seemed to be doing at least average in every subject and better than average with her language-French. The first year slid into the second seamlessly. I had managed to visit Clare twice and she had
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