Chapter 596 - Rookie Transfer and the First Lesson
Peterson stared blankly. “Who are you looking for?”
“May I know if you’re Coach Peterson?” said Luke with his customary smile. Peterson subconsciously nodded. “I am. And you are…?!
Luke: “Student Luke Coulson reporting for duty.” He then gave him Remick’s note.
Peterson accepted the note with a black face. He was silent for a moment as he read it, and anger flashed in his eyes.
The notice of training was sent out a long time ago; why was someone suddenly showing up now?
But he didn’t flare up right away.
He was a man with principles – he would only deal with rookies who didn’t follow the rules with practical actions.
“Okay, it’s time to go. You, come with us.” With that, Peterson strode out of the classroom.
Luke’s expression didn’t change as he followed the man and ignored the rookies behind him.
Less than two minutes later, they were standing on the drill ground. “Now, we’ll test your baseline. Who wants to go first?”
Luke looked him in the eye and his smile didn’t change as he raised his arm right away. “Sir, me!”
Peterson was stumped; Luke had used the right wording. Ordinarily, rookies would say things like “me,” “let me,” or “I’ll give it a go.” Peterson would then have a good reason to yell sh*t like telling them they had to use “sir” first to address him.
This was in fact a common tactic in training, used to teach the rookies that police officers were a disciplined troop and had to obey orders.
Vexed inwardly, he pressed the stopwatch in his hand and said, “Okay, let’s start with the four-hundred-meter obstacle course. Whenever you’re ready.”
Luke: “Yes, sir.” He then took off on the obstacle course.
When Luke started the test, all the rookies widened their eyes, eager to see how he would pass and hoping to learn from him.
But less than twenty seconds later, Coach Peterson and all the students were lost for words. Are you kidding me? Are you here to mess with us?
On the field, Luke was leaping and running all with that slight smile on his face. It was obvious that he wasn’t trying his best.
He jumped over the low barriers, his feet were steady on the long narrow bridge, and he flipped over the high wall in less than a second. He didn’t make a single mistake, as if he had practiced on this obstacle course a million times, and his movements were smooth and easy.
After Luke returned to the starting point, he smiled widely at Peterson, who was still in a daze. “Sir, I’ve completed the test.”
Peterson nodded blankly.
Luke looked at the stopwatch. “Sir, can I fall back in line now?”
Peterson nodded again. He suddenly came back to himself and pressed the stopwatch.
One minute and forty-five seconds!
That was an excellent result, but not a real one, since Peterson started the stopwatch too early and stopped it too late; there had to be an extra ten or fifteen seconds on it. His lips moved, but he didn’t know what to say at that moment.
He couldn’t criticize Luke, because Peterson’s personal best wasn’t better than that. If he said that the result was sh*t, wouldn’t it mean that he was worse than sh*t?
But he had never praised anyone before, and for the moment, couldn’t think of the words to say.
Peterson was stuck in an awkward silence. On the other side, Remick had just come out from a side door of the building. He waved and shouted in the distance, “Peterson, come here for a bit.”
As if he had just been pardoned, Peterson said, “Fall back in line. At ease.” He then walked over to Remick in a hurry.
Luke stood silently at the very front and watched Remick and Peterson speaking in low voices in the distance with clearly conflicted expressions.
A lot of the students were whispering behind Luke as well. He heard them clearly thanks to his astonishing hearing, but it was nothing surprising
Nobody was speaking ill of him.
Of course, what they said in private later was another matter.
Very soon, the two middle-aged men were done talking, and Remick left.
Peterson stood there for at least ten seconds with his back to the students, before he finally turned around and walked back.
Looking at Peterson’s rigid smile, Luke was lost for words. If it wasn’t because he was sure that he had never lent this guy any money, he really would’ve thought that Peterson owed him a lot of money.
Peterson, on the other hand, was cursing inwardly: If he’s here because of his connections, just give him to that toady Harry! Why give him to me?
Unfortunately, Remick had wanted to teach this rookie transfer a lesson too, so he had intentionally assigned him to Peterson, who was more strict than Coach Harry.
As a result, both of them couldn’t feel any more regret at that moment.
But Peterson had his tricks as a coach.
After that, he smartly avoided Luke and concentrated his firepower on the other rookies.
A few minutes later, Peterson took out his phone solemnly and made a few sounds of acknowledgement into it before saying, “Student Luke, Director Remick has a document that you need to sign. You can go over now.”
Luke could hear that there hadn’t been any sound from the phone at all.
But he simply nodded and went to Remick’s office.
He knocked on the door and entered, only to find that this director of training was now a lot warmer than earlier. “Luke, we’ve learned about your situation. This is how we’ve arranged your training schedule…” After a moment, he asked searchingly, “Is this alright with you?”
Luke nodded with a smile. “Thank you for your consideration, Director Remick.”
At that moment, there was another knock on the door.
Before Remick could say anything, the door opened and a bald middle-aged man came in.
He muttered unhappily, “Remick, can’t you get a regular detective to train these rookies? We’ve been busy lately, and coming here to teach is a pure waste of time… Huh, Detective Luke?”
Luke’s smile didn’t change. “Captain Coble? It’s been a long time. Work pressure still that bad?”
ewcome
The newcomer was Harrison Coble, a SWAT captain whom Luke had met during the Nakatomi Plaza robbery.
Hearing Luke’s question, Harrison smiled bitterly. “Just call me Harrison. You heard about the case on the east side, right? The department wants us to increase our manpower, but also wants us to give the police officers the anti-terrorism training. We’re so busy we don’t even have time to piss.”
As he spoke, he looked at Remick. “If you’ve invited Luke here, why the heck did you call us?”
Remick was confused. “Huh?”
Luke coughed. “Harrison, I’m here to receive training.”
Harrison was stupefied as he looked at Luke.
Luke nodded in confirmation.
Harrison turned to Remick, who nodded silently as well, before he finally couldn’t hold back. “Are you serious? Is there anyone in this rotten place who can train Luke? Wait, is it some sort of computer or regulation training?”
Luke chuckled but didn’t say anything.
It was best not to blindly tell everyone that he had never taken the police officer training before.
He was sure that Harrison wouldn’t spread the news, but the more people knew, the more likely the information would leak.
