Even when his body begged for air, he steadied his mind and continued to hold his breath for another fifteen seconds. When he finally came up for air, he noticed he'd been the last one to do so. It had always been that way. His new recruits were all treading water around him, some gasping for air, others easily swimming. He'd taken stock of who had come up first and the order that the other seven recruits had come up. “Jones.” He nodded towards the skinny kid. “Dry off, change, and be in my office in five. The rest of you, take ten laps and call it a day.” He hated letting the kid go, but so far, his record wasn't impressive. You had to be made of stronger stuff and the hundred-and-thirty-pound twenty-two-year-old just didn't have what it took to be in the Coastguard. Sure, he'd worked hard for the last three years, but that didn't mean he was tough enough to handle an open ocean rescue. Allen dried off and watched his recruits swimming laps in the Olympic-size swimming pool they used to train for water rescues.
