Once I truned 18, the agency thought that I was old enough to begin the breath holding program, I was then sent to my adoptive father's (the doctor Pithiot) lab to get my muzzle's mesurements and head circumference. Many other older agent wished me luck for this training as it was considered one of the most difficult and scariest training of the whole spy formation program, and indeed the idea of not being able to breathe is quite frightening.
Then one week later I was then invited again in dr Pithiot's lab, and as much as I knew the doctor during all these years, I actually never went to his lab before, there was a lot of mannequins, miniatures and posters of the anatomy of lungs, but also a comfy sofa, and a strange tube attached to a pipe and something that looked like a mask. Then the little Doctor mouse arrived in his lab coat and bow tie and greeted me
-Bonjour Louis and welcome. He said, It is a pleasure to finally have you trained in my place. -Bonjour. I said while embracing my adoptive father figure, What is that training test? And why did I have to wait to turn my 18years old to do it? -Because before this age, your lungs aren't developped enough do do this training safely, but I am quite confident in your potential as according to your medical file, you have some of the healthiest lungs of the whole agency, which is a good thing for this project as it is made to push their limits to the maximum. -How? -By making you holding your breath thanks to this mask, let me show it's features...
Then I saw two doberman hulks in black suits and ties with sunglasses entering the room.
-Why are these men here? - Them? Oh don't worry, they are just here to protect me from you. -From me? But I have no intention to harm you. -For the moment no, but some agents tend to get violent when they can't take the apnea anymore. So, about the mask by itself, it was made on your facial mesurements we made one week ago, it is attached to a pipe that fills it with water when it is placed over your nose and mouth. To tie it around your head, there are these rubber bands attached to a locking system that only I can unlock thanks to this key, therefore you cannot take off the mask unless I want to. But when it is filled with water, many agents try to empty it by swallowing water and by blowing air into it, but at each time the mask is emptiying, I am filling it with water again... Then I bet you have understood this : You cannot cheat.
I was trully afraid, I now understand why it is so feared, the only idea to not be able to breathe sounds painful.
-How... How long will it last? -Do not worry, we will start soft, only one minute to start, then once you got used to it and handle the suffocation fine enough, we will add one minute to the timer. There will be 4 phases in this program :
Phase 1 : 1-5 minutes Phase 2 : 5-7 minutes Phase 3 : 7-10 minutes Final phase : minimum 10 minutes until the subjects reaches his peak capacity
Are you ready for this my boy? -I... I do not know, what if I can't do this? -Do not worry agent, these two men have been trained to reanimate you if something goes wrong. -Ok then, let's begin this. I said as he was placing the mask on my face...
The first days were horrible, these were only one minute each day, but these always have been felt like an eternity to me, but at least I could take it easily and sit quietly on the sofa. Then after that when I got better at this after a week or two, I was required to hold my breath during 2 minutes, which was even worse as I started to have pins and needles in my fingers and toes and lungs were asking for air. but this is only when we got much better and that I passed to three minutes after two months and four minutes of breath holding time after the fith month of my training that things went really painfull. My lungs were on fire and I often felt dizzy and almost passed out near the end countless times. But my worse case of distress during my first phase of training happenned when I was required to hold for 5 minutes as my breath hold capacities really did improve during all these months of intense training. There about one minute and fourty seconds before the end of the timer, I got pannicked and I suddently stood up from the seat, shaking, trying to take my mask off as my lungs were on fire and had spasms, asking for air, which was horribly frustrating as I was feeling this fresh air all around me but I simply couldn't breathe it! Then the doctor just tried to calm me down by sitting me back on the seat. But as it was the last minute I had to hold, I felt weird, much more than dizzy, I felt light, my sight got blurred and I felt myself falling on the ground. Then I got reanimated by one of the doberman and I was allowed to quit the training until the next day. But I simply couldn't go back to this lab, I was terrified, I simply didn't want to go back to this training because of that daily lung suffering, but it was a duty like everything else I had to do for the agency. Therefore I went back anyway and accepted the daily suffocation feeling, knowing that I might suffer and faint over, over and over again until I get used and can handle the apnea for at least five minutes straight. But how long will it take before I can take it easy?
