"I was wondering," asked Tom, "If on the edge of the hood, where it looks like the suit fades into the skin, could you make it look like there is an edge to the hood?"

"Why you want that?" asked Dr. Conrad "It not look as nice."

"To blend in with other divers." said Tom.

"Ah yes, clever." said Dr. Conrad, "Ok, I write program, make it look like edge, but it still work the same. Takes some days. Come back later, ok?"

"Ok, I will."

"I will let your boss know if you are ready after I look at these logs." said Dr. Conrad.

"Ok, well, thank you." said Tom as he left the room.

...

Later that evening, he got a call on the hotel phone.

"Hello Tom, it's Commander Smith." said the voice.

"Ah hello," said Tom "haven't seen you around here"

"Oh, I'm not around the hotel, I went back to ... well, you don't need to know." Smith replied. "The reason I called, is, you've been approved to begin training. 

Tomorrow. 0900 hours. Room 115. I'll have a reminder sent to you too."

"Ok, got it." said Tom

"That will be all" said Commander Smith, and the phone call was over.

...

The next morning, Tom got a reminder in his visor. "Well, they're not going to let me forget this." he thought.

He took a shower "Do I even need to take showers any more? Well I suppose it won't hurt." he mused while in the shower. He towelled off, put on the wetsuit shorts and went down to room 115.

...

Tom arrived right on time at room 115 was a room that could be used like a classroom or lecture hall. At the front was a man in 20s or 30s in a military uniform.

"You are Thomas, correct?" he asked.

"Correct." said Tom

"I am Sergeant Sweet." said the military man.

"Sergeant ... Sweet *snrk*" Tom almost laughed.

"It's a family name, maggot!" barked the Sergeant, "You will refer to me only as sir! Is that clear?"

Tom had seen enough military stuff that he know the only correct answer was "Yes, sir!"

"First, we will go over safety procedures in this classroom. Then when you are ready, we will do training in the pool, understand?" asked Sergeant Sweet.

"Yes sir!" said Tom.

"Yes, let's get started." said the Sergeant.

Days passed and Tom went really quickly through the training program. Tom realized that even though Sgt Sweet was a completely competent diver, there were places where 

Tom's book learning exceeded his instructor. Sgt Sweet didn't even know that Tom's visor had Night Vision.

Tom saw Jerry and his class multiple times but they were both busy with their respective trainers that they didn't get a chance to get a word in. Jerry was smiling at Tom whenever he saw Tom. "Is he hitting on me, or is he just a friendly guy like that?" thought Tom.

Sgt Sweet took Tom through diving in the pool with the heavy equipment. Tom discover something unexpected while diving there. There was a spot, in a replica of a sunken ship's engine room, where his visor displayed "Connection Lost" errors. Probably the combination of all the thick heavy metal around him. Just one place where he could possibly do something without any chance of his masters seeing it through the visor. Of course, his masters could see anything he brought in or out of that place, and he couldn't contact anyone while he was down there.

Tom was soon given permission to use the pool unaccompanied.

Tom was given some off-the-shelf scuba diving textbooks to study by Sgt Sweet. Tom put those in a pile with the operator manual. Each time he wanted to look at the operator manual, he would pick it up along with one of the books he was given, after enough time to appear focused on the pages of the textbook, he'd pick multiple pages at once to flip from a page in the textbook to a page in the operator manual. Then when he was done, put them both away together. Over the week, no one mentioned anything about the operator manual, neither to reference that he should read something from it, nor calling him out for having it when he should not.

He considered just asking about the operator manual, but if it was something he was not supposed to have gotten, it would probably be taken away. Understanding what was in it might be his only advantage if he decided he did want to escape. If he didn't ask about it, he could always say that he thought it was something he was supposed to have, if he ever got caught with it.

After considering his options, he thought about what his overall goals for the coming weeks should be:

a) Ask about the Operator Manual

b) Stick to the training program

c) Study the Operator Manual, think about escape

d) Hit on Jerry, see where it takes him