He yowled in pain, his face bloodied, his nose bent grotesquely to one side. Enraged and not a little disoriented, he lunged at her. Strangely, she seemed not to resist. He had her in his grasp for an instant before he felt her hand behind his elbow, swinging him around. He crashed into one of the other men, heads colliding like pumpkins. They lay in a heap for a moment, stunned, blood oozing out of their faces, watching as she turned to the other two men. One of them seemed to know karate. He swung a roundhouse kick at her head. She leaned back and out of the way. As he pulled his foot back and down, she hooked his ankle with her left foot and pulled him towards her. Her behavior was uncanny. She hadn’t run away, or even retreated from him. As he fell forward, he spread his arms in a vain attempt to regain his balance. But she pulled his foot even further forward, forcing him into a perfect hurdler’s split. He felt his hip grind as he went down. The pain was almost unbearable. She punched him in the throat, sharply, as he fell. He gasped for breath. The thought occurred to her that she might have crushed his windpipe. “This isn’t the dojo,” she told herself.
The last man grabbed her pony tail from behind. He hoped to control her as he grabbed her with his other arm. He expected her to pull away, so he could yank her head back. To his surprise, she spun into him, wrapping her right arm over his elbow and under. She forced his elbow up at the same time as she forced his shoulder down. He could feel the enormous pressure on the back of his elbow. There didn’t seem to be any coherent way to move his body to extricate himself from her grip. Of course, this thought barely had time to register. He wasn’t even able to struggle with her. She was so close to his chest he couldn’t even grab her. She drove the heel of her left palm under his chin with a quick, sharp blow. He felt his teeth crack through his tongue just as his elbow snapped. He crumpled to the ground in tears, his mind awhirl. What had just happened? He was unable to focus on anything outside of his own pain. Where was she?
She turned to the first two men, still feeling the rush of ferocity she had just unleashed. The one with the broken face, groggy but barely conscious, moved to pick himself up. Then he saw her eyes and shuddered. He felt a tingling numbness radiate from his head. He was sweating profusely and began to feel dizzy. She turned to Danny. They had worked him over a bit, but he wasn’t seriously hurt. They hadn’t had much time, and had not hit him in the face. At least he would be spared a lot of questions at home. She helped him up and led him back to his truck. They left before the police got there.
On the way home, she reassured Danny about what happened. Just some thugs looking for trouble. No deeper meaning in it. He had been brave. Fortunately for him, he had not seen just how thoroughly she had rescued him. But she had other things to think about, things that were more important than massaging his ego. Who were those guys? And what did they want? Was it just a random attack, or had they been marking them all evening? Perhaps even longer?
These were troubling questions. But an even more troubling thought kept nudging its way into her consciousness. Had she reacted too fiercely? She was not concerned for those men. They had meant to do much worse to her. Exactly what they had in mind, she didn’t know. But she had felt the malevolence in them. They were completely devoid of any human sentiment towards her. But she wondered if she had overcommitted herself? She remembered feeling the thrill of her own ferocity. Had she been able to control it? She vanquished her assailants. But had she lost sight of herself in the process?
This was the first time she had ever been in a real fight. Not sparring. Not a schoolyard scuffle. Those men meant to harm her, perhaps even kill her. She had defeated them. Perhaps even killed one of them. Maimed another. This is what it means to be in a fight. If your opponent puts your life on the line, he can’t avoid putting his own life on the line, too. If she had ever harbored any doubts about her ability to defend herself, to keep her wits about her and to generate enough sheer aggression to prevail, those had been effectively dispelled. But was that enough? What had this victory really cost her? Was this the meaning of all of her training? Or was it a distortion, a distraction from more important truths?
She saw Danny in school the following Monday. He seemed embarrassed, uncomfortable. He didn’t know what to say to her. He had half expected to see a police report about it, maybe even have to answer some questions himself. But he heard nothing all weekend. He wondered if his mother had treated those guys at the ER. But the rest of the weekend had been uneventful. He was at a loss for words.
She told her father all about it that same night. His eyes were alight, but he seemed otherwise very self-controlled. He said little, listened carefully to her story. He asked if she noticed anything familiar or recognizable about those men. “They were trained,” she said. “They didn’t belong at the concert.”
“Did they seem like soldiers?”
“I don’t know, Dad. They were kinda like the security guards around here,” she replied. “You know, trained but indifferent. They didn’t care about us. They weren’t pissed at us or anything.”
“Was that kid any help to you?”
“Nah. Not really," she snorted. “He probably won’t remember much of what happened either."
“That figures," he growled.
“He did okay, Dad. He was outnumbered three to one,” she found herself saying in Danny’s defense, though she didn’t quite know why she cared.
“Fine. But now you know what you can expect from him,” he said as he stood up. “I’ve gotta talk this over with Mr. Cardano.”
She was definitely not going to tell Yuki about any of this, and she hoped her father wouldn’t either. But that seemed unlikely. News like this just has a way of spreading throughout a household. She shuddered to think what Yuki would say. In the end, Yuki said nothing about it. Emily was sure she knew everything from the way she looked at her the next morning. There was a cold, dark fury in the back of her eyes. “At least she’s not pissed at me,” Emily thought, or rather hoped. But who was that fury reserved for? Dad? Mr. Cardano? Danny?
This all happened in early September, more than a month ago. Why was she thinking about it now? Danny eventually came back to the dojo. He recovered his composure around her, talked to her again. He was relieved she had said nothing about it to anyone. Nothing. He had expected to be the butt of every joke around school. But no one knew anything. He enjoyed watching her spar in class much more now. He didn’t mind going up against her anymore, even though he still always lost. Now he just tried to learn something from her. That was the only path he could see to regaining his sense of dignity.
Around five am, just as she noticed a slight glow in the eastern sky, she also sensed something was wrong at the estate. She couldn’t put her finger on what exactly it was, but something was very wrong. She expected to see some movement, at least, at the guard posts. But there was nothing. She also noticed smoke coming out of the central chimney of the main house. There was no reason to have that fireplace going this early.
She half expected to spy her father making his way down the stream bed. But there was no sign of him either. If it had been him arriving in the family car a couple of hours ago, he would have found his way at least that far by now. Where was he? She felt very divided about what to do. Climbing down and scouting the estate buildings might bring her right into his hands, and then he would gloat over it for days. But something made her uncomfortable holding her position on the rock. She packed up her equipment and decided to climb down now, while there was still some darkness left to cover her movements.
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Chapter 5: Getting out the Door
Cardano knew he had to hurry. The people who were on the way would be in an ugly frame of mind by the time they arrived. He needed to spirit everyone away before then, even the security guards. They were just contract employees, but he couldn’t leave them behind to be killed. He had already sent his wife and son away. He arranged their disappearance as soon as he heard about the attack at the concert. They’d been living in
a small house on the island of Naxos in the Aegean Sea for the last few weeks. But he worked very hard to make it appear they were in New Zealand. Every scrap of paper or digital information anywhere in the Border Control systems of several countries indirectly implied this, though he had been careful to make it look more obviously like he wanted the authorities to think they were really in Valparaiso. He stationed a female operative in an apartment in Auckland with a small boy “borrowed” from a local orphanage. She was under instructions to flee to Adelaide at the first sign of trouble, deposit the boy in a safe house there, and leave a trail that would dead end in Hong Kong.
It was a clever sleight of hand that might distract his enemies for a little while. They would lose interest in his family before long. But they would hound him and George as long as they lived. The security guards would not be worth pursuing. They knew nothing. As long as they were not on site when the tactical teams arrived they would be safe enough. He gave them all cash bonuses, put them on a chartered bus for Las Vegas, and hoped their discretion would protect them.
George was a different story. He knew way too much. He knew as much as Cardano himself. There was no place he could hide him for long. He had already successfully hidden him for sixteen years as it was. Of course, Meacham knew he would keep George nearby. But as long as he thought the Predator program was worthless, he had no interest in either of them. They had all been safe as long as Meacham believed that. It was clear he no longer believed it, for whatever reason. Cardano assumed he had received intelligence about a Chinese program.
The fact George had not returned yet worried him. He couldn’t leave before then, and Yuki absolutely refused to leave without him. After all these years, he had never quite fathomed the nature of their relationship. Were they secretly married? Just lovers? Friends? They seemed to have some sort of spiritual bond. Protecting Yuki was the main purpose of this evacuation. So it was deeply frustrating he did not understand her motivations at this precise moment.
And what about the girl? He offered to send her to Naxos with his family the moment George told him of the incident at the concert. But George refused. “I have a plan, George. She’ll be safe. I promise you.”
“No. I have to keep her with me,” George said quietly. “It won’t be safe on Naxos. Not if she’s with them.”
What could he be thinking? Why is she so important? He is willing to risk everything to keep her close. There is certainly something special about her. Cardano could see she was pretty tough. She had handled a team of mercenaries from the concert. And exactly how had she managed that?! He remembered a birthday party when she was seven. He wanted to surprise her, hoist her high above his head, tickle her mercilessly like a good uncle. Somehow she squirmed her way out of his grip, fell to the ground. All that was normal enough. She landed on her feet, thank God. But on the way down she turned her face directly towards his. He could still remember the look in her eyes, calm, collected. No sign of childish panic. She was certainly unusual. He never bought that story about her being George’s niece. But then who is she?
“George! What do you think is going to happen to her here?”
“She can handle herself,” he muttered.
“She can’t handle these people!”
“She won’t be any safer on Naxos, and if she’s there, they’ll be in danger, too.”
“Goddammit, George! Why the hell is she so important? Just who the hell is she, really?”
“She’s my daughter, Mike. And she’s not going anywhere now. You need to make sure Yuki is safe. I’ll keep Emily with me. We’ll go our own way when the time comes, meet up with you later.”
Michael was taken aback. George had never spoken so directly to him. He had always been all deference up to this moment. But it was clear he could not be moved on this point. Michael had planned to get all of them out of Virginia, to a hideaway in the mountains of northern New Mexico. Now he needed a new plan, simpler perhaps, two people instead of four. But he always felt safer with George than without.
Michael thought about this conversation as he prepared the scene for their departure. He burned a lot of papers in the furnace, the ones he wanted really destroyed. He set up a fire in the living room on the main floor for other papers he meant to be only partially burned. Yuki packed the clothes they would need. She also tried to create the impression of a hasty departure, stray clothes tossed everywhere. She had prepared a huge meal earlier for the security guards, including snacks to take with them on the bus. But she made much more than was necessary. The kitchen was a mess, food was everywhere. The freezers were left open. A kettle of water was cooked dry on the stove. To an intruder, it would look very much as if they had all left in a great hurry. It would be reasonable to conclude they had not been able to make careful preparations.
For her part, Yuki couldn’t stop worrying about Emily and George. Where were they? She was pretty sure Emily was back in the woods. No one had said anything to her, but this seemed like just the sort of weekend for one of their camping trips. She had never interfered in these trips before. But she hoped George had enough sense to provide for Emily’s safety. She loved him dearly, but there were definitely moments when he seemed utterly obtuse. “Oh, God, please let this not be one of those times!” she prayed.
And where was he, if he wasn’t with Emily? No doubt Mr. Cardano had sent him on one of his errands. It had better have been important, if it was going to keep George away from her and Emily at a moment like this. She moved like a whirlwind through the apartment above the garage, packing and strewing. She left two packs in the driveway by the garage door and proceeded to do the same thing in her room in the main house. As she passed through the kitchen one last time, she thought about Emily and quickly made her favorite snack, rice balls, and left them on the counter where she would be sure to see them if she happened through. No one else would notice them in the general mess, just a few balls of sticky rice wrapped in seaweed and sesame seeds and a little surprise in the middle, certainly no one unacquainted with Japanese cuisine. But Emily could hardly fail to see them. Yuki thought better of that plan. She put the rice balls in a bag and stuffed them in Emily’s pack.
A few moments later, the family car lumbered up the drive and pulled up to the garage. It sat motionless and dark for a few moments. Yuki watched apprehensively from the kitchen door. Finally, the driver’s side door swung open and George stepped out. He looked weary, maybe even sad. He took a deep breath and walked over to the front entrance of the main house where Michael was waiting. He scanned George’s face for clues. What had happened? Had he met with Burzynski? Was he receptive?
“Burzynski wasn’t there,” George announced. “Porter was waiting for me with a couple of heavies.”
“What happened?”
“They’re in the trunk. It seemed unwise to leave them behind.”
“What’d you do with the packet?"
“I left it there, in case you’re right about Burzynski. He’ll know where to look. Porter was definitely not interested in the data. He only wanted Yuki,” George snarled.
“We’re ready to go. We’ve just been waiting for you,” Michael offered. “We haven’t seen any sign of Emily. She wasn’t with you, was she?”
“No, she’s been here the whole time. Out there,” he said, gesturing to the woods.
Michael’s mind reeled, astounded he had left her alone in the woods at such a moment. He was also sorely disappointed Burzynski had not come. His plan had involved interesting elements of the CIA in the truth about the Predator program. The packet contained all the important data from Dr. Kagami’s lab, along with the results of some further investigations Yuki had carried on in the intervening years. There were no breakthroughs. No wonder drug an ambitious agent could use to catapult his career forward. But Burzynski could use what was there to fend off Meacham, keep him at bay and solidify his own position. If only he was interested. That he had been unwilling to meet George was not encouraging. Even more so that he had turne
d it over to Porter.
Michael knew Porter was ready to make his own move. He would have no use for data purporting to show the program couldn’t be salvaged. For him, only a positive result would be of interest. And that would inevitably entail taking custody of Yuki. There was no room for George, or himself, in Porter’s vision of the future. It was almost a relief that he was now in the trunk of the limo, though Michael was sure he was not working alone. There would be others, maybe even Burzynski himself.
There was a little bit of comedy in Michael’s offer to Burzynski. Of course, there was all the data, and Yuki’s analysis of what it means. But there was also the estate itself. Michael knew Burzynski had been looking for a facility he could use as a shadow power base, and the estate would certainly be suitable for such a purpose. What Burzynski didn’t know is the estate was already the property of the CIA. Michael had managed to obscure the agency’s own records concerning a fifty acre parcel of land at the south end of the George Washington National Forest. And, of course, the agency had concealed the fact of its ownership in all public documents. He then added to it a much larger adjoining parcel from the National Forest unbeknownst to the Forest Service. In fact, he had amassed an immense holding at very little cost to himself, relying entirely on the inability of federal agencies to adequately control their own papers. He always knew once he left the forest land would revert to the Forest Service. They would merely discover some papers that had seemingly been misplaced, and then reassert their authority over this section of the forest. None of the estate buildings had been built on park land. As for the agency, it would probably never recoup the loss, or even know of it.
Girl Fights Back (Go No Sen) (Emily Kane Adventures) Page 4