by Adam Thielen
* * *
“You sure you want to do this?” asked Matthias. He was quite the sight; a thin, pale man wearing boxing shorts, a tank top, and MMA gloves. He wore a padded helmet and chest piece. Standing across the ring at the all-night gym was Tsenka Cho. After a week of nothing but sex, she decided she wanted to fight.
“I must have seen the end of the Haven fight a thousand times,” she said. “Hell yes, I want to do this.”
Matthias smacked his gloves together. “How hard are we going?”
“Go easy on me,” she said earnestly. “Let’s do a couple rounds of kickboxing.”
“So no takedowns,” he interpreted. “Don’t want to be mounted?”
“Not tonight,” she said. “Well, not yet at least. Let’s do this.”
Matthias wasted no time, shuffling toward her with his hands up defensively. Tsenka kicked at his leg, catching him, then moved to the side and gave him a quick jab as she backed away. The exchange caught the vampire by surprise.
Tsenka feinted a kick then jabbed again. She stood upright, then remembered to keep moving, then forgot again. Matthias backed away and gave her a hard hook to the helmet when he saw her stand still.
As they continued, the rust came off Matthias, and he became more aggressive, moving in, then to the side, then striking, then exiting. They continued for a while, but it was clear after a couple rounds that Tsenka was starting to gas out. He began to toy with her, staying within range, and dodging her swings.
She waved him off at the end of five rounds. “That’s enough. Enough!”
Matthias smiled. “You’re not bad, for a diurnal.”
Cho started ripping the gloves off her hands. “I was balls,” she wheezed, spitting out her mouthpiece. “Dammit, I thought I was better.”
Matthias walked over to her and placed his gloved hands around her waist. “Don’t be so hard. You get any real action during assignments?”
Tsenka stared at the canvas and shrugged. “A few times. You don’t serve in special forces without things going sideways once in a while. Not a lot of hand-to-hand, which apparently was a good thing.”
“Let’s go hit the machines,” suggested Matthias. “You need strength and endurance. You got sloppy—”
“Come on, brol,” she interrupted. “You going to lecture me?”
“I apologize,” said Matthias sarcastically. “I had heard you cared about your job, prided yourself on preparedness.”
“I do,” she said. “I have the highest overall CQC rating at the station. I’ve developed half the encounter tactics the agency utilizes in the field… okay, maybe not half.”
“I know all that,” replied Matthias. “But—”
“After I left the NRSF, they adopted my b—”
“Okay, okay!” said Matthias loud enough that a handful of the few patrons at the gym glanced at the pair arguing in the ring. “I get it. You’re a badass.”
“I’m not bad.”
“It means good,” he said with a laugh. “You’re a good badass. But you can do more. I know it. Your grandma…” Matthias stopped mid-sentence.
“My grandma what?” she demanded.
“Nothing,” he said. “I shouldn’t use her as some sort of motivational tool.”
“Probably not, but now you have to finish,” said Tsenka. “Please.”
Matthias sighed. “I watched her stand toe-to-toe with a vampire. Outmaneuvered him, kicked him in the balls, then broke his jaw.”
“No.”
“Abso,” he assured.
“Wow. Why haven’t you told me that before?” she questioned.
Matthias’s expression soured. “Everyone who worked for Noxcorp is under an NDA. I already told you more than I should.”
“But you said you’d tell me about her, and you’ve hardly told me anything,” she pouted.
“Sandra was tough, brave, and very gifted magically,” he summarized.
Tsenka turned away from Matthias and placed her hands on the cage, her fingers sticking through the links. “It’s not enough.” Her voice trailed off, but Matthias could hear her perfectly.
“I will talk to Wu, and we’ll request some sort of exception,” he offered.
Tsenka spun around, resting against the cage wall. “Good,” she said. “So, you going to train me to be a wrecking machine?”
“You’ll be able to spit nails, eat lightning, and crap thunder,” he replied, employing a very poor late twentieth-century Brooklyn accent.
“Gross.”
Matthias had become Tsenka Cho’s evenings, drawing her away from stacks of paper and sitcoms and pushing her in the gym. She slowly improved, and she became fast and unpredictable enough to catch the vampire off guard during sparring.
His strength and resiliency continued to give him an unfair advantage, but she took pleasure in the small victories of a solid uppercut or wrapping Matthias up in a body triangle that a normal person would never escape from.
After training, they would go somewhere to eat, then to a movie, augmented reality experience, or local music performance. Then they would go back to Matthias’s bedroom. But after a few weeks, sex became secondary to a more general companionship. They became friends as well as training partners.
When Tsenka fell asleep in his bed and woke up an hour late for work, she concluded that she had gotten too comfortable with their arrangement and had made Matthias too much of her life, to the detriment of her work ethic. They continued to meet at the gym but only went out on the town and back to his room on the weekends.
Matthias’s nights alone, after so many filled with arguments, combat, and pleasure, gave him time to think. He wondered if he had made a mistake in not committing to being her romantic partner. The loneliness of his bed was unbearable at first, but he felt himself adjusting to it quickly. He concluded that his life was boring, and that just because he was satisfied with it, did not mean that he should tolerate it. And yet, he did not know what to do differently, and so he did nothing.
Tsenka Cho caught up on intel packets and re-engaged with other agents with renewed vigor. She lobbied her superior for a field operation concerning one of the main missions of the agency, that of hunting down the remnants of Haven, the vampire superiority group that had attempted a global coup over two decades ago.
Instead, her captain assigned her another mission: to secure a defector from the massive and enigmatic Chantech corporation. Chantech held the plurality market share for almost all electronics bought within the borders of what used to be mainland China, as well as the rights to the majority of its natural resources. Its market capitalization dwarfed all other corporations headquartered in the region. As such, it essentially ruled over two billion East Asian citizens.
The New Republic was a spark that ignited a fire across the globe, but Chantech calmly waged war against protestors and the media, flooding the bandwidth with simulated voices, all advocating to keep government out of China. Resistance groups formed, and Chantech’s army of corporate security drove them into hiding.
Rhyming with history, the New Republic saw Chantech’s oligarchy as a potential threat to peace and human rights. Charles Wu cautioned against taking the path of the world police, but younger voices prevailed. His term as CEO ended, and the voices became louder, and his opinions became less relevant.
Chantech became the adversary that kept the Republic focused, and motivated member corporations to allocate funds for intelligence and military operations. The government was still organized like a business, and if money wanted to retrieve a corporate defector, then an op was created to do just that.
The eager Tsenka Cho was chosen for that op and was additionally given the ability to pick her own team. Never had so much responsibility been placed on her shoulders, but while it wasn’t the assignment she asked for, she relished the chance to prove herself.
* * *
Matthias sat on the cot set up for him at the hospital, more a statue or decoration than a man. He rested his forehead in
his hands with his fingers weaving into his hair. He kept replaying their last night together, wondering what he could have said or done differently. He didn’t have to try hard. He had let her go not once, but twice. Not only that, but he had failed to prepare her properly.
Acceptance was what he waited for, and it refused to come. Two hours after waking, he stood, knowing he must face the new reality that he could have prevented. Somehow, he thought, I’ve created the worst of all possible worlds. He had run out of time to craft excuses and convince himself of falsehoods. Tsenka would be expecting him, as he was one of only a few evening visitors she received.
Her door was open, as it was whenever a nurse was not attending to more private needs. As he walked in, he noted that more of her face was unwrapped now. It was the first time he recognized her, or at least half of her. A man in a doctor’s uniform left the room, brushing past Matthias.
An electronic voice modulator was strapped around Tsenka’s throat as she spoke at a com mounted on one of the bed’s rails. The device gave a close approximation of her voice, but it wasn’t intended to replace a functioning larynx, just temporarily substitute. Matthias was heartened to hear her speak, even if only via machine.
“I think,” said the voice from the com, “that your p-plans are a little grandiose.” It was Kate. Matthias nodded to Tsenka, trying to hide a frown, and sat quietly.
“I know,” said Tsenka’s modulator. “But it’s what I need. You understand what I’m saying.”
“There’s just a lot here,” protested Kate. “Two of them aren’t market available, and the skin—”
“I talked to a rep from Derma-Lux,” said Tsenka. “He says the extra coverage adds almost nothing.”
“To the c-cost?”
“Ay, the material isn’t the expensive part,” she explained.
Both women were silent for a moment before Kate spoke again. “I… will get it approved.”
Tsenka started to talk but the device didn’t register at first. Matthias saw that she was trying not to cry. After she swallowed, her voice came back. “You’re an angel, Kate. Thank you.”
“Get some rest, and I’ll update you later,” said Kate before disconnecting.
Tsenka’s right eye, cheek, and all of her mouth were exposed, and after the call ended, she looked up at the nocturnal man and smiled with the right half of her lips.
“You did it,” she said, beaming. It was the happiest she had looked since her admittance. “I doubted you, I’m sorry.”
Matthias sighed. “I can’t take the credit,” he said. “Ms. Jones must have called in some favors.” He looked around the boring white room. “Have they taken you out of here for some fresh air?”
“Fresh city air?” she asked sarcastically.
“Might do you some good to see some color,” he replied.
“I’ve been watching a bunch of movies,” she said. “As long as I’m doped up it’s not too bad, and now I just feel relieved.”
“We’ll get through this,” said Matthias, petting her lightly on the head. “I’ll be here.”
“I shouldn’t have left.”
“Don’t blame yourself for what someone else did,” he said, feeling a little hypocritical.
“I’m not,” she said. “I just shouldn’t have.”
“You did what you needed to, what you had to,” he replied. He reached down and placed his hand on hers.
For the rest of the evening, they sat and played board games made out of proprietary smart tablets and the occasional physical piece and watched movies. Matthias read her a recent intelligence briefing, which then put her to sleep. When she woke, he was still sitting in the chair beside her bed, watching TV. Cho slowly turned her head toward him, and Matthias turned toward her, his expression grim.
“Ay, why the sour puss?” she asked through the modulator.
“Your sleep… was not peaceful,” he answered.
“Oh, I should turn off the voice box when I sleep.”
“You don’t need to talk to me about it, about what happened,” he said. “But you should talk to someone.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said, facing forward.
Matthias grumbled. “If you really want to be fine, you’ll talk to someone. Please, Tsenka.”
Tsenka stared at the wall-screen as a movie played. She had missed the first half while she slept. It appeared to be a comedy about a man stuck in a large hamster ball. She tried to catch on to the plot, but couldn’t focus. She turned her head again to look at her nocturnal companion.
“Matt, there’s something I need to ask of you,” she said.
“Of course,” he said, smiling as warmly as he could manage.
“I need you to leave,” she said. “And not come back here.”
“Tsenka—”
“I appreciate everything, I really do. But I don’t want you to see me like this anymore. I need you to respect that.” Tsenka told him the truth, but not the whole truth. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something about the vampire angered her. A resentment was slowly building inside her, childish and nonsensical as it was, and it hurt her to see their relationship twisting in front of her eyes.
“I don’t see you like that,” said Matthias. “You aren’t a burden, you are my friend. More than that. I am here because I want to be.”
“I believe you,” she said. “But you can’t come back. I will find you when I’m ready.”
Matthias sat quietly processing her words, somewhat in denial that she was kicking him out. He wanted to tell her what he felt, but he doubted the realness, and he knew that he would be doing it for himself, and not for her. He rose from the chair and turned to face the bed.
“When you are ready,” he said. “I will be ready.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Goodnight, Matthias.”
It was a minor sting to hear his full name from her. “Goodnight, Tsenka.”
* * *
In round eight, Matthias tagged Tsenka on the jaw as she came in for a takedown. While they still wore helmets, their sparring sessions had become real bouts. The agent’s knees wobbled, and she instinctively rolled to her back with her feet toward her opponent.
Matthias pushed her legs aside and dove on top of her. He swung a leg over her body, mounting her. Tsenka rolled onto her stomach to defend against Matthias’s blows from an advantageous position, expecting him to attempt a rear naked choke by sliding his arm around her neck. But instead, he continued to pepper her with light punches.
Tsenka crawled to the cage, the fog from her head clearing, and pushed to her knee, then stood. Matthias continued holding her from behind as she got up, and began to shift his weight for a suplex when Tsenka spun with an elbow outstretched, hitting Matthias on the temple, hard. The cage spun around him, and Tsenka seized upon his weakness to deliver several more punches.
But none of her follow-up hits seemed to have any impact, and Matthias put his arms up, deflecting the attack, then punched Tsenka in the gut while she left herself open. She doubled over, coughing out her mouthpiece. Matthias’s chest heaved. He was relieved at first, then felt a tinge of guilt. Not for hurting her, as he had many times before, but because she had come so close to a victory.
“Dammit,” she cursed between gulps of air.
“You almost got me,” consoled Matthias.
Tsenka stood up. “I know the truth,” she said. “I know you pull your punches.”
“I have to, Tsenka.”
“You told me I could do more, be more,” she replied.
“These things take time,” said Matthias. “You are a lot better than when we started.”
“Matt, can we get out of here?” she requested. “I want to tell you something.”
The two jogged a few blocks down the road from the gym to an all-night diner that had been in the neighborhood for well over a century. The sign along the front of the building read Winstead’s, and the inside was styled to resemble a 1940s establishment. The voices of the Andrew Sister
s blared out of an ancient-looking jukebox. Matthias and Tsenka scooted into opposite sides of a booth.
The waitress, in keeping with the theme, wore an old-fashioned uniform with matching cap. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties, and Matthias wondered what she must make of her work environment, having likely had no exposure to any period remotely similar.
“What can I git’cha?” she asked, looking at Tsenka.
“I’ll take the number one,” she ordered.
“And for you, sir?”
“Just a chocolate malt,” he replied.
“‘Kay, will put that right in,” she said cheerfully.
The waitress walked away and Matthias raised his eyebrows. “A number one?”
“It’s a cheat day,” defended Tsenka.
“Yesterday was a cheat day,” said Matthias. “You are in good—”
“Matt,” she interrupted. “The training is over.”
“What?”
“I’m going on assignment!” she said, raising her fists above her head.
Matthias blinked, then again. Then remembered the appropriate response. “Congratulations,” he said, mustering enthusiasm.
“Thank you,” Cho replied. “I found out yesterday, so I’m celebrating.”
“What kind of mission?” he asked. “How long will you be gone?”
“I shouldn’t tell you everything, but it’s important,” she insisted. “I may be gone a few weeks, or it may be longer.”
Matthias felt a constriction in his chest and an energy in his legs that made him want to jump out of his seat, but his stone exterior contained the bout of madness swirling around inside. He started making strange calculations in his mind, searching.
“You aren’t ready yet,” he blurted out.
“What?” she asked, stunned. “Why would you—? Of course I am.”
“Wait,” he said, gathering his thoughts. “I know you are, it’s just…”
The waitress interrupted their conversation, setting glasses of water on the table with a pair of straws. She hurried off, and Tsenka grabbed a straw and began to tear its paper sheath.