by Randal Sloan
“This really is the best pizza in the world,” Uncle Ted told her. “Well, if you get it without anchovies.” He tore into his with a passion and Julie followed suit. She found her pizza to be very, very good, and the anchovies added a counterpoint to the other tastes. However, she did remember one other time when the pizza was better, her first date with Zeke. The pizza at that little family owned pizza restaurant would always be the best in the world. That brought a sad smile to her face. Oh, Zeke, please hurry and get better!
#
While waiting for his dear brother Ted and the precious one who was with him, Master Kash tried once more to reason with the monk who accompanied him. Brother Koertan, as his companion had himself alluded to earlier, was the nephew of one of the council members. The only reason he was still on the monk island was due to that relationship.
Master Kash knew why Councilman Koertan had sent his nephew for the challenge. The man was rather large, and had often used his size to compensate for his other failures. He could be very intimidating, which is what the Councilman was counting on. But by depending on his size instead of working hard, the man had failed to hone the real abilities that he needed. Even though as Master of the island, Master Kash tried very had not to let his personal feelings affect his attitude toward any of the student monks, he had to admit to himself he just didn’t like the man. He was sour to the point that it turned his stomach, and the man had a severe temper that he got away with only because of his uncle.
Master Kash knew the other reason the councilman had sent his obnoxious nephew. Councilman Koertan knew his nephew would do whatever he told him to do, and Master Kash suspected he had instructed him to do whatever it took to make sure the girl didn’t pass the challenge.
But Councilman Koertan had erred badly when he sent his nephew. When this went as badly for him as he knew it would, the Master would finally have the justification for expelling the man. If the fool survived the encounter. The Master was quite worried about that. Now that he had seen the one foretold by his mother, he saw just how badly she was struggling to find herself and just how much she was struggling for basic control of her physical movements. Not to mention her anger, which was bubbling at the surface right now, a raw wound from regaining her memories of her mother’s death at the hand of the terrorists. Over two years ago for everyone else, for Julie the memory was only days old. He could barely imagine how that felt.
The man would have been much better off to send a real examiner for the challenge. Although it still wouldn’t have gotten him the results he wanted, he could have saved the embarrassment of having his nephew expelled, and the severe backlash against him that was going to entail. Despite their resistance to change, most of the council would be horrified to find the challenge conducted so poorly, and that would shift their allegiance away from Master Koertan. That would be good for Master Kash as long as his newest student came out unscathed emotionally. No, he wasn’t worried at all now that she would come to physical harm. But it could affect her mental state, which was already badly out of balance.
But even though it would probably not sit well with his dear brother Ted, he would have to let it play out.
Of course, Brother Koertan wouldn’t listen to him, barely giving him the respect of an answer. He had already decided what he would do. The fool!
#
Julie easily led her uncle to the next meeting location. It was a small dharma centre only a couple of blocks away. Once she had met the Master, she could sense where he was by feeling the change in the energy flowing around him. She wondered what he had seen when he looked at her. Did the changes in her appear to his second sight? On the way there, she talked with her uncle about her challenge. It was the only way she would be able to get into the training, and he knew it.
Uncle Ted didn’t like it one bit. “You can’t possibly take the challenge with that man. He’s twice your size and he looks like he will try to take your head off. I don’t trust him to be as careful in the challenge as he is supposed to be.”
Julie just shook her head. “Uncle, you know what I can do. Don’t you see what I am struggling with? I promise I will be alright, but my real worry is that I will not be able to stay enough in control, possibly even causing me to accidentally injure the man. If I let my control slip just the slightest amount, my movements will be too fast and my blows too hard.” She didn’t mention her anger she was still struggling with, nor the irritation she had felt due the man’s bad disposition that fed into that anger. Part of her really wanted to hurt the man, but some things she just couldn’t talk about with her uncle.
Julie placed her hand on his arm. “You have to let me do this, or you have to leave when we get there.”
He nodded sadly. “I will stay, but I don’t have to like it. I know my friend will not let it go too far. That is the only reason I will let you do this at all.”
When she arrived, she stopped her transport and carefully, moving at what seemed to be total slow motion, stepped off. She slowly walked through the beautiful garden, finally coming to an area covered with a carpet of dense green grass where the two monks were waiting. Our dojos could use a thing or two from these guys, she thought as the feel of it all soothed her and enabled her to have just the slightest bit more control than she had felt for a while.
Julie carefully slipped her shoes off and stepped onto the grass, bowing not to her uncle’s friend, but to the Master of the island. She had been practicing the bow in her head the whole time she was on her way there, and she almost got it right. A little too fast in a couple of places. She gave him the bow of prospective beginning student to high master.
“Master,” she said. “Your student has arrived if you will accept her. I am only here to learn as your humble student and I have no other intentions.” The other monk grimaced, but Julie was totally focused on the Master. Right now, she did not care what the other one did. He was totally irrelevant. Julie focused all of her thoughts and being on the Master, opening up herself for his scrutiny.
The Master returned her bow, a much deeper one than she expected, master to top level student. “The Master accepts the student with pleasure.”
The grimace on the face of Brother Koertan was horrendous by this point. He had been told by his uncle to accidentally injure her, and he had planned to drag it out, toying with her. But the way the two had been going on about it had made him so angry, he decided to do it quickly. How dare the Master sell himself out to this little powder puff. She can barely even walk. He knew she had money. It had to be the money. When the Master shook his head at him and said, “I release you, you fool,” he could only see his own rage. He never saw the pity and sadness in the Master’s eyes. He charged, ready to beat her to a pulp, throwing punches with all his might. He was completely surprised when it felt like he had hit a wall. There’s no wall here in this garden, his mind tried to tell him, and then the wall fell on him.
Julie had somehow centered herself deeply, deeper than she had ever gone before. It’s this beautiful little piece of the world around us, she thought. When the monk charged, momentarily she felt a spike of fear, but it was nothing compared to the anger she felt at him for destroying the peace she felt. Whatever chance she had for control was buried underneath the two overpowering emotions. It was like the man was moving in slow motion. She waited patiently for him to get to her, and easily blocked his slow motion moves. Knowing that would still not be enough, she threw him one of her simplest punch combinations, a left then a right. And she really, really meant to pull them, to hold back the overpowering emotional need to strike back. But the monk went flying away from her to land in a crumpled heap.
Ted had watched his niece standing there with the most calm, serene look on her face he had ever seen. Then that bull of a man had charged her. He had wanted to throw himself between her and the man, but he just couldn’t move fast enough. This is not how the challenge is supposed to work! It was supposed to be a careful test of a student’s ability with ca
re to prevent any injury to a potential student. But unbelievably, she had stopped that bull, her hands moving so fast that he could barely see them, and the next instant the monk went flying through the air to land in a crumpled heap. Being the doctor that he was, he immediately went to check on the man. It certainly didn’t look good.
Julie kept whispering to herself, “I tried to pull them. I really tried.”
The Master went to her, and taking her hands in his, he told her, “You did, dear child. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how hard you try. Fools insist on running into the wall, no matter what you tell them.”
Brother Koertan was semi-conscious and on hearing the Master, mumbled, “I ran into the wall and the wall fell on me.”
“Yes, you did. Yes you did,” Ted told him. He looked up at Master Kash. “At least two broken ribs, possible internal injuries. I’m going to have to call for medical help.”
“Yes, brother, you must take care of this one for me. I will take care of your much more precious one.” The monk helped Julie back to her transport, and before they were ready to leave, he turned back for a moment. “Oh, dear brother, your taxicab is still waiting. Don’t forget you owe him double for his time. Going to be a couple of hours before you get this all cleaned up,” the glee obvious in his voice at the money it would cost his friend. Turning back to Julie, he told her, “You see, dear one. I knew you before I ever saw you. That gentle man who works very hard every day to drive people through some of the most dangerous streets in the world, often with little or no thanks, is having a much better day than usual because of you. This other one here, he will probably never have a good day, no matter what you do for him. So, you must do what you can.”
“That is your first lesson. May it bring you peace.” He bowed to her, master to top level student.
Julie still wanted to cry. She had just seen how little control she had. “I guess I’ll owe you double bows next time, Master. I do believe if I tried right now, I would fall on my face.”
He laughed at that, a happy little sound. “It’s ok, child. You are going to be such a pleasure to teach. You’re already at least a couple hundred bows up. I saw each one of them that you practiced in your head before I got the last one. But alas, we’ve got a helicopter to catch, and no cab because I wasn’t smart enough to pay mine to wait. So we’ve got a ways to go, and unlike you, I’m going to be hoofing it. Let’s be on our way.”
“See you soon, dearest brother,” he yelled back to Ted as they headed toward a little airport that was only a few blocks away. Both could hear Ted on the phone with a dispatcher, talking about a wall. They both smiled a sad smile.
CHAPTER TWO
Another Matter
In the US Capitol, the Presidential Task Force formed to deal with the crisis in the third world country Kinza had convened several fruitless meetings. The President was demanding they produce results soon. Negotiations with the government set up by the coup that took over that little country had completely stagnated. What made matters so urgent, Kinza was the source of ninety percent of the mineral zechronium mined on earth, and the shipments had stopped flowing. It was a necessary mineral for the rocket engines in current space technology. Even Space Tech was unable to produce enough zechronium from their space mining operations and had to supplement their production.
The President was growing impatient, and he had directed the group to find a solution short of full military action. Unfortunately for the task force, no solution had presented itself. They kept going back to the information from the intelligence operative, Carla Davis, who had reported to them about Kinza. It was soon obvious that she was right when she told them the key to the situation was the warlord who appeared to be behind it all. Finally, they decided they needed to talk to her again.
Carla had enjoyed several days in the nation’s capital courtesy of the US government. Her only requirement was to be available on short notice if asked to appear before the Presidential Task Force. She had enjoyed her time touring monuments, historic buildings, and the Smithsonian, always making sure she could respond quickly if called.
Wanting to make sure she was prepared if they called her in, Carla had ordered a full dress uniform the next morning after her arrival and had her medals shipped overnight to her location. She had also kept up with the news reporting the negotiations with Kinza, which didn’t appear to be progressing very well. That meant that it was not a surprise to her when she received notice to appear before the Presidential Task Force the next morning. They wanted details from her intelligence gathered when she had been undercover in Kinza. This time, unlike the last time she had appeared before them, she knew ahead of time what might be expected. She had prepared detailed VR slides to present to them, using a virtual connection to the US Intelligence office she was currently operating out of to access the necessary files.
Making sure that she arrived early, she was escorted by a young man who led her to the same conference room they had used the last time she was there. She was met there again by the same high ranking intelligence officer she had seen the last time, Colonel James Landon. At least this time, she was in uniform. The last time she had arrived literally straight from the field, and had not been given time to get her uniform or to get prepared, not even knowing where she was going.
That last time was firmly imprinted on her brain. When she was undercover in Kinza, she had discovered a very important bit of intelligence, and had requested urgent extraction. A special forces agent had been sent to assist her, and the plan had been for her to slip in as an instructor with a group of US students from the Space Academy there to compete in athletic events. Instead, they had all been caught in the coup, and the students had been taken hostage, putting the extraction plan at risk.
That was when Carla had met Miranda Summerlin, one of the students from the Space Academy who was there with the school’s shooting competition team. Miranda’s group had been separated from the other students, and they had been missed when the others had been taken hostage. Miranda had convinced the others in her group, including the special forces agent who had connected up with them, to attempt the rescue of their fellow students. Miranda had been a critical part of that rescue, taking out the guards holding the hostages, disabling the vehicles surrounding the coliseum with her sniper rifle, and fighting in hand-to-hand combat with four ninja types to win their escape.
Escaping with the others, Carla had been debriefed at the US military base where the plane had landed. Immediately afterward, she had been shoved on board a high speed jet that had brought her back across the Atlantic to Washington to testify before the task force. Her pilot had proclaimed that she was on one of the fastest aircraft on the planet, and Carla believed him after their flight had lasted only a little over an hour.
But Carla, with no idea of where they were going, had been taken directly to the conference room where they were meeting, not wearing her service uniform much less her dress uniform, and with absolutely nothing prepared to present to them. She was definitely much better prepared now.
Carla immediately gave Colonel Landon her best salute, which he returned. “At ease, Lieutenant,” he told her. “I suppose the salute is appropriate this time. I’m glad you were able to come in uniform as compared to our previous meeting.” He obviously remembered the event too. He paused to look over her medals. “How did you get the Purple Heart?” he asked her, obviously impressed.
Carla gave him an abbreviated version of her story of how she broke her leg parachuting into hostile territory while under heavy fire. She certainly did not mention the hospital she had gone to, or more specifically, the doctor who had treated her. She especially didn’t mention that she had fallen in love with him, only to lose him when she hesitated to respond to his letter after her release from the hospital. Miranda was the only one she had ever told that part of the story. She still had no idea why she had told the story to the girl. She wondered how Miranda was doing. Probably stuck back in school doing boring stuff. Hopefu
lly so.
Carla went on to tell him, “Sir, this time I have detailed VR slides prepared if you can give me access to the local AI system.”
Realizing he had not done a very good job of providing her with the resources she might have needed, Colonel Landon quickly gave her access to the AI. He knew that he should have provided her with those resources and given her specific instructions preparing her for this meeting. He had fallen down on his job, something he needed to rectify. He was quite impressed that she had done all this on her own. Directing her to enter the room and to stand beside the podium, he sent a quick email with his VR before he followed her in.
Shortly thereafter, the members of the task force began to arrive, seating themselves at the big table and talking quietly among themselves. Philip Madison, the leader of the Task Force, came in shortly after the last one had been seated, quickly bringing the meeting to order. Addressing Carla, he told her, “Lieutenant Davis, thank you for returning to meet with us. I suspect you have been following the news on Kinza. Unfortunately, the story the news media is telling is correct. We have made absolutely zero progress with them.
Glancing around the room, he went on, “Everyone in this room knows just how important zechronium is to us and to our friends at Space Tech. However, the President has directed that we can’t take full military action at this time. He has given the tentative ok for one or more covert operations, if we can give him reasonable indication such actions will work. We have invited you back to tell us everything you can about this warlord that is the key to the situation there, so that we can try to formulate a plan.”
“Yes sir.” Carla remembered him from her first visit. He was the distinguished older gentleman, who as leader of the Task Force had been kind to her when she had been brought in so unprepared. The Kinza crisis had literally still been unfolding, and as the leader of the group expected to give the President immediate answers, he must have been under considerable duress. She had since looked him up, discovering that he was the current Presidential Chief of Staff, and that he was deeply respected by almost everyone.