The huge blades carried by Reiji’s enemies glowed as though they had just been pulled out of a forge, lighting a small area around themselves with the gleam of red-hot metal. Glaring eyes burned the same color, floating in the darkness above the weapons. Reiji wasn’t sure what the ancestors were working at, but if they intended to frighten him with such things, they were about thirty years too late.
Reiji braced himself for more pain, but was far from ready to give up the fight. Blades flashed in the darkness, the clash of steel filling the training hall. The walls and floor were left smoldering wherever the great nodachis struck, filling the air with acrid smoke. The heat from the blades seared Reiji’s skin as they passed in a near miss. He added a slap from his blade to the momentum of one, causing the attack to overextend, creating an opening which he dove into with both blades. Kaishakunin and Little Brother struck in concert, piercing both sides of the monstrous warriors neck and moved together in his throat in an attack that would decapitate any living man.
The armored head rolled from the shoulders and thumped to the ground as the headless warrior launched a kick into Reiji’s exposed groin, doubling him over with the pain and force of the blow. A split second later his own head rolled across the tatami once more.
“Enough,” Reiji spoke firmly as he deactivated the combat program. What point was there in fighting foes that could not be killed no matter how grievously they were wounded?
“Show yourselves and answer for this.” Reiji’s demand echoed throughout the training hall. A handful of grandfathers materialized alongside Reiji’s father, not more than three paces in front of them. Their faces were stern. Angry.
“We, answer to you?” One of the grandfathers began and then laughed before spitting on the ground.
“Just when we think you can sink no further into the shit that you call your life, this happens,” another of the grandfathers spoke.
“Aye. Ronin was bad enough,” another began. “And then mercenary.” He filled the word with contempt. “A hired thug. And now, finally you arrive at the only station that is truly fitting for one such as you. Cutthroat. Bandit. Simple murderer.”
Reiji knew they spoke of what had transpired at the desert oasis of the farmhouse.
“I took no part in the rape or murder of those people,” he began but was interrupted by another of the grandfathers.
“Neither did you lift a finger to help them. Not only are you without honor, but you are a coward as well.” The old man glared at him with genuine anger in his eyes.
“And you would have me fight a dozen or so armed men, trained killers all, and the two machines pretending to be men for the sake of some asshole and his family living alone in the middle of the fucking desert?” Silence returned to him as his answer.
“I could have drawn my blades. I could have cut down many of them. But not all. And then I would be just as dead and mutilated as the farmer and his family. My ashes would mix with theirs and then blow out into the lifeless wastes. And what would that accomplish, but to end our line?” Reiji’s words grew louder with anger.
“Gods above forbid that for once in your life you live with honor. As a warrior.” The grandfather who spoke did so through clenched teeth. A sheathed blade materialized in his belt, but within easy reach. Reiji recognized this one as a master of iaido. The art of drawing and cutting with the blade. Not Reiji’s preferred style of fighting, but at this distance, the old man would be truly dangerous with such skills.
“You would have me die as a warrior, fighting for someone who insulted me when he first met me, rather than go on living?” Reiji asked incredulously.
“That is the path of the warrior. The code of bushido that you spit upon everyday of your life, boy.” Another of the grandfathers spoke, stepping forward and placing a hand on the shoulder of the old man with the sword at hand.
“The way of the Samurai …is the way of death,” he spoke as he gripped the other old man’s shoulder. “Living by a code of honor that a man like you could never understand, always prepared to die. Ready for a good death when it may come. A warrior’s death.”
Reiji understood what the old man was saying to him, but he felt no truth in the words. Though, reluctant to admit as much, even to himself, something was stirred within him at their uttering.
The way of the Samurai and the way of death. One and the same. A call across millennia and countless generations from within his own blood, originating in the voices of his ancestors so long ago living and dying by the code with sword in hand as they faced their enemies, that roused something in him. Something that sought a greater purpose in life. Something that would put his blades and talents with them to work towards an end that actually meant something. What had been the purpose of ever taking up a sword if it hadn’t been to some end like this? To live and die with honor in service to a noble cause?
Reiji shook his head, dispelling the emotion and disregarding his thoughts. Sentimental nonsense for old men and teenagers who didn’t know any better about the real world, he thought. A great way to wind up very dead very fast. No, their way could only end in someone cutting him down. Spilling his life upon the parched soil of Lexington.
What a shitty place to die, he thought. Of course, in that regard there really was no choice. There had been no off-world travel to speak of in several lifetimes. Anyone unfortunate enough to be born on Lexington was doomed to spend their entire life there.
On this backwater rapidly collapsing into a primitive technological and social state. A few extremely wealthy families running the show and hoarding what little real tech remained. Controlling Central-Command from within their high-walled fortresses and growing fatter by the day while most of the rest of the world slowly starved.
“Think deeply upon your actions and what the way of the warrior means, son.” Finally a gentle voice spoke. Reiji looked to see his own father, still beside the old men. The one person who had never had only harsh words for him. There had been steel in his voice many times, but he had only sought to teach his son the way of things. What it meant to be a man in a crumbling world that had been left behind. Reiji supposed the same was true of the grandfathers, but their own code allowed them to show little to no emotion beyond anger.
“In time I hope you will come to the same conclusions that we have.” Reiji’s father stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes. Reiji gazed back. The familiar and still alien eyes of his father. So different in color than his own. Halfbreed, the word danced across his mind. “That there is more to life than simply living.”
As he finished the last word, the training hall grew dark again and red-hot blades converged on Reiji from out of the darkness. Five in total, coming from all sides. Really the most men who could attack one target without getting in each other’s way. Without striking each other instead of Reiji.
Kai and Little Brother hissed from their scabbards and the dance began again. Reiji moved with lightning speed and surgical precision, cutting down the first three. This time, they died as they should have when pierced or hacked limb from limb. Three armored forms lying on the floor, bleeding out as the two remaining attacked. Reiji’s dance was perfect as he stepped in between their attacks, striking at vital targets as easily as he would rise from his sleeping mat in the morning. Both blades struck their targets at once as his arms extended out to his sides, armored forms going stiff and then limp and finally collapsing.
“Mayhap there is hope for you yet, grandson,” a voice whispered in Reiji’s ear as the training hall faded from view. He reached up and removed the data plug from behind his ear, finding himself sitting in his tent once more as the sun descended in the west.
He was not alone.
Gavin sat watching him, cross legged and back bolt-upright. The twins stood outside the tent, their shadows exaggeratedly large across the wall. Reiji couldn’t tell which way they were looking, but it was unlikely that they had their backs to Gavin.
“Finally,” the
man began, reaching up and removing his sunglasses as he spoke. The same tan line from the sun greeted Reiji, grey eyes within the pale white area strangely constricted given the light in the tent. Reiji pushed himself to a more upright position, taking what he hoped was a casual glance around the tent to map out in his mind the exact location of his blades. If the man had wanted him dead, he likely wouldn’t have waited for Reiji to emerge from his training. But there was no need to be any further unprepared.
“I didn’t want to disturb you at whatever it was you were doing.” Gavin’s eyes moved to the data plug in Reiji’s hand. “A man could be doing a lot of things with one of those. No telling what it might actually be.” Reiji searched Gavin’s words for a threat, but found none. Perhaps just an odd manner of making conversation. He saw no point in lying to the man.
“I train in simulations with the data plug,” Reiji answered. Gavin said nothing but nodded and remained silent for a few moments.
“I was right to bring you along,” he finally began. “You’re a unique man among this crew, Reiji. Smarter than the others. Less interested in the bullshit of life. Harder even, as it were.” Gavin slowly checked his pockets for something. A cigarette perhaps, but came up empty handed with a shrug.
“Which is why I have a specific task for you. One that I don’t think the others can accomplish.” Reiji’s raised a single eyebrow, noticing for some reason that Gavin was clean-shaven. In the middle of nowhere for weeks on end and the man still paid attention to the little details.
“And what would that task be?” Reiji asked.
“We’re nearing our objective. I need someone to go ahead of the others. To avoid being seen. Get as close to the facility as possible, and eliminate a sentry without raising an alarm.” Gavin spoke as if the task was a simple thing. And when spelled out like that, it sounded as much. But Reiji knew such things were rarely as simple as they sounded.
“What do you know about the facility, the position of the sentry, and their surveillance abilities?” Reiji’s mind shifted into analytical mode, ready to plan the exact actions he would carry out down to the individual motions. The same thing that had happened just before he had kicked in Meyer’s door and killed three men in the blink of an eye.
“Nothing.” Somehow, Gavin’s response failed to surprise Reiji.
“And when do you want me to do this?” Reiji’s question was answered with a crooked smile and a single word.
“Tonight.”
HOW was it possible that one man had so much blood? Reiji’s thoughts raced as he looked about the interior of the small shack. A headless body rested at his feet, wearing a Cent-Sec uniform and still vomiting forth a sanguine torrent from the stump of the man’s neck. A lone head rested against the wall several feet away. There was no light in the shack, but his night vision goggles allowed him to see everything in intimate detail through a green lens.
Had he been seen approaching the shack? Unlikely, the sentry had his back to the door. Was it possible that someone else had seen him? Who fucking knew? There didn’t seem to be an alarm of any type going off, but then only a fucking moron would design an alarm that alerted intruders to their detection. He’d just killed another cent-sec man. If they identified him, that would be an even larger bounty on his head. What kind of shit would that bring his way?
There was the possibility that they had intercepted the signal he’d sent back to Gavin through the small slate the other man had given him before he departed. He’d clutched it tightly in one hand as he moved slowly but surely, silently through the sand and rock towards the lone shack. It stood on the remains of a paved road at the only gate in a high fence surrounding a building that looked to be little more than a large warehouse. A few large trucks were parked near the building, but nothing about them seemed remarkable. Troop and equipment carriers. One of them armored.
After surveying the area for sentries and potential automated defenses, Reiji had only identified the lone man in the shack, hunched over a console. Seemingly oblivious to the world around him. A serious lapse in judgment and completely unexpected from a member of Cent-Sec’s scouts. They were supposed to be professionals.
This one had not been.
The man moved as Reiji approached the shack, but he was seemingly unaware of the threat in the darkness outside. Even when Reiji opened the door, squeaking on its hinges as he did so, the man remained unresponsive. Was he sleeping fitfully and moving as he did so, Reiji wondered as he crept close and closer. Little Brother was gripped tight in his right hand.
He’d moved without sound. Step by slow step getting closer and closer. Reiji suddenly moved like lightning as he reached up with his left hand, gripping the man’s forehead from behind and sinking his middle finger into the target’s right eye. Pulling the head back and to the left as he drew Little Brother across the throat and to the right. The man’s head had been completely severed by the attack and his body had fallen back, pumping out arterial spray onto Reiji’s chest. Soaking his clothes and likely staining them beyond repair.
Reiji knelt to avoid being seen from outside, straining his senses to determine if he had been detected. And if he had? He could run into the desert he guessed, and wait until the cavalry arrived. Let everyone else do the fighting for him. But it appeared that he went unnoticed.
He rose to his feet, still looking about the room for signs of anything unusual. He looked to the monitor that the sentry had been hunched over to find it playing a vast array of pornography. The view zoomed in on a woman’s face, contorted in ecstasy and pain, as two chem enhanced men entered her from behind.
Reiji looked back to the severed head, noting the data plug emerging from behind one ear. He didn’t need to turn the body over from its stomach to see that the pants were open and slightly pulled down. The sentry had been immersed in interactive pornography while on duty. So much for the vaunted discipline of the Cent-Sec scouts, he thought as he reached up and turned the monitor off.
A single broadsword rested within reach of the chair the dead man had sat in moments before. A quality weapon of good steel. Reiji might return for it later, but for now, he had only two hands. And a blade for each.
Reiji retrieved the data slate given to him by Gavin from a pouch on his belt and entered in a specific sequence of coded words that notified him of the sentry’s elimination. Now to wait.
He knelt next to the corpse and rifled through its pockets. If there was anything of use, the dead man had no need of it now. A pocket knife, virtually useless, but Reiji took it regardless and placed it in his own pocket. An ID badge of the type that typically worked with keyless entry systems. A Cent-Sec security credential could definitely come in handy in the immediate future.
It seemed to take forever, but within five minutes the twins appeared out of the darkness, approaching the shack with Gavin following close behind. In the distance the remainder of the crew spread out and approached slowly with weapons drawn, attempting to move from cover to cover to conceal their advance.
Gavin signaled to the men with his hands, directing them to flank the only visible door while playing with a small electronic device. Likely electronic countermeasures, Reiji thought as he watched. If it wasn’t, then a single video camera anywhere on the outside of the building would be enough to fuck every man here.
To death.
One of the twins opened the door to the shack and looked at Reiji for a moment, saying nothing as usual. Gavin entered the small room a few seconds later, putting the electronic device in a holster on the chest of his jacket.
“Good work, Reiji.” He spoke in a low voice. “Now let’s get our asses inside and finish the rest of them. Stay close to me at all times.” He turned and left the room followed by the twins, not waiting to see if Reiji acknowledged him or not.
Reiji drew Kai and shifted the weapon to his right hand and Little Brother to his left before following. He breathed quickly through clenched teeth, moving as fast as he dared without making noise. Which turned
out to not be very fast at all. In his mind’s eye he saw a dozen men with longbows popping up on the roof and peppering the group, himself included, with monomolecular bodkins. No armor in this group would stop such a thing.
The possibilities expanded from there. Portals opening in the walls of the warehouse and flamethrowers emerging just long enough to spray them with flaming jelly that would eat through flesh and bone alike until nothing was left but ashes. Or a tank ramming through the wall, bristling with spikes and mechanized arms ending in myriad weapons. Like the riot tank Reiji had seen cut its way through an unruly crowd back in the capital city some years before.
Worst of all, he imagined an old automated defense turret tracking a single man and firing a single shot. The unmistakable energy signature of the weapon being seen by Overlord, somewhere far above, and the response of bright bolts of destruction raining down on the whole area obliterating the warehouse, the men of Gavin’s crew, and the desert itself for a hundred meters in every direction. Leaving only sand fused to glass in its wake.
The one time he’d seen Overlord active, that was what had happened. Some fool had found a working firearm and used it in a robbery. He’d shot someone attempting to fight back. Perhaps he’d been suicidal, or he simply hadn’t believed the stories. Seconds later an entire square block of the slums Reiji had called home at the time was gone. Vaporized by beams of destruction from on high.
They said it was an experimental system left over from the time before Lexington had been left behind. Designed to ensure a peaceful population, but somehow the old government had lost control. Or intentionally let the system run wild. Now, lethal satellites covered the entire planet with a network of scanners and beam weapons that would identify the energy signature of virtually any firearm, beam weapon or hard round, and punish the offender and anyone anywhere near them with instant incineration from the skies above. Reiji had heard someone call it the “Authoritarian leftist’s wet dream” in the past, but he wasn’t sure what they meant by that.
The Way of Death Page 12