Come on, that was embarrassing.
He followed through with a high kick. Lin stepped past his kick and karate-chopped his shins. Roen staggered and his knees buckled. Determined not to fall, he retreated again, trying to shake off the numbness in his legs. Lin pressed forward, darting in from side to side. Roen threw a few jabs, trying to keep him at bay, but his arms felt like lead weights. Lin smashed his defenses and, before Roen realized what had happened, flipped him onto his back.
The geezer who just beat the snot out of him stood over Roen and shook his head. Then he extended a hand, helping Roen stand up. “I hope you’re a new host in need of training and not a live operative. You move like a pregnant cow.”
“I’m a new host in need of training,” stammered Roen. His entire body hurt in so many places that his brain couldn’t process all of it.
“It’s good to know Command isn’t completely bottom feeding.” The old man nodded. “Who did you say sent you again?”
“Ho Lung greets you, Sifu Wei Cheng Lin,” Roen managed to say through gritted teeth.
Wei Cheng Lin brightened up. “Oh, Sifu Tao, yes, it is so good to see you again. I see you picked a fixer-upper as your next host. I grieve with you for Edward.”
“Tao, did you used to be a Ho Lung?”
Yes. I am quite a legend in Chinese mythology, you know.
“You’ll have to tell me about that sometime.”
Roen bowed. “Thank you, Sifu Lin. To be honest, I’m not sure why Tao sent me here.”
Lin chuckled. “Isn’t it obvious? You were sent here to be trained.”
“But I’m already being trained,” Roen protested.
Lin gave a snort.
Roen looked around the room. “This is what you do here? Train agents?”
Lin nodded. “I was once an agent, but one particular mission made me too visible in the world, so I went underground, and now I train.”
“What mission was that, Sifu Lin?” Roen asked.
Lin gave him a blank stare. Finally, he replied, “It is of little matter. I am content serving any way they require. I have seen your abilities. We have much work to do.”
“Is that why you attacked me?” Roen asked.
“How else could I gauge your real skill if you didn’t think you were fighting for your life?” Lin smiled. “Do not worry; you are in good hands. Sifu Tao would not do otherwise.”
“Sifu Tao?” Roen asked.
“Just as I train his students, he was once my master,” Lin said. “In fact, you can say he was a master to all of us in our art.”
“And what art would that be, Sifu Lin?”
Lin put his hands together and bowed. “Why, the Grand Supreme Fist of course, or what you might know as t’ai chi.”
Sonya adjusted her sunglasses before putting them on. She lay out on her beach towel and enjoyed the weather as she tanned in her two-piece swimming suit, soaking up as much rays as possible. She tapped a hidden button on the side of the sunglasses. Several small screens turned on in her lenses. Now she had a three-sixty view of the area.
She sighed in contentment and relaxed. “This is the life. It isn’t the Caymans, but it’ll do.” Oak Street Beach during the summer was packed with beachgoers. After the harsh Chicago winters, the people congregated on the beach with enthusiasm like a colony of ants. The crowd was loud as the hordes of humanity crowded the small beach as if it was the last strip of sand in the Midwest. Actually, that might not be that far off, Sonya thought.
Just remember you are still working.
“I’m never not working. The camera facing east is a little fuzzy.”
It will have to do. I doubt our contact is coming in from the lake anyway.
“Well, Gaston better get here soon. I have plans with Roen today.”
You are spending far too much time training him.
“He needs the work. Besides, he’s like the puppy I always wanted.”
Do not get too attached. Command is putting him in the field soon.
Sonya sat up. “What? It’s too soon. He’s not ready.”
He will have to be. This is a bad time for Tao to take the year off. You need to get back to Europe.
Sonya shook her head and laid back down, pretending to doze off, while keeping an eye out for the signal. “I’ll talk to the Keeper. It’s only been a few months. He’ll just get killed.”
Nonsense. Soldiers in the United States go to war after basic and advanced training after five months; other countries, far less. Roen’s had much more intense training from you.
“He wouldn’t have even gotten into the army the state he was in when Tao found him.”
Sonya’s thoughts stayed on Roen. If that was the case, his training would have to be stepped up. She’d have to cut short the hand-to-hand combat and move to firearms and squad tactics. She was concerned he might be getting overwhelmed. She waited for another thirty minutes before turning over onto her stomach. As soon as she flipped over, the south camera picked up a flash, and then two more quick flashes. “We’re a go,” Sonya murmured. It was too bad. Now she’d have an uneven tan.
I was beginning to wonder. After the past two months, I was afraid something might have happened to Gaston.
Sonya packed her bag and headed south, making her way through the mass of humanity to the even more crowded beach bar. She ordered a cocktail and made eye contact with an older white-haired German man who looked out of place with the current crowd. They made eye contact and then he looked to his left. Sonya looked back and studied her drink. “Necklace, earrings in both ears, ring on right forefinger, book in his left hand.”
Six-minute wait. Head west.
“The underground tunnel then.”
When she looked back at where Gaston was standing before, he was gone. Sonya stayed at the bar for five minutes, before making her way from the bar toward the tunnel under Lakeshore Drive. The dark tunnel that connected the uptown neighborhood to the beach was a dark, dank contrast to the sunny beach seconds earlier. Sonya slowed her pace as she entered. She could feel the vibration of the cars passing overhead.
Gaston was a very high maintenance mole. Recently, he had gotten increasingly paranoid about these meetings and demanded more intricate methods of establishing contact. As of right now, Sonya was one of four agents rotating as handlers in order to throw off any possible surveillance. Still, it had taken six years for him to infiltrate the Genjix research division – and the Prophus were happy to oblige him as much as possible.
A figure hidden in a side crevice spoke. “A monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again.”
“And thus, is much wiser than most men,” Sonya answered.
Gaston grabbed her wrist and pulled her close. His face had already turned red from the few minutes he spent at the beach. Sonya wondered how much sun the man actually got. He seemed more nervous than usual. Sonya began to worry. “Is everything all right?” she asked. “You’ve missed the rendezvous three straight times now.”
He began to whisper in quick bursts. “I cracked the security of the P1 logistics last night. The Genjix are building a scanner that can detect Quasing in hosts.”
Those idiots!
Sonya was shocked. If this was true, it not only was a powerful weapon for the Genjix, it could change the entire dynamic of the Quasings on Earth if humanity ever got a hold of it. “Are you sure?” she asked. “Our own scientists think it’s some sort of short-range sensor.”
Gaston shook his head. “The blueprints Edward obtained from the archives were dead-end designs.”