Tony obviously didn’t see the strength in the woman facing him. Even from the back Alex could see the corded muscles on the dark woman. Tony, however, just smirked.
“No problem, Teach.” He assumed a defensive stance across from her. He was bouncing lightly on his feet, the smile still on his lips.
Which was the wrong thing to do. Before anyone even realized that she’d moved,Teren had spun to the side, and landed a flying kick high on Tony’s chest. He stumbled backwards several steps, and Teren easily pulled his feet out from under him.
He sat there blinking, the smirk gone. In it’s place was a look half surprise, half anger. He got to his feet, rubbing his chest.
“The object of this lesson, Tony, is to stay on your feet. I don’t think you succeeded.”
There were a couple of nervous chuckles around the room.
“Shall we try this again?” Teren asked. Her opponent nodded.
They took their positions again, and this time there was no bounce to Tony’s step. He was serious this time as he waited for Teren’s move. When it came, as a punch towards his face, he blocked it without problem. But the second one connected, with an audible crack. It was enough to knock him back again. He managed to keep his feet, however, and was back into position before Teren could once again sweep his legs.
“Good.” Teren nodded. “Now, this time you attack me.”
Tony balked a little at that. “But —”
“That’s an order, Mr. Lewis. Attack.”
Tony began to move a little to his left, looking for an opening. He remembered what Teren’s kick had done to his chest, and didn’t want to give her the opportunity to do it again.
Spotting what he thought was an opening, Tony feinted right, then spun left with a backhand blow. It was stopped, and he ducked to avoid the counterattack from Teren while aiming a straight punch to her midsection. That too was knocked aside, but for the moment Tony was inside Teren’s guard, and he used his position to throw an uppercut to her jaw. Instead of blocking it, Teren simply leaned back, letting the force of the blow take Tony’s arm up in front of her. Then she hooked his right arm with her left, pulling it under hers. He immediately swung his left hand at her in a clumsy blow, and Teren brushed it aside. She punched him twice, once to his stomach, and once to his nose, then used her right foot to yank his feet out from under him. He collapsed to the floor, his nose leaving a red trail on his white jacket.
“What’s wrong, Mr. Lewis? Did your mother tell you not to hit little girls?”
Tony’s face was red, from blood, and from anger. He wiped his nose on his sleeve as he climbed to his feet. Teren completely dropped her guard.
“I’ve got news for you, Tony. I’m not a little girl. I’m the woman who’s kicking your butt.”
Alex hadn’t moved from her position in the back of the room, but even she could see the fury in Tony’s eyes. His lip curled in a snarl, and his fists were clenched. He brought his hands up, but didn’t even hold his position for a full second before launching an all out attack on a seemingly defenseless Teren.
Tony was swinging wildly, lashing out in his anger, and for several minutes Teren just allowed him his rage. She blocked most of his shots, and let the rest slide past her body as she moved. Tony, frustrated with not being able to land a blow with his fists, suddenly leaped and kicked out. It was an awkward move, and came more from anger than anything else. Teren had been expecting it, and let it fly past her head. It was what she’d been waiting for.
Tony landed off-balance, and before he could recover, Teren blew past his defenses with a left hand to his jaw. She followed it with a right, then a left to his stomach. He doubled over, and before he could straighten, she nailed him in the middle of his back with an elbow. Tony went down, and he stayed there.
Teren stood up, and looked down at her beaten adversary. She shook her head, then addressed her class.
“There were two lessons demonstrated up here just now. The first, keep your feet at all times. If you’re on the ground, you’re done. Second,” she looked back at Tony who had managed to rise to his knees, “keep your temper at all times. The object of hand-to-hand is survival, You do not survive by getting angry, or embarrassed, and you certainly don’t survive just by looking good. There are no points for those who look cool while they die — they’re just dead.”
There was silence in the room, broken only by Tony Lewis’s heavy breathing. Teren’s gaze swept the room, and she made eye-contact with most of her students. Her gaze paused on the blond head at the back of the room. Alex realized she’d been spotted, and she gave a nod to the instructor. Teren’s eyes held hers for several seconds, then focused back on the figure beside her.
“Mr. Lewis, go get yourself cleaned up. Have Margo check you out, then come back. We’ll talk about your ability to stay calm under pressure.” Tony got to his feet, and slowly moved towards the door.
Alex stood aside, nodding at her former classmate, and then looked back at Teren, who was already forming the group into pairs for practice. Alex watched for a moment longer, then walked the rest of the way down the hall to the locker room.
*******************************************************
It was past eleven when she finally made it into the office. Alex stopped by David’s desk first, just to check on things. He was just putting his jacket on.
“Alex, hey. ‘Bout time you showed up.”
“Well, Cliff told me to get some rest, and hit the gym this morning, so I did.”
David stopped and looked into her eyes. “You look better. The color in your eyes is strong again.”
“I feel better.” She perched on his desk. “What do you mean about my eyes?”
“When you get really tense, the color dims, like it’s been watered down. Normally they’re a real strong green. The past few days they’ve been pale, like somebody mixed white paint in them .”
“Oh.” She quirked an eyebrow. “I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah. That’s how I know when you need a break. It’s also why I called Sarah last night.”
“Aha. So, it was you that sicced her on me.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t know what else to do. Normally, if you’re eyes are pale at night, the next morning they’re fine. But this time …”
She nodded. “Yeah. I needed a break. An evening to myself. And I got it.”
“Good. You slept well, I take it?”
“Yeah. Didn’t even clean things up after dinner. Just ate on the couch, and fell asleep there.”
“I’ve had to spend the night on your couch — that’s not really comfortable, Alex.”
“It was only for a couple hours. Then I switched to the bed.”
“So, you didn’t go anywhere after you got home?”
“No. Why?”
“Sarah called me back. She said she’d phoned your place and got the machine. She was kind of worried. I’m supposed to tell you to call her.”
“Do you know what time she called?”
“About 7:30, I think.”
“Damn, I must have slept right through it. I heard the phone once, but it was a hang-up, and that was at nine o’clock.”
“You must have really been zonked.”
“Yeah.” She looked at the floor, then up at her partner. “Where are you off to?”
“Oh, yeah. Ben and I are going to talk to people at Wilford’s former jobs. First we’ve got an interview with a Karen Larsen. She used to work with Darryl Wilford, and she dated him for a while. When I called this morning, she was busy, but agreed to meet us on her lunch hour. Should be interesting. It sounded like she knew him pretty well.”
“Well, good. Glad you guys are getting somewhere. Don’t forget to ask her if he ever talked about white power or anything like that.”
“Don’t worry, I think I know what to ask. Ben and I set up a list of questions, including the basics, and every harebrained thing we thought you’d ask.”
“Hey!” She punched him lightly on the arm as he grinned at her.
There was a rap from the doorway of the cubicle.
“Hi, Ben.” Alex had always liked Ben Cleves. He was the oldest agent on the team, and was less than a year from his pension. Ben hailed from south of the Mason-Dixon line, and his accent, like his dark hair, had never faded. He was taller than Alex by a couple of inches, and had always reminded her of her father. She wasn’t sure why, after all, they looked nothing alike.