Clancy,Tom - Net Force - Cybernation.txt

by Cybernation(lit)

  Howard smiled at the memory of his conversation with his son. He was coming along pretty well, Tyrone was. He wasn't always right, but he did know how to think, and that was important. He had some good points-

  Somebody said, "Penny for your thoughts, General, sir."

  He looked up, saw Julio standing there.

  "Maybe a nickel, you grinning like that."

  "Just remembering a conversation with Tyrone."

  "He's doing better, I take it?"

  "Not a whole lot since you saw him yesterday, but overall, yes."

  "Good. You here to work?"

  "I am. Let's go into the office and you can catch me up."

  "Well, I can try. I can't work miracles, sir. Hard to teach an old dog much of anything."

  "If you learned how to change a diaper, Lieutenant, anything is possible."

  They grinned.

  Jay Gridley stared at his computer console. He should be working. He should be climbing all over the web like a million baby spiders, running down every lead, trying to find the bad guys who'd been screwing things up. But instead, here he was mired waist-deep in inertia, unable to get moving.

  Thinking about getting married.

  It still seemed like the thing to do, to get married. He loved Saji. He wanted to be with her.

  Well, fool, you are with her, aren't you?

  Maybe that was part of the problem. Nothing much was really going to change if they had a big wedding, signed

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  nts, and made it legal. Oh, they'd get toasters and and they'd go on an RW honeymoon-Saji to spend a week on the beach in Bali-and all ; everything else would be the same, wouldn't it? vemaking, the time they spent laughing, none pf Id be any better if they were married, would it? : that he could see.

  f.course, you could twist that both ways. If it didn't Smuch difference, then why not get married? They'd > to each other legally, in the eyes of man and God, Fthey had property, or even children, there would be i protections that came from that. On balance, there aybe a bit of a plus on the marriage side. pwhy did he feel as if he had just gone over the first a SuperTall roller coaster at Six Flags, with his eh trying to crawl into his throat?

  : was there to be afraid of? Especially since it had Hjtaf idea in the first place? He could remember how I he was that Saji was gonna say no when he asked,

  relieved he'd been when she hadn't. t's the deal here, Gridley? shook his head. He needed to talk to somebody who ||Barried. Maybe Fernandez, he hadn't been with > that long, and he'd been a bachelor for a lot more j than Jay had. Maybe he could offer some insight. ; hoped so. It was bugging him that he couldn't con: on the job as much as he needed to, not to men- it bugged him these guys were screwing with tially.

  < Bou Chance

  '. had in mind to ream 'Berto out, figuratively, any- ii Yes, he was a perpetual motion machine in bed and I counted for a lot, and yes, he was as good a hammer

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  for smashing enemies as she could want, but he had to understand that she was the boss.

  When she found him, he was in the ship's gift shop, buying shaving lotion.

  "Roberto," she said, a little louder and sharper than she had intended.

  The shop's clerk, a young man in black-rimmed glasses, glanced up at them from where he was stacking candy on a shelf.

  'Berto turned slowly and gave her a lazy and insolent raised eyebrow. "Ah. Hello, Missy."

  The clerk turned back to his chore.

  Roberto looked like a big torn cat, sure of himself way past confident.

  Time to crack the whip a little. "You weren't supposed to. leave the ship. Where did you go?"

  "You know where I was, Missy. Did not the helicopter pilot you asked remember where he landed?"

  She felt herself flushing under his gaze. This wouldn't do, not at all. She had to stay in control of the situation. "He remembered. What I want to know is why you left without telling anybody."

  "I don't tell anybody when I'm going to pee, either. Nobody needs to hold my hand for that, nobody needed to know about my business in Fort Lauderdale. Because it was my personal business."

  "You have responsibilities-" she began.

  "And I do them," he said, interrupting her. "You have a problem with how I perform, either on the job or in bed?"

  The clerk stopped stacking the candy and apparently realized he had urgent business on the far side of the gift shop. He went there in a hurry.

  She lowered her voice. "No, I didn't say that."

  "Or maybe I didn't worry about telling you because I thought you might not even notice I was gone, that you might be busy."

  "What are you talking about?"

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  Jackson fills in for me when I'm not around, as he can, anyway."

  fjblinked, caught flatfooted by the statement. Okay, so But she wasn't going to give anything away. "I ow what you are talking about." She had learned |lhe corporate world a long time ago-when in doubt, ling. If somebody had a video of you doing ng, if they had ten nuns and a priest as witnesses atever, it didn't matter-you stuck to your story. I don't think his equipment measures up," he eliberately skipping what she'd meant. "But you the one to know that-you the one doing the

  ag."

  a't think is the place to talk about this," she tried, came to find me," he said. "This is where I am." ybe we could go to my cabin," she said. I don't think so. I think maybe we don't be so ... 1, if you know what I mean. We can talk business the conference room, someplace, but not your || don't like the way it smells mere now." ' dumping her?

  decided. He was miffed. His manhood was in- y. He could pout for a while if he wanted, but a't ready to give her up yet. She couldn't believe be had too much power that way, it was her ti. Men never walked away from her until she was them to go. Never.

  ' she said. "But next time you leave the ship : telling me why and when, you might as well stay i won't have you compromising our mission. If you into trouble, been picked up by the police for , where would that leave us? This is more im; than just you, Roberto."

  ^smiled. "So you say." He went back to selecting his ave.

  : a flash of anger so hot she wanted to kill him, I where he stood, was going to pay for this. Dearly.

  18

  Washington, D.C.

  Toni held the training kerambits she'd made, traced from her real ones onto a piece of stiff leather, then cut out and the edges rounded off to make them relatively safe. Relatively safe, because a hard hit with one could still leave scrapes and bruises. The points and inside edges of the leather blades were coated with lipstick, so that any place they touched left a red mark. Both she and Alex wore old white T-shirts and gray sweatpants that would show the marks if they were touched with the red.

  Alex himself had a longer plastic knife, one that came from a G.I. Joe toy set, the rounded point and dull cutting edge also coated with waxy red.

  Toni circled him in the empty garage-the Chevy convertible was finally repaired and sold, and he was without a project car at the moment. Gave them room to work out on rainy days such as this one.

  "You have the longer weapon," she said. "And in a knife fight, size does matter. But I have two blades to your one, so you have to be extremely careful. Slashing

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  defensive," she said. "Slashing can kill you, but longer. Your advantage is, you can stab for a

  killing stroke, but these knives are so short that I'll rip out a big blood vessel to do you any damage Mng."

  it's comforting," he said.

  held his right hand, with the knife, in front of his j; kept his left hand under his right elbow. She could hear his thoughts: high-line, low-line. High-line,

  owing what you can do with a weapon, or what I opponent can do, is vitally important. Against an with any skill, you will almost certainly get cut (life fight. The trick is to limit where, and how bad. ^ mi
ght have to take a nasty cut to end a fight in your But better to be stitched up in the ER than on life

  inthelCU." fe'd heard her say that often enough. He nodded.

  she came in, she did it fast, and his slash and | was right on the edge of desperation. She got in, but aware of being touched on the arm and body by She jumped back as he flailed away at her missing.

  ay, what do you see? Take a look in the mirror." > moved a couple of steps so he was in front of the mir- y'd picked up at a garage sale. There was a red strip side of his neck, and three other less-defined ruby

  i on his chest, belly, and inside his left elbow, if ell. Looks like I'm dead, Jim," he said. fes, you are. Now, look at me."

  did so. Toni had a red long line on the outside of right arm, and a small spot under her sternum. Ton see?" she said. "I'm your teacher. I have been ng and practicing this art for more than a dozen times ng as you have. With real knives, I would have cut

  carotid and probably the radial artery in your ante- fossa-inside your elbow crook there-plus slash-|xyou in the gut and chest. But even so, you would have

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  opened my arm-which I could have survived-but also stabbed me in the heart."

  She touched the spot on her chest.

  "Without quick first-aid care, one or both of us would probably have died after that trade, but we'd both have bled. A weapon changes things."

  "Yeah, so I see."

  "Against a knife bare-handed, you are in deep trouble. Even with a knife of your own, you can get chopped down."

  "And the moral of this story?"

  She smiled. "If somebody comes at you with a knife, run. If you can run, don't attack unless there are several of them, in which case, you take one out, then run. If you stand your ground, you have to cover your centerline, that's your advantage."

  "But maybe we both die? That's an advantage?"

  "Everybody who carries a knife doesn't have great skill with it," she said. "You have to assume they do, of course, and move as if that were the case, but the truth is, most people who might attack you with a blade wouldn't have gotten any of those hits I did except the arm. They wouldn't have gotten me, either. And don't forget, I have two knives, short though they are."

  "Bad for my wardrobe, though."

  She smiled. "You can always buy a new sport coat, sport."

  He smiled.

  "Okay, let's try it again. This time, block with your free hand, dorsal side, and sector to the outside of my attacking hand when you do. Getting out of the way of an incoming knife is usually a good idea-if you miss the block, at least you don't get skewered. After that, we'll switch, you attack and I'll defend. That's when the kerambits work the best."

  Later, when they were hi the shower washing off lipstick marks, Toni said, "There's an exercise I want you to learn."

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  i game," Alex said. "Come closer."

  : that kind of exercise. A mental one." t*

  n't sound so disappointed. It'll be a couple of hours "ore Guru and the baby get home. It won't take

  : kind of exercise?" hypnotic suggestion." ubbed her back with the bath sponge. "Uh-huh.

  ok, I know you don't think a lot of the spiritual and sides of silat. You think it's all mumbo jumbo." n't say that." 8ve me the sponge, I'll do your back." soaped the sponge and began scrubbing between ilder blades. "You don't have to say it for me to But hypnosis is a perfectly valid tool, and you ' it yourself. It's nothing more than autosuggestion i focus. You visualize things, practice them in your land it improves your skill."

  sound like Jay." , listen. Take athletes. At the Olympic level, nearly "them use visualization to help their performances, practice their exercises-whatever they are, from ng to downhill skiing-in their imagination." ill, I'm ticklish there," he said. , you aren't. Shut up. You ever practiced your djuttile sitting at your desk, just thinking about them ": of actually moving?"

  "

  : thing. Tests on athletes show that mentally prac- i lay down nerve memory channels just like do- (for real. Not as much, but some." squatted, and soaped up his butt and hamstrings. > practicing mentally is useful," she continued.

  So?"

  it's your biggest problem with silat practice?" ; from you?"

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  "I'm serious."

  He looked over his shoulder. "C'mon. How serious you expect me to take this while you're rubbing my ass with a soapy sponge, Kemosabe?"

  She smiled. "Think of me as your teacher and not your beautiful naked wife in the shower."

  "That's hard."

  "It better be. But try."

  He nodded. "I'm too tense," he said. "I haven't learned how to relax when I move. I use too much muscle."

  "Right. So what we do is, we take you to a state of relaxation and suggestibility, and teach you how to get there posthypnotically."

  "You can do that?"

  "To a degree, yes."

  "Okay. Is that before or after we make love?"

  "Before."

  "Aw, come on."

  "Maybe instead of, if you don't hurry up."

  He hurried.

  When they had finished showering and drying themselves, she had him lie on his back on the bed. She stretched out next to him, but not touching him. "Okay, close your eyes."

  He did so.

  "You comfortable?"

  "Yep."

  "All right. I want you to imagine you are in the hallway of an office building. It's an older place, but well- maintained. To your right is an elevator. Walk to the button that calls the elevator-it's an old-style mechanical one. You push it, and it lights up.

  "The elevator arrives-you can see the number light up above the door. You're on the twentieth floor." You hear a soft chime. The door opens, the elevator is empty. You step inside."

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  els wasn't having any trouble following along, |?:it felt kind of silly.

  s elevator is an old one, but in good condition. It's and warm in here, quiet, the light is soft. Push the i marked with the number one." lichaels mentally pushed the button. *Above the door are the numbers for the floors of the iing. Twenty is lit in red, and the elevator starts to nd. As you watch, a few seconds later, twenty blinks j and nineteen lights up, and there's a soft chime as the ttor slowly passes the floor, ighteen lights up, again, the soft chime, "tow as the elevator slowly goes down, you begin to ; relaxed. The elevator settles very slowly, but you're |ao hurry, you've got all day.

  ?As you pass seventeen, sixteen, fifteen, you become and more relaxed. The numbers light, the chime and you are becoming even more placid, more ifortable. There is nothing but the numbers descend- the soft tones at each floor.

  fou pass fourteen, twelve, eleven, ten, nine. Save for chime, all is quiet. The motion of the elevator is b, soothing."

  1 voice was a soft drone, lulling him. |f*Eight, seven, six, five, four, three ... two ... one. ff*The elevator stops. The door opens. You step out into > hall. To your right not far ahead is an open door. You : into the room, there is nobody around, but there is ch, long, cushy, very inviting. Lie down on the ch. You are so cpmfortable and relaxed you don't feel ; moving a muscle, you are practically melting into the lions."

  l;We//, this wasn't so bad, Michaels thought. "So there you are, warm, comfortable, relaxed, lying I on the couch. You aren't sleepy, just slack. No wor- no noise, nodiing to bother you. Your breathing is and even. Life is good." ifYeah.

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  "You don't need to move, but if you did need to, you could do so quickly and easily, because you are so relaxed, no tension to slow you down. Concentrate on how relaxed you are, see how it feels, see how simple it is to just lie here and be this way."

  Pretty good, actually.

  "Here's a little trick. To get back to this place, this relaxed, comfortable, no tension feeling, all you have to do is say to yourself out loud, 'Relax, Alex.' That'
s all. If you say that, you'll feel just like you feel now, no matter what is going on around you. You'll breathe slow and easy, your muscles will hold you up, you'll be able to move as quickly as you need to, but there won't be any tightness in you. Just say, 'Relax, Alex,' and that's what will happen."

  She waited a few seconds.

  "Now, you stand up, and walk back to the elevator.

  "Good. You push the call button. The doors open right away and you step inside. Push the button for the twentieth floor. The numbers start to light up, starting with one, then two ... three ... four. As the elevator rises, you still feel calm and relaxed, but more refreshed now, as if you have just had ten hours of sleep.

  "You pass five ... six ... seven . ..but there's no hurry.

  "The lights blink, the elevator chimes softly as you pass each floor.

  "You watch the numbers flash by. When the elevator gets to the twentieth floor, it stops. You take a deep breath and let it out. As the door opens, you open your eyes-"

  He blinked at her.

  She smiled.

  "That's it? I ride an elevator down, you tell me to relax, I ride it up?"

  "Yep. How do you feel?"

  "Well, I feel fine. Great." He raised a skeptical eyebrow at her. "That's what being hypnotized is? There's nothing to it."

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  at, did you think you were going to turn into kenstein's monster? Cluck like a chicken? Not be

  remember anything?" /ell, yeah, okay, kinda."

  :'s not like that. It's a state of heightened concentra- , If you do this little exercise a few more times, it will iforced. It's not magic-it just allows you to focus thoughts better. You can get pretty much the same ; by meditation or prayer." nd this will work?"