“Right, Cardano, the big muckety-muck at CIA. I didn’t know folks got this rich in the civil service.”
“Don’t sniff at it, Mick. It was his money and influence that made it possible for Connie and me to retrieve you guys… you know, after that friendly fire incident last summer. SECNAV had already written you two off.”
“That’s a comforting thought.”
“It was all politics, nothing personal.”
“It never is.”
Gravel crunched as Perry pulled the car up the remaining quarter-klick to the front entrance, and a large man in a khaki suit came down to greet them. “She’ll be glad to see you two,” he said, in heavily accented English.
“Did she say something, Ethan?”
“No, but you get a feel for these things. She’s not that hard to read, once you get to know her. Come, they’re waiting for you in back, the family.”
Perry tugged on Durant’s shoulder to get him moving, since gaping at the main house had distracted him. A three-story colonial with a library wing on the south side and a screened-in porch on the north, it was an impressive red-brick structure with white trim and three chimneys. Michael and Andie Cardano sat on an open patio behind the house with Emily’s mother, Yuki Kagami.
“I’ve learned to forgive you,” Yuki said, still holding the hand Durant had extended during Perry’s introduction.
“I’m not sure I have,” Andie said. Michael frowned at her and Yuki shrugged, and Durant stood frozen like a deer in somebody’s headlights. “I know it’s been eight years, but when I saw what you did, you know, on the video… how could you?”
Perry whispered a hurried explanation, and Durant nodded, a sickly smile spreading across his face. “I was an ass,” he said. “But I think she paid me back with interest. Didn’t you watch the end of whatever video…”
“Of course, we did.” Yuki snaked her arm inside his and led him to the chairs on the edge of the patio, turning once to glance at Andie over a shoulder. “Don’t pay her any mind. She’s been waiting for years to say that.”
Andie placed a tray of iced teas on the table and took a seat next to him. “It is good to meet you, finally,” she said. “Please forgive me, but I couldn’t resist…”
“I understand, ma’am. It’s not like I don’t deserve it.”
“You should call me Andie, Sergeant.”
Sitting together on the back patio, Perry and Durant answered a few delicate questions about the events of the previous summer, especially about the island where Durant and Emily had been found. Yuki wanted to hear more about the rescue of the little princess, and Andie tried to find a delicate way to ask about the demise of Gyoshin Heiji, before Michael cleared his throat.
“Haven’t we chewed over this information enough?”
Andie flicked some discontent his way for saying this, but relented at a glance and a shake of the head from Yuki. All the while, the five of them had been keeping an eye on the proceedings a bit further down the lawn, some twenty or thirty yards away.
“Who’s the old guy?” Durant asked.
“That’s Sensei Oda, Chi-chan’s teacher,” Yuki said.
“Chi-chan?”
Yuki turned to look at him, her eyes wide with embarrassment. “I mean Emily. Please don’t tell her I told you that name. It’s just for between the two of us.” She glanced at the rest of them. “I mean all of you… please.”
“Aw, come on,” Andie said, with a snort. “It’s not like we haven’t heard you use it a thousand times around the house.”
“Please.”
“Of course not,” Durant said, touching Yuki’s hand. “She’ll never hear it from me. Who are the other two down there, the kids?”
“That’s a long story,” Andie said, with a glance at her husband.
“They’re hers, sort of,” Yuki said. “Li Li and Stone.”
“Hers?” Durant asked.
“It is a long story,” Michael offered. “We adopted them, in a manner of speaking, but they’ve totally bonded with Emily, like she’s a big sister…”
“… or their mother,” Andie added.
“The girl looks to be about twelve or thirteen, but the boy… he’s huge,” Durant said.
“He’s just a big kid,” Perry said. “A really big kid.”
The lesson shifted from kata and grappling techniques to sparring. Oda produced some pads from a nearby duffel and the grownups took notice.
“Now this looks to be interesting,” Durant said. “… and training on a slope no less… real-world conditions. Impressive.”
In the first match, Stone and Li Li faced off, and while the big kid was very focused on not hitting her too hard, Li Li quickly found an opening and pivoted away from a jab, all the way around into a wheel kick, and her heel more than grazed his cheek. He stumbled to the side, and as he went down, he swiped at her grounded foot, upending her before she could put the other foot down again. In an instant, he was on his feet crouching over her, not another attack – he merely checked to see that she wasn’t hurt, since she’d landed on her tailbone.
“Get off me,” she cried out, shoving him away. “I’m not broken.”
Another point, a similar result. Li Li could tag him often enough with a surprising kick or strike, but he was so much larger that she could only prevail in points. In anything resembling the reality of a fight, there’d be no contest. She glowered at Emily and Sensei Oda, and looked to be on the verge of lodging a formal complaint.
“Do you actually think you’re going to find out her secret?” Perry patted Durant on the shoulder to get his attention. “I mean, the way you’re staring… you realize there’s no secret, right? She tells it to anyone who asks: just practice breathing.” Yuki laughed at these words.
“That’s exactly what George used to say… her father.”
“Yeah, that would be just like her,” Durant said. “She’d tell her secret everywhere, because she knows no one will understand.”
“I don’t think she’s that crafty,” Perry said. “Didn’t she offer to train you?”
“Of course she did. But what sense did it make, those god-awful meditation sessions? I assume she made you try it, too.”
“Yes. It’s her constant refrain.”
“And did you ever figure it out?”
Perry shook his head. “If you mean did I make any progress in my hand to hand skills, yes… absolutely.” Durant grinned at him because, of course, this was not what he had in mind. “Did I learn how to fight like she does… is that what you meant? …‘cause that’s hardly likely, as you well know. She fights like the god of battles.”
Once Emily had put on pads, the mood of the lesson on the other end of the lawn took a sunnier turn. Oda whispered some last-minute instructions to the children, and then signaled the beginning of hostilities. With Emily standing in the middle, turning as her opponents circled, Li Li looked for an opening while Stone bluffed one attack after another.
“Here’s the main event, if I ever saw one,” Perry said.
“What I wouldn’t give to have had such a teacher at that age,” Durant said.
“Too bad you can’t make bargains with time,” Andie said. “There’s so much stuff I’d do differently… if only…”
Finally, Li Li found her moment in what looked like an opening – Emily had closed her eyes and allowed Stone to circle behind her.
“Something tells me I’ve seen this before,” Perry said. “It doesn’t usually end well.”
Li Li kicked low and jabbed high, and when Emily blocked the second strike, Stone swung a high roundhouse kick toward her head from behind. Li Li immediately stepped forward with a reverse punch, her weight pressing against her back foot. But Emily had already pivoted down and away from the strike and swept Stone’s leg. Off-balance from the high kick, he hit the ground hard, and the girls were on top of him in a flash, at first to grapple him down, but soon enough to comfort him for the fall, caressing his cheek and kissing his head.
<
br /> “Why don’t my matches end like that?” Durant moaned.
After a few more hi-jinks with the kids, Emily went inside to change while her two moms made small talk. Of course, Durant would be curious about the identity of these children, even if Perry had tried to warn him off the subject, and Ethan gestured in the background to a similar effect.
“Where did you kids learn to fight like that?” he asked.
“They’ve been training since they were this high,” Andie said, holding out a hand to measure against Li Li. “Sensei Oda has been so kind as to give them special lessons.”
“I understand you taught Emily as well.”
“Yes,” Oda grunted. “She is my second finest student.”
“Second?”
Yuki made a clipped response to Oda in Japanese, which had the sound of a rebuke, and he nodded and went back down the hill to collect the sparring equipment.
“I think he is referring to Emily’s father,” Michael said. “He was his best student.”
“Now there’s someone I’d like to meet,” Durant said.
“If only that were possible.”
“It’s a long story,” Perry whispered. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
When Emily returned, a few minutes later, Li Li clutched at her hand. “You can come, if you like. There’s room in the car, but you’ll probably find it boring.”
Li Li glanced at Durant and Perry. “Oh, it’s all three of you?”
“Why don’t you stay here? I’ll be back this evening, and then we can talk all night long. How does that sound?”
“… and you have some homework, young lady,” Andie intoned from a few feet away.
“I can do it tomorrow, Mom.” Li Li huffed for a moment, but a low growl from Sensei Oda seemed to remind her of the need to regulate her tone better. She ran to Andie’s side and reached for her hand.
“Oh, not you, too,” Emily said, with a smile. Stone had sidled over to her side, towering over her, with broad shoulders and shaggy, black hair. She placed a hand on his cheek. “We can talk, too… as much as you like.”
In the car again, Emily sat in back while Perry drove the three hours or so, east along Rt. 64 and then north on Rt. 84, to Malden, West Virginia. This wasn’t how he’d envisioned spending his measly week’s leave, since a big chunk of the time was eaten up just getting back and forth from Helmand province. On the flight over, he’d dreamt of spending what remained of his leave, and a sizable chunk of his accrued combat pay, holed up with Emily in some posh hotel not too close to Quantico – and Durant played no part whatsoever in that fantasy. But even he had to admit that a visit to Tarot’s family might be important for her emotional well-being, and the longterm stability of their relationship.
Malden turned out to be a tiny suburb of Charleston, just south of the city along the east bank of the Kanawha River, and consisted of only a few avenues and a dozen or so cross streets. The salt works that had powered the local economy for decades still operated, but many of the young people had moved north to Morgantown, seeking livelier and greater opportunities. The Stallings family lived along the foothills on the eastern outskirts of the town, in a neighborhood known as Hawes Hollow.
Small wood-frame houses and converted double-wide trailer homes dotted tree-lined streets. Perry turned right to follow George’s Creek into the hills, and then veered left onto Hawes Drive. A half mile along a west facing slope, he pulled up in front of a rambling, split level home that looked to have had an addition put on at least a decade ago, no doubt to accommodate a burgeoning family.
“You go ahead, guys,” Emily said. “I’ll be along in a minute.”
“Are you ready for this LT?” Durant had turned all the way around in the front passenger seat, groaning a bit from the contortion of his stiff limbs.
“Okay,” Perry said. “Don’t take too long, or it might start to get… you know, weird.”
“Fine, I get it,” she snapped. “Just give me a little space.”
It shouldn’t have come as any surprise how tall the woman who answered the door turned out to be, given the dimensions of Tarot himself.
“Lt Cmdr Hankinson and Staff Sgt Durant, Mrs. Stallings,” Perry said.
“Just call me Birdie. Thank you so much for coming. Perry and Mick, right? Can we be informal today?”
“That’s suits us, ma’am,” Durant said. “Right, LC?” Perry nodded.
“Was she not able to come?”
“No, she’s here… still sitting in the car, trying to gather herself.” Perry gestured in the general direction of the street.
“Angie… she’s here,” Birdie called back into the house. When a bright-eyed young woman sporting a huge mane of dark curly hair peeked over her mother’s shoulder, she pointed out front. “She’s waiting in the car. Why don’t you go invite her to come in?”
“Okay, Momma.”
Perry watched as the girl, so full of the vitality of youth, bounded across the lawn, and then leaned inside the window to greet Emily. He knew there was no way she could resist such an invitation, and soon enough the door opened and she stepped out, and Angie tugged at her hand all the way back to the house, still practically skipping across the lawn.
“Dwayne’s brothers are out back,” Birdie said. “Perhaps you two wouldn’t mind helping them with the fixins.”
Durant nodded and pulled Perry through the front door, though they paused in the kitchen to watch as Birdie and Angie folded their guest into a group hug. This is the magic that women know how to work on each other, a communion of grief becoming consolation, and maybe even joy.
“If you keep blaming yourself, you diminish the meaning of his death,” Perry had tried to tell her more than once. “He didn’t make the ultimate sacrifice so you could live in misery.” But this was a message she couldn’t hear from him. Perhaps these women would have better luck getting her to see that her happiness would honor his memory.
Clayton, Darius and Grady Stallings, all three army sergeants, and of roughly similar dimensions as their youngest brother, stood around the grill, clouds of smoke billowing from its top vent. Jacob, the father, with graying hair and hollow, broad shoulders, handed the grill fork to Clayton and stepped toward the back porch to greet his guests.
“Dwayne acquitted himself well?” With a hand on each of their shoulders, and acting every bit the venerable patriarch, Jacob glanced into their eyes and fixed Perry and Durant with this question.
“In the highest traditions of the Corps, sir,” Durant said, and Perry nodded.
“He rushed into harm’s way to save a comrade,” Perry added.
“The girl, Lt Tenno?” Jacob asked.
“Yes, sir, and when he was hit, he continued to lay down fire to cover his unit, until the Jietai could come for him.”
The women emerged through the kitchen door onto the back patio, pulling Sgt Siegersen along with them, and the brothers gave up their smoky vigil to meet the guest of honor.
“Look who just arrived, everyone,” Angie called out. “It’s uncle Hendric.”
“Uncle?” Emily turned to look at the big Swede everyone in his unit knew as Racket, and he shrugged his shoulders.
“What can I say?” Siegersen’s big, blue eyes glistened in the sun. “This place is like…”
“… like a home away from home.” Birdie clutched his shoulder as she finished his thought.
“I see you picked up another stripe, Sergeant,” Durant said. “Well done, Marine.”
“… and a shiny new medal for valor,” Emily said, with a glance at the Bronze Star he wore. A sheepish expression flashed across his face, and he turned as if to retreat through the kitchen door, until Emily snaked an arm under his and drew him back. “Not so fast, big guy.”
The brothers and Durant and Perry had surrounded him before he could get away, slapping him on the back and pulling him out to the center of the patio. Angie, Birdie and Emily followed along, coaxing him as well.
“You’re among
friends, Racket,” Perry said.
“Exactly right,” Jacob said. “We’re here to celebrate Dwayne’s memory, and that means congratulating you, his closest friend.”
Angie slipped under Siegersen’s elbow and wrapped her arms around him. “Help us celebrate, uncle Hendric.”
Perry could see the swirl of emotions playing around Racket’s eyes – grief for his friend, shame and fear of disapproval. He kept glancing at Emily, and Perry had a pretty good idea why. A subtle nod clued her in to the problem.
“C’mon, Racket,” she said, tugging on his arm. “Even I didn’t put up this much of a struggle.”
“I don’t know why either of you children would make such a fuss,” Birdie said. “Dwayne loved you both like family, and we couldn’t imagine celebrating his life without you.”
“Hear, hear,” Darius chimed in.
“She’s right, big guy.” Emily reached a hand up to his cheek and nudged him to make eye contact with her. “What’s troubling you?”
He fingered the medal hanging from his chest. “It’s just that… you know, I let him down... and I let you down, too, LT.”
“Let me down? You saved my life.”
“No. Tarot did that. I just carried you the final few yards, but it cost him everything… and then they stuck this medal on me that I didn’t deserve, and this stripe… and you got no recognition at all.”
“No, Racket. You earned it all, the two of you, together… and if that medal weighs on you, just imagine that you’re carrying it for him, too.”
“But all I did was come late to the battle. You did everything, you and the LC and Sarge. The Chinese, the princess… I don’t care what anyone says, I know you did it all.”
“Don’t you worry about me,” Emily said, her voice turning into a darker register. “I’ll get what’s coming to me soon enough.”
“Enough of that sad talk,” Birdie said, nudging the party back towards the grill and the food. “Let’s talk about Dwayne, and why he loved you all so.”
“That’s right,” Angie said. “Whenever he was back on leave…”
“… and in every letter, too…” Grady interrupted his sister.
Girl Goes To Wudang (An Emily Kane Adventure Book 7) Page 3
