The Lost Power: VanOps, Book 1

by Avanti Centrae

  Bear shook his head. “That’s an advanced hold. While you’re learning, let’s have you hold it like you would a hammer. Like this.” He wrapped his hand around the handle, blade up, and even made hammer-pounding motions.

  Will understood and shifted his grip. “Now what?”

  “Now you throw. Watch me.”

  With exaggerated slowness, Bear stood with his right foot behind his torso, left foot forward, both arms outstretched parallel to the ground. He brought his right arm up toward his head and then down in a sort of chopping motion. He let go when his hands were even and Will noticed Bear’s right leg had also come forward as he threw.

  Will was impressed that the knife hit near the center of the target.

  “Keep your wrist straight. See?” Bear threw again. “Very important. Try a few from the same distance until you get the hang of it.”

  Five minutes later, Will concluded that he was pretty pathetic. Bear had to show him three times how to hold the knife properly and five times reminded him to keep his wrist straight.

  Finally, Bear pronounced, “You won’t kill yourself.”

  Relieved, Will practiced being pathetic on his own time.

  After about fifteen minutes, Hana, whom Maddy had introduced him to at breakfast, walked over and started practicing next to him.

  When she hit the center of the target three times in a row, he asked, “You’re pretty good. Any pointers for a knife novice?” He grinned.

  She grinned back. “Practice and keep your wrist straight.”

  He liked her voice, lilting and with an accent--maybe Danish?

  “My wrist already feels like a lead weight.”

  Hana walked over, stood behind him, and mirrored his stance while almost touching his back with her chest. “That’s because you’re bending it. Let me show you, here.”

  She had him slow down his throw while she kept his wrist from moving. Will smelled her perfume, noticed the warmth of her hand, and was filled with a strange mixture of excitement and guilt. God, I am not feeling attracted to her, am I? Maria isn’t even buried yet.

  Her closeness distracted him and his throw was off.

  She stepped back. “Okay, you throw again.”

  He did, concentrating on keeping his wrist straight as he shifted his weight into the throw.

  “Better,” she said and went back to practicing at her target.

  After another ten minutes, he looked at her. “My shoulder is killing me. Want to take a break?” It would be a nice distraction to get to know her a little.

  “Ya, sure.”

  The light in her blue eyes said she’d like to get to know him, too.

  He craved a cigarette, but this would have to do.

  As they walked off, he worried that, with his luck, she was somehow connected to the Russians who were hot on their trail.

  CHAPTER 33

  3:05 p.m.:

  In the practice room, Maddy watched Will and Bear, then Will and Hana, out of the corner of her eye. It looked as if there was some casual flirting going on between Will and Hana, and Maddy had sensed Will’s sudden spike of interest when Hana showed him how to throw from an up-close-and-personal vantage point.

  Maddy would have to keep an eye on the two of them. A little diversion would do him good, but too much would set his grieving process back years.

  After Will and Hana walked out of the practice room together, Maddy turned her full attention to Joy. Her current training partner was a middle-aged, dark-skinned woman of average height and build who wore a colorful floral print shirt and tight leggings below hair streaked with a swath of white. She and Maddy were standing on a large mat in a corner of the room.

  Joy smiled. “Stop going so easy on me.”

  “Come on then, but I don’t want to hurt you. Have you sparred much?”

  “Honestly, I haven’t sparred with anyone since my baby brother and I used to roll around in the courtyard.”

  Maddy had suspected as much. She showed Joy a few aikido moves and then begged off to get a drink of water near the edge of the mat.

  Joy walked over to where Juergen and his friends were practicing with a bow and started up a conversation that Maddy couldn’t hear. Maddy had learned that Juergen’s stocky male friend’s name was Dieter and Elena was the name of his reddish-blonde female companion.

  Bear walked over to Maddy and joked so only she could hear. “Would you like some real competition?”

  “Sure, let’s see what you’ve learned since high school.”

  Without pause, he reached out to grab her shoulder. Acting on instinct, she grabbed his arm with both hands in a morote-dori move, which she followed up with a pivot, twist, and throw. He landed with a grunt flat on his back.

  She laughed. “You might want to work on your rolls. Even AJ is better at rolling than you are.”

  “Give a fella a break, it’s been a while.”

  “Okay, grab one of your staffs. Do you remember it’s called a ‘jo’? And let’s see how rusty you are.”

  “Sure, I remember that much. Me with a jo and you without?”

  After throwing him, she felt like a winning prizefighter. “Sure.”

  “Doesn’t seem fair.”

  “We’ll see.”

  He walked over to the wall where he had placed his quarterstaff and walked back onto the mat, twirling it above his head like a baton. She easily stayed out of the way and waited for him to make a move that would put him off balance.

  After a few more twirls, he grabbed the staff in more of a lancing pose and thrust it at her legs. It came at her in what seemed like slow motion, and she simply stepped aside.

  He followed up with a more aggressive thrust to her midriff, so she took advantage of his center of gravity moving forward. By grabbing his staff and pulling him toward her and upward in a single flowing movement called ki nagare, she caused him to lose his balance, and he again landed on his back.

  She thought he might get mad. Instead, he laughed and popped a bubble with his gum. “You’ve gotten pretty good!”

  “Thank you. I enjoy helping out at the dojo and my skills get better along the way.”

  He rolled backward and came up in a crouch. “Again?”

  She nodded and he rushed her.

  They sparred for about a half hour, until they were both breathing hard. After she threw him for the fifth time, he looked up at her from the floor and wiped sweat from his forehead. “What do you think about switching to swords?”

  “Sure, but let’s use real blades.”

  “Not practice ones?”

  “I’m going to be in a duel for my life in a few days. Practice days are gone.”

  “If you say so.”

  On the wall, she discovered a slightly curved, samurai-type short katana blade, found its weight pleasing, and wrapped her fingers around its hilt. He went for a straight sword, also single bladed. Swords weren’t taught until upper levels at the dojo, so she and Bear were more evenly matched.

  The blades were sharp, and she bumped her concentration up a notch as they practiced. She focused on the basics, first gripping and cutting, then balance, center, and extension. He came at her from over his head, sidearm, and tried to take her out at the knees. With each thrust or slash, she attempted to use his forward motion against him, parried, or took an evasive step.

  Practicing with Bear was not like working out at the dojo. He was a street fighter who didn’t play by the usual aikido rules.

  The swords clanged against one another and the others in the practice chamber gathered around to watch.

  Maddy’s muscles began to ache. As she parried an overhead blow, their weapons caught together in an upright cross. She was about to suggest they take a break when her grip slipped, and Bear’s blade swooshed down, slicing the outside of her left wrist. Dropping her sword, she slapped her right hand across the wound. “Time out.”

  Bear threw down his weapon and rushed to her. “Let me see.”

  “I don’t think
it’s that bad.” She peeled back her hand. A thin band of bright red blood seeped from a two-inch long cut. “It was my fault.”

  He looked her straight in the eye. “I’m so very sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I lost my grip. If it was the duel, I’d be dead by now.”

  “Let’s use bamboo swords for a day or so.”

  “Fine,” she agreed. “I’m going to go find a bandage.”

  Afterward, she came back to the practice room and worked off the frustration at her screw up until she could barely lift her arms.

  At the end of the day, the Guardians told them to each choose a weapon to keep with them for the rest of their time there. Bear kept his staff. Will took two throwing knives and two sheaths. Maddy kept the sword. If she made it through the fear tests, would she even be allowed to use a weapon during the upcoming duel? And would she make another mistake? A fatal one?

  CHAPTER 34

  July 5, 5:15 p.m.:

  Back in the practice room four days later, Will stood alone, practicing with his knives. It was the last hour of the last practice day.

  Although he was still dealing with nicotine withdrawal, he was getting better at throwing the knives. He had realized it involved the basic principles of mechanics that he worked with day in and day out as an engineer. The objective was for the point of the knife to stick into the target with a sufficient amount of force. To be successful, accuracy, distance, the number of rotations, and the placement of his body all needed to be taken into account.

  After wishing in vain for an app to work the calculations, he had reached back into his collegiate memory bank and played with some calculus. He chided himself for being such a geek, but the understanding had definitely improved his aim. At least he was usually hitting the target, and once he even came close to a bull’s-eye. In that moment, he felt like the kid at the carnival who won the large stuffed dog.

  All was not rosy, however. His arm and shoulder were so sore he grimaced every time he threw, and his whole body was out of shape. Worse, a full-blown civil war raged inside his head. Against his better judgment, he’d slept with Hana the night before.

  He pictured the scene. Hana had played chess with him after dinner in the common room. It had been good to laugh away the fear and grief. As the others had drifted away to bed, they had lingered over the chess board. Then she had asked if he wanted to sneak into the kitchen to grab a late-night snack.

  They took an oil lamp down the hall and into the silent galley, conspirators whispering like children. A leftover blueberry pie beckoned and she had fed him a piece with her fingers. When she leaned in and kissed him, he had resisted at first, but within ten seconds his body seemed to take over and before he knew it, they were entwined.

  It had been crazy, wrong, passionate, and irresistible. He was light-headed all over again remembering how she had felt. His knife flew wide and he moved off the mat to get a drink.

  Now, in the light of day, he knew their liaison for a rebound thing, a simple attraction, and that he’d done it to forget Maria. It had backfired because he’d fantasized about Maria half the time. He was an ignoble, fornicating bastard. God, at least he hadn’t called out Maria’s name.

  His body felt lighter for the release but he knew that he wasn’t prepared for anything resembling a relationship. That was quite clear. And, although he had told Hana he just lost his wife, and she had indicated she just wanted to have some fun, he wasn’t sure she was telling the truth.

  So, he endured a complex set of guilty, post-pleasure feelings, threw another knife, and grunted with the effort.

  After he’d been at it for a while, Maddy walked over and stood behind him, leaning against the wall. She watched him for a moment with her long legs crossed and her arms folded on her chest. Even in high school, she’d always been able to tell when he’d been with a girl. He’d asked her about it a few times, and she’d always said it was just obvious. He could feel the frosty chill of her silent disapproval, but since he deserved it, he said nothing.

  She was looking good with her sword and aikido moves. No one could consistently take her, not even Bear, although he got lucky once in a while. Will couldn’t believe it, but she’d started practicing with two swords at once and wore them now in crossed scabbards on her back.

  She broke the silence. “You’re looking pretty decent with those knives.”

  “Thanks, do you think I’ll survive the duel?”

  She walked toward him. “No.”

  “Wow, that’s kind. What do you really think?”

  “I think you should leave now and meet up with me when I’m done here. Take Bear to keep you safe out there.”

  He was tempted. “Maybe I should. I’ll fail the heights test anyway. But why do you get to stay?”

  “I have years of experience with aikido. You took it for what...a month?...in high school. And now can hit somewhere on the target most of the times you throw.”

  He grimaced. “You don’t pull any punches, do you?”

  “I have been known to be blunt, now and again.”

  “Okay, but I’m the guy. You’re the girl. What do you know about this duel?”

  She raised an eyebrow and lowered her voice. “You’re the guy? Seriously?”

  “Call me a sexist pig, but I worry about you. Have you learned anything useful about the duel?”

  “There’s a rumor we fight convicts. We’re armed and they’re not.”

  Will smiled, relieved. “That’s good! You’ll have an advantage.”

  “Who are you and what have you done with my brother?”

  “What do you mean?” She might be kidding but he wasn’t sure.

  “You think fighting an unarmed man to the death is fair?”

  He realized she wasn’t joking. “Fair? I just want you out alive!”

  “Don’t worry about that.”

  “How can I not? You’re my sin twister!”

  Maddy laughed at his word play. “I’d worry about you, too. But you don’t need to. He, or she, is probably not even a convict. Where would they get convicts? I’m sure this is nothing close to legal.”

  “Legal smeagle. They are clearly well funded, and they probably have long-standing agreements with the city jailors. With all the religious tension around here, it probably doesn’t take much to exchange a few bucks to get somebody released.”

  “You’re a little cynical about the local justice system.”

  “I guess I am. But do you doubt my logic?” Will asked.

  She took one of her swords out of its scabbard and started twirling it, like a baton. “No.”

  “So, you’re going to be fighting some sort of criminal, perhaps a terrorist, who will want to kill you so he doesn’t die?”

  Maddy’s eyes held a cold expression. “Yes, it looks that way.”

  “Convicts are often hardened by violence. Doesn’t this whole thing bother you?” Will asked.

  She sounded heated. “Of course, it bothers me, Will, but what choice do I have? Send you in there to die, back out and let the Russians find the châsse, or kill a terrorist. I don’t like any of the choices, but of the three, I’ll take the latter.”

  “I just wish there were another way.”

  “I do, too, and I’m still trying to think of some way out of it. In aikido we’re taught to use every other means at our disposal instead of killing. And who knows, maybe I won’t pass the fear test.”

  Will knew he would fail. “There’s no way I’ll clear the heights part.”

  “Ah, c’mon, you’ll be fine. I heard there is a tunnel, and I’m pretty lousy at small, cramped spaces, as you might remember from high school.”

  Will turned his shoulder to her, as if blocking a blow. “I remember.” He wanted to shift the conversation from that land mine. “Have you learned how to deal with fear in your aikido training?”

  “I wish, but no. There are a few basic methods, according to my teacher: Work out until you can deal with it, ignore it, or sit with it until it
passes.”

  “What’s worked for you?”

  She put the sword back in its scabbard. “I’ve been practicing situational avoidance for some time. You? Any ideas on dealing with your fear of heights?”

  “Unfortunately, no. I usually drink myself silly when I fly and avoid other high situations, like ladders and tall buildings.”

  “Looks like time for avoidance is going to run out for both of us tomorrow.”

  It was true, and he had nothing to add. The conversation lulled. She might not bring up that he’d slept with Hana.

  She crossed her arms. “So, why’d you sleep with her?”

  Nope. She brought it up. “God, Maddy! Is it any of your business?”

  “You’re my twin, yes, you’re my business.”

  He threw one last knife. “I don’t know!”

  Although it landed square in the target’s center, he felt no satisfaction. He bolted from practice room.

  He’d failed Maria and knew he’d fail the stress test tomorrow.

  CHAPTER 35

  July 6, 9:00 a.m.:

  On the sixth day, a little bruised and sore from all the practice, Maddy, along with several of the other students, lined up for what Hana had called the “distress” testing. Feeling nervous, she picked at the scab on her left wrist. Will was behind her in line, sweating already. Well, she was sweating, too.

  Small tight spaces had been her nemesis during her entire adult life, and already her heart was pounding at what type of test this was going to be. One by one, the students in front of her went through the door at the end of the hallway. There was usually a ten- to fifteen-minute wait in between each student.

  When Maddy’s turn came, Edith led her down a hallway and through a dark brown wooden door, where Samuel stood in a mean, narrow room that contained only two other, similar doors for decoration. Edith left.

  Samuel patted her on the shoulder. A paternal gesture. “Are you ready?”

  Butterflies were having a party in her stomach. She didn’t trust her voice so just nodded once.