Читать книгу The Legacy of Shadows - William Speir - Страница 11

When Jamie arrived at the dojo Monday morning, she had just finished turning on the lights when the phone rang in her office. It was Senior Master Frank Whitworth.

“Good morning, Frank,” Jamie said when she answered. “What’s up?”

“I got word last Friday that the contracts have been signed for the counter-terrorism and counter-espionage training that the government wants,” Frank replied. “And our services are part of the agreement. We’re going to start training FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, and military units as part of an urgent initiative they’re undertaking.”

“Any idea what the initiative is?” Jamie asked.

“That’s classified,” was all Frank could say about it.

“When do we start?”

“That’s why I’m calling. I’ve called a meeting for all masters and instructors to discuss our involvement. Can you be here Thursday at noon? The meetings will run through Friday afternoon, so you can fly out that night.”

Jamie looked at her calendar. There was no question that she would attend the meeting. It was a requirement of her rank. But she wanted to see if there were any classes that she had to assign to other instructors. Fortunately, she had no commitments for Thursday and Friday that week. “I’ll be there.”

“Good. See you then. Bye, Jamie.”

“Bye, Frank.”

Jamie immediately went online and booked her flight, hotel room, and rental car for the trip. Then she sent a quick note and the itinerary to Hunter, who was at work at his father’s commercial real estate firm.

She looked at the framed photo on her desk of her and Hunter on the beach in Antigua, remembering that he took her there right after they got engaged.

Hunter, who was four months older than Jamie, had moved into her townhouse a year earlier. They had talked about getting married someday, but they had never made it official. In addition to being a member of the Order and co-owning the dojo, Jamie travelled constantly with her work as a combat martial arts instructor, which kept her from spending as much time with Hunter as she would have liked.

There was a break in her training schedule, and she flew back into town to find her place lit only in candle light and a path of rose petals leading toward the dining room. When she entered the dining room, Hunter was there, on one knee, with a ring in his hand. She was so excited to see him that she didn’t notice the ring at first, and she missed entirely the home-cooked meal on the table and the travel agency documents for their trip to Antigua.

She ran forward and knelt in front of him. When she finally stopped kissing him and saw the ring in his hand, she didn’t wait for him to ask the question. “If that’s an engagement ring, the answer is yes!”

Hunter pretended to pout. “You mean I don’t even get to ask you?”

Jamie looked at him. “Don’t you think you should ask my father first?”

“Already did.”

Jamie smiled at him. “Then ask your question.”

“Jamie Michelle Anderson, will you marry me?” Hunter looked at her expectantly.

Jamie has a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “Hmmmm. Maybe I should think about it first.”

They both laughed as Hunter grabbed her and pulled her over onto the floor. He put the ring on her finger, and she rolled onto her back and held up her hand as she stared at the ring.

Jamie smiled as she gazed at Hunter’s face in the photo, remembering the fun they had in Antigua. Her hand reached for the engagement ring, which she wore on a chain around her neck when she was teaching.

She glanced at the clock and saw what time it was. She stood, left the office, and finished getting the dojo ready for the first morning classes.

Emily sat in her glass-walled office on the top floor at SignalCorps’ headquarters, reviewing the contracts that Arthur Reynolds and Alfonso Berkshire had sent over that morning. Seeing nothing that concerned her, she signed the contracts on behalf of SignalCorps and set them aside.

Looking up, she noticed two striking women in their late twenties about to knock on her door. She gestured for them to enter her office, close the door behind them, and sit down.

Kaitlyn Devereaux, a dark-haired woman of Irish-French descent, and Amanda Rochelle, a brown-haired anglophile French Canadian, were the senior product specialists for the new surveillance system that SignalCorps was preparing for field-testing. They were also members of the Order. Emily had requested that they come see her that morning, so they sat down and waited for her to begin the meeting.

“How’s the new product doing?” Emily asked.

“Everything’s on schedule,” Kaitlyn answered. “Field-testing will begin next week.”

“That’s what I needed to talk to you about,” Emily interjected. She filled the two women in on the contracts she had just signed and the training that the Counter-Terrorism Committee wanted.

“The primary contractor has subcontracted all surveillance training to us, and we agreed to use the new system as part of that training,” she added.

“We’re going to train on a surveillance system that hasn’t been thoroughly field tested?” Amanda asked, shocked. “What if there are bugs? What if the system doesn’t perform as expected? It could hurt the reputation of the system before it’s even released. We’d never get that reputation back if word spread of any issues uncovered during the training.”

Emily nodded. “I’m aware of the risk, but the opportunity to have the system tested in a real world situation, coupled with the unprecedented reputation we could attain if the system works as we expect it to, is too great to pass up. But because there are risks, I’m assigning the two of you to the training initiative. That way, if any bugs or deficiencies are detected, it can be addressed by the two people with the most knowledge of how the system is supposed to work.”

Kaitlyn and Amanda looked at each other. “Is there a problem?” Emily asked.

“No, ma’am,” Amada answered for the two of them. “That’s actually a great idea. Will any engineers be assigned with us in case a problem turns out to be related to fabrication or specific components?”

“Yes,” Emily replied, reading off the names of two engineers from the list of SignalCorps resources assigned to the training initiative.

“What will our involvement be in the training?” Kaitlyn asked.

“You two will provide the initial product training on the new system, and then you’ll work with the surveillance trainers and the engineers to resolve any issues that are found during their part of the training. I know it goes without saying that the training we’re providing is highly classified. However, because the use of the system by the people we’re training will provide real-world proof of the system’s capabilities, I also want you to work with marketing, so once it’s time to release the system to the general public, we’ll have a marketing campaign that’s based on proven capabilities and not just speculation about what the system might be able to do.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the two specialists said.

“Are there any other questions?” Emily asked.

“Not at this time,” Amanda replied.

“All right.” Emily handed them the complete list of SignalCorps resources assigned to the initiative. “Start working with these folks to identify what they need and how you’ll need to interact with them to resolve any problems.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

It took Jamie longer than usual to lock up the dojo on Wednesday night. She had notes that she had to leave for Tobias and her instructors, and she had papers to print out so she could read them on the plane the next morning. The meeting with the combat martial arts masters was the next afternoon, and she wanted to be thoroughly familiar with contracts so she could help identify the training that they’d be required to deliver and the best way to leverage their limited resources.

By the time she had turned off the lights in the dojo, the parking lot was deserted, except for her car and two cars that she didn’t recognize, which were parked close to the street. As she locked the front door, she heard movement behind her.

Turning around, she saw seven men of various sizes and ages approaching her from different directions. Two held baseball bats, and the others held a mixture of pipes and tools. All of them appeared menacing as they approached her.

She looked around to assess the situation. There was no way that she could reach her car, use her phone to call the police, or slip back inside the dojo, without some sort of confrontation. The men were too close to her by this point. None of the men appeared to be carrying guns, so she decided not to reach for the pistol in her gym bag. I can handle these thugs.

As she placed her gym bag down, one of the thugs holding a baseball bat asked, “Are you the owner?”

“Yes.”

“You put a friend of ours in the hospital last week.”

“It wasn’t personal,” Jamie said calmly. “He was attacking one of my students. I don’t allow that.”

“You don’t allow? You busted him up!” the man bellowed.

“Maybe it’ll teach him to leave others alone,” Jamie responded. She steadied herself for the attack that she knew was coming.

“Maybe we’ll teach you not to interfere in our friend’s business.” He raised his baseball bat as he approached Jamie.

“And maybe I’ll teach you to choose better friends.”

Jamie sprung forward so fast that he almost didn’t see her in the dark. She grabbed the arm holding the bat with both hands and propelled herself over his body, landing behind him with her hands still on his arm. She pulled his arm inward until his fist was in the small of his back and the baseball bat was pointing downward.

“Wha…?” He cried out in pain as she wrestled the baseball bat from his hand. When he tried to spin around and face her, she shifted his arm and forced him to his knees.

“Get her!” he shouted.

The other thugs ran at her with their weapons raised. Jamie released the first man’s arm and jumped up, landing on his shoulder. Then she leaped to the left. The man on his knees pitched forward, and he face-planted on the concrete. He lay there — stunned — as Jamie confronted the next attacker.

Jamie swung the baseball bat, catching the next attacker in his shoulder. He dropped the pipe and fell backward.

Jamie grabbed the pipe and attacked him with both weapons. He tried to block her blows, but he couldn’t; they seemed to come from every direction. Blood spurted from his nose and mouth, and he couldn’t lift his right arm. Jamie kicked him in the head, and he lost consciousness.

Jamie shifted the direction of her attack to the right, stepping on the first man as she leaped at the attacker holding a wrench in his left hand. She landed with both feet on his chest, forcing him backward into another man running forward to help him. Both attackers fell onto the concrete. Jamie kicked their weapons away and changed directions again, stepping on the first man again as she attacked to the left.

She swung the bat and pipe in her hands like swords as she attacked the remaining thugs who were still able to fight. Ribs cracked, bones broke, and wounds opened up and bled from a dozen blows that the attackers never seemed able to block. Soon, only the first man was still conscious.

She moved toward him. His face was cut, and his nose broken and bloody from the times Jamie had stepped on him to propel herself into an attack against one of his buddies. His right arm appeared to be broken, and he was having trouble breathing.

Jamie placed the pipe under his chin and lifted his head so he could face her. “I could have killed you all,” she told him, “but I held back. Your wounds will heal. But if you ever try to hurt me or any of my students again, I’ll give you a beat-down that you’ll never get up from. Do you understand?”

He spat at her and said nothing. Jamie stepped back and then spun around, delivering a kick to the side of his head. He pitched forward and lay there – bleeding and unresponsive.

Looking around, Jamie was satisfied that none of the men was still able to fight. She secured their weapons and retrieved her phone from her gym bag. She called 911 and told the dispatcher that she needed the police and multiple EMTs immediately.

Jamie sat down on the sidewalk outside the dojo and waited. In less than ten minutes, she heard sirens approaching. Sergeant Myerson arrived first, followed by three police cars and four EMT ambulances.

“What now, Miss Anderson?” Myerson asked when he saw the men sprawled on the concrete.

“They’re friends of the guy who attacked my student last week.” Jamie gestured at the pile of weapons in front of her. “They wanted to teach me a lesson.”

Myerson chortled. “I see that didn’t work out so well for them.”

“No, it didn’t.”

The EMTs began examining the thugs, and their list of injuries was extensive. When they reported their findings to Myerson, he just shook his head.

“Are you trying to keep us busy?” he asked.

Jamie shook her head. “I didn’t ask them to come here and try to hurt me. But I’m not going to let people like this intimidate me or my students, and I’m not going to back down from a fight that I didn’t start.”

Myerson finished taking Jamie’s statement as the EMTs lifted the thugs onto stretchers and loaded them into the ambulances.

“The detective may need to talk to you.”

“I’m flying out of town tomorrow morning, but I’ll be back Friday night. They can get me over the weekend if they need anything.”

Myerson made a note of that. Then he asked, “Do you think you’ll ever find yourself in a position where you can just talk yourself out of a situation instead of having to crack heads?”

“That depends on who I’m talking to,” Jamie said grimly. “I don’t actually like hurting people, but I’m not going to let anyone hurt me. You know I carry a gun; I could have just shot them. But if they’re dead, they don’t learn, and I want them to learn from their mistakes. Do you think they’ll learn anything from what happened tonight?”

Myerson just stared at her. “Remind me to never piss you off.”

Jamie smiled a tired smile. “That could never happen, Sergeant. I consider you a friend.”

Myerson looked surprised. “Thank you for that, Miss Anderson. And as your friend, let me give you some advice. Be careful. The people who work for you and the people you teach watch everything that you do. Be sure that what you’re showing them is what you want them to see and what you want them to learn. You’re responsible for them, too. Don’t forget.”

Jamie nodded.

Myerson and the other police got back in their patrol cars and left the parking lot to follow the EMT ambulances to the hospital. The thugs would all be placed under arrest for assault… as soon as they regained consciousness.

Jamie retrieved her gym bag, got in her car, and drove home.

The more I step in to help people, the more people want to prove that they’re better than I am. I’m starting to feel like the gunslingers of the old west that all of the young punks want to fight to prove that they’re faster on the draw. I’m glad Hunter isn’t like that. He loves me for me, and we never compete against each other.

She drove home, looking forward to spending time with Hunter before she had to head to the airport in the morning.