A Time For Truth, page 24
part #3 of The Time Warrior Series
“How long have you known I was here?”
“I smelled you the second you got close. Ninjas have a certain smell you know.” Logan laughed and opened his eyes. Nicholas feigned anger.
“That’s bullshit! I take great pride in smelling like nothing at all. Do you know how hard that is to do?” Nicholas broke and joined his friend in laughter.
Logan got up and sat on the edge of his bed. “We are warriors, we two. Dawson was a warrior. He wasn’t a religious man but he had a thing for the way Danes saw the universe. A god for everything but especially a place for warriors.”
“Valhalla,” Nicholas said.
Logan nodded. “Valhalla, the hall of slain heroes where they fight all day and party all night, with all the mead and women they want only to begin all over again on the next day. That’s where Dawson would want to be and I’ve decided to put him there. Not dead, but fighting every day, his fearsome roar echoing in the halls of Valhalla. So, we will not morn and we will not cry. We will smile when we think of our big friend and shield mate.”
Nicholas nodded in agreement. “As it should be. How’s the leg, I mean legs?”
Logan slapped the leg on the right. “They are exactly what was promised. I’m the one slowing things down.”
“From what I’ve been told your progress has been amazing. I purposely stayed in touch with Dr. Frederick so you had the time you needed to be ready.”
“To train.”
Nicholas nodded. “To train and then some. We are at war and the sooner you can defend yourself the better I’ll feel. You ready?”
“What do you mean, defend myself? I’m not going into hiding. I’m going to hunt down every one of these bastards, they’re the ones who need to be ready to defend themselves!”
Nicholas raised his hands in the air. “Okay, okay! Not to defend but to attack!” I get the plan but you didn’t answer my question. Are you ready?”
Logan was frustrated and Nicholas was only moving at half speed. The program the ninja developed began with an aim to regain proficiency in unarmed combat. If Logan could do that he could move with a sword or spear. So far, Logan wasn’t doing well.
“It’s all right Logan. This is only the first day and you’ve already made significant progress. Your hands are as fast as ever and your instincts are there, your legs are just a little behind in the sequence. I’m a bit concerned about having you kick me. The doctor said there were software upgrades to enhance combat abilities. No need to put your foot through my chest in practice.”
Logan tried to regain his breath before answering. “They haven’t uploaded the combat program yet. Dr. Frederick was creating it a few days ago. Frankly, I don’t know what the enhancement will look like.”
“Well, why don’t we find out!” Dr. Frederick’s voice boomed across the lab.
“It’s ready?” Logan asked, moving toward the doctor.
“As ready as its going to be. If it takes, you’ll have a thousand years of martial arts capabilities loaded into your brain and into your legs.”
Nicholas frowned. “I thought practical skills couldn’t be learned that way.”
The doctor nodded. “That’s right, and this upgrade will only address tactical moves associated with his legs but remember, his legs are machines and they can be programmed.”
“Well, what are we waiting for? Right now, my legs are holding me back. If what you say is true, I should be able to execute everything I knew before and all the new tactics available through the program.”
Dr. Frederick nodded. “Yes, Logan. But for all that to happen you need to shut up and go layover there.” The doctor pointed to Logan’s bed.”
Logan jumped on his bed and laid down. The doctor pulled a data storage device from his coat and told Logan to relax and close his eyes. “The program will take twenty minutes to upload and assimilate. Then I’ll bring the lead therapist back in for a quick run through the biosync protocols. In one hour, we’ll know if this works or not.”
“You sticking around?” Logan asked Nicholas who was standing off to the side and out of the doctor’s way.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world and besides, we still have a few hours of combat training to finish.”
Logan closed his eyes and relaxed. He was going to be faster, stronger, a better warrior. He needed this to work, it had to work!
Chapter Twenty
Two weeks had passed since Logan’s combat training began. Nicholas swapped out every so often with Phillip so he could work on planning his hit on Blunt. Both he and Phillip we in awe of Logan’s mobility. It was amazing and his kicking strength was devastating. Logan was going through heavy bags at a rate of one a day. When he hit anything with a kick dust flew everywhere. Besides the speed and strength factor, Logan didn’t feel any pain when his legs made contact, a significant plus.
Phillip and Nicholas put him through a standard circuit of strength and conditioning exercises, unarmed combat, and edged weapons drills. They focused on weapons he’d used before on his time trips. Spears, short and long swords, daggers, the Danish Saxe, and throwing knives. Their pupil worked diligently. His skill and knowledge were honed to a fine point of execution. His balance and control of his body in space mechanics was the only area of frustration but he was tightening up his game rapidly. They finally concurred that he was almost done with training in the lab. Logan was glad to hear it, he was ready to stop training and start killing.
Nicholas had waited until Logan was nearly finished with his training program before bringing him up to speed on the ongoing war of attrition between the cowboys and the time warriors. He gave him the tactical breakdown of the botched hit and the condition of the twins. They were recovering but would be out of action for quite some time. Logan soaked it all in and trained even harder. Now Dawson wasn’t the only score to settle.
Finally, the day he’d been waiting for arrived. Dr. Frederick and Nicholas watched Logan go through a series of diagnostic computer checks. He was half machine now and would always need maintenance and potential adjustments in hardware and software. This testing protocol was his last as a patient.
“You’re free to go Logan.” The doctor said smiling and patting Logan on the back. Dr. Frederick knew about Logan’s plan to avenge his fiend but hoped the last few weeks had given the man time to reflect on his second chance at life. He’d grown to like the lanky dark-haired time warrior.
“Thanks for everything, Doc! I’d like to say it’s been a fun time but that would be a lie.”
Dr. Frederick laughed. Nicholas also chuckled and then looked at the time. It was still early in the day. The plan was for Logan to go to his Blue Ridge Mountain estate to stay out of targeting range of the cowboys until the team came up with an operational plan hunt down and eliminate Dawson’s killers. “We need to get going. Doc, it’s been a privilege!” Nicholas shook the doctor’s hand.
“That goes double for me, Dr. Frederick! I promise I won’t end up back here in a week looking for an arm!” Logan shook the doctor’s hand and looked at Nicholas. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”
Nicholas and Logan met Phillip on the shuttle pad outside the lab. The medical facility’s pad was blocked form view on three sides by high walls. Carson was staged on a rooftop across the street providing overwatch. He reported all clear when he saw his friends exit the building. Logan was going home alone. It didn’t make sense for Nicholas to take a two-hour round trip out and back just to tuck his friend into his own bed. Besides, he’d watched Logan in action for two weeks. His friend didn’t need a babysitter or a bodyguard.
The long shuttle ride was soothing. Logan had spent most of the last two months either in a bed in Athens or in an enclosed laboratory environment. Therefore, the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley was even more breathtaking than usual. It felt to Logan as if he was seeing it for the first time.
For as much as he’d endured, he was in firm control of his emotions and his feelings about Dawson’s death. While different, it was far easier than reconciling Maya’s murder. She’d hadn’t been a warrior. She was a civilian, a noncombatant, and she didn’t deserve what had happened to her. As the shuttle began to slow on final approach he thought again about his crazy idea. If he could make it work, he might be able to do something about righting that terrible wrong.
Logan stepped out of the shuttle and shook his head, feeling his long black hair brush the back of his neck and across his shoulders. He stretched his hands up as high as they would go and breathed in the clean mountain air. Logan was in tune with his body in an entirely new way. All the testing, therapy, and training may have focused on his new legs but the side effect was a new appreciation of his mind-body connection. The ancient yogis of India had believed in this phenomenon. They believed that humans had the ability to transcend their physical limitations and seek a higher plane of consciousness. Logan was sure they’d been on to something.
Nicholas original ninja training for Logan and his team had touched briefly on this subject. At the time Logan took it in as new information, nothing more, and he didn’t attempt to meditate his way to being a better warrior. Carson and Taylor now swore by its positive effects and practiced some form of meditation daily. He was pretty sure Nicholas meditated daily also. They all swore it made a difference in mental and physical performance. To Logan, the laboratory biosync exercises were like a forced version of the mystic method. Biofeedback and practice followed by more biofeedback and more practice. Logan was more switched on than ever before and it felt good. He was a believer!
That was the problem. He’d started the journey filled with rage. A rage that could only be quenched through violence. Vengeance was the easiest and most obvious path to contentment. Avenge Dawson and Logan could move on, but move on to where? If his hair-brained idea worked, he had a new future to look forward to, but he had to live long enough to test his theory, or more accurately, Rowyn’s theory. For now, it was enough to know he was well, better than well, and ready to hunt.
Nicholas checked in with Logan twice a day. His own tactical planning for the hit on Blunt was nearly completed. The cowboy was an easy person to track. His body type was unique and his habits painfully repetitive. The resistance surveillance teams were rotated regularly to prevent detection. Following the troll-like figure day in and day out was boring and somehow Nicholas missed the hidden message in that simple pattern of movement. Blunt was purposefully being too easy to follow, too easy to anticipate and Nicholas enthusiastically stepped right into Winslow’s trap.
On the day of the mission, Nicholas briefed Carson and Phillip until they could repeat every detail of the operation. Carson lobbied and won a position on the street level backing Nicholas up while Phillip took the overwatch position. Carson beamed. For once he was the main player, not a sidekick observing the action from afar.
The team left at ten o’clock in the morning and moved to the ambush area using separate routes through the city. Nicholas received a report from one of Osprey’s counter-surveillance people assigned to support him, no one had followed the three men when they left Nicholas’ high-rise apartment. So far, everything was in order and going smoothly. Blunt would never see them coming.
Nicholas knew the chances of Blunt showing up on time and at the expected location was still a fifty-fifty proposition. If he didn’t show within a designated thirty-minute mission window he would communicate the abort code phrase and come back the next day or the day after that. Nicholas positioned himself inside the office building where Blunt was known to frequent every day at this time. Osprey’s people had stitched together a composite profile of the cowboy’s behaviors. They’d determined he had a girlfriend, someone happily giving him sex and companionship while he stayed in the great city, and she worked in this building.
Nicholas held a bullet-shaped object in his right hand which was hidden in a jacket pocket. The object was a small cannon, charged with high-pressure air and designed to fire a small dart deep into the target, bypassing the subcutaneous skin layer and lodging somewhere deep in the torso. The poison was distributed a split second later when the dart ignited and spilled its lethal contents into the target’s body. Death was swift and to a witness would look like a heart attack. Nicholas simply had to walk out while Blunt walked in and keep going once the projectile was fired into the cowboy.
Carson staged across the street where he could see Nicholas through the glass door of his building and watch two different avenues of approach. His main task was to signal Blunt's final approach by placing his hand on his head. A right hand meant Blunt was approaching the door from Carson’s right, Nicholas’ left. A left hand placed on his head meant the opposite. The signal was simple but it gave Nicholas the final reference he needed before Blunt stepped through the door.
After twenty-five minutes Phillip came up on comms and stated the obvious. “Five minutes left and no cowboys in sight.”
Nicholas was well aware of the time and also aware this behavior was inconsistent with the last four Wednesday’s in a row. Were the cowboys on to his plan? “We’ll stick to the plan. Everyone disperses at thirty minutes, not a minute sooner! Acknowledge.”
Carson placed his hands in his pants pockets signaling he was good to go. Phillip paused a second and considered arguing then gave in, it was Nicholas’ plan. “Roger!” Phillip whispered into his communicator.
As he communicated his compliance to Nicholas, Phillip spotted target rounding the corner two blocks away and to the right of his observation position. “Target inbound, approaching from your left. Sixty seconds out. He is alone.”
Carson casually looked to his left first then turned his eyes to the right. He saw Blunt walking at a good clip, now only one block away. Carson was to wait until the target was five steps from arriving at the door. Until then Nicholas was staged further back in the lobby and would only move to the door when he spotted Carson’s signal.
Blunt was nervous. He knew there were men hidden all around but what if the resistance assassins were too quick for the reinforcements to matter? He intuitively slowed down with every step as he approached the door. If he was doing the hit he’d be set up in the lobby. Do the deed fast then casually step out of the building and disappear into the city. So far, he didn’t see anyone who looked suspicious, except for the guy across the street scratching his head.
Nicholas started closing the distance to the door to time his arrival at the portal to coincide with Blunt’s entry into the building. He saw Blunt’s figure cast a shadow over the doorway and suddenly they were in the vestibule together.
Nicholas didn’t look at his target but Blunt was staring intensely at him. Nicholas got the distinct impression the squatty man was about to hit him so he pivoted, dropped low and punched his right hand into Blunt’s ribs. The popping sound was slight but Blunt was savvy enough to know he’d been attacked with something strange. He threw a vicious elbow at Nicholas, who bent back to avoid the blow and then realized he was about to fight the powerful man in the confined space.
Carson started running toward the building’s entrance when he saw the fight begin. Blunt was all of two hundred and forty pounds. Maybe the poison wasn’t enough to stop him. Phillip saw Carson take off at a sprint and while he couldn’t see the vestibule from his height, he could tell something had gone wrong. That’s when a chunk of concrete three feet to his left was obliterated by a plasma round. They were under attack, it was a trap!
Blunt sagged against Nicholas, the poison was taking effect. He tried to shove the man to his left but it was difficult. At the same time, he thought he heard a booming sound, not a gun but like a gun. The sound was distorted in the vestibule and he had enough on his hands at the moment.
He spotted Carson running across the street and then saw him spin around and look up. There was something wrong outside! Nicholas shed the now unconscious cowboy and allowed his body to hit the floor. His next dilemma was almost funny. The door opened inward and Blunt’s body was in the way. Nicholas grabbed the man by his coat and started dragging him into the building’s lobby. He heard more explosions outside. His friends were in trouble!
Winslow directed the sniper to keep the man on the roof pinned down. “Kill him if you can be don’t let him move!” The sniper nodded silently and let loose a third round. Winslow put up three fingers and pointed to the rooftop across the street. Three of his men standing behind him turned and raced for the elevator. Phillip was about to have visitors.
Carson reached the front door just as Nicholas bounded back into the vestibule. “What the fuck is going on out there?” Nicholas yelled.
“Hell, if I know. It sounds like Phillip is under fire. I think it’s coming from another roof across the street, I mean on this side of the street!”
Nicholas opened the door and heard another explosion. “Plasma rifle! They have Phillip pinned down. We need to get to that rooftop and take out that sniper!”
Carson was ready to go but which rooftop? There were three buildings on this side of the street. Get to the top of one and find no one, you wouldn’t be able to get to the next one without retracing your steps and starting all over again. “We don’t have any distance weapons,” Carson said pointing out their obvious weakness.
“We have to get out on the street, determine where the firing point is and then get up there and kill the asshole!”
Carson smiled despite the situation. He wasn’t used to hearing the ninja master swear. It didn’t sound right for some reason. “Okay, I’ll run back over there, see what I can see. You stay here.”
“Don’t remain static or he’ll start shooting at you! Keep moving, get back here alive.” Nicholas ordered. He watched Carson zigzag across the street dodging two empty vehicles that zoomed past the building. He reached the other side and continued running to the northern corner of the building Phillip was using for a perch. The corner protected most of his body from a shot should the sniper turn his attention his way.
