Young Again
Copyright© 2018 by Edward Douglass Patterson
Chapter 21: The Tournament
Romano and Julia were apprehensive as they contemplated the anticipated assassination attempt, which was expected in the next few minutes. When the limo driven by FBI Agent John McHale pulled off of the 101 and up to the front entrance of the South San Francisco Conference Center, Romano questioned the latest information they had gotten. “John, three young black men hanging around the lobby is too obvious.”
“Yes, it’s not up to the level of the attack you faced in Chicago. Julia’s cousins knew that didn’t work, so we aren’t sure who these guys are. It could be someone who heard about the contract on you and who wants to collect the two hundred and fifty thousand. I think they may be a diversion, but they’re still a threat.”
“Two hundred and fifty thousand?” Julia was surprised. “Darius and Ty are spending that much to kill us because we are living together?”
“The Caballeros have been trying to take territory from them. Romano using the name Caballero Verte may have confused them.” John raised his hand for silence. “OK, we have a couple of agents near each of the men we believe are waiting for you. When they start to move, the agents will move in. We also have cars ready to block off their escape car.” John didn’t mention the snipers Commander Whitner had provided. They were a last resort along with the other Seals scattered throughout the conference center. “Remember, if things go bad, you dive into the limo. It’s armored. Remember, we need to keep this quiet, so as not to worry the assassins who are after the girls and Mr. Sawyer. Just go sign in. I’ll pick you up this evening.”
Romano found he wasn’t bothered by the repeating of the information they had already been told at least a half dozen times. It made him less nervous, and he could tell it had the same effect on Julia.
When the limo stopped, John came around and opened the door for them.
Romano stepped out and to the side before looking around. He purposely didn’t look at any of the people but at the building. The tall atrium at the front was interesting, but he was really scanning the people with his peripheral vision. He could tell he was noticed when three men started towards him.
Before John had helped Julia out of the limo, all three were in custody.
As instructed, they ignored the arrests and followed John to the trunk, where he gave Romano their sports bags. Romano pulled out his wallet and handed John a ten-dollar tip. “We will call when we are ready to be picked up,“ he said. He took Julia’s arm, and they headed in.
As they approached the door, a white teenage girl in a sweat suit pulled a gun out of her sports bag and shot Romano in the chest. Before she had a chance to pull the trigger again, an oriental teenage boy knocked the gun down and out of her hand. The oriental girl he had been standing with him then delivered a savage punch to the white girl’s kidney. The white girl collapsed to the ground with a horrible scream of pain. The moaning girl was rolled onto her stomach, and her arms were pulled behind her, which the boy quickly tied with a black gi belt.
Romano stood alternating between looking at his chest and at the girl who had shot him. He had been pushed back at least a foot by the bullet, but the crystal armor had spread the blow across his chest. He suspected he would have some bruising because the padding was uneven. Then he looked over to where the FBI was with the men they had arrested. The black guys had definitely been a diversion for the girl. If it hadn’t been for the two teenagers, the girl would have realized the shot to his heart had been stopped by his armor. She would have shot him in the face and then would have killed Julia. “Thank you for saving our lives.”
“I should have gotten her before she fired. We’ve been watching her for twenty minutes. She just moved really fast without even looking at you. You and Julia should head on in. We’ll hand her off to the FBI and be in as soon as we can. When you see Cindy, tell her Tom and Boa are outside. Our parents probably wonder where we went.”
“You’re part of the MSI security?” Julia was confused. The pain medication made it hard to understand the accent of the boy who definitely wasn’t from Chicago.
“No, I’m Cindy’s brother, Tom, and this is our cousin, Boa. We are here to watch the competition. Maybe we’ll enter next year when we’re at Stanford.”
Two of the FBI agents came over and took charge of the shooter. One of them took their names and told them they could go in. He would come by and get their statements after they finished out there.
The four of them entered the building together.
“Tom, how did you know?” Romano asked when the door closed behind them so the FBI agents didn’t hear them discussing what had happened.
“She was ignoring the guys.” Boa was the one who answered. “One good-looking guy came over and tried to start a conversation. She gave him an icy stare, and he hurried off. She looked intently at all the couples as if she expected you might be in disguise. She wasn’t acting like a teenage girl.”
“Brian, you need to be more aggressive in your moves.” Charlie Wong continued commenting on the first-round matches. He saw his niece’s surprise at the comment. “Cindy, Master Lee and I discussed Brian.” He paused for a second. “Brian, your strikes are aggressive, but your footwork isn’t. You tend to stand in one place and trade blows with your opponent. Being where you can strike but he cannot strike is as important as your strike or blocking. This is a form of combat. In combat, you win. Trading blows to see who gets the better score isn’t combat; it’s a game.” He nodded towards Romano. “If Romano had fought like that, both he and Julia would have been dead a couple of days ago. Ashley and Sarah had a similar problem in Honolulu. They’ve overcome it.”
“I didn’t see Sarah’s match, but Ashley has definitely improved since I saw her last.” Cheng Wong did a slight bow towards Ashley from where he was seated in the circle in front of his father.
“Yes, both Sarah and Cindy did also. I wish I had time to stay a while and observe at least one of your training sessions.” Charlie Wong smiled and shook his head.
“Master Wong, your family and your brothers may use the house whenever you want. As I have told your families, I wish you to work with us on the projects we have. If you help with our combat training, I will also cover your airfare as well as pay for your work.” Ashley bowed towards him.
Sarah was looking behind Romano and Master Wong. She rose, with Ashley barely behind her in rising. The others followed and turned to face the direction Sarah was looking. Romano took a couple of seconds to realize it was because of the old Chinese Master who was approaching. When the others bowed to him, he followed their lead.
“Master Chang. I would like you to meet my Uncle Changpu Wong. He introduced me to Chinese martial arts.” Cindy turned to her uncle. “Uncle Charlie, Master Jian Chang has helped me to improve my skills. He recognized your teaching in my moves.”
“Changpu, your son and your niece have done well in the first round. I noticed Cheng has learned some of Master Lee’s moves from Cindy.” Master Chang held out his hand to Charlie.
After they shook, Charlie corrected Master Chang on how Cheng had recently improved. “Cindy, Ashley, and Sarah sparred with the family when they were in Hawaii. It was educational in both directions.”
“Yes, I also found sparring with them educational.”
“Master Chang, I would like you to meet Romano Aviles. We expect he will be joining us for the work we spoke about on Wednesday.” Sarah had noticed Romano though listening to them had kept glancing over at Julia.
Master Chang offered Romano his hand. “I am sorry Ms. Evans’s injury kept her from competing. I am glad the armor you wore allowed you to be alive to compete.”
“I think it is one of the benefits which are available working for the Sawyers. With the interesting projects___”
“Julia,” Sarah headed off towards her.
When Romano looked towards Julia, he saw her with Agent Poe. Both of them looking at him. “Excuse me, Master Chang, Master Wong.” Romano hurried off towards Julia.
When they got to Marsha, she motioned Julia and Romano closer. “Master Chang isn’t in on most of our secrets. We hope to be able to change that soon. For now, it is best to assume anyone not at the meeting last night doesn’t have a need to know.” Sarah laughed. “Some like the President and the Secretary of Defense also know but let the five of us who were up on the stage last night decide on who else should be told.
“Romano, you were very lucky to be wearing the new armor.” Marsha Poe looked from him to Julia. “The assassin’s gun had armor-piercing rounds. Ballistic armor won’t have stopped them. I looked at your armor. There wasn’t even a scratch. There was some residue but it was easy to rub off. What happened to the bullet?”
“It flattened out.” Julia reached into her purse and pulled out a handkerchief. When it was unwrapped, they could see a flattened oblong of metal. “It looked like it melted.”
“A lot of the momentum was converted to heat.” Sarah looked at Romano. “You were knocked back but your mass is easily a thousand times the bullets. Which is what probably prevented a ricochet. We’ll have to consider ricochets in the redesign.” She turned and returned to Ashley and the others.
“Is she doing the redesign?” He looked at the teenage girl who he was trying to understand.
“From what I have seen and heard, she and Ashley mainly make sure the right people get together to work on a problem and offer advice based on unrelated research. Now with the internet, things are a little different. I have seen Wayne listening to them explain something like they were professors and he was a freshman student. Once he started cursing himself for being so stupid for not seeing something. Ashley simply said ‘Wayne.’ He blushed and apologized.” Marsha smiled at the memory. “The two of them have a way of taking over. Mark can do it also, but he has learned to hold it in check, which is one of many things he is teaching them.”
“Sarah said we should follow the lead of the five of you, at least in who to talk to about what is being done. You seem to see it a little differently.” Romano realized what he said might be taken the wrong way.
Marsha saw by the look on his face when he realized he hadn’t spoken tactfully. She laughed. “Sheila and I know our positions in the leadership group are due to our being the head of one of the government groups. We are probably two of the most able people on the government side, but I don’t know anyone I would compare to Mark, Ashley, and Sarah. I’m finding many of the people they are recruiting are very exceptional. Tom and Boa identified the assassin when my people didn’t.”
Marsha looked from one to the other of them, then nodded. “The girls were very upset when they heard about the attack on you. When I asked about it, Ashley said the two of you had achieved so much under very bad situations. While she and Sarah had it easy, you have had to struggle. I haven’t heard her speak that highly of anyone else. Both of you handled yourself well outside today, and you aren’t trained in that type of thing. I now understand a little better what they see in you.”
“We both grew up where you had to be careful.” Julia didn’t explain further.
“Yes, I have seen our information on your cousins.”
“You and Sarah talk like you saw what happened.”
“Romano, the girls are experts at gathering and interpreting information, and now they have people to help them. We have a control room over at the Holiday Inn next door where we are watching everything going on in or around the conference center.” Marsha was looking around, searching for someone as she spoke. “I need to talk to Mark about arranging it so I can get as many of my people as possible into the new armor before the end of the competition. I expect the hit to go down then.” She hurried off.
“I think we should accept their job offer.” Julia’s smile caused one to appear on Romano’s face.
“What made you make up your mind?”
“I checked up on Mark Sawyer and MSI. The only negatives I found were people who were competitors. Most of those complaints had to do with their inability to compete, but he doesn’t try to destroy his competition. MSI licenses most of their inventions out to other companies. The only contract awards they have contested are ones which were eventually overturned in their favor.”
“What about their employees?” As he asked the question, he realized she had set him up to ask the question.