Girl Takes Up Her Sword (23 page)

When she pulled up to the curb, a crowd of smiling, expectant faces greeted her… and a single very nervous one. Melanie stood next to Roxie, one arm over the smaller woman’s shoulder as if to steady herself. Emily waved to her as she hopped off the bike and took off the helmet.

“I can’t believe it, Oscar,” she said. “It’s amazing. This was your idea, wasn’t it?”

“Well, me and Nate. But everybody pitched in to build it.”

“Thank you so much,” she said as she kissed him on the top of his bald head. “And the rest of you, too. Thank you all.”

She made the rounds, hugging them all, kissing a cheek where she could. When she came to Roxie, she hugged her and whispered in her ear.

“Thank you. You are all too kind to me.” Then turning to Melanie: “You have got to come for a ride with me!”

Melanie shook her head frantically, no.

“You’re a timid one, aren’t you?” Roxie observed. “I mean, for someone as big and strong as you.”

“Can we do it some other time?” she pleaded. “I don’t think I have the stomach for it right now.”

Emily smiled at her, and turned to Oscar.

“Are there seven gears on this thing? I wasn’t sure if I’d lost count, but it seemed like there was an extra one.”

“You noticed,” he said, beaming. “That was my idea, a custom gearbox, a DD7. Roxie said you’d want something smooth, not so noisy. So Nate tweaked the engine and we put a good muffler on it along with the special gears. It should have good power all through the acceleration curve.”

“Good power,” she said with a snort. “This thing’s like a rocket. I still can’t believe you did all this just for me.”

~~~~~~~

Once the bikers had gone, Emily sat on a bench with Melanie, who just wanted a moment to catch her breath after all the excitement. Once he’d had his fill of gaping at the bike, Steve turned to Emily.

“Before you go, there’s someone who’d like to say something to you.”

“That certainly sounds cryptic,” Emily replied.

“Just give her a moment, Em,” Melanie implored.

Emily rolled her eyes.

“Fine.”

Steve gestured to a car sitting across the parking lot, and a moment later Amanda got out and walked over.

“You sure this is what you want,” she asked.

Melanie nodded her head.

“Give us a minute, okay?” Amanda said to Steve and Melanie, once she’d sat down a few feet away on the bench—not so close as to suggest friendly feelings, but not so far as to make conversation difficult.

Emily had no idea what to expect. Was she going to blame her for the shooting? Coming from Amanda, there’d be no justice in such an accusation—none she could recognize. How differently she felt when Mrs. Wilchuk implied as much only a little while earlier. The idea that she could be justly accused by Amanda was not easy to swallow.

“It was my fault,” Amanda said in a little voice, barely audible at that distance.

“What?” Emily replied, barely comprehending what she heard.

“I told them about graduation, you know, that you’d be on the stage at the end for the valedictory speech.”

“Who’d you tell?” she demanded, much more urgently now.

“Those guys from the FBI who were asking about you. I’m sorry, Emily,” she said, her voice shaking.

“The FBI wanted to know about graduation?”

“Wendy was right. There was something wrong about them. But I was so mad at you, I didn’t believe it. And it almost got Teddy killed. And Steve… and you.”

“You told them?”

“I’m so sorry. It was them, wasn’t it, shooting from the woods?”

“I don’t know… probably. Them or someone working with them.”

“I thought it was so cool to tell those people about you. But when the shot rang out, my heart sank. And when I saw you run into the woods, like you weren’t afraid of anything… I just knew those guys were all wrong. I mean, there they were, hiding in the woods shooting at you, and you ran right at them. I’m sorry.”

Emily didn’t know what to say. Amanda had been her adversary all year, from as soon as Danny showed an interest in her. And yet, the rivalry Amanda so clearly felt, as well as the petty nastinesses she’d perpetrated, it all paled compared to the real adversaries Emily was on the lookout for. Such a pusillanimous distraction—if only Emily could tell her how insignificant she seemed, how trivial her apology was. As satisfying as that might be, she could see that it would be unproductive. The right thing was to help this girl find a way out of the turmoil in her heart… if only for Melanie’s sake.

“Amanda,” she began. “It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known who those men were.”

“But I almost got someone killed.”

“No. They almost killed someone. Not you.”

Amanda sat quietly for a moment, clearly frustrated. This conversation didn’t seem to be going the way she’d hoped. What was she expecting, a hug?

“Look Amanda, you don’t need to apologize to me, and you don’t need me to forgive you. Melanie will still be your best friend, no matter what we say to each other. But if you want to do something good for someone, go up and pay a visit to Teddy. He was a hero yesterday. Go, make much of him. He deserves your attention more than I do.”

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Chapter
27

A Friend in Need

“I think the Bath County Sheriff is satisfied, at least as far as we’re concerned,” Michael said. “There will be some FBI interest once they run the prints on those guys. But it won’t lead back to us.”

“You said they found a third body?” Emily asked.

“Yeah. Connie says it’s one of Meacham’s men.”

“And we don’t think they’re working together?”

“No way,” Michael said. “More likely the body was a plant to implicate Meacham. That’s Connie’s theory, and I think she’s right.”

“How do you know her, anyway?” Theo asked. “I mean, is she really trustworthy?”

Michael looked to Emily for some guidance. He didn’t know Connie well at all, but he knew a great deal about her, much of it not very encouraging.

“She doesn’t work for me,” Michael said.

“Then what the hell is she doing here?”

“She’s here as a favor to me. I trust her,” Emily said in a firm, quiet voice.

“Well, you didn’t see what I saw in the woods. She killed those guys, and it was
cold
. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I shot the one guy, the one she called Harkness, I shot him in the leg so as not to kill him. And, you know, the impact of the bullet spins him around toward me, and in the time it takes him to fall over, she puts two rounds in his ear, from like thirty yards away.”

Emily said nothing, just sat quietly on the end of the couch in Michael’s study.

“And the one you fought off,” Theo continued. “After you threw him into that tree…”

“You saw that?” Michael interrupted.

“Yeah, I was there, just over the rise. But I didn’t have a shot. You were pretty amazing, by the way,” he said to Emily. “The thing is, you didn’t kill him. You threw him aside and collected Stone, and then you went back down to the field. Anyway, Connie shows up a few seconds later, and before I can do anything, she picks up his gun and finishes him off. Just like that, double tap to the head, no hesitation, nothing. That’s not normal.”

“Like I said, she doesn’t work for me,” Michael said.

“But she’s in your house, with your family, and she’s like the coldest assassin I’ve ever seen.”

“She’s not the coldest I’ve seen,” Emily said.

Theo scratched his head, a look of complete puzzlement on his face.

“I can’t believe the risk you’re taking. How do we know she didn’t engineer the whole thing? And when it went bad she killed those guys to keep ‘em quiet. Look it’s just a theory,” he said, when he saw Emily glowering at him. “But I think you need to be careful around her.”

“I trust her,” Emily said again. “There’s no way I could have rescued Anthony without her help.”

“Fine,” Theo conceded. “But how are you so sure she wasn’t involved in the kidnapping, too? Just how did you meet her in the first place?”

When Michael asked the same question a couple of weeks before, Emily refused to answer. Was there any reason to explain it to them now? Would Theo understand what Michael couldn’t? He’d seen things, done things, was perhaps not so different from Connie. Emily sat in stony silence. After an uncomfortable moment, Michael offered what little history he already knew.

“Meacham recruited her out of Annapolis. Eventually she became one of his most trusted operatives.”

“That explains why you might think she had nothing to do with the kidnapping,” Theo conceded.

“Things changed for her last winter,” Michael continued. “One of Meacham’s teams was ambushed in Taipei, and several agents were killed. Connie made it out alive, but afterwards she seems to have broken with him.”

“I’d bet anything she’s still working for Meacham,” Theo said. “Don’t let her fool you.”

“I know she’s not,” Emily said.

“And just how do you know that?”

“Because Meacham’s main assassin has been hunting her.”

“How the hell do you know anything about his assassin, or what he’s been up to?”

“He’s my uncle,” Emily replied, looking directly into his eyes. Theo couldn’t help flinching. “I looked into her eyes and saw who she is. I know her. She’s a friend.”

The tone of her voice made it hard to find a way to respond. A deep silence fell over the room as Theo pondered what he’d just heard. Heavy footsteps outside the door announced Ethan’s entrance. Yuki and Connie followed him in.

“Right now, the TV news people are crawling all over Warm Springs,” Ethan said. “I think won’t find their way up here. Emily already gave up her apartment, and there’s no record of this location for anyone to find down there.”

“What about Sensei Oda?” Michael asked. “Has he been contacted?”

“I told him to close the dojo for the next couple of weeks,” Emily said. “We can count on his silence.”

“You told him to close his dojo?” Theo asked. “Just who is Sensei Oda?”

“He’s a friend of my father from Okinawa. He trained with him there.”

“He used to work for Meacham,” Michael said. “He trained all his people in the eighties.”

“And how do we know
he’s
not still working for Meacham?” Theo asked, anxious again.

“He’s only here for me,” Emily said.

“You mean like her?” Theo said, tipping his head toward Connie.

Emily nodded.

“Oda-san followed us here from Japan at George’s request for the sole purpose of training Chi-chan,” Yuki said. “He has dedicated his life to her. I hardly think he’ll betray her now.”

Theo rolled his eyes.

“And why would he do that?”

“Because he thinks she is descended from Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun.” Yuki replied.

“The goddess of what?” Theo said, now completely flabbergasted. “And you believe him? What does that even mean?”

“It means he thinks I am a Minamoto,” Emily said. “An illegitimate branch of the imperial family, descended from one of the Emperor’s mistresses several centuries ago.”

“Many of the great medieval
daimyos
came from one or another of these branches,” Yuki added.

“Holy crap,” Theo exclaimed.

Michael whistled.

“Why haven’t we heard about this before,” Andie asked, incredulous.

“I’m sorry,” Yuki said. “It’s my fault. Habits of secrecy are hard to break.”

“Do
you
really believe all this?” Theo asked Emily.

“Well, it’s what my name implies—Tenno. But I don’t know what to think about any of it,” she said. “I know Sensei believes it… and I know he’d never betray me.”

“And now that all of you know, I hope you’ll keep the secret, such as it is,” Yuki said.

“We don’t have time for this,” Connie interrupted, shaking her head, clearly as puzzled as the rest of them. “What are we gonna do about Burzynski? We can’t just wait for him to try again.”

“Actually, I’m less worried about him than I am about Meacham,” Michael said. “This was a desperation move on Burzynski’s part, which makes me wonder what Meacham may have up his sleeve.”

“You mean he may have been trying to anticipate a move by Meacham?” Ethan asked.

“Exactly. If he thought Meacham was about to get Emily, that would explain why he tried to kill her. Each one must be afraid the other will use her as political capital in front of the intelligence committees. Neither one can let the other have her.”

“If we raid Burzynski’s estate…” Connie began to propose.

“What are we talking about here?” Theo asked. “We can’t raid someone’s house.”

“Theo’s right,” Michael said. “We don’t have the firepower for something like that.”

“Not to mention it would be illegal,” Theo growled.

“Fine,” Connie said sharply. “We’ll just visit him… forcefully, explain our position, and get him to back off. You know, give him a bloody nose.”

“By bloody nose, do you mean fire a few RPGs into his bedroom window?” Theo snorted.

“Are you suggesting we do nothing?” Connie asked.

“Do we know where his place is?” Emily asked.

Michael clicked through a few screens on his laptop, and then sent a satellite image to the screen on the wall.

“His estate is right here, a few miles southwest of Front Royal, off route 340,” Michael said. “As you can see, it’s a large property, heavily guarded. You’d have to cross this field just to get to the front door, and it’s about a quarter mile. There’s no way to go there uninvited without a small army.”

“Are these numbers GPS coordinates?” Emily asked.

~~~~~~~

A good deal of argument about the best course of action ensued. Michael insisted that his own estate was not a defensible position, if either Meacham or Burzynski decided to attack.

“They have too many resources.”

“That’s why we need to strike them first,” Connie insisted.

“I don’t see how we could prevail that way,” Michael said. “And we don’t have the legal cover they each have, with all their connections in law enforcement. We need to think about evacuating.”

“Has anyone seen Stone?” Andie asked, nervously from the door to the study. “I can’t find him.”

“He can’t have gotten very far,” Theo said.

“Ethan, call the front gate and warn them to be on the lookout for him,” Michael ordered.

“I’ll send the others to search the woods,” Ethan said.

“How about the rest of us walk the grounds,” Yuki suggested. “We’re sure to find him. He’s probably just playing hide and seek.”

“Good idea,” Andie said. “I’ll get Li Li. She always seems to know how to find him.”

“Where’s Emily?” Michael asked.

“She’s gone,” Connie said.

“The guys at the front gate said she lit out of here about fifteen minutes ago on that little motorcycle of hers,” Ethan reported.

“Did she say where she was going?”

“They said she didn’t even slow down.”

“First things first,” Andie said. “Let’s find Stone.”

“I know where he’s gone,” Theo said. “He’s trying to follow her.”

Sure enough, twenty minutes later they found him on the main road. Apparently, he’d picked his way through the woods, avoiding the guards at the gate, climbed over a neighbor’s fence a quarter mile away, and run down an unused logging trail until he found pavement.

He squawked a bit when Ethan scooped him up to put him in the estate van, but as soon as he was handed over to Andie he went quiet. The fact that Li Li was in the van must have been some sort of consolation to him as well.

“It’s okay, young man,” she whispered in his ear. “She’ll be okay. Don’t you worry.”

In the confusion, no one noticed Connie’s departure.

~~~~~~~

Emily’s plan had the virtue of simplicity: march right up to Burzynski’s front door, confront him with what she knew and get him to leave her family and friends alone. The precise details of what she expected to say in this conversation were perhaps less clear in her mind. There would probably be a security team, but she was unconcerned about them.

She followed route 64 west toward Staunton, turned north on route 81 and roared up through Harrisonburg to Strasbourg, where she cut east on route 66. The thrill of riding Oscar’s little land rocket at mind-blurring speeds gave her confidence a little boost whenever doubts threatened to creep in.

Route 340, also known as the Stonewall Jackson Highway, led her south through the center of Front Royal, then tracked the Shenandoah river as it looped back and forth through hills and farmland. A few miles past Bentonville, she found the main gate of Burzynski’s estate, just as Michael had said, a broad front lawn surrounded by thick hedges, a fortified front gate with guards. A slow cruise past the gate allowed her to glimpse the main house, a neo-classical brick structure, with white stone trim on the edges and a central hall rising three stories above the lawns. Two smaller wings extended out on either side. She stowed the bike in the woods, out of sight of the guards, and walked up to the gate. Had they seen her? It hardly mattered.

“Move along, Honey,” one of the uniformed guards sneered at her. “We don’t do walk-ins here.”

“Dave,” the other guard hissed. “How do you think she got here? It’s miles from anywhere. She didn’t walk.”

Both guards drew their side arms.

“Hands up, Honey,” Dave barked at her. She ignored him and took a step forward.

“Hold it right there,” he shouted at her with greater urgency.

The other guard reached out to grab her by the shoulder, probably thinking to force her to the ground and assuming their guns gave them an authority she wouldn’t challenge. Dave stepped behind her, ready to strike if she resisted. When the first guard’s hand made contact with her shoulder, she turned her head to look him directly in the eyes. Whatever he saw in her face made him flinch.

“Dave, this is her, the girl they’ve been looking for,” he cried out.

But his warning came too late. She had already seized his hand, grabbing across the back, her fingers curling around his palm. When she twisted sharply out and up, he fell to his knees with his back turned toward her, left arm twisted awkwardly behind his head.