Path of Transcendence 1: Ultimatum of the Nameless God (11 page)

I seldom visited this cemetery, before the Great Fuck Over, and this will probably be my last chance to ever do so. Tomorrow, we will leave for North Dakota, where the military weapons testing range is located. If we survive, I will be in the Labyrinth of Yggr, and there will be no return. If we do not survive, it will not matter.

“Mother. Father. It's been over a ten years, since the accident. It would be a lie to say I've counted the days. I haven't come very often, either, but I still miss you. Even though I'm a disfigured freak, I can't think that you would have turned your backs on me.

“I never believed in souls, when you died. I know better, now. I don't know where you are, but I know you are somewhere out there. It's probably not in this plane, but I hope it's a better place.

“I've learned a lot of things over the years. The truth is I don't belong here, on this world, but that's okay. I've found another world, one where even if I don't belong, I can survive and maybe thrive. With, you gone, there is no one here that gives a fuck if I'm here or not. Well, Urehara-sensei does, but he's going with me. We'll be leaving in a few days.”

I pause. There are two men walking towards me, one white and one black. I never wanted to see either of them again.

“Two assholes are coming. I have to deal with them, so this has to be, good bye.”

The black Jones smiles with his mouth, as I move in their direction. The white Jones glares at me, with a hate so strong I can feel it. They do not stop walking until we are about six feet apart. This puts me well within their striking range, and they are probably aware that I know this.

“Why do I feel like a nickel bag, when you two monkeys stare at me?”

“You little bitch! Keep mouthing off, and I'll lock you up in a black detention facility for a few days and have some fun with you!” Spittle flies from the white Jones' mouth, as he screams.

The black Jones holds up a hand in front of the white Jones. “That is rather amusing, Mark. Your vocabulary certainly lives up to your superior intellect.”

“What the fuck are you praising this punk for? He called you a monkey. We can put him away for two to three for hate crimes if we want.”

The black Jones shakes his head. “You should really read a thesaurus. Considering the way Mark worded that sentence, he already has a defense his lawyer could use planned. However, that opens the way for charges of maligning government officials, and that has a sentence of ten to fifteen years.”

“Whatever. There's still nothing for me to remember.”

The black Jones steps forward and puts his hand on my shoulder in a comradely fashion. “Mark, you should know by now that all of the players who were comatose were Taereun: Battleground of the Damned players. You all had absolutely no brainwave activity indicative of higher mental functions, only your autonomic functions were registering. Eventually, everyone else died, but you didn't and actually woke up again. There is something fishy about this whole affair.”

“Why don't you just go interrogate those bastards at The Nameless Entertainment, Inc.?”

The black Jones just stares at me for a moment, with those cold, dead eyes of his. “Do you really think that we have not? We interrogated every game company that had someone affected. Coincidentally, they were all VR  game manufacturers. You are the last lead we have. How many of your friends died in this incident? Do you not want to see the responsible parties behind this brought to justice?”

I cannot keep from laughing. “You aren't blind, and even if you can keep the disgust off your face, you can still see mine. You aren't stupid enough to think I have friends. I don't give a fuck about your investigation. I don't remember a fucking thing. So, I can't help you.”

The black Jones stares at me for several minutes, before nodding and holding out a business card. “I understand. In the future, if you happen to remember something, please contact me.”

After I take the card without saying anything, the black Jones turns and beings to walk away. The white Jones looks back and forth between the black Jones and myself for several moments, his mouth hanging open.

“Just a fucking minute! What the fuck is going on here? Why aren't we taking this punk in for questioning?”

The black Jones does not turn around. “No matter what we do, he is not going to tell us anything. We are leaving.”

After almost a minute glaring at me, the white Jones follows obediently. Until they are out of sight, he continues to glare over his shoulder at me.

* * * * *

It is around three since the confrontation in the cemetary, and I am meditating in the dojo. Urehara-sensei enters through the back door, a brooding expression on his face.

“Mark, did you encounter any problems, when you went to the cemetery?” He knows that I am seldom so deep in a trance as to be completely unaware of my surroundings.

“The Jones brothers came, but it was a strange meeting.”

“Tell me everything that you can remember, please.”

I recount everything that happened for Urehara-sensei, with as much detail as I remember. His brooding expression turns into one of concern.

“Wendell's instincts are too good. He noticed something. There are FBI surveillance teams watching the main and service gates to the estate. I am not sure if we should maintain our schedule, start early, or hold off.” Urehara-sensei stares at the floor while rubbing his fingers over his close cut beard.

“The black Jones' name is Wendell?”

Urehara-sensei smirks slightly. “He hates to be called Wendell. The other one is Clarence, and he hates to be called that even more.”

I laugh, that is just too funny. “We should probably move faster, if anything. We've been ready for almost a month now. So, let's not give them more time to get in our way.”

Urehara-sensei nods. “That is probably best. I will have us picked up by the delivery truck for tomorrow's food delivery. The delivery comes between 5am and 6am. Be at the main house before 5am.”

“Hai, Sensei.”

I grin, I cannot stop myself. It is almost time to get out this shit hole world.

Tanaka meets me at a side door to the main house. He is of course Japanese and looks like one of the thugs in an old yakuza movie. Except for possibly Urehara-sensei, he is the single most lethal person I have ever met on Earth. Before spending eleven years in Talon's body, I would not have have been able to survive a fight with him, let alone defeat him. Now, I might be able to kill him, even if I do not use my ki.

“You've gotten better, kid. Guess you're old enough that I shouldn't call you kid anymore. Even the Old Master would be no match for you were serious. You're a killer now. You've spilled oceans of blood. I can tell.” Tanaka's normally grim expression turns into a pronounced frown.

“Do you think I would hold back against Sensei?”

Tanaka almost smiles. “I didn't say you were holding back. I said you weren't serious. If you were serious, there not a man alive you couldn't kill. They say there's always someone better, but I've seen the ones that are called the better. They wouldn't last a minute against you anymore.

“I can't go to the new world to protect the Old Master. He made me swear to watch over the Young Master, while I'm able. You have to protect the Old Master. He's good, but after recovering from that coma, you are the best I've ever seen.” Tanaka bows deeply to me.

With my hands on his shoulders, I force him to rise. “I will do what I can, but Sensei has his reasons for going to the Labyrinth of Yggr, and I have mine. Our ways will part sooner or later, but until they do, I will stand by him.”

The corners of Tanaka's mouth turn up just slightly. This is the closest I have ever seen him come to an actual smile. “Thank you. Come. Old Master is in his study.”

Tanaka calling Urehara-sensei Old Master is almost funny. Urehara-sensei is only in his late fifties or early sixties, I am not sure of his birth date, but Tanaka is in his seventies or older. Urehara-sensei once made a comment that Tanaka had been with since before he graduated university, and was the only man he would fear fighting.

The main house is just what could be expected from a multi-billionaire family, that is more attached to the lavishness of the past than the technology of the present. Everything is of the highest quality, whether the construction or the furnishings. The floors are real hardwood, or polished granite or marble. The rugs are real Persian rugs, some probably more than a century old. High quality wallpaper covers the plaster walls. The crown moulding is a real three piece wood moulding, instead of a prefabricated urethane mold. All of the furniture is made from real wood, without a single piece of pressboard or laminate in evidence.

The door to Urehara-sensei's study is a double-door of redish-brown stained oak, and the solid thumping of Tanaka's knuckles on the wood gives testament to it's thickness.

“Enter.”

Tanaka opens the door, after hearing Urehara-sensei's voice. He stands to the side so that I can enter past him.

Urehara-sensei is seated behind his heavy wood desk, with Nobuhiko seated in one of the leather armchairs facing the desk. Nobuhiko looks over his shoulder at me. Despite his self-control, his facial expression twists just enough to show his dislike of me. From the very first time I met him, Nobuhiko already detested me. Mei told him she hated me and who knows what else. So before he even met me, Nobuhiko, the overprotective brother, hated me. More than his sister, he disdains anyone who is not rich or of noble bloodlines.

“Mark, please sit. Tanaka, you join us, as well.”

“Yes, Master.”

As I take the second armchair in front of the desk, Tanaka moves to stand to the left of and slightly behind Urehara-sensei's chair.

Nobuhiko's gaze returns to his father. “I still do not like or trust this person, father. How you can believe his ridiculous story is beyond me. Your responsibility is here, to your family.”

Urehara-sensei looks tired. “We have already had this discussion too many times. I will go to the Battleground of the Damned. I will find your sister. Her real body is dead, and she is trapped in anther. I will not leave her all alone in another world without any family.

“You are the new head of the Urehara Group. Once I am gone, America or Japan will certainly use this incident as an excuse to move against you. All of the keys will work for you. Protect the rest of our family. Do not kowtow to any government. The Prophet and the Delphi systems belong to the Urehara family alone, and no government has a right to our technology.”

“Yes, father.”

“Now, go look after your wife and children. I have said my goodbyes and it would be best not to have a scene before the staff.”

“Yes, father.”

Nobuhiko bows his head, before leaving. He has never had the strength to stand against his father.

After the door closes, Urehara-sensei turns to Tanaka. “Old friend. Please, protect my family. He is not as strong man a man as he should be. It is my fault, but for a long time now, it has been too late to do anything about it.”

Tanaka bows to Urehara-sensei. “Master, I will do what I can. If necessary, I will lay down my life for the Urehara family. He is not like you or your father, and he does not understand the true nature of the world.”

Urehara-sensei turns back to me. “I would apologize for Nobuhiko's words, but I know he has said worse to you in the past.”

“Sensei, I don't pay attention to people with attitudes like that. I would have committed suicide long ago, like some kind of loser, if I did. But are you sure that you shouldn't stay here with your family? I can go back by myself.”

Urehara-sensei frowns slightly. “Mei hates you more than Nobuhiko does. I cannot expect you to spend your  life protecting her, and I cannot leave her alone in Taereun. Also, like you, I do not belong on Earth. This world has become a giant prison, with electronic walls. Going with you is as much for myself as anything.”

I let the matter drop, and we talk about potential ways to develop out ki, while waiting for the delivery truck to arrive. After twenty minutes or so, a buzz sounds from the terminal on Urehara-sensei's desk.

“Yes?”

“The food delivery is here and the owner Mr. Conrad is driving. He has asked to speak with you.”

“I will be there in a few minutes.”

Urehara-sensei cuts the connection and stands up. “It is time.”

I was on my feet, before Urehara-sensei finished the short conversation. Moving to the study doors, I open them and stand aside for Urehara-sensei to pass. Tanaka walks next to me, as we follow Urehara-sensei to the kitchen.

The kitchen is large enough to serve a medium sized restaurant, and there is a small loading dock at the back next to the freezers and storeroom. A man about the same age as Urehara-sensei is standing in the open door of the loading dock.

“Mr. Conrad. Thank you for helping me with this.” Urehara-sensei shakes his hand.

“Mr. Urehara, it's my pleasure. Your family has been one of my steadiest customers for more than twenty years. I don't really understand what the secrecy is all about, and I'm not sure I want to know either. These are the crates you need to take with you?” Mr. Conrad points at the shipping crates for our weapons and gear.

“Yes. Mark, could you please load them for us.”

I nod and move the crates into the back of the delivery truck. Mr. Conrad's eyes widen as I easily pick up the biggest crate, which weighs more than two hundred pounds. He does not comment, as I finish loading them and stay in the back of the truck.

Urehara-sensei bows to Tanaka. “Thank you for everything, my oldest friend.”

There is a sheen in Tanaka's eyes as he returns the bow. “Master, be well.”

Urehara-sensei turns and enters the truck, with a hint of moisture at the corners of his eyes, as well. As he sits on the crate, Mr. Conrad closes the truck's back door. Neither of us says a word, as Mr. Conrad enters the truck and engages the GPS auto-drive system.

The ride only lasts for thirty or thirty-five minutes, and we pull up next to a covered doorway in an apparently unused building. Mr. Conrad opens the trucks back doors. While Urehara-sensei goes to unlock the building door, I lift the crates out of the delivery truck and close the doors, when I am done.

Urehara-sensei moves to the front of the delivery truck, talking with Mr. Conrad.

I shift the crates inside the building, where I find a van backed in, facing a roll-up door. Opening the van's back doors, I load our crates in it and wait for Urehara-sensei. After a few minutes, he enters and locks the door behind himself.

“Is everything loaded.”

I nod.

Even though the manual controls on vehicles are just for emergencies, Urehara-sensei gets into the driver's seat,, and I get into the passenger's seat. The roll-up door opens at the touch of a button on a remote clipped to the sun-visor, and the electric van rolls out of the building with a soft hum.

“This building was leased through a shell corporation with no connections to me or my family, and this van is owned by the same corporation. My family should be as well insulated from our actions, as is possible. We cannot be tracked by the Delphi system. I transmitted the codes to erase both of our existences from the system yesterday. The only way we will be intercepted before reaching the weapons testing grounds is if a person who knows to look for us were to spot us on a monitor screen.”

Urehara-sensei is not saying anything that we have not already discussed. He seems to be talking to cover his nervousness. Taking personal action that goes against a giant like the US government is something that will make even someone as formidable as him nervous.

It makes me realize how much I changed in the Lands of Despair. The thought of going against an Earth government is nothing compared with taking on a DokkAlfar kingdom, or facing off against beings that are practically demigods. Everything is subjective, and my perspectives have changed from a normal persons.

The drive to the LAX airport will take more than three hours. I settle down into my seat and begin force the ki to flow more strongly through my body. I am still not strong enough, and every little bit will help.

* * * * *

Urehara-sensei enters the office of the cargo charter agency, while I remain in the van. After a few minutes, I have the feeling of being watched, but I cannot see anyone that seems to be paying particular attention to the van.

Exiting the van, I pretend to stretch, while taking a better look at my surroundings. There are a fair number of people in the area, but none of them are loitering. The only interest they have is to gawk are my face, before quickly turning away if I look in their directions. None of them have a focused interest in me or the van.

This area consists of hangars and industrial buildings for businesses that support the aviation maintenance and repair industry. Everything close is made from corrugated metal, just like the charter service we are parked in front of. All of the windows in the area belong to surrounding businesses. I can see to some degree into the rooms behind all of the windows with a line of sight on the van, but I do not see anyone paying any particular attention to it.  None of roofs off any place for someone to watch from, either. The parking lots of the surrounding businesses are filled with a mix of vehicles, but even the vans and min-vans have windows that I can see through. There is no place outdoors that someone could watch me from without  being seen. What is making me so edgy?

I have been out of the van for about fifteen minutes, when Urehara-sensei comes out of the charter services office again. He looks around carefully, before walking over to me.

“What is the problem?”

“I'm not sure. Something had me on edge. I feel like I'm being watched, but I cannot see anyone, who could be the culprit.”

Urehara-sensei looks around again, more carefully this time. “I do not see anything either, but I have an uneasy feeling, as well. Get in the van. We can talk, while we drive.”

After both of us are seated in the van, Urehara-sensei punches in a destination, and the van smoothly pulls out of the parking lot.

“After we recharge the batteries, we can get something to eat. The service filed a flight plan, with a 12:25pm takeoff. We should be on the ground in North Dakota by 6:00pm.”

“Could the FBI be tracking us?”

Urehara-sensei does not answer immediately. He leans back in his seat and frowns, while tapping on his chin with his index finger.

“There are several ways they could have tracked up to the drop point, but that would assume they knew to follow the delivery truck. After we changed to this van, they would only be able to observe us with direct visual observation. There is no way for any net connected surveillance to track us or this vehicle.”

I look all around us. No one in the other vehicles on the road gives me the impression of being interested in our van, and none of the vehicles are being manually driven. While there are vehicles that stay with us for a time, they all eventually turn off or do not follow us through a turn. Still, I cannot shake the feeling that I am being watched.

* * * * *

Returning to the charter service at 11:30am, we are directed to the back of their offices, where there is a taxiway for LAX. A single plane is waiting there, with its rear access ramp down.