Regenesis (Book 1): Impact (39 page)

Mizuno
nodded and confirmed it. “That’s why I know nearly every martial art on the
earth as well as every language.”

“what makes Kyle so damned special?>” Yong asked him.

Mizuno
said he didn’t know. “There are only four types of people I’ve met that I
couldn’t scan. The first are the mentally handicapped, second is anyone who is
a prominent religious figure, so long as they are truly ‘religious,’ that is.
The third type of person would be someone with a part of their brain removed,
though it would have to be enough to nearly make them mentally handicapped, so
the two are nearly the same category. And the last group just falls to specific
people with certain abilities.”

“Like
what?” asked Melanie.

“Time
control, for instance.”

“no such thing,>” Yong blurted out.

“At
this point I would hardly label anything as impossible, Yong.” Mizuno took a
breath and tried to steer their conversation back on course. “This is taking
far too long.”

“Yeah,
considering you haven’t even introduced Nick yet.”

Nick
looked at the chair that was empty next to him a moment before and saw that
Strom had silently joined the group. He sat polishing a rather large onyx rifle
and although he scared the life out of nearly everyone, only Kyle, David,
Melanie, and Alisa were truly frightened of him.

“Is
there a reason he’s here?” Bruce asked Mizuno without looking away from Strom.

Strom
didn’t take his eyes off of his rifle.

“Strom’s
here to help train Nick,” Mizuno told him.

“Who?”
asked Alisa.

“Nick
Jacobs. The kid right next to Strom who hasn’t been introduced yet,” Mizuno
told her.

“who is he anyway?>” Yong asked with very little enthusiasm.

Mizuno
told them he was a resident in the area, only spoke English, and that his
ability made him impervious to any form of projectile as well as allowed him to
create firearms.

“”
Yong looked at Nick for the first time and asked him to demonstrate it.

Nick
reddened at the request. He didn’t want to and fortunately they’d wasted enough
time so Mizuno cut their chatter and told Nick to show Yong later.

“All
you need to know is that Strom will work with Nick and so long as I don’t
require him to aid our group in any other way none of you will see him from
this point on.”

“why did you even ask him to come here if we’re probably not going to see him
again?>” David asked him while the two girls who surrounded him slowly eased
back into his arms.

Mizuno
rubbed his temples and muttered, “If we do need Strom then it’ll be less of an
impact on you all if he’s introduced as a possible character now rather than
later on. In other words, if you’re all aware of him now it won’t be very
shocking later on. Now,” he took a breath and looked at the group, “We need to
talk about the actual purpose of this project.”

“about time,>” Yong muttered.

“Twelve
days ago Nick, Melanie, and I met up in Washington DC and I happened upon one
of the members of the Dáfù and managed to counter a pending terrorist attack,”
he reported. “I managed to glean a brief list of pending attacks, though
because their operation in DC was stifled a majority of those attacks have
since been aborted.”

“many have been?>” asked Afifa.

“two,>” he told her, “the twenty-eighth of August and an assassination of the President of Slovakia
yesterday, though neither event occurred.>”

“Is
there another event that you plan on stopping?” Bruce asked. “Assuming the
attacks start up again on the same route they were before.”

Mizuno
said there was one. “In two weeks there should be an attack on the Seattle Art
Museum.”

“What
would they gain by attacking a museum in Seattle?” asked Mithra.

“They
wouldn’t gain anything,” Bruce answered. “The Dáfù never want anything in
particular, other than creating disorder and chaos.”

“That’s
about as close of a reason as anyone can know,” Mizuno said. “However there is
something worth targeting. Do you all remember the attack on the Louvre in
twenty-twenty-three?”

David
nodded, “”

“Yes,
among other items. However this time around it’s a series of Vincent Van Gogh’s
paintings that will be destroyed if the scheduled attacks resume. The tour of
these paintings will start in Seattle and travel across the States and through
Europe for about a year. The Dáfù plans of destroying them in Seattle where the
security will most likely be extremely limited.”

“do they plan to attack?>” David asked him.

“On
the Twenty-second of this month, which means we only have sixteen days to form
a plan to counter the attack.”

“Assuming
it still occurs,” Kyle added.

“Yes.”

“What’s
the plan then?” Bruce asked.

“We’re
going to infiltrate the museum and steal the paintings, then transport them to
a secure place away from the building, apprehend or kill any and all Dáfù we
encounter, and upon completion of the mission we disclose the location of the
paintings to the curator of the museum.”

“How
are we supposed to do all of that?” Melanie asked him.

“Alisa
is going to slip into the museum and steal someone’s form of identification
which we will use to replicate to grant us access to the building on the day of
the event.”

“doesn’t Kyle just do that himself?>” Yong asked him. “all of the locked doors with his computer or something and save her the
trouble.>”

“Yes
he could, but with all of the hoops he would have to jump through as well as
keeping his presence within their system unknown and playing his own part in
the operation would prove to be a bit excessive. And besides, this will be
great practice for Alisa when it comes to any future operations.”

“What’s
next?”

“On
the day of the attack we’ll infiltrate the museum as well, though Kyle will
disable all electronic forms of security and surveillance. On the first go
through Yong, David, Jian, Mithra, Melanie, Alisa, and I will stage a heist
with various firearms while Bruce and Long retrieve all of Van Gogh’s paintings
and gather them into a small area for Afifa to transport out of the museum.
Now, Afifa’s ability creates a massive surge of light when she uses it, which
is where Mithra will come in. Mithra will blind everyone within the building
before she transports our group out of the building.”

“What
about Nick?” Strom asked. He received some looks from some of the members of
the group for his interference and nonchalant air as if he was a part of their
team, though he hardly cared.

“Nick
will have a separate task. He’s going to distract the guy who runs the show
along with his wife and daughter while we all perform the robbery-slash-counterattack.”

“don’t I do that?>” David suggested. “all of this than he does. Not to mention his ability involves firearms, so he
should be a part of the robbery.>”

Mizuno
shook his head. “Nick is a local, which means that there’s a small chance that
someone could identify him and cause strife in his personal life. And you
already know the daughter, so that would jeopardize the situation.”

“know her?>”

He
nodded, “Lauren Facet.”

“What’s she doing here?>”

“Basically
she is here with her parents because they hope she’ll become interested in
becoming an art curator like her mother and father,” Mizuno told him. “The real
reason she agreed to go along with them is because she could get into a more
prestigious university after the experience of interning as an art curator. The
next nine months will burden her, but she wants to get away from her family and
exist on her own.” Mizuno looked at David and asked if he needed anymore
answers.

“one,>” David continued, “in Paris about a month ago?>”

Mizuno
shook his head and told him it was coincidental, “I needed to ensure you didn’t
get caught in the trap I set for your friend’s party as well as send you a subtle
message that I would need to talk to you later. I also needed to scan Lauren to
get a full account of her remembrance of Afifa’s appearance earlier that day to
cross examine it with my notes and your memory of the event.”

“all of those events were aligned by fate?>”

Mizuno
rolled his eyes and told David fate was a lie. Nick interjected and asked what
he needed to do. “Simply keep Lauren and her family from making it to the
museum. If they arrive, then David would be compromised, which we can’t have,”
Mizuno explained. “And as much as I’d like to keep him out of the situation,
his senses will be essential if and when the Dáfù attack.”

Bruce
cut in, “You mentioned something about retrieving the paintings as the first
stage. What’s the second?”

“Once
we’ve completed the first part of the operation, you, Yong, David, and I will
all return to fight off the Dáfù, assuming they arrive.”

“are we going to do that?>” Yong asked. “faces, so what’re we going to do?>”

Mizuno
took a long breath and apologized to Bruce. “Basically we’re going to wear,” he
searched for the appropriate word while Bruce only rubbed his eyes in
anticipation of the answer, “Disguises, on the second run through.”

“You’ve
got to be joking,” Bruce muttered.

“Unfortunately
I’m not.” He retrieved a black mask, similar to the pearl Ghost mask Strom
used. The mask Mizuno held was painted a flat black with a metallic green and
purple Japanese Kanji painted over the right eye hole in the mask. “Melanie
came up with the idea for team shirts a while back, which I rejected out of
hand, but now the idea of uniforms isn’t as unbearable as it originally was, as
they now serve a purpose.”

Yong
looked at the mask with so much envy Nick was surprised he hadn’t walked up to
the front and taken it from Mizuno yet. “entail?>”

“Bulletproof
vests, these masks which have transmitters embedded within them, gloves,
weapons for anyone who wants or needs them…” Mizuno’s eyes flashed and
afterward he rolled his eyes and tossed the mask he held at Yong, who caught
it, laughed, and immediately put it on.

“does the symbol mean?>” Afifa asked.

“It’s
the Japanese Kanji for impact, which is what our group will be known as from
this moment on, as I imagine you’re all as tired of calling the group by the
alias of ‘the project’ as much as I am,” Mizuno said.

“What
do we need to do to be ready for this operation?” Mithra asked him.

“Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Thursdays will be devoted to physical training and scenario
run-throughs, on Tuesday we’ll tour the museum to gain a better understanding
of the layout of the building which will also allow Alisa to steal the needed
items, and Fridays and Sundays will be your days off, though I might ask a few
of you to assist me on a separate matter between Nick and myself.”

“‘matter?’>” asked Yong from behind his mask.

Mizuno
ignored him and told them they were all free to enjoy the weekend but should
expect to be ready to work on Monday. With their meeting complete, he told them
they could leave.

--          --          --

Mizuno,
Nick, and Strom waited until the rest of the group was gone to discuss Nick’s
training and role with the group. “First of all, thanks again for agreeing to
help train him,” Mizuno started.

Strom
said it was nothing. “He needs it. I only had a few days to actually teach him
how to manifest his ability properly, which left little time for him to
actually practice.”

“Is
he any good yet?”

Strom
shrugged, “He could hit a stationary target as long as nothing distracted him.”

“Then
no.”

Nick
sat with the two men as they talked plainly before him and about him. He didn’t
feel like talking to them though, as he knew his opinion didn’t really matter.

“How
many weapons can you create Nick?”

He
never really kept track but told Mizuno he guessed it was close to a dozen.

Mizuno
frowned, “We’ll have to work on that as well.” His gaze was at the floor the
whole time he talked with them. Strom noticed but didn’t think to ask, while
Nick saw Mizuno and wondered what he thought of, but still didn’t say a word.

Strom
had all of his weapons in his duffel bag, along with his copy of
The Catcher
in the Rye
, which Nick could see was in one of the front pockets of the
bag. He finally asked Mizuno, “What’s on your mind?”

Mizuno
didn’t look up, but said, “The Dáfù shouldn’t attack Seattle as they planned.”