The Lives of Tao (43 page)

Roen! Snap out of it!
 

Roen ebbed in and out of consciousness as he felt them move his body. Jill. What were they doing with Jill? He kept his eyes closed while he got his bearings and waited for a chance to escape. That opportunity came when he was suddenly dropped as another battle erupted all around him.

Roen opened his eyes and saw the most beautiful thing in the world. Sonya and her team had found him! The Genjix had all converged on them, only leaving one agent guarding him. Roen waited until the Genjix agent was distracted; then he jumped up, grabbed him by the neck and twisted. The Genjix collapsed. Roen looked around and saw Marc standing a few meters away, barking orders.

“All right, Tao. I think it’s time I do Kathy a favor.”

Roen found his target in the melee, and tackled Marc from behind. To his surprise, the man reacted immediately, turning his waist and wrapping his large arms around Roen’s torso. They both crashed to the ground. Roen rolled and pulled out Marc’s knife out of his belt sheath. Marc kneed him in the ribs, and the two wrestled for the knife. It flipped out of Roen’s grasp and slid across the ground. They scrambled to their feet.

“You think your new toy is man enough to take me, Tao?” Marc snarled and attacked.

The first time they met at the club, Marc had seemed an impossibly massive man that was much stronger than Roen. Now, they were better matched. Roen stayed alert, defending himself when he could and retreating when he had to.

From what he could tell, Marc utilized a hybrid form of tae kwon do and possibly wing chun. The momentum was one way as Roen slowly retreated. Try as he might, he barely held off Marc’s offense as he struggled to dodge a barrage of leg kicks.

Watch his attack pattern!
An image of Marc moments before throwing the same combination of kicks appeared in Roen’s head. As the fight progressed, he began to recognize the pattern.

“You’re like a punching bag,” Marc sneered. “Tao, I thought you had a better-trained vessel, considering how formidable Edward was.”

“It’s not over yet,” Roen snapped back.

He attacked again, blocking Marc’s kick and pressing forward. Roen took two quick punches to the face as the other man retreated, but Roen refused to back down. He would have to smother Marc in order to beat him. They fought on, attacking and defending in succession.

Marc was quicker and stronger, and Roen was eating a large number of blows. It was a fight he was going to lose at this rate. He missed blocking another high kick that floored him. Roen sat up and scrambled away on his hands and knees. He was bleeding from several places and tiring. Then his hands felt a sharp smooth metal object – the knife! Roen picked it up and brandished it.

Marc sneered. “What’s the matter, boy? No fair fight?”

“You mean like when you had ten of your goons jump me, you piece of garbage?” Roen spat.

“Semantics.” Marc shrugged and grinned. “I thought we were having a gentleman’s mano-a-mano fight. Well, no matter.” He pulled out a baton.

You can take this guy. Watch his footwork. He favors stepping into his swings and pushing. Take advantage of his forward movement. When Marc is injured, he loses his temper.
 

The two stalked each other for a few moments, until Roen made the first move. Their weapons clashed several times as he feinted and thrust low, trying to find an opening. His attacks fell short and Marc attacked. Roen backpedaled, staying just out of range of the longer weapon, weaving and dodging the swings of the baton as Marc pressed him even harder. Then Roen suddenly ducked, slipping under the large man’s guard. Marc had overreached and Roen sliced a gash across his ribcage. Marc stumbled backward.

“Is that the best you got, Tao?” he growled.

Marc came in again. Roen, watching for the opening Tao had advised, dodged the first swing and nicked Marc in the arm. Marc roared and moved again, this time coming from the opposite angle. Roen ducked low, slipped under his arm, and buried the knife into his ribcage. Marc shuddered as he stared down at his chest.

Roen could have sworn he heard Tao growl as he pushed the knife into Marc’s chest. This man killed Edward, was all Roen thought as he drove forward, shoving Marc back against the wall.

Roen leaned close to Marc’s ear and whispered, “One day, I’m going to tell my kids about how great a man Edward Blair was, and how a worm named Marc Kenton shot him in the back. And then I’m going to tell them how I avenged Edward. Edward will live forever through Tao. You, on the other hand...” Roen twisted the knife in Marc’s chest and pulled it out. Marc gasped and collapsed onto the ground, breathing shallowly as blood poured from his mouth.

Thank you, Roen. This meant everything to me.
 

“Should I put him out of his misery?”

No. Leave him. He has a punctured lung and can survive for a bit. If you kill him, Jeo will escape. Hurry and get to Sonya.
 

Roen turned and saw Genjix enveloping her as she flashed through a cloud of dark bodies. The bodies of all the other Prophus agents were lying face down nearby. She wielded a knife in one hand and a baton in the other. Blood was streaming down her face. One Genjix grabbed her arm even while Sonya slit another agent’s throat with the knife. A third disarmed her, forcing the knife out of her hand. And then a fourth agent punched her in the face.

Sonya twisted free of the Genjix holding her right arm, elbowed him in the neck, and finished him off with a swing of her baton. She pulled back just as the first agent who punched her swung again. The punch missed her by scant centimeters and she retaliated with a low kick to the shin, snapping the bone. Despite that, she could not handle the rest as several more took his place.

With a roar, Roen charged the remaining Genjix and bowled one over. He struck blindly, cutting his way through to her. However, there were too many. The Genjix agents turned on him and overwhelmed him with their numbers. Finally, a blow to the side of the head staggered him and everything went dark again.

When he came to for the second time, Paula was kneeling over him, propping his head up. “You took quite a beating there, Roen,” she said as she looked him over.

“Sonya?” he said weakly.

Paula shook her head. “Taken. The Genjix were trying to escape with all of you when we descended on them. I shot the two men carrying you and Marc.” Roen struggled to sit up, but she kept him pinned down. “Easy there. Rest a bit. Things are under control now. We captured Jeo. Marc is still alive.”

“I have a friend. Is she all right?”

Paula looked at him solemnly, then looked away. “The Genjix escaped by car with two prisoners. I’m assuming the other body is your friend. We chased them to the airport, but they escaped. We’re moving a satellite in now to track them. Don’t worry, we’ll find them.”

Roen’s mind went blank as his entire world came crashing down on him. They had Jill! He screamed as loud as he could, then pushed Paula aside. He looked down the dark alley, at where he last saw her, and took off at a full sprint. It took half a dozen Prophus agents to subdue him.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

CAPULET’S SKI LODGE

The last few centuries, we were involved in nearly every war. The Prophus inspired the French and American Revolutions. The Genjix started the War of 1812 and the Great War. Both sides blamed the other for World War II. The blame for the Vietnam, Korean wars, and the events in the Middle East could be laid at both our feet. We keep declaring that we fight for humanity and this planet, but at every turn, our actions speak otherwise.
 

Roen marveled at the state-of-the-art submarine that was the Prophus flagship, the Atlantis. Once all the agents had gotten on board, the submarine was underwater within seconds and speeding off toward its destination. He would never have believed the Prophus had such technology at their disposal if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes.

Following the rest of the group, he went into a conference room packed with agents for the briefing. It was standing room only, so Roen leaned against the cold steel wall and looked around at the sterile layout of the submarine, studying the metal frames that supported the room like a ribcage. He supposed he would be in the stomach, then.

The transponder Roen put on Jill had stopped working shortly after her capture. Fortunately, by that time the Prophus had oriented a satellite over the Mediterranean Sea and tracked the Genjix craft east toward northern Italy, to a base known as the Capulet’s Ski Lodge. Roen had thought Sonya and Jill were out of reach until Abrams, the admiral of the Prophus fleet, informed him that an attack on the base was already on the books for that night. From there, it was a short helicopter ride to the
Atlantis
and soon they were on their way toward the base – with the assault commencing within a matter of hours.

The lights dimmed briefly as the submarine descended deeper into the sea’s depths. Unlike most submarines Roen saw in movies, the
Atlantis
was very spacious, almost like a luxury submarine, if there were such a thing. The lights dimmed again as Admiral Abrams stepped up to the podium.

The crowd grew silent as the admiral cleared his throat and spoke. “The bulk of the Genjix are still at the Decennial. We need to complete this mission before the enemy can reroute their forces. As you all know, this was originally an assault to steal the Penetra scanner prototype while the Genjix were focused on the party at Monaco. Now it is also a rescue mission. Several Prophus delegates and a civilian were kidnapped at the Decennial. Satellite tracking has pinpointed their trajectory toward the Capulet’s Ski Lodge.

“The Capulet’s Ski Lodge is currently the headquarters of Genjix European operations. We’ve heard no chatter from the Genjix regarding our rapid deployment, but they are likely on heightened security. If we take this base, it’ll cripple their operations.

“Team formations have been altered to accommodate the rescue mission. We need to hit them hard at the very last minute in order to minimize the danger to the hostages. We reach the beach in two hours, so rest up and get some chow after this meeting. They have our people, ladies and gentlemen. We want them back! Good luck, and send these bastards to the Eternal Sea. The floor’s yours, Stephen.”

For the rest of the meeting, Stephen and Dylan laid out their tactical attack plan. It was a complex and large assault. The base was built into a mountaintop and would be difficult to breach. All five teams had separate entry points and objectives.

Roen’s Echo team was augmented from the original plan, and would infiltrate the base from the rear to locate the hostages. Roen lost track of what the other teams were supposed to do, and decided to focus on the specific objectives for his own. He’d have to rely on his squad commander for guidance. All he cared about was Jill and Sonya’s safe return anyway.

As the briefing wrapped up, Roen decided to get a final meal before the attack. His stomach had growled all through the meeting, constantly reminding him that he was famished. He went down to the mess hall and sat down with a plate of food. He found he had no appetite for food as his thoughts went to Sonya and Jill. What was Roen doing eating while they were in danger? How could he have failed both of them? It was his fault they were captured. He would never forgive himself if anything happened to them. Tears welled up in his eyes as he pushed the plate away. He got up to leave, ashamed that he was crying.

“Roen, good to see you’re all right,” Stephen said as he came up and put a sympathetic hand on Roen’s shoulder. Taking an apple and cutting it in two, Stephen offered him half. Roen shook his head and tried to wipe away the tears. Stephen shrugged and took a bite with a loud crunch. “Don’t worry, son, the girls will be all right. They’ll keep Sonya alive until they can interrogate her. Your friend will be used as leverage against you. We’ll be on them before they can do anything. I promise.”

“It’s my fault they got captured,” Roen mumbled.

“Nonsense, son,” Stephen said. “It’s the Genjix’s. Make no mistake about it. Don’t beat yourself up. Just make it right in two hours when we land and make them pay.”

He is right. If you let your emotions control you, we will not be able to save them. Focus on the task ahead of us.
 

“What if we’re too late, Tao? I don’t think I can live with myself.”

I swear, if you continue wallowing in self-pity, I will kill you myself just to switch hosts. Get yourself together. We have your future wife to save.
 

“Look,” Stephen reassured him, “you’ll see them both again. I put you in charge of the retrieval team; you’ll find them.” Stephen gave him one last pat on the back before leaving. “I’ll see you on the beach.”

I cannot believe I am saying this, but you should eat. You will need your strength.
 

Roen couldn’t help but feel guilty about eating at a time like this, but Tao was right. He needed to be ready for the rescue mission. He pulled the plate back and chewed with conviction, intent on not enjoying any of it. However, the submarine mess hall’s food was actually pretty good. In fact, Roen warranted it a step up from the crap he usually ate. At least if he died, he would do so with a full stomach.