Regenesis (Book 1): Impact (48 page)

The
chief thanked him but stopped Bryce once again and told him that the case was
officially reopened by the commissioner, but was still to be conducted as it
was before, in secret and kept secret. Bryce thanked him and seemed to sprint
out of the office to tell his coworkers the news.

---*---

12:57
PM

Kenmore,
Washington

Nick
hadn’t slept well since his training began, though he thought he would have
slept better considering how exhausted he was each evening. All the physical
toll did to him was kept him from finding a comfortable position to sleep in
with all of the bruises and other aches and pains. The training exercises
continued to run through his head while he fought to sleep as well.

His
fatigue garnered a few comments from some of his classmates and instructors and
in each case he provided a reasonable lie. He sat alone in Mizuno’s classroom
with the vain hope that he might catch some shuteye for the rest of the lunch
period. Mizuno had left him there to go and socialize with the other teachers
to continue the ruse that he was indeed a regular member of the Inglemoor High
School faculty.

Since
Nick began training after his return to Washington State, he’d practiced
creating and firing dozens of different firearms from pistols and derringers to
shotguns and sniper rifles. He practiced for three hours each day before Mizuno
put him through basic hand-to-hand combat training as well as everything from
knife throwing to hotwiring various models of cars. Mizuno even taught him how
to convert a basic calculator into a bomb that would detonate if the equal sign
was pressed, though Mizuno required the help of Ke Kitayama, the innovator of
Mizuno’s team. But the worst part of the grueling training course was that if
Nick was ever tired, hurt, or fatigued, Mizuno never relented. Everything
Mizuno did was supposedly to benefit Nick, though Nick only felt it was
harassment and unjustified abuse.

The
classroom door swung open and Mizuno took a seat next to Nick before the door
closed. “You need to get more sleep.”

“I
know,” he muttered, “I’ve tried.”

“Have
you taken anything?”

“No.”

“Good.”
Mizuno reclined in his seat slightly and told him that pills make people
dependant. “But try slowing your breathing rate and drink a cup of chamomile
tea before you head to bed tonight. How are your classes going?”

“Fine.”

“Just
fine?”

“Why
are you even asking me?” Nick snapped. He glared at Mizuno and asked, “If you
can learn whatever you want about me in the blink of an eye, why do you waste
the time to ask me?”

Mizuno
looked away from him and admitted that he could easily do that. “I only ask you
because one-way conversations are not very entertaining. Besides, if we talk it
establishes trust between us and it helps you formulate your own thoughts and
ideas, some of which I might not come to on my own.”

“Then
this is all about your grand project?”

Mizuno
told him to open his eyes before he left Nick there and headed for his desk.

The
first bell rang and just before the first students arrived, Mizuno told Nick
that he’d be training with Strom after class. “I need to be with the remainder
of the group today, so you’ll be working with him.”

Nick
didn’t reply as his fellow students arrived. Amy joined him and asked how he
was doing. “My friend Teresa told me you fell asleep in class today.”

He
didn’t realize he’d fallen asleep in any of his classes or even that he shared
a class with one of Amy’s friends. Nick rubbed his eyes and told her that his
job was getting to him. “I got the homecoming tickets though,” he told her.

Her
eyes lit up and she thanked him. “This is going to be so much fun Nick! Where
do you think we should go for dinner then?”

--          --          --

Class
with Amy was the highlight of Nick’s day. It was in her company that he finally
managed to relax, since Mizuno rarely called on him. Nick spent the hour
holding his girlfriend’s hand, fingers laced, and they chatted quietly amongst
themselves whenever their instructor was not lecturing.

The
relief ended though and he soon after had to face the rigid exercises Strom had
planned for him. Nick felt a familiar knot in his gut unsettle him as he prepared
for his afternoon.

Amy
stopped him as they readied to leave and asked Nick, “Do you want to come over
and meet my mom tonight? I know you’re busy with your job and everything, but
I’d love it if you would stop by.”

Nick
didn’t know how long he’d be training for, but he wanted to at the very least
make her happy, so he agreed. “I’d love to.”

“Great!
What time do you think you’ll be able to stop by?”

He
told her he wasn’t sure, but that it would have to be close to eight.

“Oh,
alright.”

Nick
saw the slight disappointment in her eyes and asked what was wrong.

“Nothing,”
she lied. “I just thought it would be nice to have dinner with you, but I guess
we can do that some other time.”

“I
would love to Amy, I really would. But later this week or next week will work
better for me, okay?” He parted ways with her and headed for his motorcycle in
the student parking lot.

--          --          --

Nick
drove back to the hotel he called home so he could leave his belongings in the
room he rented out and carpool with Strom to the abandoned department store
building Mizuno rented out for their training purposes. He managed to get a
parking space next to Strom’s jet black two-thousand-nine Maserati GranTurismo.
He’d only been in it twice, but knew Strom kept it exceptionally clean to the
point of never allowing any food or drink in it.

He
headed into the hotel, stopped to tell the receptionist that he wanted the room
for another week, and made his way to his room. Strom’s bags were in the
doorway and he was reclined on Nick’s bed with a paperback copy of
The Sun
Also Rises
.

“What
happened to
The Catcher in the Rye
?”

“I
finished it,” Strom told him as he turned a page, “And now I’m reading this.”

“Is
it any good?”

“I
don’t know, I’m only a few pages into it,” Strom admitted. “There are millions
of people who would vouch for the novel though, seeing how Hemingway was one of
the greatest authors this nation ever produced.”

Nick
had never read any of his work, so he tried to change the subject, “Are we
going to leave soon?”

“After
this chapter.”

“How
long is it?”

“Does
it matter?”

“Yes,”
Nick said. “I-I want to be back early so I can see my girlfriend.”

Strom
stopped reading for a moment to glance over at Nick. “You’re still with her?”
Nick said he was, and Strom returned to his book. “Mizuno doesn’t like her you
know.”

“What?”

“He
doesn’t like the fact that you’re with her,” he repeated. “He thinks she’s
holding you back.”

Nick
glared and asked what he thought.

Strom
said he didn’t care. “Sometimes people need to be with someone, and then there
are people like Mizuno and I who can exist without anyone.”

“So
you’ve never loved anyone?”

Strom
looked at him and asked, “Do you love your little gal pal?” Nick wasn’t sure.
“No. I haven’t ever found a woman that I’ve wanted to have more than a couple
of drinks with.” Strom stopped talking and changed the subject, “Do you hate
him?”

“Who?”

“Keep
up Nick, I’m talking about Mizuno.”

Nick
thought to say yes, but he said he wasn’t sure. “He irritates me a lot, but…”

Strom
returned to his reading briefly before he admitted that he hated Mizuno once as
well. “When I was younger, younger and arrogant, I accepted a job to take a man
out who later turned out to be Mizuno, and things didn’t end up as I planned.”
Strom dog-eared his place in the novel and set the book aside. “I didn’t want
to tell you this, but I might as well. Basically, I set everything up in
London, plotted out the entire situation, and once Mizuno was within my sights
I fired. But I missed and killed a seven year old girl.” He massaged the bridge
of his nose where his glasses rested and said, “Her name was Katie Washburn,
she had red hair, freckles, and a few of her front teeth were missing when she
died. I didn’t know who she was then, but…” he sighed and let him know that the
event caused him to examine what he was doing with his life.

“So
why don’t you hate Mizuno then?” Nick asked.

“It
was my fault that little girl died. I shouldn’t have taken such a risky shot
and I should have figured out who it was that I was paid to kill. If I’d known it
was him I wouldn’t have even bothered taking the job.”

“But
why don’t you hate him?”

Strom
adjusted his glasses and continued, “About an hour after I failed to kill him,
I found myself at the end of his gun. He explained who Katie Washburn was, who
he was, and that he wouldn’t kill me so long as I stopped taking jobs to hunt
him down. He also told me that I needed to dig into who hired me, as a majority
of my employers were drug lords and human traffickers as well as some other
crimes I didn’t want involvement in.” Strom grabbed his book and got off the
bed and walked toward the door. “Time passed, I accepted my faults in Katie
Washburn’s death, and eventually Mizuno contacted me for a job, which I
accepted. And here we are.”

He
grabbed his bag off the floor and told Nick that they needed to leave and
quietly walked out the door.

---*---

4:18
PM

Bothell,
Washington

“What’s
wrong?” Jordan asked Rachel.

He
and Rachel sat at a small table at the only Italian restaurant in Bothell they
could get into while wearing jeans (though, to be honest, there were only a few
Italian restaurants in Bothell to begin with). They were outside under an
awning that did little to shade them from the sun on the scorching afternoon,
though to their relief a pleasant breeze cooled them.

Rachel
leaned against their table with a scowl on her face and her eyes on the
cobblestone walkway beside them. Jordan thought that even if he was blind he
would have known something concerned her.

“Rachel,
what’s on your mind?” he asked again.

She
bluntly told him it was Vladimir.

“What
are you talking about?”

Rachel
let out a breath and confessed, “After you decided you had better things to do
than go to the Seattle Art Museum with me, I invited Vladimir. I didn’t tell
you because I assumed you’d be pissed.”

Jordan
frowned and said she was right. “Why the hell’d you think it was okay to just
do that?”

“Jordan,”
she stopped him, “You didn’t want to go and I didn’t want to go to Seattle
alone.”

“Then
you call up one of your girlfriends or invite your aunt or something,” he told
her, “You don’t invite some other guy to go with you behind my back.”

“We
only went to–”

“That’s
not the point Rachel,” he spat. “What possessed you to even think I’d be fine
with that? I mean, I hate that guy.”

“That’s
a bit harsh Jordan.”

“I
don’t care.”

They
stopped then when their waiter brought them their drinks and a basket of bread.
Their conversation didn’t pick up once the waiter left though, as Rachel looked
away from Jordan and he hardly wanted to say a word to her. The breeze didn’t
feel calming anymore, to either of them. It was cold, irritating, and would
hardly stop to allow them a moment to warm up. Shadow poured over them as
clouds blocked out the sun.

“What’d
he do anyway?” Jordan asked her.

“What?”

“What
did Vladimir do to irritate you?” he repeated.

“It
doesn’t matter.”

“Yes
it does,” he said. “What was it?”

“It’s
none of your business.”

Jordan
swore and told her it was. “What the hell do you think this is all about
Rachel? You go out with him behind my back and you don’t think this has
anything to do with me? Who do you think you are?”

Rachel
rose from her seat, grabbed her things, and cussed him out while she left him
alone at the table.

---*---

5:10
PM

Kenmore,
Washington

Jessica,
Michael, and their grandmother sat in the living room as Michael eagerly
watched his favorite program, the five o’clock news. He was well aware of news
stations that only ran new programs, but he had a preferred the local station
that ran the news at five, seven, and ten o’clock…and if Michael was lucky
enough he’d watch each of the three broadcasts.

Their
grandmother tried her best to tune the news out while she quietly worked on
solving puzzles in her Sudoku book. Jessica sat with her laptop open to a page
on REFOIA while she helped her grandmother watch after her little brother.