Ron's "house" wasn't a house…it was a mansion. Three stories, a large, fenced yard, trees… in fact, it looked bigger than some of the mansions of the rich people Kim had helped.
"This is your house?" She asked. Ron grinned, "Well, one of them." He shrugged, "Bueno Nacho is a Fortune 500 company now… so the cost of the house is actually pretty low, compared to most company operating costs."
"It comes out of your salary?"
"Don't get one." Ron answered, "I get 'paid' in terms of stock payments—if the company makes money, I make money…if it doesn't, I don't." Kim blinked. She shouldn't…but she had to ask.
"So…how much did you make last year?" Ron looked at her and sighed.
"Don't worry KP…I've had a little more practice, so no 'the Ron'." He paused, "But…well, last year I made about 750 million." He shrugged, "Not that I keep it—money in the bank is just sitting there—I have people invest it, look for little start ups, that sort of thing." He grinned, "You should see our microloan program."
"Microloan?" Kim asked.
"Ten thousand dollars or less to various people in the Third World," Ron started with animation. "They pay it back ten years after they start making some profit. No interest." Kim thought, then blinked.
"But, Ron… that means you wouldn't make any money off the deal, so why call them loans?"
"Well, we will… you get businesses started, people start having money, they start buying stuff—which means we do make money…and in any case, people are more serious about loans, rather than gifts."
"Oh." Kim said, Ron, thinking about this? He smiled at her.
"Yeah, I know, KP…I think the same thing myself. I kinda got dropped in the deep end." They walked up the drive way, and Ron looked over at Kim.
"So ready for the penny tour?" Kim nodded, and Ron opened the door for her. Stepping in, she looked at the opening atrium, with plants and cool colors, but with just enough muss that it looked "lived in" and not a hotel.
"I spend a lot of time here, and the folks do when they're in Middleton." Ron said, "So we make certain the maid and cleaning bots know what to leave alone." He pointed out various features, including a room that seemed to have every game system in the world in it, and a few that might be out of the world. Ron looked regretful.
"I have every game that comes out…" He said, "And half of them are still in the store wrappers…I just don't have time to play them anymore." He paused, "And with everyone else being just as busy, like Felix and Zita…well, games are best if there's someone else in the room." He looked at Kim with that one. Kim caught the hint.
"Maybe I'll be able to slay some zombies with you tonight." Ron grinned,
"I'd like that." With that, he showed her the kitchen, in which he would whip up snacks when the urge took him. His rooms were, well, messy in a Ron way. Kim smiled. That hadn't changed, even if everything else had.
Then, they headed to the lower basement level. Ron looked at her.
"You know I've been doing the fight the bad guy thing, right?" Kim nodded.
"Well, there's some benefit to being rich." He said as they came out the door. Kim blinked. Where the upper levels were a home, albeit a wonderful one, this was more of a combat command center or a bunker. On one wall, huge readouts gave the date, and a flood of data in short hand—Kim realized that it was a distillation of news programs.
"How…" She asked, Ron followed her gaze and nodded.
"It's just a data-miner program that Wade cooked up. It looks for odd coincidences, things like that… if it finds the right patterns it flags it for me or Yori." He shrugged, "Truth of the matter is, everyone has them these days, and the bad guys know it, so they're a lot more careful than Dr. D ever was." He closed the door and Kim realized that the air was flowing out as the door closed.
"Positive pressure system." Ron added, "Just in case, everything down here is built to the same specs NORAD and STRATCOM are—it won't stop a nuke, or an orbital KE strike, but anything less probably wouldn't do much damage." They walked through the corridor, as Ron pointed out the small emergency apartments, and in one room, the armory. A single suitcase sat on a table, Ron pointing to it.
"Nanomorph armor--, like the old Centurion suit, only it comes off when you want it too." Kim grinned at that memory, as Ron continued, "It'll stop anything in the pistol range and is pretty good with most rifles, enhances strength, lets me fire climbing lines or flick-knives, stuff like that." Kim found her gaze taken by other devices—some of them obviously deadly. Ron looked over at one gun Kim was staring at.
"Gauss anti-material rifle." He said, "Fires a tungsten or DP slug at well…very high velocity." He shrugged, "It can't take out a tank, but just about anything else…"
"Have you used it?" Ron paused,
"A few times, KP… some of the bad guys… yeah. I have." He said, and invited no further comment. Kim didn't press him as she looked at something that looked like a suit of plate mail.
"That…well I've never been able to really use it." Ron said, "The High Threat Armor Suit was Wade's baby… you know him." Kim nodded. "Well, it can stop a tank, blow up a ship…fly…."
"Sounds cool."
"Yeah, but it takes ten minutes to put on and activate…and every time, every time I really needed it, things were moving too fast to put it on, so I had to do it the old fashioned way." He shook his head affectionately. "I also have some search and rescue robots, but they're stored for now."
"Not warbots?" Kim said, grinning.
"As if I need help there." Ron said, and then changed his look, "And in any case, I don't want something with a gun, that isn't connected to a human brain, no matter how safe Wade says it is." Kim saw something else.
"That's the…" She reached out her hand, to have it slapped back.
"Don't touch that!" Ron snapped, eyes on the blade that rested in its holder. He took a deep breath.
"Sorry, KP." He said a moment later, "But the Lotus blade… really only tolerates one person right now." He paused, "And it's dangerous for anyone else to touch it."
"Ron…" Kim said, "It's just a magic sword…isn't it?" She remembered the Lotus blade, but suddenly Ron's face looked drawn and tired as he looked at the blade.
"No…not exactly." Ron quietly said, "Oh, it looks like a sword in its neutral form but that's not what it is…the sword is simply the sign of what it is." Kim blinked, confused.
"What is it?"
"The spirit—the concept, of conflict and change." Ron said, "Like a sword, it exists to create change, to end—and begin conflict." He paused, "It's not a…sentient thing, not in the sense you would understand, which is why it's so….dangerous. It makes conflict—but whether it's a scalpel or butcher knife is dependent on who wields it…" Ron shrugged, "In the hands of Ghandi, it would probably look like and act like something entirely different, but not many people have that commitment to non-violence. For anyone else…it's very different."
"And you?" Ron looked at Kim, at the sword.
"I've worked really hard to control it….or not let it control me." He frowned slightly, "The first time I used it after you were…sent to prison, I couldn't stop thinking that nothing could keep me from tearing those walls down and getting you… I managed to control that, but then I was also thinking that there was one simple way to make certain these bad guys never troubled us again." He shook his head. "If you lose focus using it, for one second, it starts using you."
"Why…" Kim asked. Ron looked at her.
"I'm its keeper—for now. Too many people were very interested in this blade…and it hasn't always been a Lotus Blade.
"What?"
"It was last known as the Spear of Longinus." Ron said, "At least before it came to Japan, and took the form of the blade." He smiled, "Thank God that Hitler never found that out... Supposedly it's been other things, but a lot o the monastery's records are incomplete… and I think someone did some creative editing in any case."
"If it's so dangerous…" Kim said.
"I know—but I've needed it once or twice, not that I've wanted it." Ron said, "Most of the time, it stays here, or I do some Kata's with it… But until Sensei can find another place to hide it, it stays with me." Ron left, and Kim followed him, noticing that Ron gave a tiny sigh as the hatch closed off the glimmering sword from their view.
"Next stop—Dojo." Kim looked at the room and blinked at it's very Spartan look—it was a large room, as big as the gym at the high school.
"I know, it looks basic, but when you fire up the holograms and synthodrones."
"Synthodrones?" Kim asked, having an Erik flashback. Ron laughed.
"Don't worry—Dr. D never mentioned one little problem they have—let them walk past a microwave and they completely depattern. Every military on the world has a way to melt them now." He pointed back to the armory, "But they let me practice in ways that I wouldn't want to do to people, and would be too expensive with robots—the Synthodrones just run into the gutter and get reformed." The last room held the VTOL, a smooth stealthy ship that was all curves.
"Baby's nice—Wade didn't design her, but he put together the team that did." Ron chuckled, "GJ uses the downgraded variants, but this baby can do it all." He pointed to the center, "It pretty much duplicates the armory contents, has a sleeping chamber, active stealth, weapons, the whole bit."
"Wow." Kim said, she'd never had this before.
"Ron-San!" Yori called from the hatch.
"Hey Yori." Ron said to her, as she trotted up. Kim looked at Yori—it seemed like age was making half the school look older, but if anything, Yori and Ron looked younger and tougher than they had.
Well, unless you looked too closely at Ron and Yori's eyes—there was experience in their eyes, and sorrow, and they had a certain way of looking at each other.
Are they still together? Kim shook her head at that, Ron would never have lied to her about that. Still, thinking back ten years, there was much of the ease of Ron and her old relationship in the way Yori and Ron stood next to each other.
Maybe she shoul- There was a sudden beep from the wall, which turned into Wade's face.
"Hey Kim!" Wade said,
"Hey Wade," Kim replied, "What's the Sitch?"
"Not good." Wade answered, "Ron, we have a situation."
"This'd better be good." Ron muttered,
"Not good—very, very bad." Wade paused, "You know the Neo-Stalinist group in Russia?"
"You know I do, and I don't think anyone enjoyed the meeting." Ron said, "What are they doing right now?"
"They have a Liquified Natural Gas tanker off the coast of California and have made threats to blow it up unless their demands are met, those de-" Ron waved his hand in annoyance.
"Don't bother Wade. They wouldn't be intelligent enough to ask for something that someone even half sane might consider giving them for a single second. It's nukes, bio's or they want us to declare war on the Russian Federation."
"Pretty much all of the above." Wade paused, "Nobody else is in position, and the Navy'll have to sink the ship if it gets too close to the coast…"
"Hostages?"
"Ten crewmen and officers, all in the bridge area."
"Good. Weapons?"
"Light firearms only, maybe a few old SAM's"
"We're on it." Ron said, "Yori, no rest for the wicked—get the Wraith ready."
"Hai, Ron-San… and your high threat armor?"
"No… they'll be throwing enough poorly aimed firepower down around those LNG tanks, I'd prefer not to add to it."
"and the blade?"
"No. If it comes to that, the Navy can just blow the ship after we recover the hostages." Ron paused, and frowned. "Well…we'll have it on board, just in case." He turned to Kim.
"Sorry, KP…I guess we'll have to cancel the rest of the tour until I get back."
"I'm coming with you." Ron looked at her and shook his head.
"Sorry, no."
"What?"
"Parole, remember… do you really want to break it before you've been out for two days?"
"But…I can help…" Kim said.
"I know, Kim." Ron quietly said, "And you will. Because I will never be the cause of you losing your freedom like that again." He paused, "Don't worry—this is something Yori and I have done before…if you want, you can watch the news reports upstairs."
"I-"
"Ron…you need to go."
"I hear you Wade." Ron held Kim, suddenly hugging her. Into her ear, he whispered, "Don't worry, KP… I'll be back soon." Kim didn't know what to say. Moments later, she was in the observation deck, watching as the Wraith lifted off into the darkening sky. Moments later, it seemed to shimmer and vanish. Kim staggered back and fell into a chair. Ron was leaving…and he hadn't asked for her help.
Not only that, he didn't need her help. Blindly, Kim headed upstairs, for the living room and the TV…he had told her she could watch the news…she would.
Please God, Ron, be okay.
TBC.