Growing Pains

by Jolly & Soda

CHAPTER 9:

22 hours 15 minutes later, Sunday, 12:15 a.m.:

A gunshot shattered the quiet of the night air.

Four assassins simultaneously checked their watches even though they were in different locations. Yes, the power supply should be cut.

Five assassins smiled as each moved silently onto his next target.

O

The four Hardys sat frozen for an instant in the darkness.

Then Joe jumped into action. He leapt off the bed, tore out the door and disappeared into the inky darkness of the corridor.

Both Frank and Laura cried out for Joe to come back, which was ignored. Fenton cursed as Frank took off after Joe into the corridor.

He turned and grabbed his wife and moved out of the room. At his wife's fearful yet questioning expression, he said tersely, "Moving target's harder for the killers. Keep close to me and as much as possible; keep your back against the wall!"

O

Frank rushed out into the corridor and saw Joe moving swiftly towards the next room with his back against the wall. And Frank had followed suit, his eyes darting around probing the darkness for the assassins as he moved. The brothers made their way quietly through the rooms in that corridor, and in every room, all they found were dead bodies.

Before the last room, Frank noted that Joe had hesitated for the tiniest moment before making his move in. Then he realized with a sinking heart it was Anna-Marie's room. Frank pushed past Joe to get into the room first.

And there on the bed, she lay. So still, it looked like she was in sweet repose. From her chest a golden chain with a locket that looked like a smiling sun hung loosely and glittered eerily in the moonlight. But the dark red stain on her snow white pajamas betrayed the stark truth.

Frank turned and saw the agony reflected on his brother's face. The brothers exchanged a grim look that promised that those who killed their baby sister would never get away with it.

Then Frank spotted the shadow right behind Joe and gave his brother a hard yank. As Joe fell sideways onto the floor, Frank's arm was already reaching up to block the dagger's deadly path into his brother's back. Grabbing the assassin's arm, Frank tried to force him to drop the dagger by twisting it, but the assassin had managed to break his hold. By then, Joe had recovered and had turned to face his attacker. The assassin saw that he was at a disadvantage, quickly backed out into the doorway and then faded back into the darkness.

The brothers followed instantly, both knowing that letting the assassin out of sight would be giving him the upper hand again.

O

Agent Brian Coolman headed cautiously through the living room towards the stairs. Someone must still be alive, he thought desperately. A soft rustling sound alerted him and he ducked instinctively. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a deadly flash of quicksilver; followed by a searing pain as the blade sliced his arm and he dropped his gun.

He thought he was done for when he saw the blade flash again right before his eyes. He made a desperate lunge to his left, and felt another searing pain in his thigh. Then he heard a sickening thud and the familiar cracking sound of bones breaking, and the assassin slowly sank onto the floor.

He looked up again to see Phailin and her father, Somkid. And he remembered reading that Somkid was formerly the Muay Thai champion in one of the most vicious underground no-hold fighting circuits in Southeast Asia. It was illegal and brutal, but champions could make a small fortune. If they survived.

Suddenly Somkid turned, lashing out with his fist as he did so, and Agent Brian was shocked to realize that another assassin had crept up on them. Watching Somkid in action had made him glad that man was on his side.

Then he spotted a movement to his left and his heart fell as he saw another assassin coming in from the doorway. It rose momentarily as he saw the Hardy brothers close behind.

But another movement on the right dashed that hope completely as a third assassin approached from the direction of the dining hall, a cleaver held loosely in his hand. While he knew both the Hardy brothers were competent, and that Frank Hardy was a black belt Karate, he could not be certain that they could take down these professionals one on one.

Brian pulled Phailin behind him, shielding her with his body. He was surprised when the young girl broke away and stood just a little to his left. She crouched slightly and looked ready to spring. He felt a glimmer of respect arise for her. Then he rose painfully to his feet and prepared himself for the challenge. He was the agent here, and such was what was demanded of him.

O

Frank and his brother had chased the assassin down the stairs and into the living room when the assassin stopped and turned around to face them. His peripheral vision had told him Somkid was there facing off the second assassin. Then Frank saw the third assassin, and he knew they were in trouble.

Frank felt Joe's hand on his shoulder and knew instinctively what that meant. But for a fraction of a second, he hesitated. Then he realized that Joe was no longer his little brother, but his brother and partner. With that, he shifted his stance just a tiny fraction and Joe stepped up and stood right beside him.

Frank smiled grimly. It would be a one-on-one and a three-on-three. Except that the assassins had knives.

O

Fenton and Laura had made it to the living room just in time to watch the tableau played out before them: Somkid, Frank and Joe each facing down one assassin.

Somkid and his adversary had circled each other, slowly probing each other's defenses. Then, in a move too swift for the eye to catch, Somkid's fist powered past the assassin's defenses, and drove deep into the killer's solar plexus. The assassin went down with a grunt, his eyes still wide in shock, blood dripping from his mouth.

Frank kept moving on his feet, making himself a hard target as he dodged the incoming jabs from his attacker. The world around him faded as he focused solely on the dagger and the being that held it. His computation of the trajectory of each jab of the dagger had been flawless, and it had whizzed harmlessly by each time. Patiently, he waited for his enemy to make a mistake. When the opening came, Frank went straight for the groin. As the assassin collapsed in pain, Frank lifted both arms and brought them crashing down at the base of the neck, knocking him out. Then Frank turned to see if Joe needed backup.

Joe had stood still, his stance slightly crouched but relaxed, and stared steadily at his opponent. And he waited. Finally, his enemy attacked. But Joe continued to wait (Yi Jing Zhi Dong) and watch until he could be certain of the path the knife, and the arm that followed. At the very last instant, he shifted deliberately and slightly to his right (Yi Man Sheng Kuai), and the knife shot harmlessly past his belly. Joe grabbed the assassin's knife-arm with his left hand and gave the arm a gentle pull (Yi Rou Ke Gang), utilizing the assassin's own forward momentum to pull him off balance. Then using his own body as leverage, he crouched lower, then pushed himself upwards and at the same time raised his left elbow to meet the assassin's exposed jaw and throat. The combined upward force from him and the downward force from the assassin's own falling body knock out his opponent, as Joe hoped. He breathed a sigh of relief. Then he broke into a smile. His Shifu was right. Taiji rocked!

"That was one good fight." Somkid said the grim satisfaction clear in his voice.

OHBHBHBHBO

2 months earlier:

Joe Hardy was worried. He had been waiting at the school gates for almost two hours and Mr. Pan was still nowhere to be seen. There was no message on his cell phone either.

At the end of every school day, he would come back to the house with Mr. Pan in the Land Rover. They would work on the garden or the house together for three hours before stopping for dinner. Then Mr. Pan would tutor him if he needed help, otherwise it was homework time for him.

But Mr. Pan did not turn up at the usual time today. Joe hoped nothing had happened, for he was fond of the old man.

Finally, Joe walked back. It took him over an hour. He had never realized how far the school was until today. Traveling there in a car made it seem so near.

It was dark by the time Joe quietly let himself into the house. There was light from the living room, and he could hear the sound of the TV playing in the background.

Joe walked into the living room to find Mr. Pan sprawled out on the parquet floor. It was clear the old man was quite drunk and had cried himself to sleep. Joe unrolled a futon bed, helped Mr. Pan onto it, and then covered him with a blanket. He wondered what could have driven the usually calm and tranquil man to such a state.

It was then that Joe noticed an old photograph lying on the coffee table. It was of a young woman with a wide vivacious smile on her face. Next to the photograph were several letters so old they were yellowed along the edges. Knowing that those were treasured possessions, Joe gently put the photo and the letters neatly into the leather folder that was also on the coffee table.

Then Joe realized the TV was still on. As he was about to switch it off, he discovered it was playing a scene from a DVD over and over. The actor on the screen was Stephen Chow, one of Mr. Pan's favorite actors. The movie was A Chinese Odyssey II – Cinderella. Joe smiled. How the old man loved watching those quirky comedies by Stephen Chow, and he had all of the actor's movies in his DVD collection. And how the old man had tortured him, making him watch them over and over too! Humor an old man, Mr. Pan had said.

It was true that Joe's Chinese had improved by leaps and bounds over the last two months. But it still took a while for the meaning of the speech by Stephen Chow to hit him …

Once I had my true love before me,

But I treasured her not

Only after I lost her did I truly regret

That pain cannot be surpassed by anything in this world

If Heaven would deign to give me another chance

I would not hesitate to say 'I love you' to her

If I must have a time limit for that love

I would wish for … 10,000 years

And Joe sat down in front of the TV, remembered Iola, and cried. Despite the fact that he gave her the promise ring, he was still flirting around. And he was flirting with another girl, a pretty stranger, when Iola had stormed off angrily to his car to grab those pamphlets when it had been his job. She had died in his place. And she had died right after he was openly flirting in her face. She died …

Much later in the night, Mr. Pan woke up to find Joe staring blankly at the TV. It was clear to him the boy had been crying. Joe must have heard him, for the lad turned and faced him.

The two men had stared into each other's eyes, and saw the raw pain enshrined within. And they knew they could understand each other as they had both experienced a similar loss.

And so two men spent the rest of the night under a clear moonlit sky in a half-completed landscape garden sipping hot chocolate. One young, and one old. There they bared their hearts and spoke through their souls.

They talked of true loves and of old days long gone by. They talked of youthful follies, of tragedies, and of heartfelt regrets.

Under the twinkling lights of a thousand stars, they laughed and cried and shared their burdens.

And the night crept inexorably towards a new dawn.

OHBHBHBHBO

Note: The largest numeral denomination in Chinese language is '萬', which means 10,000. So to say 100,000 would be ten 10,000. Essentially, the prose means the love to last as long as forever. We tried to keep the translation as lyrical as possible following the Chinese script, but may have failed to bring across fully the beauty and poignancy of that verse. Mr. Pan's love story should be revealed in Day 2 of the HB/24 Crossover, when the boys and Mr. Pan go to China. And of course Jack Bauer was also there, a captive of the Chinese.