May 16
Four and a half months. Had it really only been four and a half months since he'd been abducted off the street in Chinatown? It had seemed like so much longer. Hell, his time at the temple completing his training had felt like more than four and a half months. His life had changed dramatically in so short a time that it hardly seemed real. He wanted his old life back, but would he fit in that life if he did get it back? He had his doubts. God help him he had his doubts.
They had gotten up early that morning to prepare for Caine and Kenjiro to get on the plane for Dallas. He didn't like that they were going without him. He knew it was the right thing to do but that didn't mean he had to like it or the frustration it caused. It made him feel like a petulant child. So he smiled and joked with them before saying his goodbyes at the door.
"Let me help with that." He said as Noriko began to clean up after their breakfast.
"Alright." She said and handed him the towel to dry the dishes with as she washed them. "You put on a mask this morning. You know if I saw it the others did as well."
"Especially my father," Peter said. "But they didn't need to know that I resent not going. It's not them I resent."
"I'm sure they know that too." She said, handing him a plate to dry. "Besides, learning to deal with your fear of heights is better done where a fall won't leave you as so much jelly on the ground."
"I've been able to face it when I needed to in the past. Not happily but I did it." Peter said. "But there was hesitation. I can't hesitate when the time comes. If I do then all of this is for nothing. If I fail I may as well have stayed her prisoner from the start."
She handed him the last dish to dry. "Then I guess we better make sure you don't hesitate."
0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0
Ken looked over at Caine who had taken the window seat on the plane and smiled a little. "You know he'll be safe with Noriko." He said.
"I am not worried about his physical safety." Caine said, "Especially not while he is with Noriko."
"Then tell me, my friend, what is it that has had you looking so grim since we left the house?"
"I have a profound sense of dread about his plans."
"Do you think he's not ready for this?" Ken asked. He wouldn't blame Caine if that was the case. Not that he had any personal opinion on Peter's abilities. He'd known the man less than 24 hours. But fathers tended to either believe their sons were invincible or that they were little wooly lambs incapable of existing outside of their comfort zone.
"I do not know." Caine said. "He has completed his training. He had been a cop for several years before we found each other. He is capable of great things. It is the enemy that concerns me. The cultists are… people like anyone else. Some are trained as intensely as Peter. The woman who heads this cult is inhabited by an avatar."
"Avatars are guardian spirits aren't they?"
Caine nodded. "It is why Peter thinks he can convince the avatar they want to force into him to help him. It is possible. But it is not a certainty."
Ken nodded and sighed "Unfortunately I don't think Peter's going to have much of a choice. He's clearly not made for the vagabond life."
Caine nodded.
"So, we just have to make sure that he succeeds. Otherwise, we are just going to …liberate… him from the avatar."
Caine nodded. "We will not be doing it alone."
"That is going to take some getting used to," Ken said with a lopsided grin. "I have always worked alone."
Caine smiled. "It is a novel experience." He said and nodded. After 15 years of wandering alone, he understood completely.
0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0
Jordan sat at her desk going over the reports from the last week. She handed one of the forms over to Cavenaugh. "Anything you want to add to that?"
Richard set a cup of coffee on her desk and took the paper. He looked the report over as he scooted his chair closer to the desk. "Looks good to me. I don't know why you don't just type it into the computer yourself." He turned on the computer.
"Oh no, I will screw it up somehow. IT has all but banned me from using the computer." Jordan said. "I am not kidding." Kermit had trained her well on how to appear technologically stupid.
"Seems a bit ridiculous for both of us to be doing the entire report." He said.
"You really feel that way?" She asked.
"Yep." He said. He entered the password for the correct program.
Jordan smiled brightly. "In that case, here you go." She put all the reports that needed to be done on his desk. " Thank you for the coffee." She added as an afterthought.
"You are such a brat." He said, pretending not to see several detectives handing cash to Tammy Li.
"Less than a week," Tammy said. "And you said he wouldn't cave."
Michael Gray laughed. "Hell, he didn't even pretend to put up a fight."
"Laugh it up, Gray," Richard said.
"I am Buddy. I am." Michael said. "I'm heading over to Bayview tonight to spend some time with the family. Is there anyone you want me to say hello to while I'm there, Jordan?"
She shook her head "Nah. There isn't anyone there I miss all that much." She lied. She missed everyone back home but she wasn't going to put them on the cult's radar. "Have a good time. I would make recommendations but since you have family there they probably already know all the good places."
"True, but just one question. Where's the local cop bar?"
"For the 101st it's Chandlers." She said. "Not sure about the other precincts."
"That's over by Chinatown, right."
"Yeah, right on the edge. It's part of the jurisdiction anyway."
"Cool, thanks. Once I escape my sister I'll check it out."
"The only place to drink is a good cop bar." Alex Ryan said with a grin. "So tell me how things are going with Bellamy."
Jordan sighed "He's playing with me." She said. "I think I'm going to need to be on my own before he's going to make his move. I appreciate the protection but honestly, I think it's putting him off. He'll move on if doesn't think he can get to me."
"I'm not comfortable with you being unprotected," Ryan said.
"Neither am I." Jordan said "But we need to make it less visible. Bellamy needs to think I've blown off the threat."
"I will think about it. I'll let you know before you go home."
Jordan nodded.
0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0
Peter looked down and the dizziness hit him like a ton of bricks. "Ooh, boy." He breathed, clinging to the tree.
"You're doing fine," Nori called from the ground.
"Easy for you to say. The ground is standing perfectly still. This tree is spinning like a top."
"That's just vertigo. Stress brings it on, so you need to breathe, bring down the anxiety."
"I don't have this problem on solid ground you know." He said, but then started breathing as she directed.
"You aren't afraid of the ground." She said. "I doubt you're truly afraid of much at all."
"I don't think about it until it's over." He admitted. Once he had convinced himself that the tree was not really spinning he began to climb again.
"Okay, that's great. You're at about 30 feet. Time to come back down." Nori said. He was going to be tired of climbing up and down by the time they broke for lunch. But he was going to have to make the climb up that snake statue, fighting off cultists and canting the rite to destroy whatever it was that made the statue an artifact. They were going to be at this for several days. It wouldn't cure his phobia. She doubted there was anything that could do that for anyone. But he'd be able to do it without hesitation.
Peter wasn't as confident. Down was harder than up. He had to look where he was going and that made his blood rush in his ears. He had to pause each step of the way, to center his mind, to breathe through the fear until he could take the next step. He reassured himself with the fact that up was the necessary part. Down needed to happen but it didn't need to happen as fast. He honestly didn't think down was going to be anywhere he was going to want to go when it was all done. The cult would kill him as soon as look at him once they realized what he'd done. It didn't change his mind about what he had to do though.
When he reached the bottom, Noriko handed him a glass of water.
"Thanks," Peter said, taking it with a trembling hand.
She waited for him to drink his fill then took the glass back. "Okay, up you go." She remembered how her father had taught Kenjiro. It had seemed harsh at the time but as an adult, she knew that it was the only way to teach skills that could make the difference between life and death.
"I was afraid you were going to say that," Peter said, then he drew in a deep breath and started up the tree once again.
0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0
Ken Sakura rented a hotel room in a seedy part of town. The sort of place people didn't ask questions because usually the rooms were used for a couple of hours at most. By the time they were on their way back to Los Angeles no one at the hotel would even remember they'd been there and the register said that they were Ken and David Lee, father, and son. They used the fake ID that had been established by Kermit for Caine, claiming that Ken had his wallet stolen. It would work for no longer than they were going to be there.
The walls were thin and even though it was no later than noon, they could hear the local sex workers plying their trade in the rooms to either side.
"You know I have often wondered if the thin walls in places like this are part of the attraction," Ken said with a quiet laugh.
Caine shrugged. "Some people enjoy listening to the enjoyment of others."
"Thus the billion-dollar porn industry," Ken said. "So, we need to speak quietly about our plans."
Caine looked amused. "I do not think they could hear us if we yelled." Their neighbors were being improbably loud.
Ken laughed. "I think you're right." He said "Are you sure you're up to this? It's not going to be an easy climb."
"I am sure," Caine said.
"It's a good thing I packed an extra shinobi. Not black either."
"It would be rather conspicuous for night work." And there was only so far that either of them affect the perceptions of others.
"We'll head out from here around midnight and park a few blocks from the tower."
Caine nodded "And there is no other way than to steal the scroll?"
"Believe me I have been trying to buy his collection for years. Don't worry the only one we'll be taking is the one Peter needs. I'm just going to have to wait for the cops to manage to put him in jail and buy them up at auction."
Caine nodded "Is there a way to help the police put him behind bars?"
"Not that I'm aware of but it's a good idea. Might have to look into that when all of this cult business is settled." He grinned "What? You didn't think I'd just hand you the scroll and walk away, did you? This is important. Not just because you're my friend. The Harbingers are an evil that needs to end."
"You have my gratitude," Caine said.
"I'd rather have your friendship. You'd do the same for me."
"Yes." He said simply.
0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0
"Please tell me I don't have to climb that tree again," Peter said.
"Not right away." Noriko said, "I thought we'd have lunch first."
"You're all heart."
"And then you can do it while reciting something."
"Seriously?" He asked following her into the house.
"Absolutely. You're going to have to be able to scale a 30 foot statue while speaking the incantation on the scroll, and fighting off people that are trying to stop you."
"When you say it like that…" He said and shook his head "Yeah, back up the tree after lunch. Are you going to try and pull me down while I do it?"
"I thought we could save that for when my brother and your father have returned." She said. "I doubt very seriously there would be only one person coming after you."
"The hardest part of all of this is going to be keeping my father out of there while this happens," Peter said.
"Why on earth would you wish to do that?" She asked. She pulled cabbage, carrots, and green onions out of the refrigerator. "Can you cut the cabbage for me?"
He found a knife and cutting board and then took charge of the cabbage. "If he's there when it happens he won't be able to forgive himself for not stopping it."
Noriko stopped slicing the carrots and looked up in surprise. "You don't plan to come out of there alive."
"Okay, to be fair, I'm not planning on dying. I just don't see any way that it isn't going to happen. Not exactly the same thing."
"If you die, then you won't be able to keep your promise to the avatar you call Nag."
"Sure I will. Not the ideal method, but he'd be released from my body when I die, and with the artifact destroyed he won't be imprisoned."
"Or you can plan to have people there to help you get out of there alive. Your father sees great potential in you. But you are not his equal yet. I don't see you being able to stop him if he wants to be there." She resumed slicing the carrots and onions.
"It may be a moot point." He said. "All the groundwork I'm laying, completing my training, the means to destroy the artifact, it's all preparing for the eventuality that I'm recaptured. I'm pretty sure the Shaolin aren't the only ones with mystics that see visions or magic koi ponds. I won't be able to run forever."
"Magic Koi pond?" She asked, and put a pan on the stove to heat. "Do I even want to know?"
"I don't know how to explain it other than The Ancient and my father seem to be able to get visions in the Koi pond."
"I'm not sure I would enjoy that." She put oil in the pan and then the carrots.
Peter laughed "I'm with you. Although I'm glad they don't feel the same way. It's how they were able to find me."
"Couldn't they just do so again?"
Peter shook his head "The building where I was kept was protected somehow so that they couldn't see me while I was there. I'd been moved to a different location for the ritual and that's how they found me. Sure they know where I had been being kept before, but I have no guarantee that it will be the same place again."
"That does complicate matters." She said. "But it doesn't make it impossible. Just… don't give up before you even get there."
"I'm just being realistic." He finished cutting the cabbage.
"You are giving in to fear. Which is only natural." She said, opening the refrigerator once more to take out yakisoba noodles and teriyaki sauce.
"I'm accepting the possibility of my death." He said.
"While refusing to accept the possibility that you may live." She pointed out and put the cabbage into the pan.
"That's not what I'm doing." He said.
"If that was true you wouldn't be worried about Kwai Chang being there. You will hurt him more by not trusting him to aid you than your death could ever hurt him. I knew him when he thought you were dead. He was devastated by your loss, yes, but he knew that he had done all that was possible in that fire to save everyone he could before he collapsed."
"Of course he did. It's not in him to do anything halfway. Especially when someone's life is on the line."
"Then how do you think he will feel if you die or fail and become possessed, and he's not there to even try to help, because you don't have enough faith in him."
"It's not that I don't have faith in him." Peter protested. He began to pace. "That's not it at all. I just… I don't want him to die with me." Or worse before him in that place.
"Oh, Peter," She said.
"I know, I know, my Pop could come through the other side of hell in one piece, wondering what everyone was worried about. But this is…those people…" Damn it this wasn't supposed to still bother him. He wasn't supposed to still have panic attacks when he thought of it.
"Were brutal." She said. "They tortured you and did everything possible to break your spirit. You have every right to fear the outcome of another encounter with them. It's normal. But you can't let them control you through that fear. And there is no way on planet Earth that Kwai Chang will let you face it alone."
"That's what I'm afraid of." He said with a sigh.
Noriko finished making their lunch and served it up in two bowls. " That is what you should take comfort in."