Redemption (22 page)

They stayed silent and glanced at each other, trying to see if anyone understood anything more than the other.

Ming Mei spoke up next.

“Ok, but you didn’t answer the question.
Why us
?”

“You are each one of you agile, aggressive and gifted. With the necessary knowledge, you will be unstoppable assassins.”

“And what does that mean for us? We’ll have to join you and your family, whoever you are, is that it?” asked Namara.

“No. You will have no duty toward us, no ties at all. We want nothing from you. Our goal is to transmit our knowledge before we die and it dies with us, and we want to send it all over the world, from our continent to yours. You represent what I could call modern ninjas. Eras change, ninjas change. Adaptability is one of our strengths!”

“What kind of training are we talking about?” Guerra asked.

“You must not misunderstand me… you will be put to the test. You must make proof of your resourcefulness and endurance. You must learn how to help each other to survive, confront your fears and dominate them to sow the seeds of fear in the heart of your enemies. You must look death in the face and laugh. You will learn to defy the laws of physics and to become the masters of illusion, manipulating the elements around you. We will teach you tradecrafts.”

They looked at him and wondered what he was hiding. Maki knew how to intrigue and charm. It was difficult to say no to such an offer.

“How much?” asked Ming Mei.

“Nothing. We don’t want your money. They only thing we ask is that you bring us honor.”

“Say we
were
interested. When would we begin?”

“Tomorrow,” said Maki.

CHAPTER 29

Maki, with his future recruits on his tail, halted in front of a modern twenty-seven story building. The glass-paned façade was gridded with steel. The white marble foyer was utterly deserted. Maki entered a code into a keyboard and the glass doors opened for them.

“Where are we?” asked Shinsaku.

“This building belongs entirely to us. It is completely empty and arranged specifically for training. Each of the twenty-seven floors is fully equipped with electricity, elevators, computers, and several other surprises. There’s also a five level underground parking garage in which we will practice automobile techniques. You will live here, and sleep here, until such time as I decide otherwise. Yours will be the seventeenth floor. Take the elevator and deposit your personal effects there.”

“You don’t say!  I had no idea ninjas were so well-off. We’re a long way off from the hooded chaps in the mountains,” Guerra muttered.

“We ninjas adapt to our environment, Mr. Guerra,” retorted Maki, who had heard James’ comment. “These days, society lives in an urban setting, and it is here where we can operate with the most efficiency. Modern challenges for ninja are much greater and more complex. But they are necessary… you will see for yourself.”

“I guess I will,” said Guerra.

Their room on the seventeenth was huge and completely empty, except for a table and their futons.

“You will sleep here. The bathrooms and the showers are at the far end.”

It looked like a gutted corner office with its huge windows that surrounded the immense open space. Several white neon lights lit the space. They dropped their bags and looked at each other, knowing they were in it together for the next several weeks. They had no other choice but to get to know each other.

*     *     *

They were shut up in this building for several weeks and the awkwardness, painfully present at the beginning, began to dissipate over the next several days. They slept, ate and lived together, and bonds began to grow. They got to know each other over the course of thousands of conversations, conversation being the only activity available during their free time. Friendship and respect grew between them. Maki was their sole teacher during those weeks, instructing them in all types of detection, how to avoid them and how to cut their circuits. They learned to infiltrate any space with cameras, alarms, motion detectors, thermal detectors.

He taught them how to infiltrate and pirate any electronic network. He showed them that, no matter how sophisticated the technology, there was always a flaw. One day, as Maki gave a demonstration on explosives, James dozed in his chair at the back of the room. Maki, visibly infuriated, threw a marble under his chair, which exploded on contact with the floor. James woke with a jump, knocking his chair over as he looked around wildly.

“Wha? Wha’appened!?” said Guerra from the floor.

“Pardon me for interrupting your nap, Mr. Guerra, but I consider this information very pertinent!” Maki spat.

Guerra stood with a grunt and righted his chair as everyone laughed helplessly.

“Shit your pants, James?” sniggered Ming Mei. “Go clean up, we’ll wait for you.”

“Yeah, but don’t worry, Mingy, they aren’t mine. I borrowed your little lace knickers this morning.”

They were all laughing helplessly as James calmly sat himself back down.

“Wayyy too much information,” said Kamilia.

“A little maturity,
please
,” said Maki, furious.

“I just hope you haven’t gone and ruined the elastic,” Namara whispered.

“Are you kidding? She’s getting back a huge colourful me-scented parachute.”

Namara and Guerra were doubled over with laughter, trying to keep quiet, but apparently everyone had heard them and Maki was the only one not amused.

“Very well, Mr. Guerra. As you seem to be above
learning
this, perhaps you wouldn’t mind teaching it. Get up here!”

Guerra got up there calmly under Maki’s glare. He threw him a ball of white plastic with the texture of modeling clay.

“Would you do us the kindness of explaining the properties of this material?”

“If you insist… It’s a military explosive agent called C-4. You can manipulate it easily due to its stable nature. The only danger of explosion is if you add a detonator. It’s insoluble in water. Its means of use, its malleability and its power make it the explosive of choice for terrorists, soldiers, and emergency response teams.”

As Guerra gave his lackadaisical lecture, he was rooting through the box of objects Maki had brought. He selected something small enough to be concealed in the palm of his hand. His gaze landed on Shinsaku, specifically the pen in his hand, and gestured for Shinsaku to give it to him. He began to pry open the pen.

“You can use it in many contexts for several types of bombs. For example, a small amount of C-4 the size of a pinhead in this pen, combined with a detonator, gives you a pen-bomb in a few seconds that could pulverize almost everything in this room and the next.”

The pen-bomb took shape before their eyes. Guerra worked as though he was doing something mundane, like laundry. Everyone in the room began to feel the anticipation.

“Ok. Here, you have a magnificent working pen-bomb. One click to activate it, two to deactivate. Its beauty is its simplicity, wouldn’t you agree?”

Guerra clicked the pen and tossed it in Maki’s direction. The room fell deathly silent as Maki caught it in his hand.

“James, you’re sick!” Ming Mei shouted.

“You have five seconds before it blows. Four, three, two…”

Maki clicked it twice and everyone breathed again. Guerra had made his point. Maki’s heart was beating madly. Guerra picked up a little metallic stick, no more than a few centimeters long, and dropped it casually in Kamilia’s water glass as he walked by. Suddenly, the water began to boil as the little stick burned like kerosene on a live coal.

“That there is pure magnesium. Magnesium reacts with water, rendering it very dangerous in its pure state. The moral of the story – anything can go
boom
if you know how to use it. Something that looks insignificant can be a nightmare if it’s mixed with something else. That’s all for today, folks!” He took his seat at the back and grinned.

“You
imbecile
!” shouted Stone, who had jumped from her chair upon seeing the liquid flames jumping from her hand, and was now covered with the contents of her glass.

“Very well, Mr. Guerra, excellent presentation. I suppose you haven’t spent the majority of your time in the boxing ring.”

Maki had remained icy the duration of Guerra’s presentation. Apparently, the latter knew his stuff, which Maki had ignored, and which made him more dangerous in his eyes. He never dared to ask where he’d acquired the knowledge, because he surely wouldn’t have agreed to open up about his past so easily. But then, he didn’t need answers from Guerra’s mouth. He had a good idea that which he was able to do in his other life. Everything changed in Maki’s eyes, that which had become more interesting and more dangerous as well.
A man with secrets and who knows how to hide them is always the man to fear
. Maki gave no sign of his changed opinion as he continued his presentation.

CHAPTER 30

Their training suddenly took a dangerous turn. Maki, who had imparted so much knowledge technical and theoretical, decided that it was time for them to prove their ninja skills. In the dead of night, he ordered them to scale the glass-paned building from bottom to top. He equipped them with nothing but climbing shoes and bags of talc to keep their hands dry. No cords of any kind. The only thing they had to hold were the steel frames around the windows.

Maki warned them that they had to rely on their legs, not their arms, or they would become exhausted and fall to their death before ever reaching the top. No-one spoke. They all concentrated on their upcoming task, realizing that the tiniest error would put them in their grave. Dressed in black, standing in a row, they began their climb, silent like spiders. They moved slowly and silently. Every movement was deliberate and precise.

Namara had reached the eighth floor when he felt vertigo setting in. He realized that, at this height, a fall would mean imminent death, and he shut his eyes to calm himself down. His rapid breath pulsed against the window and drops of sweat pearled along his temples.
It’s like combat. But I’m shooting at myself. And the only thing to do is climb, so don’t think about falling. One step at a time. Up.
He could see the city lights reflected in the windows, making it all the more surreal. He could feel the wind swirling and dancing around him, as though it was speaking to him –
come, jump, dance with me.
Overtop of the wind rang sirens and car horns. Namara concentrated on his breathing and thought of nothing. His heart slowed and he could take better control of himself. Guerra was following him from several meters below. Namara heard him shout:

“SHIT.”

He tried to look below him, but it was too difficult from his position, and his foothold was only three centimeters wide.

“What? What is it?”

“I’m falling, I’m fucking falling.”

Namara could finally see him – he’d lost his footing, and was gripping the window frame with two hands as his feet dangled.

“Well hold on, goddammit!”

He knew it would be impossible to go down and help him. He’d kill them both. Guerra pulled himself up with his hands and found his footing again. He clung to the window, breathless.

 “Are you all right to continue?” he demanded.

“Do I have another choice!?”

He hung back with Guerra for a minute until he was good to climb again. They gave each other courage to continue. With a rush of perseverance, they climbed with a singular goal of reaching the top. He raised his head and scanned the huge glass wall all around him. Three black shadows moved above.
Stone, Ming Mei and Shinsaku seem to be all right.
The wind blew.

“It’s only a test. If we’ve made it eight stories, the next will be nothing,” he told himself.

He continued upward into the black night as echoes of life rang under his feet.

Maki was waiting on the roof. Guerra brought up the rear and they sat to gather their thoughts.

“Congratulations everyone. Thank god we all made it,” said Stone as she caught her breath.

“Yes, exactly, congratulations. The climb was a test and you passed. You have accomplished the most difficult of tasks tonight and you are still alive. This climb is a gauge of self-confidence. You can scale whatever you wish now. You know that nothing will stop you. Eliminate your fear and you are indestructible,” said Maki solemnly.

“I’m starving! Let’s get something to eat,” said Ming Mei.

“Great idea,” Namara retorted. “If you’re
dying
of hunger.”

*     *     *

“What the
fuck
,” Namara yelled as he hurled for the bathroom with a flaming mouth.

Everyone was dying with laughter – he’d just swallowed the huge gob of wasabi Shinsaku had hidden in his plate.

“I’m dying!” he yelled from the bathroom as he gulped water.

Guerra high-fived Shinsaku.

“ He’s not easily taken, but we’ve finally done him in!” he sniggered.

“Shinsaku, you’re going down!” Namara shouted. “Aughh, it burns like fire!”

All the silliness was just another means of eliminating the stress of their daily lives.
They knew that they’d seen death tonight. These tests had been what brought them together as a group.

“Well, that was rude. Wasabi is vile,” Stone sniggered. “Hey, Danny, you want me to call the fire department?”

“Veeeery funny.”

Kamilia took a sip of coffee and spat it out just as quickly.

“ Feh! You put something in my coffee, you immature idiots!” she cried as she wiped her tongue on her sleeve.

Another round of laughter. Shinsaku had managed to sneak a good amount of salt in Stone’s coffee. Guerra pumped his fist.

“No, nothing. Why?” said Shinsaku, completely innocent.

“You’re gonna get it,” she retorted.

“Seriously, lads, I think it’s time to hit the hay. I’ll bet you Maki’s got some other fun surprises for us tomorrow,” said Guerra.

“Yeah, I agree,” said Ming Mei, rising from the table.

*     *     *

They went to bed, but they didn’t sleep, except Shinsaku, who was on his back with his right arm hanging. Stone signed to Namara and they surrounded his futon. She squeezed a good amount of shaving cream into his hand. He poked at Shinsaku’s nose once, and twice, and on the third poke Shinsaku slapped his foamy hand across his face without batting an eye. Cream sprayed everywhere. Guerra and Ming Mei stifled their laughter into their pillows as Namara and Stone high fived.