"The woman smiles politely and tells him no. The guy, who is a real big bruiser, muscles on his muscles, shrugs and goes off to the can.

"So Anson and his date finish, pay their check, and head for their car. But in the parking lot are the two guys who were being raucous inside.

"Anson doesn't say anything, just goes to his vehicle and unlocks the pa.s.senger door to let his date in.

"One of the guys, the bigger one, calls out, 'Hey, Momma, it's not to late to join the party!'

"Anson straightens himself up to his five-seven, turns and looks at the guy, and says, 'She said she wasn't interested. '

"The bruiser gives Anson a go-to-h.e.l.l look. 'Hey, Gramps, how would you like it if I came over there and stomped on you?'

"Anson just ignores him. He looks at his date and says, 'Let's go.'

"So the bruiser smiles, a nasty expression. He nods at the woman with Anson. 'Yeah, that's right old man. Run away.'

"Now Anson's getting pretty steamed himself by now, but he keeps his head.

"Bruiser starts heading toward them now, slowly. 'C'mon, babe,' he says to Anson's date. 'You can do better than this guy.'

"Well, Anson's had about enough of this. 'Look,' he says, 'you've had your fun, and you've had your chance. The lady doesn't want to go anywhere with you, and to tell you the truth, I'm getting pretty sick of looking at you myself, so why don't you just go away before you get hurt.'

"Now maybe Anson shouldn't have said that. Insulting a guy like this is about as effective as trying to put out a fire by throwing gasoline on it. But like I said, Anson was getting pretty mad by now himself.

" 'You're crazy, old man,' Bruiser says. 'You don't know who you're talking to, do you?'

" 'Doesn't matter, son. For the last time, turn around and go away while you still can.'

"Next to Anson, the woman is speechless, her eyes wide, and she's thinking that Anson is about to get himself a major whipping for goading this guy.

"Bruiser's buddy, who is almost as big as he is, catches Bruiser's arm as he starts for Anson. 'Don't do it, man. He's just another jerk, the world is full of 'em.'

"But Bruiser is ready to rumble, and you can almost hear what he is thinking: This little guy had just dissed him in front of a good-lookin' woman!

" 'I'm gonna make it one less full,' he says to his friend. 'Pal, you're about to get c.r.a.p-stomped by Harley William Dahl. I don't care if you're some kind of karate or kung fu expert showing off for your lady, I'm a two-time winner of K-1, and the North American Heavyweight NHB champ. I break men twice your size in half just to warm up, and I am gonna pound you into the ground like a tent peg!'

"Harley takes a couple of steps, then pulls up short, as Anson comes out from under his jacket with a forty-five slabside, c.o.c.ked-and-locked.

" 'Pleased to meet you, Harley. I'm not anybody special-just an old retired Marine who can shoot Expert with this here antique Colt. Now like I said, why don't you take a walk?'

" 'You can't do that!' Harley says. 'It would be murder. '

" 'You just told me what a champion fighter you are in front of a witness. I wouldn't have a prayer against you hand-to-hand-no jury in the world would convict me for shooting you.'

"Harley glowers. His buddy pulls at his arm again. 'Leave it, man!'

"Harley doesn't want to do that. He is mad. 'They'd fry the little coward!'

" 'The man has a gun gun, Harley! What do you care what a jury thinks? If it gets to that, you won't be around to see it!'

"Something filters through. Harley backs up a step. 'If you didn't have that gun-' he begins.

"Anson cuts him off. 'If the world had been flat, son, Columbus would have sailed off the edge, wouldn't he? I may be just a little coward, but I do do have the gun, my ace beats your king. Go home and live. Come at me, and die. Your choice, it really don't much matter much to me.' have the gun, my ace beats your king. Go home and live. Come at me, and die. Your choice, it really don't much matter much to me.'

"And Harley looks into Anson's face and sees that the man would would just as soon shoot him as not, and he lets his friend drag him away, cursing as he goes. Anson holsters the gun, opens the door for his lady friend, that's that." just as soon shoot him as not, and he lets his friend drag him away, cursing as he goes. Anson holsters the gun, opens the door for his lady friend, that's that."

Kent leaned against the wall. "Now, Anson is a modest man, not p.r.o.ne to bragging about how he does things. I heard the story from his date, who became his wife shortly thereafter. Nice lady, great cook."

Jay looked at Kent. "I must be missing the point."

"The point, son, is that no matter how big or strong or smart you might be, those don't offset everything. Here was Harley, a martial arts combat champion, and if he'd jumped Anson, he'd be pushing up daisies.

"You couldn't have beat the man who shot you-he had the superior weapon and the tactical advantage. You are an adept in your field, you could wipe up the floor with the guy in a computer duel, but it wasn't your arena.

"Were you armed?"

"No. I should have been."

"Maybe. But you weren't. And even if you'd had a pistol and knew how to use it, what if you come up against five or eight armed guys? You can't cover every base. There's no dishonor in being out-gunned. This was the attacker's game, not yours."

Jay blinked. The man was right. Intellectually, he knew there wasn't anything he could have done to stop it.

Emotionally, it was another matter. But still . . .

"Thanks, Colonel. I appreciate the ear and the advice."

"No problem. Next time my computer breaks down, I'll call you."

Jay managed a smile.

30.

Net Force HQ Quantico, Virgina Thorn stripped away the VR gear and blew out a big sigh. This Natadze guy was getting to be a major pain. Thorn had expected to have found something else on him by now, but the man was just not there. He loved guitars and he shot people, that was pretty much it.

Clearly, Net Force would have to come up with some other approach. But what?

He looked at the clock. He'd been under for two hours, and he felt stiff and stale. Time to go to the gym for a little R&R.

As he got there, he saw Colonel Kent arriving at the same moment. In his left hand, he held his sheathed katana katana . .

"Commander."

"Colonel. Going to work out?"

"I thought I might wave this old blade around a little, yes."

"Would you mind if I watched?"

"No, sir." A pause. "Tom."

Thorn grinned and followed Kent into the gym, which was empty save for them.

"If you had a sword, I could show you some of the basics," Kent said.

Thorn grinned again. "As it happens, I do have a j.a.panese sword in my locker."

Kent nodded, as if he wasn't particularly surprised.

Thorn went to fetch the weapon, a katana katana he had bought from the great-granddaughter of a man who had been a j.a.panese general in WWII. The blade was almost four hundred years old and still mirror-bright. he had bought from the great-granddaughter of a man who had been a j.a.panese general in WWII. The blade was almost four hundred years old and still mirror-bright.

When he got back, Kent had stripped to his T-shirt and trousers, his feet also bare. He looked to be in good shape for a man his age. Or for a man Thorn's age. He knelt on the mat in that b.u.t.t-on-heels position called seiza seiza, his sheathed sword set next to him on the left.

"Can you get into this pose?"

Thorn nodded.

Kent pointed to his right. "Better sit over on that side. About six feet away."

Thorn kneeled, placing his own sword to his left on the mat.

"My grandfather knew all the j.a.panese terminology," Kent said, "but what it boils down to is essentially a very few actions you perform with the sword-everything else is built on those."

He bowed, touching his head to the mat, his palms down forming a triangle with his thumbs and forefingers on the surface. He came back upright, picked the sword up with his left hand, and turned it so the edge-curve faced outward. He pressed against the guard with his thumb.

"You loosen the blade in the sheath, like so."

Thorn leaned forward a little to see better.

"The first move is the draw-"

Kent pulled the sword's blade free in a single, fluid motion, whipped it outward to his left in a flat arc toward his right. At the same time, he came up on his right foot, his left knee still on the ground. As the sword pa.s.sed in front of him, he circled the blade, twisting it from a horizontal slash from left to right into an overhead curve that came down straight in front of his body. During this, he set the sheath down, and brought his left hand to the sword's handle, well behind his right hand. The final part of the motion was much like a man with an axe splitting a log: "The cut."

He opened his right hand, maintaining his grip with the left, and made his right hand into a fist. He hammered once lightly on the back ridge of the blade just ahead of the guard with the little-finger side of his right fist.

"The shaking of blood."

He opened his right fist, caught the handle in a reverse grip, let go with his left hand, swung the blade so that the point angled to his left, arced downward and then up, almost 270 degrees, to point at the back wall. Meanwhile, he used his left hand to catch the mouth of the scabbard, thumb on one side, forefinger on the other, as if about to pinch. He moved the sword backward, touched the sheath's mouth with the back edge of the blade, six inches above the guard. He drew the blade forward, right arm pa.s.sing across his belly, sliding the spine along the sheath's opening. His thumb and forefinger looked as if they were wiping the steel. When the point reached the mouth, he moved his right hand forward, angled and inserted the tip into the sheath, then slid the blade slowly home. He used his forefinger to snug the weapon into place.

He did not look at the sword when he did any of this.

"And the re-sheath," he said.

Thorn grinned. Right out of Seven Samurai Seven Samurai.

He put the sword back down, bowed again, then looked at Thorn.

"That's basically it. Four moves-pull it, cut, knock the blood off, and put it away. You can do it standing, squatting, kneeling, or even lying on your side. There are a bunch of ways to cut, various angles and targets, other ways to sling the blood and re-sheath, and you can use the point to stick somebody, but that's pretty much the core of iai iai. There are 'ways'-do, or fighting versions, jutsus jutsus. Schools are a lot more formal-you wear gi gi and and hakama hakama, get into the rituals, tie your sleeves up, start with the sword in your sash, but my grandfather taught me that the heart of the art was: draw, cut, shake, and re-sheath. Kind of the Eastern version of the cowboy fast draw. The iai iai gets the blade into play; after that, it is gets the blade into play; after that, it is kendo kendo."

"Fascinating," Thorn said.

"The idea is to cultivate a sense of awareness of everything, zanshin zanshin, they call it. You don't think, you just do do. After ten or twenty thousand draws, according to my grandfather, you can just get to a place where you just . . . manifest manifest the sword. It just is the sword. It just is there there."

"Not much like western fencing," Thorn said.

"The j.a.panese have a different mind-set," Kent said. "Kill or be killed-or both, it didn't much matter to the warriors. 'The way of the samurai is found in death.' If you were going to die, you wanted to be sure to take your enemy with you if you could, but dying yourself was of little consequence. Your life belonged to your lord, and he could do whatever he wanted with it. Everybody knew that. It makes for a different kind of match."

"I can see that."

"Want to try it?"

"Very much."

"Okay. Here's how you bow . . ."

The Dark Ages Southern France Jay Gridley rode the dragon. He was seated atop the hundred-foot-long beast, just behind his ears, and whatever fear he had felt about going into VR was waaay gone. He was back and he was in control-well, at least here in VR, anyhow.

Though the setting was Europe, his dragon had a definite Chinese look to him, much more interesting than the standard European model. In China, dragons weren't just animals, they were wise, clever, could a.s.sume the shape of a man, and were often very sneaky. Sometimes that was what you needed from a dragon. But they could do brute force as well, when you needed that.

Jay watched as enemies fled, left, right, and center. Now and then, a bowman would loose an arrow, but his steed would blast the incoming missile with a whuff! whuff! of flame-said fire usually consuming not only the arrow, but the man who'd fired it, roasting him into a crispy critter on the spot. of flame-said fire usually consuming not only the arrow, but the man who'd fired it, roasting him into a crispy critter on the spot.

It was not Jay's most peaceful construct, but it suited his mood. The arrows were queries, the archers firewalls, and the dragon Jay's best rascal-and-enter program. Against the fortified and nearly blast-proof walls of a first-cla.s.s firewall, even the dragon's fiery breath would be useless, but here in the corporate realm, not everybody subscribed to the idea that such things were necessary. Some had what they thought was top-of-the-line software or hardware protecting their systems, but had been suckered. Some had what had been the best, but which had not been kept updated, and was no longer sufficient against the sharpest cutting-edge stuff. Jay's dragon was reborn regularly-he had access to the best, and he incorporated it into the eggs that hatched as needed.

Ahead, the French castle lay, surrounded by a moat, the drawbridge up.

The dragon stopped on the edge of the water.

"What say?" Jay said. "Can we do this?"

"We can," the dragon said. His voice was deep, almost a metallic rumble, a giant iron plate dragged across a sidewalk.

The dragon took a slow, full breath and blasted the moat with a terrific gout of fire. The flow of it went on and on-thirty seconds, a minute, two minutes.

The water began to bubble as it boiled. Giant green and scaled monsters, looking like crosses between alligators and sharks, floated to the surface, cooked, still thrashing in their death-throes.

"Cook 'em, Dan'l," Jay said.

A few moments later, the dragon dipped his taloned toe into the water, decided it was cool enough, then stepped into the moat.

The water came up only to his hips-the castle's defenders had not reckoned on such an a.s.sault. They reached the door, and the dragon thrust his fore-claws into the wood, the sound of it like a pile driver working. With a mighty effort, the dragon flexed his shoulder and ripped the thick door apart as if it were balsa. Splinters flew everywhere as the door shattered and fell away.

The dragon stalked through the opening.

Jay slid down the dragon's neck and side. "Thanks, I'll take it from here. If the King's Army shows up, give me a yell."