It was beautiful. It was amazing. It was exactly the sort of thing Ilya had wished for. The sort of thing Wats had wished for. The kind of use of Nexus they’d wanted to see. Hell, Rangan would love it just for the blazing party vibe of the thing.

Kade wanted to be there.

And he hoped to hell it was going to work.

52
One Day at a Time

Sunday 2040.12.02

Sam threw herself at Feng, a flurry of fists and feet, blows raining down faster than the eye could track.

He stepped back, blocked with his good arm, ducked, spun, blocked a kick with his shin, dodged back again.

She kept coming, hard, not letting up, adrenaline pumping through her, fists flying at him in short fast jabs at face and chest and throat, minimum distance from A to B, feet lashing out for his knees, taking the fight to him like a muy thai fighter.

He gave ground, parried, twisted, dodged, slid to the side.

Blam, she tagged him in the chest.

“Hah!” Sam yelled

A buzzer went off.

“Nice!” Feng said, grinning.

Bangalore proper was infinitely more interesting than the research park. They’d both come to that conclusion. After showers they took their appetites towards Brigade Road, where the street food would be filling the air with a thousand exotic aromas, and where they were slowly working their way through the flavors on offer.

“You were fast today,” Feng said.

Sam grinned at him. “You’re pretty good for a guy only using one arm.”

Feng’s left arm was out of its sling, but he wasn’t using it in their sparring sessions yet. There’d been extensive soft tissue damage. Even with the cell therapy the Indians were giving him and Feng’s own incredible rate of recovery, there were limits to what the human body could do.

“Better than only one leg,” Feng said.

Sam had to agree with that. They’d been training together the last week. Twenty kilometer runs. Obstacle courses. Weights. Stretching. Sparring. Sam had approached Feng about it, as part of her own self-appointed program of mental health. Meditation was good. Mindfulness-based pushing through the painful memories was good. Long walks and contemplative talks with Ananda were good.

Playing with the kids was amazing, was about the best thing ever.

Work, for that matter, was good too. She’d done a lot in the last week, briefing Division Six leaders on cases she’d dealt with over the last decade. On the kinds of tech abuses she’d seen in the States. Nothing that compromised US security – but plenty that complemented their own experience here. Feng had his own trove of observations to add, as much from his six months in south east Asia as from his background in China. The meetings and briefings and research and discussions of protocol and procedures were a wonderful focus.