Roen reared back. “No fucking way! When we go, not you. Cameron is not going within a thousand miles of that place.”
“It’s not your choice, Roen. Cameron’s a host. I’m his Quasing. We make the call, and I say he’s ready.”
Roen quivered with rage as he towered over Tao. “Over my dead body. You think he’s ready? He barely made it out alive last time. He’s obviously not ready.”
Tao slapped himself in the face. Cameron yawned and blinked several times. Then he saw Roen and brightened. “Dad!” He jumped out of bed and threw his arms around him.
“Hey, son,” Roen clasped him happily. “What did I tell you about running into trees?”
“Ha ha. This time, that tree hit back really hard. Have I got a story for you?” His voice trailed off and then he furrowed his brow. Then he looked up, renewed intent in his eyes. “Dad, I’m going with you.”
Damn that Tao.
“Look, Cam, I know you want to help, but you’re just not ready. Not this time. You have a whole lifetime to join this war. This isn’t your fight yet.”
Cameron shook his head and pointed at his face. “Sorry, Dad, like it or not, I’m involved now. Besides, Temujin fought in pitch battles when he was ten.”
Roen threw up his arms. “Always fucking Genghis Khan. Do you know how many times he’s pulled that card on me? You know what? Tao’s Holy Grail of manliness was also a pretty shitty human being. Did he tell you that?” He leaned in. “Give it up, Tao. It’s ancient history.”
Cameron stood up and tried to intimidate Roen. “I’m ready, Dad.”
Roen folded his arms in front of him and harrumphed. “I would rather let that scientist die than send my son to attack a Genjix base.”
“Dad, Jacob is there.”
“All the more reason to stay a million miles away.”
“If we don’t take care of him now, he’ll spend the rest of his life hunting us. You know he won’t rest until he kills all of us. We’ll always be looking over our shoulders.”
“Then I’ll take care of that bastard.”
“No, you can’t. He’s gotten better. Stronger. Faster. You couldn’t beat him back then, you’re no match for him now.”
Roen snorted. “Right, and you are. You’re no match for me, so what makes you think you can shake a stick at that asshole?”
Cameron folded his arms. “If you leave me behind, I’ll be on a transport within an hour heading north. You can’t stop me from going.”
“You’re staying, and that’s it,” Roen bristled. “Even if I have to lock you in a cell until we get back.”
“You know that won’t work. I’m a host. I’ll outrank everyone guarding me. Heck, I outrank you, Dad.”
Roen realized how few options he really had. There really was nothing he could do to stop his son from going, so he used the last card he had in his deck; he tried bribery. “Look, son, just wait until your seventeenth birthday, and I’ll personally add you to the network. We’ll go to Mexico together to that gunsmith you’ve always wanted to meet. We’ll get your own handmade pistol.” It almost sounded like he was pleading.
Cameron rolled his eyes. “How about this, Dad? I’ll make you a bet. Hand-to-hand combat. You win, I stay. No complaints. I win, and that’s that.”
Roen had to stop himself from laughing at his son’s brashness. “You spend a week by yourself, and suddenly you think you’re a tough cookie, eh? Fine, you’re on.”
Cameron walked to the door. “Come with me.”
“What?! You mean right now? Get outta here. You should be in the intensive care unit, not on the sparring floor. Come on, get back to bed. This is ridiculous. Your mom is going to kill us.”
“Come with me,” his son repeated and walked out of the room, giving Roen no choice but to follow. The two went up a flight of stairs and out to the roof through a metal door. They walked across the tarp roof down the length of the warehouse, past a row of generators and pipes to an area with a flat surface. Cameron scanned for protrusions on the ground and then turned to face Roen.
Cameron held up his guard. “Attack me, Dad.”
“Look, Cam -”
Before Roen could say another word, Cameron attacked, covering the ground between them faster than he thought possible. Before he knew what was happening, his body reacted as the air near his face popped from one of Cameron’s punches. Roen threw his hands up and blocked three subsequent strikes, each one knocking him backward.
“What the devil?”
Then he noticed the throbbing pain in his forearm. Those hits hurt. In fact, Roen couldn’t remember being hit this hard since when he used to train with Lin. When had his kid turned into this? He barely had a chance to say anything as Cameron launched another flurry. His fists were blinding, swinging high and low, at the same time moving laterally outside Roen’s guard.
Cameron was still fighting with Tao’s style, but he was doing it as if he was on steroids. Blinding speed mixed with expert positioning drove Roen back. He ducked when he could, blocked when he had to, and gave up ground faster than the French in World War II. Within seconds, he felt the railing on the edge of the warehouse hit his lower back. Then Cameron got a punch to the side of his head that flipped his entire body over onto the ground.
“Ow,” was all he was able to get out as he gasped for breath.
His son appeared and held his hand up. “Things are different now, Dad. You don’t have to protect me. In fact, you need me.”
Roen picked himself off the floor and studied his son. This wasn’t the same son he had left a little over a week ago. He was different, more assured and hardened. What happened to him, and why did he want to go so badly? And most importantly, how did he get so damn good?
“Tao,” he asked. “What did you do to my boy?”
“I’m still here, Dad.”
“No one gets this good just like that.” He snapped his finger. “As far as I know, no pharmaceutical has invented a Kung-Fu pill yet. What gives?”
Cameron hesitated. “Tao and I made a discovery. We’re more symbiotic than ever now.”
The words sunk in, and Roen sputtered. “Wait, it’s Tao moving? That’s impossible.”
“It’s still me. I can take over any time, but in spurts, he can take over without any loss of control.”
Then Cameron explained to Roen how the two of them were able to combine the t’ai chi and meditation, and how Tao’s strong bond with Cameron enabled this ability. It was at the same time uncanny, evolutionary, and downright frightening. Roen hated it.
“Is Tao controlling you now?” he asked.
Cameron shook his head. “He’s sleeping. That minute of fighting we just did wore him out. It’ll be a little while before he comes around.”
“Really?” Roen threw a jab at Cameron. His son blocked it, but the superhuman speed was gone. They threw a few exchanges and as Cameron said, he was a regular human again.
“It works in spurts,” Cameron explained. “But Tao being in control will be the only way any of us can beat an Adonis Vessel.”
“I don’t know, son. What you’re showing me is -”
“What are you two idiots doing?” Jill yelled from across the roof.
The two of them gave a start as she stormed in between them. She grabbed Cameron by the ear and pulled him away. “You should be in bed.” She turned to Roen, furious, and smacked him on the shoulder. “He should be in bed!”
Roen held up his hands in a shrug. “I know! That’s what I was telling him. He dragged me up here.”
“Dragged you? You’re his father.” If anything, she looked even more pissed off. She turned to Cameron. “You’re grounded.”
“Yeah, you’re grounded,” Roen echoed.
She turned back to him. “You’re grounded too.”
“What? You can’t ground me. I’m your husband.”
She fixed him an eye and dared him to say another word.
Roen shrank back. “For how long?”
“For life. Or until I say so. And you, Cameron, you aren’t to leave this warehouse until after we get back from the -”