for the warmth pouring down her back, but it was a while longer before she stopped trembling.
“I’m not trying to force you into making up your mind. I understand that this is a difficult decision.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I don’t want you to feel like we are talking you into anything.”
“You aren’t.”
“Good.” The kid composed himself and looked as if he was about to continue on, then the other kid, the quiet one nudged him. “Ah, right. Then, if it is alright with you, can I move on to the substance of our visit?”
Alex wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t. Alex toyed with idea of throwing a punch at the kid, what’s-his-name, Nathan something. But, he knew that even if he didn’t hurt him, that Michael would never let him get away with it.
“You mean you didn’t come down here to hold the bag for me?” Alex asked, gesturing with one gloved hand at the water-filled punching bag that Nathan was holding cautiously, almost fearfully.
“Err, no. Well, not wholly,” Nathan said seriously. Alex had thus far seen no evidence that Nathan had even a shred of a sense of humor. “I am here as a representative of the Drava Cartel, and Frederick is here as a representative of the Gehrig-Moore Cartel. Our cartels are members of an alliance known as the…”
Alex threw a left-right-left combination at the bag, making as much noise as possible when his gloves smacked the leather bag, startling Nathan and rocking him backward a bit as he struggled to hold it in place.
“The Hegemony, I know. That’s a stupid name, by the way.” Alex shuffled his feet, trying to change stances the way he’d seen Michael do it yesterday. It didn’t work. “I thought the cartels were forbidden to conduct business at the Academy?”
“We are here in an unofficial capacity, of course!” Frederick shrieked, his brow shining with perspiration. Alex was guessing, but he didn’t think the moderately rotund German saw the inside of a gym too often. Not that Alex had ever made a habit of it before he’d come to the Academy, himself. But Michael and the machines in his blood had conspired to make some serious changes in him over the last several weeks.
“Right, and?” Alex said, trying a couple more straight right hands, more for the way the noise made them jump than anything.
“Well, we wish to discuss,” Nathan said, and then frowned, and leaned close to whisper conspiratorially. “We wish to discuss your plans for your future.”
Alex laughed, and Nathan paused, looking indignant.
“I’m sorry,” Alex said cheerfully. “But, I have to know — what exactly is it you want me to do? I mean, which cartel do you want me to join? Yours,” he said, pointing at Nathan with his gloved hand, “or his?”
He nodded amiably in the direction of Frederick, who continued to watch in open-mouthed dismay.
“Well, that is to say that I — ”
“You brought him for moral support, right, Nathan? I get that. It’s always easier to face rejection if you’ve got more people to spread it around. That makes sense. But, if I understand all of this correctly,” Alex said, sitting down on the mat in a heap, dripping in sweat and not in the mood, “then your boss won’t be too happy with you unless I sign on with your outfit. I mean, it’s not like I can just join the Hegemony, you know? Did they even tell you anything about me at all?”
“What’s that?” Nathan looked panicked, but Frederick looked positively green.
“Your cartel didn’t send you, did they?” Alex laughed, and then shook his head. “You aren’t the first to approach me on your own, you know. I guess a bunch of the half-bright but all-the-way ambitious types thought that might be a good idea. But you are the first to bring a wingman along, my friend.”
“Can I ask a question?”
Alex looked over at the girl who’d walked into the gym, and his good mood evaporated instantly.
“Yes,” Alex said reluctantly.
“Were all those ambitious types who approached you so far from the Hegemony?”
“Yes.”
Anastasia put her hand to her mouth in parody of shock.
“Oh my. Well, then I guess that makes it my turn, doesn’t it?”
Alex tried not to stare across the mat at Anastasia, focusing instead on stretching his calves. He’d never seen her in anything that didn’t fit her Gothic Lolita aesthetics, usually corseted dresses in black, with elaborate bows and ribbons and lace. On a couple of different occasions, he’d even seen her carrying a parasol on sunny days. Her shoes were always shiny leather with precarious heels, and her black hair was always elaborately coiffed.
But the girl stretching on the worn gym mat across from him was dressed casually, in a t-shirt and yoga pants that cut off at the knee, her hair in two tight braids that poked out on either side of her neck. She looked like any girl that you might see in the facility. But she was Anastasia, and the little Alex knew about Anastasia made this whole situation run contrary to Alex’s expectations.
“Are you sure about this?”
He eyed her warily, trying to gauge exactly how bad the situation he found himself in was.
“You have been doing this for how long, now? A few weeks?”
“More than a month,” Alex said defensively.
“Right,” Anastasia said, smirking. “I’ve only been doing ju-jitsu since I was five. You truly do not stand a chance.”
Alex looked at Anastasia doubtfully. It wasn’t that she was a girl; even if he’d had notions about that sort of thing, Collette, one of the student instructors in his ju-jitsu class had disabused him of any such thoughts by throwing him around like a ragdoll. And that didn’t even factor in the damage that Margot had done to him. Rather, it was that Anastasia was at least a foot shorter than him, and built like a girl who might be in junior high.
It didn’t help that this particular girl was apparently the future head of what was reputed to be the most terrifying cartel of all, and he had a feeling that if he managed to hurt her, that the consequences would be grim. When she’d gone to change into her gym outfit in the locker room, Edward had appeared from somewhere, given Alex a polite nod, and then cleared out Nathan and Frederick, who were too petrified by Anastasia’s arrival to even protest. Edward had taken up a position at the gym door, his arms folded, seemingly staring off into space. Alex didn’t see him sending people away, but no one came into the heavily-used gym during the entire time Anastasia was there. Later, he would come to realize that things always worked like that, whenever Anastasia was involved.
“Let me make sure you are clear,” Anastasia said, standing up and twisting from side to side, “I throw you three times, and you listen to whatever I have to say, for as long as it takes me to say it. But we are only doing tachi-waza. I don’t feel like rolling around on the ground with you. Yes?”
“Standing only, I get it. And I only have to throw you once to get you to go away?” Alex asked doubtfully. “That doesn’t seem fair.”
“Nothing is ever fair, not if I have any say in it.”
“Whatever,” Alex said, shrugging and taking his position. “When you’re ready.”
Anastasia grabbed Alex’s shoulder and behind his neck, and he adopted a similar grip on her. When they were this close, he was very aware of how much bigger he was than her and he felt reluctance. Then she smiled at him, and the casual contempt in the face she made erased that reluctance. Cautiously, he attempted to exert force on her shoulder, trying to shift her balance on to her back foot, where he would have all the leverage. For a moment, he even thought he was succeeding, before he felt a tug and his center of gravity shifted, out of his control. He struggled to right himself, to redistribute his weight and counter the momentum, but he knew it was already hopeless. She shifted direction effortlessly, moving along with his momentum, executing a perfect shoulder throw, flipping him over her back and then planting him solidly on the mat, shoulder first, with an impact that drove the air from his lungs.
“Ippon!” Anastasia said, smiling down at him and offering her hand. “Two more?”
Alex ignored the hand, sitting up and rubbing his shoulder. He attempted to look nonplussed, and then abandoned the effort. He was fairly certain he looked as embarrassed as he felt.
“Actually, I think you made your point,” Alex panted, looking pained. It wasn’t that Anastasia was stronger than him, he thought, but the difference in their skills was so great that any further attempt would only yield him more humiliation. “Why don’t we skip to the talking part?”
