Renegade World: Future Past (5 page)

He turned to Rebeka Lee. “Please take Mr. Carlson first. I
will spar with Ms. Carlson. Mr. Lieber, please step to the side and observe.
You may use full contact against Ms. Johnson or me. We will ask you how much
you are each comfortable with.”

Rebeka Lee moved off to the left and Thor followed.

He boasted, “You can use full contact against me. I can
take it.”

Mr. Schmidt moved to the right. “How much contact shall I
use against you, Ms. Carlson?”

“I don't know. I guess, use as much as you think I can
handle.”

“OK. Bow and begin when ready. Go for five minutes.”

Aaron watched Erica and Mr. Schmidt bow and then looked
over at Thor. He figured that Erica would start cautiously, so he watched Thor
and Rebeka Lee for the first minute.

Thor charged right in and woofed as he ate a side kick to
his gut.

Rebeka Lee asked, “You OK?”

“No problem, I can take it!”

Aaron turned and watched Erica circling left and feinting
in and out. She feinted in and just barely managed to block a roundhouse to her
head. The force of the kick moved her whole body right.

Mr. Schmidt complimented her. “Nice solid block.”

Aaron continued watching Erica and Mr. Schmidt as Leonardo
chimed in,
Too tentative. He's anticipating her move before she even starts
it.

After five minutes. Erica still hadn't landed a clean blow.

Aaron heard Rebeka Lee encourage Thor. “You got two nice
punches in and one nice backfist.”

“Yeah, but I ate about a dozen side kicks and more than a
few backfists to land those.”

Mr. Schmidt waved Aaron over. “Mr. Lieber, you're with me
this time. Ms. Carlson with Ms. Johnson, please.”

Erica moved over with Rebeka Lee. “Use as much contact as
you think appropriate.”

Aaron turned and nodded to Mr. Schmidt. “Same goes for me.”

They bowed and moved to fighting stance. Aaron didn't use
as deep of a stance as many of the black belts because he felt it made him more
nimble. Mr. Schmidt immediately tested Aaron's stance with a powerful side kick that Aaron took on his forearm. The impact slid him back over a foot but didn't knock him off balance.

Mr. Schmidt grinned through his mouthpiece. “You were just daring me to
test your core strength and balance.”

Aaron snapped a front leg front kick just short, and then
without touching his front foot down, he threw a roundhouse, which was blocked,
followed by a hook kick that was a near miss. He just managed to block a
backfist that came before his foot was back down. He cleanly blocked the
next punch, aimed for his rib cage, but only partially blocked the
following ridge hand to his head.
He's even faster than Rebeka Lee.

He slid back and then switched to southpaw.  He looped his
left leg forward and upward trying to make it look like an inside crescent kick,
but at the top, he turned it into an ax kick. He was able
to knock down Mr. Schmidt's guard temporarily but not long enough to fully land
a punch to the face. Mr. Schmidt recovered fast enough to partially block it.

Aaron threw another hook kick, but the head he had aimed at
was rapidly dropping towards the floor.
Bad, bad, bad,
he thought as he saw
a sweep aimed at his back foot. Just as it made contact, he gambled and threw
his head and arms up and back. The sweep, which hooked his heel from behind actually
helped him somersault backward. He landed in a deep stance with his left leg
fully bent in front and his right leg behind him, knee just touching the
ground. He dove and rolled to his right, coming up into a fighting stance.

They continued sparring. Just before time was going to run
out, without thinking, Aaron launched a lunge punch, exploding forward, head
down, into a horizontal dive and then throwing out a left-handed punch aimed at
the midsection. The punch was blocked, but as his body made contact with Mr.
Schmidt, he threw a wild looping overhand punch that did land.

They separated and bowed to each other. Mr. Schmidt took
out his mouthpiece. “I like your minimalist blocking techniques. You are bit
predictable, except for your finish that is. All in all, nice work.”

“Thanks.”

They continued for four more five-minute rounds, and
then they bowed out for the night. Aaron watched Naami practicing a form as he
toweled off. He suspected that Naami had been doing forms on her own the
whole time.

After she finished, he said, “I thought you couldn't start
until you were five.”

“I said that I couldn't start Mr. Hyon’s class until I'm
five. I’ve been watching my dad since as long as I can remember. A year ago he
started teaching me the Chang Hon Forms. He showed me the first four forms, and
I practice them every day.”

She tilted her head and looked over to where her dad was.
She leaned forward and whispered, “I learned five other forms on my own.”

Aaron was certain that her dad knew what she was up to.
Leonardo,
I'll bet that her AI helps her like you help me.
”

I'll not take that bet. Speaking of help, do you want me
to get video clips of this session from Erica and Thor? I have your perspective
already, of course, and I took the liberty of getting a video clip from the
security camera as well.

Neither Erica nor Thor had a personal AI because their
parents didn’t want them to have one. Their implants did have state-of-the-art
processing units, memory, and software. Aaron thought it strange that they both
had full neural splices but not AI software.
Leonardo, don't initiate the
request yourself.
I will conference them later and set it up so that we
automatically share video from this session and all future sessions.

As you wish.

The exchange with Leonardo took an imperceptible amount of
time. He smiled at Naami. “I'm sure in six or seven years you'll show us all
up.”

“Sooner than that!” She giggled. “Um, may I ask you a
favor?”

“Sure.”

“Don't tell Ms. Johnson that I am going to come watch you
and Erica practice archery. I want to surprise her.”

“You know her I take it?”

“She’s my second cousin once removed, and she used to work
with my mom and dad. I don't see her as often since they sold the company to
your dad's company.”

“OK, I won't mention it to her.” Aaron knew that Rebeka Lee
consulted for his dad. She had done the neural splice on his dad two years ago.
He hadn't known that Rebeka Lee worked with the Schmidts. His dad had moved his
company here from Minneapolis over ten years ago for tax purposes. Rebeka Lee
had moved back here almost two years ago, and the Schmidts had just moved here.

I will remember that such relationships are of interest
to you and inform you if a similar situation comes up again. If you had asked
me, I could have told you.
Aaron didn't bother to reply to Leonardo.

Naami saw Rebeka Lee waving at her.  “Bye Aaron,” she
called out as she skipped over to Rebeka Lee.

Mr. Schmidt walked over toward Aaron. They both turned to
watch Naami as she demanded that Rebeka Lee watch her do a new trick. She ran
three steps down the floor then did a round-off back handspring.

Mr. Schmidt turned to Aaron. “Did you teach her that?”

“No. Naami pretty much seems to be able to teach herself.”

“Yes, well that is a double edge sword. We’re afraid that
she won’t be able to relate to other kids her age. In fact, that is why she’s
going to start school here in third grade.”

“Jumping kindergarten, first grade, and second grades?”

“I know she will be a bit small for her class, but her best
friends back in Minneapolis were two and three years older than her, and school
work won’t be a problem.”

“I'm guessing she reads above the third-grade level already.”

“She reads a lot. Last week she read the entire Nancy Drew
series. Now she’s investigating everything. I’ve really started to push physical
activities hoping that will take her mind off playing detective.”

Aaron laughed, “Has it worked?”

“Unfortunately, she’s still channeling Nancy Drew. As she’s
ramped up her exercise, she eats more and sleeps more, but she multitasks
incredibly well. She comes up with all sorts of new ideas and questions when
she exercises, and she learns more while exercising than other kids do when
they’re just focused on learning.” He gave Aaron a knowing look. “I think you
might know something about that.”

He knows you have a neural splice, and he knows about me.
I suspect his wife designed many of my most powerful algorithms.
“Have you interested
her in learning languages? That could occupy her for a while.”

Mr. Schmidt chuckled. “We tried that six months ago. Spanish
and Latin slowed her down for a while, but she now speaks Spanish as well as
anyone who doesn’t speak it as their first language, and she reads Latin better
than most adult members of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit.  As a joke, my
wife suggested to her that she might want to learn Mandan next since the one of
her ancestors was Mandan. That's temporarily slowed her down.”

 “We really appreciate the time that you have spent with
her.”

“It hasn't really been that much.”

“Maybe not, but she feels like she has two new friends in
you and Erica.”

Naami came skipping over. “Did you see my back handspring?”

“We were just talking about it,” answered Aaron. “I was
just going to ask your dad if I could take you to see my old gymnastics teacher
sometime.”

“Is he a good teacher? What's his name? Is he mean or
nice?”

Aaron laughed. “His name is Mr. Patterson. He is a good
teacher, and the answer to your last question is, it depends.”

“Depends on what?”

“Students who listen to him and try hard think he is very
nice. Students who don't listen to him, don’t do it his way, or don’t try hard
don't like him as much.”

“I listen,” she said and then after glancing at her dad
added, “If it’s something I want to know about.”

Her dad laughed.

“Can I go with Aaron to see Mr. Patterson?” she pleaded.

He rolled his eyes as she bounced up and down. “OK, OK!”

Rebeka Lee smiled at the still bouncing Naami. “You always
get your way!”

Naami stopped bouncing and smirked as she said, “That's
right.”

Her dad grabbed his sparring gear, and everyone else took
the hint. Erica, Thor, and Aaron followed Rebeka Lee out to her vehicle. They
all waved goodbye to Naami.

As they drove away, Aaron turned to Rebeka Lee and said, “I
didn't know that you worked for the Schmidts.”

Rebeka Lee glanced over at him. “Anita and I are second
cousins, and I have known Fred since college. I was the third employee of
Thinking Technologies.”

“The company that my dad acquired from them a year and a
half ago or so?”

“Yes.”

“How come you don't still work for Thinking Technologies?”

“I still do work for them. I'm just not an employee now.
I prefer to work as a consultant, but
don't ask me about specifics because I can't divulge anything about the work.”

“Do you also consult with the Schmidts' new company?”

“Yes. I am also a consultant for Life Quality Technologies,
but again, don't ask about specifics.”

Erica spoke up from the back seat. “When did you start
taking Tae Kwon Do, and when did you know that Mr. Schmidt also studied Tae
Kwon Do?”

“I started taking Tae Kwon Do here from Mr. Hyon when I was
in high school. When I decided to go to the University of Minnesota, I asked
him if he knew of a studio near the campus there. He smiled and told me that I
must go to his uncle's studio.”

She paused, and Thor interrupted, “Is it true that you were
sixteen when you started college?”

Erica elbowed Thor. “Don't interrupt!”

Rebeka Lee laughed. “I was sixteen when I started, but I
turned seventeen in November.”

Thor started to ask another question, but Erica put her
hand over Thor's mouth and said, “Please continue about the studio.”

Rebeka Lee glanced in the rear view mirror and saw Thor rip
Erica's hand away and glare at her. “I did train at his uncle's studio. Twice,
I saw this fourth-degree belt come to the black belt class. He was
the only other fourth-degree that I had seen except for Mr. Hyon, who was also a
fourth-degree black belt at that time. I wasn't a black belt, so I wasn't in any of the same
classes as him.”

Rebeka Lee covertly glanced at each of them. She could tell
that they all wanted to ask the same question, but she made them wait. “The
next time I saw him was when I tested for my black belt. He was one of the judges.”

She turned left onto the street where they all lived. “At the end
of the test, I broke a stack of four patio blocks with an elbow strike.
No one else had broken more than two, so I was feeling pretty smug until I saw two younger
students stacking up eight blocks. The fourth-degree solemnly bowed to Mr. Hyon's
uncle as kids in the audience whispered that there was no way anyone could break
that many. After he stepped forward into his
stance, he brought his elbow slowly down to the top block once and then shifted his stance slightly. Pausing just long enough for the crowd to quiet, he brought his elbow up, and with a tremendous yell, drove it into the middle of the top block, smashing the top
five blocks into multiple pieces and cleanly cracking the bottom three blocks.”

Thor asked, “The fourth-degree was Mr. Schmidt, right?”

“Yes.” She shook her head. “Learn what you can during his sparring sessions. I've yet to see
anyone as good as him.”

The three teens said goodbye to Rebeka Lee and waved as she
drove away. “I feel gross,” Erica said and went inside to shower.

“Leave me some hot water!” yelled Thor as Erica disappeared
into their house.

“Wow, is Mr. Schmdit awesome or what?”

Thor nodded. “For sure, but I've got questions.”