Stones (Data) (69 page)

W
ith the Stone in his hand, Matt’s head turns to the far end of the room near the door where Naganuma and Ryzaard are dueling in what looks like a struggle to the death. Smoke swirls around them, barely visible in the unstable light of their laser swords. The sofas and table lay smoldering and broken in pieces.

“Stay with Jess,” Matt yells to his father. “I’ll be right back.”

“What are you—”

Matt turns before his dad can finish the sentence and moves closer to the opposite end of the room with his eyes on the two fighting men.

Naganuma presses in near to Ryzaard, Shinto robes flying wide, visibly limping, body bent in obvious fatigue, swinging his samurai blade forward. Ryzaard jumps back and meets the oncoming blow with a cross of his curved light. The two forms come together, each pushing with both hands on their Stones, the two blades sliding back and forth between them within inches of their faces.

Burnt ozone hangs heavy in the air.

Suddenly withdrawing, Naganuma drops low to the ground as Ryzaard stumbles forward and past him. With a twisting backward kick of his leg, Naganuma sends Ryzaard sprawling headlong across the floor and pounces on him, placing the heel of his foot squarely in the small of Ryzaard’s back, pinning him to the floor. Sweat pours off Naganuma’s face, and his belly heaves in and out. The tip of his plasma blade points down, floating in the air inches above Ryzaard’s neck.

Helpless under the weight of Naganuma’s foot, Ryzaard lays on the floor, arms spread out. With the Stone in his hand, the blade of his sword grows thinner and thinner, until it fades into the darkness.

The Shinto priest raises his Stone high above his head, closes his eyes and breathes in deeply, standing still as a statue. Then his eyes open, and he slowly brings a curved line of cool blue light down above Ryzaard’s head.

Matt watches from a few feet away.

Another death.

Before he realizes what he’s doing, a jagged filament of energy jumps out of Matt’s Stone and blocks Naganuma’s blade only inches from its target.

“No,” Matt says. “There’s been enough killing for one day. It must stop.” He withdraws the energy back into his Stone and bows deeply.

Naganuma pushes his foot harder into Ryzaard’s back and shakes his head. “You don’t understand how dangerous he is. Allow him to live, and there will be no end to the people he murders. He is not worthy of our mercy.” Drawing his Stone back to waist level, the energy blade rises straight up, inches away from his own nose and between his eyes, giving the priest’s face an eerie glow.

“
Sensei
, there’s a lot I don’t understand.” Matt casts his eyes down on Ryzaard. “But I know that
his
way, the way of hatred and power and killing, is not the
right
way. It’s not the way of the Allehonen.”

“So, you have made your choice. You have chosen to follow the White Ones.”

“Yes.”

Naganuma stands still, as if considering Matt’s words. The light slowly recedes back into his Stone. “So be it. If we allow him to live, he will hunt us until either he or we are destroyed.”

“Yes, I know.”

“His rage will drive him to strip you of everything you love, everything you hold dear, until you are left empty and alone.”

“I understand.”

“And you still wish to release him?”

Matt closes his eyes and thinks of his mother. In his mind’s eye, her gentle face is looking down at him on that day at the beach. Then he thinks of Jessica, lying on the floor at the other end of the room. Her words echo through his mind.

Perfect love casteth out fear.

“I’m not afraid.”

“I hope you don’t regret this.” Naganuma steps back, pulling his foot off Ryzaard.

As his breath flows in and out, the small of Ryzaard’s back moves up and down. He slowly lifts himself, gets to his knees and looks up at Matt.

“Very charitable of you, my young friend,” Ryzaard says. “I can assure you I won’t forget this.”

Naganuma takes another step back and turns to Matt. “Don’t be fooled. Even now, he is trying to jump away from here and it takes all my concentration to hold him back. Leave now while I have him under my control. Take Jessica. Heal her wounds.” He squints in the darkness at the bright red patch on Matt’s chest. “And your own. Get far away. Hide your Stone. I will find you later.”

Matt bows once again and turns to leave.

“Matt-
kun
,” Naganuma says.

Matt stops and looks back.

“Forgive me for betraying you. My trust in Ryzaard was a mistake. I did not intend for you to be hurt. I thought I could control him.” He bows deeply and slowly.

In the dim light coming from the open door, Matt smiles in acknowledgment and returns the bow.

The next instant, a horde of dark-clad men rush through the open door into the room. Like moving shadows, they swarm around Naganuma. It’s not clear whether they have come to fight him or protect him. As he whips around to get a look at them, he teeters back and forth, caught off balance. They fill in the space between him and Ryzaard.

A pulse of bright light explodes out of Ryzaard’s Stone. A jagged line pierces through the bodies of two of the black figures as it snakes forward on its way to Naganuma. They fall backward into him.

An instant later, an energy blade jumps out of Naganuma’s Stone. He brings it close to his body to intercept the blow, trying to avoid injury to the figures in black. In the confusion of moving bodies, he stumbles backward.

Leaning in, Ryzaard opens his mouth wide to yell and thrusts his arms forward. A shimmering green sphere the size of a golf ball explodes out the tip of his Stone. The force of the blast sends him reeling backward. There’s an audible bump as his head makes contact with the wall, and he collapses in a heap.

In what feels like a slow-motion scene, a ribbon of energy leaps from Matt’s Stone to intercept Ryzaard’s projectile, but Matt watches in horror as the sphere shatters the barrier and buries itself in the left side of Naganuma’s chest, bursting out in an explosion of blood between his shoulder blades.

Naganuma drops to his knees, a hand going up to his heart. The other hand reaches for Matt’s head and pulls his ear down to Naganuma’s lips. “The Stones,” he says, “you must protect the other Stones.

“What Stones?”

“Ryzaard knows. Protect the world from him. If he gets the others, all is lost. He’ll destroy everything.”

A multitude of questions flash through Matt’s head.

How many other Stones are there? Where are they hidden?

“How can I find them?”

Naganuma is fading fast. Matt can see the life draining out of his face. He struggles to speak. His lips move, slowly and deliberately.

“There is a small leather book filled with my notes,” he says.

“Where?”

In the dim light, Ryzaard regains his feet and charges forward. Black ninjas standing between him and Naganuma are cut down by jagged laser beams and fall away. As Matt looks up from the old priest, Ryzaard lunges again, catching Naganuma on the other side of his chest with a barrage of small bullet-like pulses of energy.

Naganuma’s head rolls back and stares up. “Take my Stone. Remember.” He struggles to say more, and then his jaw goes slack and the remainder of his life drains away. His hand falls to the floor, fingers open. The Stone rolls away. Matt reaches for it, but before he can touch it, a foot kicks it into the darkness, out of sight.

Another swarm of black figures moves around Matt and pushes him back.

Ryzaard stands above Naganuma and methodically pumps shots of energy into the priest’s body. He swings his Stone with abandon, spraying green dots around the room. Lifeless bodies fall to the floor.

And then the overhead lights flicker on.

Matt looks up to see Ryzaard breathing hard, Stone in hand, splattered in scarlet, surrounded by a mass of broken humanity. The old man’s face turns to the other end of the room where Jessica is still on the floor.

Following his gaze, Matt locks eyes with his dad.

“Son!” Kent yells. “We have to leave. Now!”

There’s a look of surprise on Ryzaard’s face. He grins and disappears, reappearing a split second later at the other end of the room, towering over Jessica and Kent, his energy blade burning brightly.

Matt fights through a sea of swarming black bodies between him and Jessica. His downward glance catches sight of Naganuma’s Stone laying on the floor next to his feet. Matt lunges for it, but a black shoe knocks it away.

He turns his head to see Ryzaard, still standing over Jessica and his dad.

Ryzaard raises his head and glances back across the room, through the swirling currents of black bodies. He finds Matt’s eyes.

A voice plays inside Matt’s head.

Everything you love. Everything you hold dear.

Lifting his arms, Ryzaard points his Stone at the ceiling. A spiral of twisting green plasma rises out of it.

He glances down at Jessica and Kent and lets the blade fall.

“V
ideo feed from the Children!” the tall man yells. “We finally got it through.”

Little John rushes to stand in front of the tiny bluescreen on the mini-fridge inside the tent. He stares at the jerky images. “What’s going on? I can’t see anything!”

“It’s coming off a mini-cam on Smith’s forehead.” The tall man picks up a slate and taps his fingers across its surface. “I’ll try to filter out the shakiness.” The blurry image comes into focus.

“I don’t believe it.” Little John stares, mouth open, at a morass of bodies inside a round room. The walls are covered with shattered glass, the remnants of a massive bluescreen. Black smoke floats at eye level like a miniature thunderstorm. Piles of black corpses and severed limbs are strewn on the floor in the foreground. Behind them, a man in a shredded white robe lies face down on the floor, a large bloodstain soaking through the cloth on his back. Broken fragments of a sofa and a table are scattered everywhere. Two dental chairs are upside down, leaning against the wall.

A young man in a T-shirt stands up from the floor in the middle of the room.

“Who is that?” Little John grabs a headset off the top of the bluescreen. “Find our man!” he shouts into it. “Get him out of there alive. I don’t care about Ryzaard.”

A breathless voice crackles through speakers on the glass panel. “We’re trying,” it says. “Can’t get close. Some sort of laser.”

Little John stares at the image on the far end of the room. “Magnify background!”

The screen zooms in on Ryzaard in a ripped tweed jacket standing over another man kneeling next to a girl. Little John recognizes the back of the kneeling man’s head. Ryzaard holds a claw-shaped rock in both hands above him. A line of green light pulsates out of it.

“What the hell?” Little John’s eyes grow big as he stares at the rock in Ryzaard’s hand. “Where did he get that?”

Ryzaard teeters on his feet, and then swings the green line down like a club above the heads of the man and the girl.

“Stop him!” Little John yells, his voice in shreds. “Stop the man with the laser sword!”

M
att closes his eyes. The air flashes white around him. The next instant, he’s standing at the side of Ryzaard, thrusting his arms out with the Stone in both hands. A jagged strand of neon white jumps out of its tip above the heads of Jessica and his dad.

Ryzaard’s blade comes down. As it slams into Matt’s light, it comes to an instant stop. Filaments of plasma explode at the point of contact. Shockwaves of pain surge up Matt’s arm.

Their faces are only inches apart.

The image of the Woman forms in Matt’s mind. Her words pulse through his body.

We are the Allehonen.

Pouring all his strength into his Stone, Matt raises his arms up and throws back Ryzaard’s blade.

His tweed jacket now just hanging threads, Ryzaard loses his balance and stumbles backward into the wall. Two black bodies rush at him, but he regains his footing, twists and swings his Stone like a baseball bat. Their heads part from their shoulders and thud to the floor like bowling balls. Their bodies drop into lifeless heaps.