“Sensei Agawa?”
The young woman looked like she was still in high school but Wendy was used to that. She’d be far from the first young woman to want to know how to defend herself before heading to college.
“Yes. Wendy Agawa.” She shook the woman’s hand.
“Lisa Wellman. Pleased to meet you.”
“How can I help you, Lisa? Are you looking for a self-defense class?”
“No. Well, maybe. Not for me. But …”
Wendy walked over to the counter and grabbed a schedule.
“This is our –“
“I’m not here for me, Sensei. I’m here for my grampers. And he needs more than a self-defense class.”
“What’s he looking for?”
“Private lessons. With you.”
“Is your grandfather in some kind of trouble?”
Lisa laughed. “I’m … not really sure how to answer that.”
“If he’s being harassed or abused there are –“
“No! It’s nothing like that.”
“Then I don’t understand. And, honestly, I don’t usually give private lessons.”
“I get it. I do. But this is a special situation.” Wendy looked at her. “OK, I wasn’t supposed to show you this unless I needed to.” She reached into her purse and pulled out her phone. “If I show you something, do you promise to keep it a secret? It’s not illegal or anything, just … confidential.”
Wendy was somewhere between curiosity and irritation but this pushed it a little closer to curiosity. “Sure, Lisa. I can keep a secret.”
Lisa smiled and spoke into her phone. “Date night footage, AEGIS feed, do-not-tell-Mom protocol.” Wendy wasn’t sure what all that meant but she knew what AEGIS was. Lisa handed her the phone and she took it.
The screen showed a street with an SUV on its side. Behind it, she recognized two of the new Storm Breakers – Portal and Khione – and an old man in a suit. He was pushing them through a glowing purple … hole, was the only way to describe it. And then the SUV exploded.
Wendy gasped and looked at Lisa. Lisa smiled at her and pointed to the phone.
When the flames subsided. The old man was still there, standing up, but shrugging the burning tatters of his shirt off. Then he turned and looked at someone the camera wasn’t catching and yelled,
“Really?”
Wendy handed the phone back.
“Your grandfather is …?”
“Bulwark. Yes”
“So the old man thing isn’t a shtick?”
“No. He’s eighty-three.”
“And he still wants to … This isn’t a recapture my youth thing, is it?”
“No. Well, I don’t know. Maybe. But he’s got these … abilities now and feels like he needs to do something with them to make a difference and it’s not like he isn’t capable. He’s really, really tough. And he doesn’t need his walker anymore. And his teeth are growing back. I think he might be starting to get younger, which would be great but how do we explain that to Mom?” She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “Sorry, I’m rambling.”
“It’s fine. What exactly does he want from lessons with me?”
“Well, Grampers hasn’t thrown a punch since he was in Vietnam …”