Page 7 of Shadow Lies

The word brought his head up, interrupting both his solo session of Tai Chi Chuan and his thoughts.

“Yes, Shifu Yon Yun? Is it time for practice? I didn’t hear the gong.”

“No, brother. It is time for afternoon rest. Why are you not?”

Because during the daily hour and a half scheduled downtime after the noon meal, rest didn’t come easily to him, but the demons in his head did.

The only way to avoid the thoughts in his head that made his stomach twist and his heart heavy was to keep moving. It was also the reason he failed miserably at meditation.

“I feel quite rested from my nighttime sleep, shifu.”

The master who acted as his teacher as much as his father leveled an emotionless but none the less intense stare upon him.

He tried another approach. The truth. “Tai Chi Chuan settles my mind, when rest cannot.”

“Perhaps sitting qigong can also settle your mind.” The master’s slow response finally came after a moment of quiet contemplation, before his gaze dropped to Kane’s foot.

He’d injured it yesterday when his foot landed badly during sanda practice.

“It’s fine,” he said.

Funny that his shifu was concerned with his injury now when he would no doubt beat the shit out of him in sparring practice later.

His master’s serene expression still managed to show his disapproval.

Kane had given up a lot when he’d been accepted. HBO. Pizza. Sex.

He did whatever else he was instructed to do, but he couldn’t do what they asked of him now. Sit for an hour and a half each day and think. Remember.

The memories would destroy him from the inside—if they hadn’t already.

“Thank you, shifu, for your concern.” When the man continued to hover, Kane asked, “Are you here just because I’m not resting, or do you need me for something? I am at your service.”

“You have a phone call. A woman.”

His heart clenched. “Is it my mother? Is my father all—”

Yon Yun held up one hand. “It is not regarding your parents. It is a woman who seems not to know you but to also know much about you.”

He frowned. Sometimes getting information out of the monks could be a bit like solving a word puzzle.

Who could be on the phone for him here? He couldn’t imagine. But they’d been on hold for long enough.

“I’m sorry this person has interrupted your afternoon rest time, shifu. I will find out what they want and ask them not to call again.”

Kane turned after a small bow and strode to where one of the abbot’s phones and computers, internet connection and all, were located.

Everyday life here was still lived pretty much like it had been in the fifteenth century, until he stepped into this room and the trappings of doing business in the twenty-first century slapped him in the face.

He bowed to the brother currently working on the Apple computer, most likely responding to the many messages the temple’s website received. Then he moved to pick up the phone receiver.

“This is Kane Lee.”

“Lieutenant Lee.”

His jaw clenched as he drew in a chest expanding breath. “I’m no longer… that.”

The only thing he’d taken away from the Navy was a black mark. On his record and on his soul.

---