Powers That Be

Kate Cochran somersaulted through the air, maintaining enough control to tuck into her fall and roll with it instead of slamming to the mat on her back. Rising, she immediately assumed a defensive posture, feet shoulder width apart, legs slightly bent, arms close to her sides, fists clenched at her waist with knuckles up, ready to either punch or block.A burst of laughter came from behind her. Kate turned, keeping her fists ready, to confront the man who had just sent her sailing across the room."My, my, don't you look tough." The man was a full head taller than her, and all lean, wiry muscle. His ink-black hair was cropped just short of high and tight, making it impossible to grab in a fight--as she had already discovered. He regarded her with amused, dark brown eyes that missed no detail of their surroundings."Kate, I'm not training you to fight in a dojo. What I'm teaching you--well, trying anyway--is how to survive on the street. Pure down-and-dirty fighting, where no one is going to wait for you to assume the position. By the time you're ready, your attacker will have already incapacitated or killed you.""That's what I have you for, remember?" She slowly stepped toward him, keeping her center of gravity balanced, waiting for him to pounce again."Well, let's assume for this exercise that I'm already fighting two--no, make that three other guys, and you're on your own." His white teeth flashed in a razor-thin grin, and Kate knew who would win in a three-on-one fight with the man standing in front of her--Jacob Marrs, her bodyguard and instructor. "Now, relax that horse stance of yours, and for god's sake, stand like you're walking down the street, not some extra in a kung fu movie."Kate straightened up and dropped her arms to her sides, unclenching her fists. She walked toward Jake, maintaining eye contact the whole way, ignoring the spectacular view her floor-to-ceiling town house windows afforded of the Manhattan skyline to the west. Sweat dripped in to her gold-green eyes.She walked to within a foot of him, but nothing happened. Turning on her heel, Kate strode back across the room, ready for a chokehold from behind, or a grab at her platinum-blond hair or any one of a dozen other possible attacks. Still nothing. Peeking at him out of the corner of her vision, Jake still stood there in loose pants and his sleeveless gi, hands on his hips, as if he were carved from stone.With a sigh, Kate whirled around to ask whether they were sparring or posing, only to find her trainer already in motion. Arms blurring like striking cobras, he took one large step forward and grabbed her arm. Instinctively, she stepped back, using his momentum to yank him off balance. Grabbing the collar of his gi with her right hand, she pulled him farther down while her right foot swept his outstretched left foot out from under him. Jacob lurched forward, and Kate directed his fall to the ground, raising a fist to follow up with a blow to his temple--But Jake wasn't lying still like a good foot-sweep victim. He lifted his legs and scissored them toward her head instead. He caught her between his muscular thighs and snapped her forward, flipping her to the ground. Before she could scramble away, he was atop her, pinning her shoulders to the mat and leaning back so that his weight almost crushed her abdomen, but not quite."Two lessons here. One, the most important thing I'm trying to instill in you is to always expect an attack, because the moment you don't, the moment you relax your guard, that's when your opponent will strike." Jake leaned forward, his face inches from hers. "Second, why in the hell aren't you trying harder to escape right now?"Kate arched her back as high as she could, hoping to throw him off enough to free an arm, but his weight was too much. He simply relaxed and settled down, forcing her back down to the mat. He readjusted his leg for a better pin, andRyder, Cliff is the author of 'Powers That Be', published 2008 under ISBN 9780373632657 and ISBN 0373632657.