Infinite Time: Time Travel Adventure by H.J. Lawson, Jane Lawson Page A

doing?”
    “Trying to find out who she is and why she’s so important,” she says, a little irritation creeping into her voice.
    “You carry that tablet around with you everywhere you go?”
    “I like to be prepared.”
    “That’s smart.”
    She looks up, and I swear there is a little color on her cheeks. “Thanks,” she says softly.
    She stares at the tablet for a few more minutes, clearly growing more and more agitated as she reads whatever is on the screen.
    “Hell,” she finally says, pausing a second before she carries on reading. I'm dying to know what’s going on. She seems to have forgotten about me.
    “So,” I finally ask, “who is she?”
    “Her father is part of the criminal underground,” she says. “He’s the socho of Sumiyoshi-rengo.”
    “I assume that’s bad.”
    She glances at me with a look that tells me just how stupid she thinks I am.
    “It’s bad.”
    I just kind of shake my head. I have no idea what she’s talking about. Scarlet stares at me for a second, then groans.
    “Look, here in Japan is this group called Yakuza. It’s kind of like the mafia back in the United States. And the Yakuza is divided into multiple, smaller groups. Two of those groups are Sumiyoshi-rengo and Yamaguchi-gumi. Sumiyoshi-rengo is traditionally based here in Tokyo and Yamaguchi-gumi in Kobe, even though both are fairly active all over the country. And in the past ten or fifteen years, Yamaguchi-gumi has been moving in on Sumiyoshi-rengo territory here in Tokyo. And Sumiyoshi-rengo doesn’t like that. Understand?”
    “Yeah. Mr. Conrad, my history teacher, was just telling us about them. The guys with the tattoos, right?”
    She studies my face for a minute. Then she sort of brushes off whatever was going through her mind in that minute. She turns back to her tablet.
    “The girl’s father, Daichi Oshiro, is the socho , or supreme leader, of the Sumiyoshi-rengo.”
    “Does that mean it’s the Yamaguchi-gumi that are coming after the girl?”
    “I can’t be completely certain, but I’d guess that’s a pretty good bet. They’ve been in something of a turf war for a while now. That’s probably what the gunfight was about.”
    “So what do we do?”
    “We keep her safe until the danger has passed. I’m guessing that’s what the assignment is.”
    “And then?”
    “And then we’re done. That should end our assignment.”
    “We wake up?”
    “Yeah.”
    “And we—”
    “I don’t have time for twenty questions,” she suddenly announces. “Why the hell did you have to hijack my assignment? Do you know how much easier this would be without you hanging around?”
    “It wasn’t really my choice. I have no idea what’s going on.”
    “If I’d known you started to travel, I could have taught you what you needed to know before now. Speaking of,” she gestures toward her tablet, “what’s your address?”
    “Why?”
    “So I can come train you when this is all over, idiot!”
    “Oh.”
    It’s not like I’m not used to being treated like the slowest one in the room, which I’m not, but Travis and Neil both love to treat me like I am. There's something about the way she did it that just feels worse. Maybe it's because she's a girl. Or maybe it's because she was so rude about it. Or maybe it's because this is a dream and I still feel like I do when I’m at school, with Travis and his buddies going out of their way to torture me.
    I quietly give her my address and watch as she puts it into her tablet. Then she switches it off and begins to pack her stuff up, rearranging whatever’s in the bag and shoving things into her pockets.
    “You know,” I say, “it’s not my fault I don’t know what’s going on. I’m not like you. I haven’t met Bruce Lee.”
    She sighs. “I know. But this is just a really bad time to do this. If we don’t get our assignment done on time, we die. Do you get that?”
    “That’s pretty harsh, don’t you think?”
    “Not my idea.” She turns to me