3

It was midafternoon when Izak finally came out of the bathroom for the day. He felt so much better and the man was right he did feel a lot more energy. It had been so long since he had taken the first one that he forgot the initial burst of energy that it gave you. He was going to have to join the 24 hour gym right down the street. To work around his schedule for the next month. He called the client early this time than last time and met him at the office that he was working at.

"Sir, I hate to say it but your instincts were not wrong." He put an envelope of pictures on the desk.

The man tore them open and let out a bellow of pure rage. "Where is she?"

"Sir, you should know that if I tell you that and you go and do something criminal that I could be implicated as well."

The man pulled out an envelope of cash and tossed it to him. "This is the rest of your payment with a bonus for the location."

Izak picked up the envelope and put in his inside coat pocket. "She will be meeting him at the BW on Main in about an hour."

"You can go."

Izak quickly left as he heard the slide on a pistol being operated. He wanted to be far away from here before the man came out of the building. He also needed to be far enough to make a phone call. He got into the car and call the FBI tip line. "This is the FBI do you have information on a known criminal?"

"My name is Izak Smith and I am a private investigator. Arnold Logan will be at the BW on Main Street in the next hour. His wife is having an affair and will be there. He is armed."

"Sir, how sure are you of this information?"

"I just left his office and he is going to the hotel. I did not give him the room number so it will take him a while to find her but you need to hurry."

"If this pans out, we will be contacting you with the reward."

"Thank you. Just doing my part." He was not doing it for any good reason it was just the fact that last time he was shot by the man and it was later discovered that he was wanted with a huge bounty on his head and even thought him being shot was how they captured him he did not get any of the money. He was not going to let this opportunity slip by him this time.

Once the call was made he did not go to the hotel like last time. He went to see the client after she was already at the hotel last time and he made Izak go with him if he wanted the money. He knew that he could be in trouble if anything bad happened so he pushed the wife out of the way and that was how he was shot. He would not take a chance like that again. This time he headed to the gym down the street and bought a one year membership with a few personal trainer session included. He knew physical therapy techniques and not really how to work out. He ran almost every day but that was it, he was not comfortable with weights. He had only really done body weight training before.

The main trainer had an appointment open in about an hour so Izak ran home and got changed. He would not waste the opening. He had a last minute cancelation, coincidently it was an FBI agent that had the appointment but Izak was not aware.

"So Izak what is it exactly that you would like to work on?"

"Overall fitness and strength. I would like to get stronger but still be balanced. I am not looking to power lift or anything just an overall improvement to my fitness. Also I would like to start learning some martial arts that are good for bladed weapons. And before you ask I know that it is specific but have you heard about the new game coming out next month, Earth: Reboot?"

"Of course the ads are everywhere. But what does that have to do with anything?"

"I have a friend who works in the company and rumor has it that you will be able to use your own skills in the game. And your fitness can be measured to an extent and put into the game. I know it is not a lot of time and I am not asking for a miracle but I am going to be working like an animal over the next month."

"If that is what it takes to motivate you then that is what we will use. And I have a friend that works here who has some katas that you might like. We both charge extra for private lessons but with me unless you are going crazy with something once a week with me is fine and you have paid for a weekly with your membership."

"I would like to book you for an extra private a week if possible and if you could introduce me to your friend and he and I can come to an arrangement that he feels is best."

"Well let's hit the machines and see where you are and your strengths and weaknesses and I will develop you a plan from there and I will message Ben and see when he can get in here."

"Sounds like a plan. Where do you want me to start?"

"You start on cardio and push yourself so that we get a good base. I want a mile or ten minutes whichever comes first."

Izak went to work and by the time that his hour was up he was already starting to feel sore. It had been so long since he had felt this healthy that he was a lot happy than he should have been about his fitness.

"Well you are not the most physically fit guy that I have seen come in but you have a lot higher starting point than a lot of guys that I have come in here. Now I know that you said twice a week but for this first week you really need to get your base. So this will work this week and then we will go to twice a week next week, and Ben should be here in the next few minutes."

"Thanks Greg. I really appreciate the input." He started stretching as he waited for the martial artist to show up. He was just about complete with his stretching when a man walked into the open floor area with several swords on his back. Izak recognized several of the swords with just a glance. "Are you Ben?"

"I am and you must be Izak. How are you today?"

"I am a little sore. Greg pushed me pretty hard to get a good baseline on me."

"So he did not tell me everything except that you are interested in sword styles."

"I will be honest with you from the beginning, it is for the Earth: Reboot game. I have heard that you can use real life skills in the game. I did some martial arts when I was a kid and I still practice on and off to stretch out and things but I would like a refresher and someone to spar with."

"Oh then which style of sword fighting would you like to concentrate on?"

"The two sword style where the offhand weapon is both for attack and defense. I would also like a standard one hand and two handed sword training. Just in case I can't use the style as I would like."

"Let's start with the one and two handed and then we will move to the more complex styles once you refresh your base." He tossed a standard, straight, one handed sword to him and the two of them squared off.

Izak was not happy with his fighting. He knew the moves that he wanted to try to use but his body was not in the condition that it was in the game so he had a lot of trouble. They spent a full two hours fighting with the one handed sword.

Ben was surprised by the ability of Izak. He said that he used to fight with swords but right now it appeared that he was an expert with swords whose body could not keep up with his knowledge. "You were a pretty high level you were when you stopped weren't you?"

"Yeah it was pretty good." He did not want to say that everything he learned over the last ten years was video game based. "Thank you. Would you be available for a couple hours a day for the next month?"

"I have no issues with that. My standard rates will apply."

"No issues on my end. Would you prefer cash from me or through the system?"

"How about one of each? An hour through the desk and an hour cash."

"That sounds like a great plan to me. Two o'clock tomorrow?"

"Yeah sweet spot between lunch and dinner for optimal energy."

"Thanks Ben I will see you tomorrow." Izak paid the counter for the private with Ben and headed to his house. He still had a lot of things about both the game and the real world to write down so that he could take advantage of every opportunity. He flipped on the news for some background and saw that his tip had went through and no one died in the apprehension of Logan. That made him feel good about the entire situation. Now all he had to do was wait on his money from the FBI. As he was writing things down he quickly hopped on the site that managed the pods and left an amazing review for the guys that set up his pod before he forgot.