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Lynch walked down the mall. Hallways opened onto the central walk from his left and right. The wide crosswalk looming ahead of him was attached to a large central pillar, with a stairwell, creating an island in the river of the cement-floored prison garden.

  "Someone wants a beating! Well, I'm here to oblige you," He was just out of sight of his comrades when he passed under the catwalk.

  "I'm going to take this stick," Lynch lifted his stun-baton over his head. "And I'm going to shove it up your…"

  Something heavy hit him in the shoulder, knocking him to the ground. He gurgled. Blood ran out of his mouth.

  Ashley had dropped from the catwalk above and stabbed him through the soft tissue of his throat, straight down into his chest. The weight had slammed him to the ground, the blade shredding his circulatory system.

  When she pulled the sword out, his lifeblood burst forth in a great splash onto the gray cement. Lynch was dead before he hit the ground.

  The collision had been violent and loud.

  Ashley heard the approaching tromp of another pair of booted feet. She retreated back to her ambush spot. Another, smaller guard rushed over to Lynch's lifeless body, bending over him, inspecting the wound.

  This time she dropped to the side and brought the blade down across the exposed back of the soldier's neck. The helmeted head leapt away, and the stump gave several spurts of crimson as the body fell.

  She listened for more approaching soldiers but heard nothing.

  The two young men were strapped with all kinds of gear. Ashley set the Little Dragon down and unpacked the guards.

  She got a helmet, a gas mask, four tear-gas grenades, two more assault rifles and two pairs of handcuffs. She secured the gas mask to her waist and snapped on shin, shoulder, and forearm bracers. They were a little too big to wear properly, but fit snugly over her sweatshirt and baggy pants.

  She pulled on the headless soldier's vest and donned his recently emptied helmet. They were both several sizes too large and looked it.

  Ash peaked around a corner. The mall was empty. Of the three remaining soldiers, no one was standing outside the guard post. She reasoned that they were all inside, huddled around the security monitors, hoping to catch a glimpse of her.

  ASHLEY FOX – NINJA ORPHAN

  Copyright © 2012 John Carrick

  ISBN 978-0-9836916-2-4

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Alpha Channel Books

  www.AlphaChannelBooks.com

  www.AshleyFox.Ninja

  2011

  Ashley Fox – Ninja Orphan

  Ashley Fox Adventures - Volume Two

  Cover Pencils by Jayson Arcilla

  Graphic Design by Liezel Co

  Digital Ink by John Carrick

  First Edition

  ASHLEY FOX – NINJA ORPHAN

  Ashley Fox Adventures - Volume Two

  John Carrick

  Acknowledgements and Special Thanks to my family, Jay Arcilla, Liezel Co, Karl Morgan, and Rob Newman. Denise Poirier, Peter Chung and Mark Mars. Shirow Masamune and Ken Kesey.

  Additional Special Thanks to Mark Coker at SmashWords.com and to Michael Freedman at Comic Smash! In Studio City

  The Authorities - Stephen King, J.R.R. Tolkien, Victor Hugo, Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, Richard K. Morgan, James Ellroy, Arthur Miller, Elmore Leonard, Joseph Conrad, Phillip Roth, Thomas Wolfe, Joseph Heller, Stan Lee, Robert E. Howard, Cormac McCarthy, Ernest Hemmingway, William Faulkner, William Gibson, Ray Bradbury, Futaro Yamada, Hiroaki Samura, Thomas Cleary, Fydor Doystevesky, Albert Camus, Homer, Gaius Julius Caesar, Publius Ovidius Naso, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Plato, Socrates, William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, John Dee, Eliphas Levi, George Bernard Shaw, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Jun Fan Lee, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV, Quentin Tarantino, Kurt Sutter, John Wells, Aaron Sorkin, Oliver Stone, Guy Ritchie, Ben Edlund, Joss Whedon, Robert Towne, William Goldman, Christopher McQuarrie, Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, Akira Kurosawa, Shinichi Chiba, Shimozawa Kan, Grant Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Clive Barker, Alan Moore, George R.R. Martin, Donna Tartt, Nichola Tesla, Lian Hearn, Nelson Mandela, Gautama Siddhartha, Mahatmas Gandhi, Lao Tzu, Sun Tzu, Jesus and Hunter S. Thompson.

  Also: Tashunka Witko and the Oglala Lakota, the Óglaigh na hÉireann, Sinn Fein, Michael Collins, Tom Clarke, Seán MacDermott, James Connolly, Joseph Plunkett, and Thomas MacDonagh. Dr. Martin Luther King, Cassius Muhammad Ali Clay, Malcolm X, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, Fredrick Douglas, Nat Turner, Fred Hampton, Terry Longbaugh, Robert Parker, William Henry Bonney, Henry Antrim, Hank McCarty, Wayne Steinmetz, Frank Mueller, Lu Dongbin, Miyamoto Musashi, Yagyu Munenori, Yagyu Jubei, Hattori Hanzo Masanari, Morihei Ueshiba, Ark Yuey Wong, Ed Parker, Haumea “Tiny” Lefiti, Tino Tuiolosega, Alex Garza, Sher Lu, Carl Totton, Alan Watts, Jorge Suarez and Thomas Quinn.

  Dedication:

  Ashley Fox - Ninja Orphan is Blood-Orange Lemonade for your Brain

  - John Carrick