Always loved that movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Don’t you? It has action, drama, intrigue and some good old fashion spy craft.

So what’s the point? Well, when I was in college, I took a story telling class and one of the assignments was a true story. For each story, we had to first write it and then present it in front of the class. Mine turned out to be a big hit. You tell me if you think it would make a good movie, like True Lies.

Here goes...

One of my best friends in high school had entered into a full contact martial arts tournament. And for some strange reason, he asked me to train him. I don’t even know the style that he practices, nor did I even know the tournament rules, except that it was full contact. Long story short, I knew him. His offense was strong and aggressive. So I agreed to train him with the stipulation that I would only train him on defense and he would have to work his offense on his own. He agreed. And boy was he frustrated over the next six months. He couldn’t hit me back! He dominated his match.

Before and after that, we sparred a lot. One time we were sparring at his house and his dad wanted to spar with me. Ok, the dad taught the military how to fight. I thought I was toast. Luckily, I wasn’t.

Fast forward a year or two. At this point, I don’t remember exactly since it was a long time ago. The dad came to me and asked for my help. Apparently, there was a spy that infiltrated an elite unit that he trained. They did not know which member it was. He only knew that this particular spy practiced an obscure form of Shaolin Kung Fu. Don’t ask me how they figured that out. But in our sparring, he discovered that I knew it. So he asked me to come in under the guise of an outside assistant in the combat training. My real job as I went up against each person was to figure out which one was the spy.

So they fly me out with him to this compound in the middle of nowhere. Obviously, I cannot say where. But it is a small base surrounded by fence topped with barbed wire. The base was unmanned except for this unit. I guess they call it a black site or something like that.

Training day.

We all assemble and go through the training. Over the course of that time, I have a strong suspicion as to which guy it was. I figure I would tell the colonel at the next break. I did not want to spook the guy.

But like how I recognized his style, he recognized mine. So I found myself face to face with him. The rest of the men, including the colonel were in various stages of unconsciousness. He had drugged the water.

Lucky for me, my Sifu had us train without drinking water. He would tell us to not drink from 30 minutes before until 30 minutes after training. So most times, that would be about three hours. And if we absolutely had to drink, he would have us just take a mouthful and hold it until it was warm before we swallowed. So that saved me.

And my suspicions were confirmed. At this point, he wanted to do the most harm and escape. And I was the only one in the way. So we fought pretty evenly for a while. But I had a small advantage. One of my students later would tell me that my martial arts is eclectic. That is like the pot calling the kettle black, as his martial arts is quite diverse too.

Anyway, back to the fight. While the bad guy used mostly the one style, I used a smattering of other stuff. And I got him good with this shoulder lock that I learned elsewhere. My teacher would describe it like popping a soda can. And that was how I dislocated his shoulder.

So now, he was thinking escape. So he ran. And I chased. I am not the fastest guy, so he made the fence before me. But luckily, he was slow to climb with one arm so I caught up to him. I jumped up and grabbed his leg and started pulling.

If you want to know how it ended, you have to ask me.