With These Eyes (33 page)

As darkness fell upon the remote island of
Spitsbergen in an instant, its inhabitants had no idea of how close
they had come to their demise. It could have been argued that once
again, Nature had intervened and protected herself. The only
electric light that remained on the entire island was the unusual
sculpture atop Gene's seed-bank. Layers of shaped tungsten and
glass atop the vault emitted a greenish glow, mimicking nature's
display of Northern Lights in the sky. The facility's generator had
come on-line as soon as the island's power grid had failed.

A second instance of ball lightning emerged
from the aurorae in the atmosphere above the isolated isle. Since
the orb consisted mostly of empty space, like a single atom, it had
virtually no wind resistance. The seed bank's light sculpture drew
it in much faster than any solid object could have traveled. Within
a few seconds, it reached the glass wall of the unmotivated piece
of art atop the vault's only entrance. Like a red-hot knife through
butter, the orb cut through the glass and crashed into the layers
of metal beyond the barrier. Gene had chosen tungsten for a very
specific reason. The rare and expensive metal was one of the few
substances virtually impervious to the destructive forces of ball
lightning. As a result, the impact of the high-energy sphere was
directed into the facility's refrigeration compressor behind the
light sculpture. The jagged edges of the tungsten sheets scattered
the orb into several dozen smaller ones. Like a load of buckshot,
the miniature orbs impacted the compressor and its attached coolant
pipes.

Electricity arced across the cooling system
and spread along the pipes that lead to the three vaults of the
bank. The electric energy was seeking a place to go and found its
way to the metal shelves, which held the world's agricultural
heritage. A fire storm ensured, melting the plastic crates and
scorching the seeds within.

Nothing was left but ashes.

40 LIGHT TURNS TO SHADOW

Still traveling along their suborbital path,
Isabelle, Fuji and Ryan were feverishly searching for a way to
enter Madagascar's airspace undetected. The group couldn't afford
any more attention like Fuji’s flight across Germany had brought
them. Ryan had come up with an idea and was busy explaining his
plan.

"When Apophis designed the stealth bomber,
the company made sure it retained a way to access each plane's
avionics remotely. Gene's sentiment was not to trust any government
who would employ such cowardly technology, purely designed to kill
the unsuspecting."

Ryan was tapping on the touch-sensitive
screen of his digital pad. It didn't take him very long and he had
accessed the flight computer belonging to Tasha's troop carrier.
The screen showed the stealth plane's flight status, altitude,
speed and other vital information. Tasha was traveling
supersonically and in stealth mode with no marker lights or active
radio beacon as would have been customary on a conventional flight.
The war plane's guidance system provided him with its exact
position. Ryan continued.

"I can assign our transponder ID to their
beacon."

Isabelle caught on. "If we fly close enough
to them, they would look like us on radar."

Ryan brought up a map on the spaceplane's
heads-up display. The projection on the cockpit's windshield
displayed a flight path from Berlin to Apophis' facility on a small
isle off Madagascar's main land. He pointed to an area over the
Mediterranean sea.

"She's just about here. We have to get into
her shadow and back out before we are spotted."

Isabelle saw the challenges and added, "all
that before they notice their beacon is on."

Fuji knew what Isabelle was thinking. After
he had briefly given Isabelle instructions earlier, he felt it
necessary to tell her, "At least try the controls first." Fuji
didn't need to ask his disciple twice to take the reins and sure
enough, he heard her voice command to the plane's computer.

"Guidance: autopilot off."

Isabelle's hands were on the yoke and
throttle in an instant. Although there was not enough air in the
upper layers of the atmosphere to provide the spaceplane's lift, as
would be the case on a conventional plane, Isabelle had no
difficulty maneuvering. She took the craft into several brilliantly
executed roll and dive maneuvers. Ryan turned to Fuji
perplexed.

"How does she know how to do all this?"

Fuji answered with a quiet smirk. There was
no doubt left in the men's minds that if anyone could pull off
their highly risky plan to become Tasha's shadow, that person would
be Isabelle. Fuji programmed the ship's computer with a suborbital
path toward the coordinates Ryan had calculated for Tasha's
jet.

"Ready to go," said Isabelle and Fuji engaged
the autopilot. The little spacecraft went on its 30 minute journey
around the globe. While Tonati was enjoying the safety of his
harness, the three friends in the cockpit where privy to an amazing
view of all the beauty Gene wanted to destroy. Rushing by on the
planet below was a tableau of breathtaking vistas of the jungle,
the world's deserts, polar regions and a pass across Europe's
night. The old continent glimmered with the lights that illuminated
its cities. The automatic pilot was directing the craft back into
the lower layers of Earth's atmosphere as the Mediterranean Sea was
approaching on their path. The glow around the ship increased, it
began to resemble on oversize orb of ball lightning.

In an isolated village near the coast of
Greece, the townsfolk had gathered for their annual carnival
festivities. The colorfully-dressed crowd had been enjoying large
quantities of the locally grown wine and more so of its
distillates. Like a comet, the brightly-glowing ship rocketed
across the night sky. The dumbfounded village folk stared at the
unusual sight in awe. Soon fear of the unknown gushed like a wave
across the crowd in the town square. The masses did what they were
accustomed to when it came to the unseen or unexplained: Like a
heard of lemmings, the villagers rushed to their church. The town's
priest had been preparing for a late mass that would mark the end
of the sins of the carnival. With delight, he saw the masses
flooding towards his church. He quickly swung open the building's
double doors, where he barely managed to get out of the way. His
congregation rushed the church and fell to their knees to pray for
forgiveness for their past days of debauchery. Onboard the
mysteriously-glowing object, Isabelle had taken over for the
auto-pilot. Her hand had a steady grip on the controls and Fuji was
giving her readings from the instruments.

"Speed now mach 4 and decelerating."

Not too far ahead, Tasha and her platoon were
traveling just a bit over mach 1, the speed of sound. Together with
two of her Troopers, she was monitoring Isabelle's progress. The
Trooper by the satellite tracking screen was caught a bit off-guard
by Isabelle's sudden descent.

"Ma'am, target is dropping out of orbit,
projected re-entry somewhere over the Mediterranean Sea."

Tasha knew instantly what that meant. In
disbelief of her Trooper's failure to be cognizant of the
situation, she barked, "
We
are somewhere over the
Mediterranean"

Growing with awareness of the impending
threat, the Trooper took a better look at the display before him.
His next report confirmed Tasha's hunch. "Ma'am, target's current
vector puts her on a direct intercept with us."

Isabelle, Fuji and Ryan had reached the war
bird's cruising altitude and were approaching visual range. A
computer-generated image of the stealth was projected around its
heat plume on the spaceplane's heads-up display. Isabelle was
fastly approaching Tasha and could make out the stealth's outline
with her own eyes. After just a short while, both planes had
crossed Egypt and the north-eastern portion of Africa. The unusual
pair crossed over Tasha's homeland Eritrea and back over the
ocean.

"Now Ryan!" was all Isabelle said and her
would-be knight in shining armor tapped the field on his digital
pad that he had set up to activate the stealth jet's transponder.
Tasha's beacon was now transmitting the spaceplane's radio-ID. With
the precision of a Swiss watchmaker, Isabelle flew directly below
the stealth and matched Tasha's maneuvers.

Onboard the troop carrier, Isabelle's radar
image was shown at the stealth bomber's position. The spaceplane's
radio ID was superimposed over the radar image. Little did Tasha's
platoon realize at that moment the transmission was originating
from their own beacon. The Troopers were too preoccupied with the
fact they were no longer enjoying the benefits of cloaked
flight.

Traveling like a couple of flies about to
mate, Isabelle and Tasha were entering Madagascar airspace. On the
ground, the island-nation's air force operated on a much more
Spartan concept than Gene’s war-driven nation. The on-duty staff
consisted of General Morabi and a radar operator. Isabelle's radar
image and call letters appeared on-screen. Immediately, the airman
notified the General of the perceived threat. "Sir, a craft just
entered our airspace."

Morabi jumped to his feet and shouted, "This
could be an attack! Launch our defensive forces." He pushed a
button in his desktop and a bell rang across the airfield where
personnel rushed to get both jets airborne.

Fuji picked up the launch of the fighters on
his screen and announced, "Looks like everyone knows where
here."

Isabelle saw the situation with more
confidence. "They know
someone
is here."

Ryan added, "Madagascar air force should
reach us in 60 seconds."

It was time for action, a fact that hadn't
gone unnoticed by Tasha and her platoon, either. The pilot's voice
from the cockpit boomed over the talk-back system. "She's still
directly below us."

Without blinking, Tasha's orders came back.
"Lose her, Captain!"

The pilot took the powerful plane into a
sudden climb and a turn. Isabelle's instinct guided her to stay
with her foe's every move. Equipment in the stealth's cargo and
personnel decks was falling everywhere from the G-forces generated
by the pilot's abrupt maneuvers. Tasha was sitting steadily in her
Commander's seat, held in securely by her suspender-type
restraints. She heard the pilot's voice on her headset as the
series of climbs, turns and drops continued. "Package remains,
continuing evasive action."

In the spaceplane, Isabelle was letting her
instinct guide her actions. Much like she had been one with the
water heater and the mountain in the Arctic, Isabelle had made the
stealth an extension of herself. Like banking her bike in a turn,
Isabelle's holistic approach to flying enabled her to pilot by
feel. Fighter jets were approaching from Madagascar. Soon, they
would see the reality of the situation their computers were hiding
from them.

Ryan raised a point that was of great concern
to him. "If Madagascar fires air to air missiles, their internal
guidance will direct them towards us, not the stealth plane."

Isabelle felt no threat in this fact and with
a smile replied, "They won't get a chance. We'll set down long
before."

Tasha's jet went into another climb, a
perfect moment to break away. Isabelle pushed the yoke forward,
taking the spaceplane into a steep, high-velocity descent, while
the bird of prey continued into the sky. The two fighters were soon
near the stealth, drawn in by the still transmitting beacon.
Isabelle had slipped away. She took the craft to sea level where
she continued on below radar, virtually skimming the ocean waves.
The spaceplane approached a delta on the coastline of a small
island and followed its river upstream. The commander of the
squadron pursuing Tasha had come close enough to spot her bird of
darkness.

"Control, I have a visual on the target. It's
a stealth bomber. Intentions appear hostile."

Tasha was finding out the trick Isabelle had
played on her when the one of the Troopers' voice brought the bad
news over the headset. "Captain, our radio beacon is active,
broadcasting the target's ID."

The pilot's response reflected his concern.
"That means everyone can find us. Turn it off!"

An alarm sounded through the cockpit. Its
noise filled Tasha's headphone as the other Trooper responded.
"Sir, they have locked weapons on our heat signature."

Once the fighters had spotted Tasha, there
was nothing stealthy about her mode of travel. The next voice on
Tasha's headphones was not anything she ever wanted to hear in her
career as warrior. Underlined by the sound of the weapons-lock
alarm from the cockpit, the transmission from the squadron leader
left little room for interpretation.

"Pilot of the unmarked stealth bomber! Begin
immediate descent to three-five-zero-zero feet or be shot down.
This will be the only transmission."

The hunter had become the hunted.

41 THE GANG MEETS THE NATIVE

The spaceplane was tied off by the shore of a
jungle lagoon, floating on its pontoons. Tonati was as excited as a
puma can get. He had kept a good demeanor onboard the plane,
because he understood the ride was reuniting him with Isabelle, but
he was not a friend of harnesses or space travel. The surroundings
reminded him of a time when he was still a cub, living in the
jungle with Isabelle and her parents. After just a moment, he was
chasing butterflies, one of his favorite activities.

Ryan was looking at the data on the memory
stick Kenshin had given him. "The doomsday device is about eight
miles up the river," he proudly proclaimed. "The jungle is too
thick for us to get through, it looks like the river is the most
direct route."

The river was deep and wide. Its current was
too strong to fight without a motor. Ryan came to that realization
before Isabelle had to point this out to him. Fuji and her had
directed their attention towards a small dwelling a little further
down the lagoon. A boat was anchored near the modest house.