With These Eyes (38 page)

"This is hardly uninhabited."

The warrior was once again, functioning on
her cold, calculated tactical logic, which had no concern for
collateral damage. Tasha's cause was driven by good intentions but
her ruthless methods to achieve her goal let little humanity shine
through.

"A lightning strike will cause..."

Tasha brushed Isabelle off. "I know what it
will cause. Most importantly, it will stop the missile."

Astounded, Isabelle listened to Tasha's
battle plan.

"Apophis has a climate engineering facility
elsewhere on the island. I will launch the fleet from there and
seed an electrical storm." Tasha gestured towards the hidden
helicopter. "You can drop me off there, fly out to the ocean and
ditch to a life raft. You'll be safe there."

Ryan was getting nervous. To him, this seemed
like the only logical choice. He turned to Isabelle. "You know, the
entrance is destroyed. She makes a good argument."

Isabelle could see in her knight's nervous
eyes that he was not going into the cave to slay the fire-breathing
monster for her.

Tasha added, "Do you see a better
choice?"

Isabelle knew she had to stay and fight but
she had no weapons, no way in and Tasha offered a solution. All she
could do was look Tasha in the eyes without a word to say.

The warrior continued. "I didn't think so."
She headed along the perimeter towards Gene's twin-rotor helicopter
when she turned around for a moment to shout, "Come help me get
this thing started."

Ryan gave Isabelle an embarrassed look and
followed Tasha's footsteps.

47 TASHA AND ISABELLE TAKE GENE'S
HELICOPTER

Just minutes later, like the whisks on a
mixer, the helicopter's two rotors stirred up the water as the
aircraft skimmed across the surface. The woman in the pilot's seat
was dimly lit by the moon and the glow of the instrument panel.

"We're getting to the drop point." Isabelle's
voice crackled over the aircraft's talk-back system.

Ryan's response was full of doubt. "I don't
know if this was such a good idea."

The helicopter's nose tipped up as the craft
decelerated abruptly.

"Too late, time to go."

Dressed in scuba gear, Isabelle held on to
the handrail by the open backdoor. A red light was glowing brightly
above her. Ryan and Tonati were keeping a safe distance from the
opening and had enough to do dealing with the forces of the
helicopter's movements.

It was Tasha who had taken the pilot's seat.
She brought the heavy airship to a precise hover by the lair's
launch tube. Its end had been exposed by the declining water level
as the turbines were charging Gene's graphite mountain. Without
saying as much as
good-luck
, Tasha pushed a button in the
panel above her head. The signal by the back door turned green.
Isabelle placed a hand over her goggles and held her mouthpiece in
the other. She jumped off the open ramp and landed in the meanwhile
shallow lake water near the end of the launch tube. Isabelle came
back to the surface to clear the water out of her breathing
apparatus and looked towards the helicopter. Tasha was making a
turn so she could see down to the drop-point and came to hover
nearby. Isabelle glanced at Tasha taking her hands of the stick for
a brief moment to grasp the locket by her chest, as if she was
seeking strength in its energy. Tasha's eye saw Isabelle's glance.
Like a child who got caught, Tasha's face showed anger as her hand
instantly returned to the helicopter's controls. Isabelle had found
a glimpse of humanity in Tasha's eyes. Unwilling to acknowledge
what she perceived as weakness, Tasha blazed off in a cyclone of
rotor wash.

Ryan was amazed at Isabelle. He had warned
her not to attack Gene. She had responded with an utter lack of
concern in regards to the danger Gene's weapons and personnel
posed. The moon was only missing a small sliver from its bright orb
and its light made the rushing water of the river sparkle bigger
than fireworks. After a few minutes along the effervescent
waterway, the helicopter reached the lagoon where Fuji's spaceplane
was moored. With the hatch open, Tasha touched down just long
enough for Ryan and Tonati to jump off. Tasha and Ryan agreed he'd
be best off with Fuji and the ability to reach safe distance with
the spaceplane. Their feet had just touched the ground when she
blazed off.

Tasha was busy using the onboard computer.
She was sending readiness orders to the ground crew that maintained
and loaded the fleet of cloud-seeding airliners at the
Apophis
Aerospace Works
Compound elsewhere on the island
.
With Ryan's computer override, messages from the
cockpit came authenticated as Gene's orders, since the helicopter
was his. Tasha's revoked credentials proved of little hindrance so
far.

Moments after typing her commands, a priority
message appeared on the screen of the Trooper commanding the
ground-support team for the climate engineering project. Most of
the crew were busy playing video games on big screens or snacking
on a variety of Apophis-brand imitation foods. As soon as the alert
from Tasha came in, the men and women of the ground crew dropped
every sandwich and game controller they were holding and ran to a
pool of buses outside. The remote location of the small isle kept
the operation out of the public eye, avoiding opposition by the
peace loving people of Madagascar. Aside from developing and
flight-testing a multitude of airborne and space weapons, a large
portion of the sinister compound housed a climate engineering
fleet.

Different combinations of chemical
substances, such as barium or silver salts were developed to create
overcast skies, rain or electrical storms, depending on the desired
action that would be taken against an area. Gene had developed the
tree weapon as a final addition to the program. Often months of
unseasonable flooding would be enough to devastate an area of farm
or residential land. Regardless of borders, Gene would be able to
rebuild with Apophis housing and infrastructure. Desolate farmers
would generally gladly accept Apophis seed stock on credit, with no
other resources to replant. An entire section of the compound was
dedicated to the climate project. A row of hangars housed the fleet
of converted airliners. Gene had chosen to use typical passenger
jets for his fleet for an important reason: The general population
in most parts of the world was accustomed to passenger air-traffic
and its frequent condensation trails. Few people were able to
discern these from his fleet and the rain-forming trails it
left.

Because of recent political events, even
fewer questioned anything related to air travel since Gene and the
government had promised radical and secret security changes. A
person questioning the effects of plane exhaust or even suggesting
sinister intent on a scale of Gene's activity would be dismissed by
the masses as irrational. All these factors allowed Gene to spread
his global takeover with little detection or interference. Those
who threatened to stand in his way were, in large, eliminated by
the flu virus.

Gene saw fear like a fence around the
pasture. It would keep the livestock from running off where it
could become a menace, both to its environment and to itself. A
herd of cows on the freeway would be detrimental to the flow of
traffic and the bovines themselves.

Great knowledge was proliferated by higher
consciousness for all. Instead of utilizing this universal wisdom,
the people chose to go to a device in the palm of their hand for
information, rather than their mind. A brain devoid of long-term
knowledge soon becomes a ghost town that has given way to the smart
phone. Gene saw little need to deliver the understanding that would
lead to a better life to a community with no occupants. To him,
those who chose to leave their thinking to others, have forfeited
the right to make decisions that can affect their environment.

Gene’s spiritual experiences have brought him
in touch with the consciousness from which he had drawn the
knowledge of quantum energy in an attempt to better the world. This
knowledge had to be protected from those who acted out of anger and
fear. A single angry outburst and the entire solar system could be
destroyed by a individual. That was a risk Gene could not allow.
Technology of unlimited energy can only function in a peaceful and
enlightened society. This was Gene’s sword of Damocles. The
knowledge of quantum energy was working its way into the human
consciousness and could not be halted. Darkness, however was still
rampant on the planet. Wars had to stop at once or one of the
warring factions would surely construct a photonic weapon.

The events in what once were Hiroshima and
Nagasaki stood as grim testament to the reach of human hatred. Gene
could not permit something far worse to be unleashed on the
universe. The sadness from the destruction of planet Earth would
tip the balances of the cosmos into an eternity of darkness. All
life in the universe would suffer. Gene had to act fast. To him,
the people where like a light with no bulb. No matter how much he
tried, the light wouldn’t come on. He was an intelligent man. It
made no sense to him to continually stick his finger into the empty
and highly electrified socket. It would have been an act of
textbook insanity on his behalf to continue the same action that
had only brought harm to him. Gene saw little value in keeping a
lamp that would destroy every globe granted. Erasing the population
of Africa would bring the attention needed to halt the horrendous
amount of fighting on the remaining continents.

Unknown to Gene, several buses arrived at the
grouping of hangars that housed the cloud seeding fleet across the
island. Like a swarm of ants, support workers busily populated the
areas around each plane inside the enormous buildings. Three
airliners occupied each of the eight hangars. One plane after
another, each hangar's crew filled their aircrafts’ holding tanks
with the newly developed and fast-acting lightning mix, comprised
mostly of a barium-salt solution. The two dozen airliners of the
Apophis Climate Control Squadron had been stripped of their main
cabin seating. Instead, rows of cube-shaped plastic tanks had
become the jets' lifeless passengers. A network of pipes and pumps
connected the tanks to spray nozzles under the wings. A small
detachment drove support trucks to the tarmac outside their
respective hangars where they offloaded connections for in-ground
fuel and power. Inside the cabins, purple liquid was churning as
its levels rose behind the opaque-white walls of the holding tanks.
The first row of planes was loaded and tow-vehicles moved them to
positions near the outside ground crews. Loading continued on the
next set of planes inside. The outside crews began the fueling
process and connected ground-power needed for the onboard
electronics and engine start. Within a short time, all 24
large-body airliners were parked side by side, under the starry
sky, loaded and fueling for lift-off.

48 WHEN TASHA GOES TO THE AIRPORT

Vibration from the two enormous rotors and
the dual-turbine power plant reverberated throughout the
helicopter's interior and with it, Tasha's insides. The faint smell
of kerosene and the feel of the rotors' force kept reminding the
renegade warrior of her training as a commando. The effects of
Gene's programming that had been activated had not entirely lost
their influence on Tasha's actions.

Love was pushing some of Tasha’s anger out of
her decision-making process. The events by the jungle river
replayed in her mind. Isabelle rescued Tasha purely out of selfless
love, with no expectations. Tasha had never encountered an
individual who had shown her affection or earned her favor without
incurring a debt that was soon to be repaid. Isabelle had asked
Tasha for help, but never used saving her life as a means to
extract repayment of the debt of gratitude. This had been Tasha’s
way of thinking long ago, but a selfish world had left her bitter
and hollow. She guarded her heart. Wearing Kevlar gave Tasha a
sense of isolated security, away from all the selfish people.

Tasha was approaching the
Apophis
Aerospace Works
compound. She was familiar with the layout
since it had been part of her job to protect all of Apophis' secret
operations. She piloted Gene's executive helicopter directly
towards the hangars where the squadron of cloud-seeding jets had
been assembled. Her left thumb depressed the
transmit
button
in the control stick. In a militaristic voice, she announced her
arrival to the tower. "A.S.W. control this is
Apophis-One
on
priority approach to hangar five-two." She noticed Gene's gigantic
jet parked on the tarmac just below. The Goose’s nose-cone was
flipped up and the fleet of support planes was parked on both
sides.

The sinister airport's control tower was
manned by Mr. Watson, a middle-aged company man with short, brown
hair and a mustache. Ryan's override had kept the launch of the
helicopter off the Troopers' alarm panel in the lair, yet the
beacon still identified the craft to the A.S.W. tower as Gene's.
Watson was a bit surprised to see the call letters of Gene's
helicopter on his radar screen. He knew the head of industry and
media was attending business elsewhere on the island and had not
expected him to return so soon. It was known to most A.S.W. staff
that Gene often changed his plans, so the lone air-traffic
controller wouldn't dream of questioning the request for clearance.
Like a robot, he replied over the radio.

"Affirmative, Apophis-One. Clear for descent
and touch-down at hangar five-two. We welcome the big guy." Watson
was a bit uncomfortable with the amount of pressure that came with
hosting the high-ranking traveler.

Tasha's descent was swift. She didn't take
the time for a soft touch-down. Flight manuals and a first aid kit
flew from their supports as the strong thud of the hurried
warrior's landing rocked the craft. With the rotors still spinning
down, Tasha exited the helicopter through the side door. Many of
the ground crew looked her way, hoping to catch a glimpse at the
firm's powerful leader. Their curiosity was partially satisfied
when the company's chief of covert forces raised the right hand to
her temple. The pack of ramp-rats snapped to attention and returned
Tasha's salute. Without breaking her stride, Tasha approached the
rear of one of the modified airliners and walked up the stairs that
extended below its tail. The support workers quickly made sure
their prep was coming to completion. The men responsible for the
jet Tasha just boarded were amongst the ones who had not yet
completed their tasks. One of the workers dragged the yellow
braided power cable towards the ground connection. With the help of
his colleague, he connected the rectangular-shaped female end to
the bottom of the jet that had suddenly become the most important
item on the tarmac. The workers quickly shoved its male connector
into the ground-power supply. Inside the large aircraft, Tasha was
passing the many massive tanks of barium solution on her way from
the tail to the cockpit. Tank after tank of the highly toxic
cloud-seeding agent filled the cabin where seats would normally
carry human cargo.