With These Eyes (37 page)

"You deserted your home and your family
because you defied your parents' darkness. Instead of staying and
fighting for your beliefs, you ran away."

Tasha did not like what she was hearing
because it was the most uncomfortable of truths. It looked for a
moment as if a tear was on the brink of welling up in Tasha's angry
eye. What could have become a genuine emotion, quickly turned to an
angry quiver that broke up the tear before it could escape.

"I am not your enemy," said Isabelle. She
knew Tasha wanted her dead but it was because she had been lured
into this position by Gene. At least that was the wisdom Fuji had
taught her. Tasha had found an answer that would, to herself,
explain the situation. Triumphantly yet subdued, she proclaimed,
"Regardless of what Gene is doing, you are planning something worse
and have to be stopped. That's probably
your
target
map."

Isabelle couldn't believe her own ears. Tasha
had found a way to deflect the pain over her missed life-decisions
onto the person who had literally just saved her life. Ryan's look
of "I told you so" further brought doubt to her mind whether there
was a way to break past Tasha's barrier of self-delusion. Isabelle
felt the impending launch and decided to stop fighting Tasha's
angry battle.

"I'm going to stop this."

She took a few steps and turned back. Tonati
gave Tasha a stern eye then ran over to Isabelle. She looked at
Tasha who had lost her sense of right and wrong. With a warm glow
in her eyes, Isabelle reached out her hand and spoke with a tone of
love and understanding that Ryan was surprised to hear.

"I could really use your help."

Tasha had expected some act of aggression in
return for her actions. A friendly smile was out of the range of
reactions for which Tasha had been prepared.

"How do you know we can trust her?" Ryan was
oblivious to what had just transpired.

Isabelle looked at him in slight disbelief
and while motioning with her flat hand for him to follow along she
said, "We have to hurry."

A look back confirmed Tasha was still
struggling with her beliefs. She looked like a beached octopus, out
of her element, unable to survive with her old abilities. The
rushing of floodwater sounded the prelude to Gene's dark symphony.
The contents of the lake above were draining through the
hydroelectric turbines, charging the mountain's enormous energy
storage. The masses of water had arrived at the base of the
waterfall in six gigantic pipes whose diameters far outsized that
of the launch tube.

Tonati instinctually ran to higher ground at
the sound of the approaching deluge. He had gotten his fill of
water and sky, so he sought the protection of his natural
surroundings, the jungle. He followed a path that lead up the
yellow rock face to the top of the cliff. Tonati stopped half way
up the trail. He looked down to his human entourage and roared.
Isabelle and Ryan followed the trail the puma had taken to safety.
When Isabelle reached the first plateau, she turned back for
another look at Tasha. She knew if Tasha cared about the people
whose picture she carried in her locket, then she could not be
entirely consumed by darkness. Her angry eyes gleamed back at
Isabelle from the quickly disappearing river bank. Tasha looked
like a snake that would strike at anything. Isabelle saw it was
going to be a great task to keep the reptilian warrior below
contained so her anger would not create more damage. This had been
the first time during the pursuit that Tasha wasn't separated from
Isabelle by layers of technology. The lack of armor and weaponry
pitted the true abilities of each of the women against each other.
Isabelle felt that Tasha had become a smaller threat by herself,
but she would have to keep her guard up. Isabelle knew Tasha was
looking for proof of faith from her but there was no time for such
games. She turned away from the confused warrior and made up the
hill with her puma and Ryan. The thought crossed Isabelle's mind
that it would have been easier to follow Ryan's approach, but she
could not have lived well with herself had she chosen to let Tasha
perish in the rapids. Although Isabelle had saved her, she found
herself unable to trust Tasha, who had continued to lash out since
her rescue. With such a big gesture of faith on behalf of
Isabelle's, she was surprised Tasha found darkness in her
actions.

Isabelle truly had learned to live in harmony
with nature and in the jungle easily had the upper hand. Tasha had
derived virtually all her superiority from the use of her weapons
and technology. The angry gleam in the warrior's eye told the
journalist to be cautious. Isabelle climbed the cliff at a steady
pace. It was quite an effort for her to keep up with her cat, more
than usual. The feeling of faint reminded Isabelle what her global
travel had caused her to forget: It was long past the time to
inject Fuji's medication. She could hear Tasha's footsteps rushing
towards her from behind. Isabelle saw the big bright moon, but
where were Tonati & Ryan? Suddenly the fearless explorer felt
all her weight impacting a pair of very muscular arms and the
corresponding torso. She had felt these arms before, in the rushing
rapids. Where a moment ago was nothing but sky, Tasha's
grim-looking face filled her view. As a result of the missed
injections, Isabelle's body had become unable to deal with the
stress of the past days. Her equilibrium was affected first.

"It's been longer than usual."

Isabelle was surprised at Tasha's stern
words. Not many people knew about her illness. Aside from Fuji, she
had never known anyone to keep track of her injections. Was this
still the warrior of darkness who had caught her, or did Isabelle
detect a glimmer of humanity flash across Tasha's big, round eyes?
While being pushed back onto her feet, Isabelle replied curtly.

"Yup."

Isabelle thought it best to press on. The
impending doom seemed more important than a lengthy thank-you.
Isabelle would not acknowledge for a while that the person who had
hunted her across the world had just saved her from a fall onto the
rock below. Tasha could have done nothing and watched Isabelle fall
to her death. Something must have changed in Tasha, but how long
would it last?

"Can I help?"

Ryan's lack of knowledge about Isabelle's
medical issue made it too difficult to even try and explain. All
Isabelle could say was a surprisingly dismissive, "not unless you
got a loaded syringe."

Shocked, Ryan looked at Tasha, unsure where
else to turn and asked, "Is she kidding?" An empty stare gave the
confused computer whiz no new information on which to go.

The unconventional group had reached the
cliff's topside. The waterfall's massiveness had been decreased to
a mere trickle as a result of Gene's power-generating station's
activity. Thick patches of moss covered the granite edge. Ferns and
ivy grew from dirt that had collected in the cracks. Thick jungle
covered the area between them and the lake that fed the dwindling
waterfall. Isabelle took a few careful steps in the dark. The thick
vegetation was filtering out a great portion of the moonlight. Just
steps after the jungle had gotten its thickest, Isabelle broke
through to the edge of a clearing. The area was devoid of plants
and had been paved smooth with meticulous precision. A few large
boulders lined the perimeter, inconspicuously blocking chain- or
wheel-driven vehicles from entering. High-resolution images of
rocks and plant life gave the icy-smooth ground a finish that made
it hard to discern from the jungle, even when observed from a short
distance. Ryan raised his digital companion and after a quick look,
he identified a helicopter pad in the far corner. A few taps and
the company's satellite navigation network confirmed Gene's
helicopter landed and parked, hidden in plain sight across the
gloomy-dark jungle plateau.

"So he's here." Ryan stated the obvious.

"Where is the door?"

Both women looked at Ryan in anticipation of
an answer to the question they had uttered simultaneously. Although
she had trained in video simulations of the secret facility,
without read-outs from her Troopers, Tasha was of diminished
effectiveness. Ryan found the group was standing only a few steps
from the well-hidden access point behind one of the boulders at the
jungle's edge. Not only was the entrance disguised, it was also
heavily guarded. Deep below in the granite of the cliff sat Gene
and his dark following.

"Sir, visitors at the entrance."

The Watch Commander punched up a night-vision
image on the big center screen in the lair's control room. Gene's
teeth were grinding at the sight of Isabelle, Tasha, Ryan and
Tonati, virtually knocking like uninvited guests on the entrance to
his secret hideout. In his mind, there was no more stopping his
plan. A disruption would truly stand in the way of his enjoyment in
the worst manner.

"Her? Seal the shaft!"

The Trooper reluctantly replied to Gene's
stern order.

"But sir, that's our only way in."

A tiny bead of sweat appeared just above
Gene's upper lip. The onset of its tremble was interrupted by
Gene's angry response.

"That's why I want you to seal it. And revoke
Commander Methusa's clearance, turns out she's a terrorist."

The Trooper complied and flipped open a
little plastic door in his control panel. He pushed the red
detonator button that was recessed underneath with the words, "fire
in the hole!" Gene's dark grin returned to his face.

Up top, the loud yell of an alarm horn warned
the band of rebels that trouble was coming their way. A
hydraulically powered man-hole cover separated the facility's
elevator shaft from the outside. A grouping of large boulders
around the smoothly sealed opening concealed its existence to
possible onlookers. Spaced fractions of a second apart, a series of
violent explosions along the length of the shaft caused it to
collapse on itself. Pressure from multiple concussions below ground
shot the entry's round cover towards the jungle canopy. Ryan was
standing closest to the site of the explosion, rather befuddled by
all the noise. Tasha looked above his head and saw that like an
enormous coin dropped into a vending machine, the heavy metal disk
was plummeting directly towards him. She knew there was not enough
time to warn Ryan and allow him to step out of the way. Tasha
pounced forward, pushing Ryan out of the way and onto his behind.
Tasha landed on top of him. The speeding steel plate impacted the
hardened ground next to them and bounced over their heads, before
it landed beside Isabelle and Tonati. Ryan was stunned. The downed
genius looked at Tasha's round eyes to acknowledge he would have
been flattened without her help. "Don't mention it," were Tasha's
only words to him as she stood herself up to evaluate the
situation. Isabelle took note that her pursuer had just saved them
both. Something must have changed inside the fearsome warrior for
the better. Ryan dusted himself off on his way back to his feet. He
quickly saw the problem at hand.

"That was the only entrance. How are we going
to stop the missile now?"

Tasha presented her usual way of dealing with
issues. "All we've got to do is shoot it down."

Ryan moved so Isabelle and her puma were
standing between him and Tasha. He had something to say but enjoyed
the safety Isabelle's presence brought him. He looked at Tasha over
Isabelle's shoulder and replied, "There isn't a bullet or rocket in
the world that can shoot this missile down. Its fast as
lightning."

Tasha responded quickly. "That's right,
lightning
will
stop it."

Isabelle didn't like what Tasha was thinking.
Her idea sounded as sinister as Isabelle would have expected from
the woman who had chased her across the globe. There was too much
familiarity here for Isabelle. Everything about this moment down to
the climate took her back to her childhood in the jungle with her
mother Gemma. Because of her mother's research, the two of them
would move often. Many times, Isabelle would lay on top of the
jungle's thick canopy and watch the clouds. On the days when it
rained, she watched long banks of clouds grow from the condensation
trails that were left by rows of planes high in the sky. She saw
this everywhere but the last village before she moved to Alaska to
join her father. Lionel had moved there from Dallas and built his
television network across the young state.

Isabelle found out in her journalistic work
later that several climate engineering projects exist in the world
and had been field-tested, often over remote areas. It was clear
that she had grown up under such tests. Strange that the village
with the smell of choji trees didn't have them. Isabelle was sure
Tasha knew about such operations. After all, Apophis made
everything. She had learned a lot from her talks with Kenshin in
Berlin, and her experiences along the way.

The basic concept of Gene’s photonic weapon
was relatively simple. A quantum orb was carried to the target area
where a sudden jolt of electricity would create a high-intensity
arc across the orb. This process was very much an artificial
version of the incident that had occurred in Tunguska. The result
would be the release of a high-energy photon wave: light so bright,
everything in its path is evaporated, rock is molten. A lightning
strike into the missile during lift-off, when it is still a
superconductor, would have the same effect.

Isabelle looked at Tasha with a stern
expression. The rebel-warrior's eyes gleamed in the moonlight like
the dilated eyes of a cheetah on the hunt. There was no need for
Tasha to explain, Isabelle knew what she was up to.

"Better here than someplace inhabited."

A family of monkeys was settling in on an
adjacent tree to observe the peculiar visitors to their home. The
sounds of the jungle around them stood furry and feathered
witnesses to Isabelle's counter-argument.