****
“I told you three hours ago that the plane disappeared completely,” said Jerrod’s aid. He pointed at his display screen, which showed a map of central Nigeria. The city of Oshogbo, where the monster was, blinked red. Several other cities, including Abuja, the capital, were crossed off, to show they had already been destroyed by the monster. Several moving symbols represented military aircraft, most of them American Air Force or Navy, but the symbol indicating the transport aircraft carrying the Witch had long since disappeared.
“And I have told you that’s impossible,” said Jerrod. “We had two jet fighters tailing that transport.”
“Those F-22s landed two hours ago, but the pilots were dazed and non-responsive. They slowly came around and finished their reports a few minutes ago. They claim they don’t remember what happened since they arrived at the scene this morning. They don’t remember losing sight of the transport, but they also don’t remember ever seeing it in the first place.”
“But we’ve been talking to them! I’ve been talking to them! Those pilots were communicating with the damn transport and following it!”
“Yes sir, but they don’t remember any of that."
“Some sort of mind control, it has to be" said Jerrod. "It was the damn dragon!”
“More likely it was the Witch," said the aid. "The transport remained until the Witch was sure that the White Dragon was overwhelmed by KraKara. The Witch likely gained control of the fighter pilots.”
Jerrod scowled at his subordinate, so angry at the suggestion that he couldn’t speak. It couldn’t be the Witch; she was their partner, unless she went back on her word! On the other hand, now that the dragon and the kid were gone, he no longer needed the Witch anyway, so it didn’t really matter. If the transport had crashed with the Chosen and the Witch on-board, a lot of difficulties had been taken care of.
“And something else, sir, something worse.”
Jerrod sat down. What had gone wrong now? What could be worse?
“The two tactical nukes were fired by the escort planes.”
The statement was incomprehensible. “What? What did you just say?”
“When the two fighter-bomber aircraft landed, it was discovered that a nuke was missing from each plane. The crews didn’t remember firing them but the audio recordings and nose cameras recorded that they had indeed been fired and detonated.”
“But no such detonations were ordered or reported!" Jerod sputtered. "Don’t tell me they were absorbed by the White Dragon! That other time near Chicago was some sort of trick, it had to be!”
“No. This time they were absorbed by KraKara, according to the Air Force analysts.”
Jerrod couldn’t believe it. The bombs were supposed to only be used on KraKara after the dragon and boy were confirmed dead! Since there was still doubt about the demise of dragon and boy, the order to use them had not yet been given. “They were fired without orders?”
“Affirmative. Some of the local folk witnessed the event, but they never even realized they were witnessing nuclear weapon explosions, as the effects were no different than those of conventional weapons. We had discredited the reports initially, but now we have conclusive evidence from the aircraft. The KraKara creature greatly increased in size and strength as a result of the event, I might add. Our analysts conclude that the damn monster eats nuclear detonations!”
Jerrod paced and scowled in response. He had always assumed that the so-called bomb-blast absorptions at the Simple place had somehow been faked. If not, he had also assumed that the KraKara monster would not have the same capability. What would they do now? With the White Dragon and its rider both gone, how could they stop such creatures?
He come to a terrible realization. What if the boy and dragon weren't lying? What if the White Dragon and boy had been the only way to stop the monsters, monsters that were truly evil? That seemed unlikely, however. Everyone lied. Didn't they?
“No!” he said aloud, dismissing his doubts. The President had agreed to this course and committed his country to dispose of all alien life forms as well as the Portal through which they had come. They would still do it. They would use hydrogen bombs next. Though it had absorbed small tactical nukes, surely no creature could withstand a multi-megaton explosion! It would work; it had to!
“We have new reports of an unknown aircraft crashing in Algeria,” added the aid, compounding Jerrod’s misery.
“Our transport?”
“Don’t know yet, but it could be. It was a hard crash; no survivors are reported.”
Jerrod smiled for the first time in hours. “Ding, dong, the wicked Witch is dead!”
White Dragon's Chosen Page 43