Suddenly the ringing of a phone cut through the eerie silence that had filled the room. Isabelle turned her head. She saw Ryan by the throne fidgeting with the scepter in his hand. Kenshin was near him, pulled a ringing handy out of his tuxedo pocket and answered it.
When Kenshin came to hand the phone to her, Isabelle knew this was going to be her way out.
35 ESCAPE FROM BERLIN
The spaceplane was shaking violently in the turbulent winter air over the North Sea. Fuji had just completed re-entry into earth's thick atmosphere on a supersonic decent into the Berlin area. Cold air and an occasional cloud were rushing past the cockpit windows as he spoke into the microphone of his aviator headset.
"Isabelle, I've been monitoring what's going on, I'm coming to get you out of there."
Isabelle replied, "We're trapped in the palace with troops everywhere."
"Think like the eagle..." Fuji's transmission was cut short.
Not far from the palace, Tasha's command post was maintaining its disguise. A few of her Troopers were busily winching one of their crashed cars from the ravine. On the spy truck's main viewer, the map showed the tight perimeter Tasha's Troopers had established around the palace. The list of intercepted emergency calls regarding the phony accident had populated an entire screen in front of the Trooper to Tasha's right. Another computer showed Isabelle's voice-print identified on her call from Fuji and an automated disconnect. Below, the transcript of the call showed Fuji's intent to rescue Isabelle from Tasha’s clutches. Her orders to the platoon were aggressive.
"Get the Pterodactyl airborne and on its way here. Prepare to strike. I want immediate evac the moment we secure her body!"
Tasha credentials rated high enough to be allowed access to the ball. By this time, she had already gone past the point of trying to keep a low profile with Apophis. Tasha was fighting for her own existence. To her left, the platoon's pilot was operating the digital cockpit. He manned an electronic replica of the stealth plane's pilot controls. The same controls would run, with a simple change of the software, the much simpler spy-drone. A few inputs sent a satellite signal to the modified stealth bomber still on the Arctic island. The heavy jet's auxiliary turbine started up to provide the large amount of energy needed for main engine ignition. Tasha's troop carrier had been left on stand-by at the airstrip once used for the mining operation. The hangar's two enormous doors rolled to the sides as the jet engine's deafening roar reverberated from the otherwise stark interior. Like the eyes of a jungle creature about to leap from its burrow, the landing lights pierced from the dark structure.
Soon the threatening raptor was barreling down the Arctic runway on its take-off towards Berlin, where Tasha was loading herself down with weapons. While strapping on yet another handgun, the bitter Commander instructed her troops.
"Blue Team will maintain the perimeter. Purple Team reports to the command post. Extraction will commence under lethal protocol, there is zero benefit in maintaining the life of the package."
The pilot next to her reported in. "Ma'am, Pterodactyl is en-route and going supersonic." On his screens were the plane's radar view and charted course to Germany on a world map.
Inside the throne room, Isabelle still hadn't gotten any further with her escape. A guard had arrived at one of the windows with a glass cutter where he was scoring a circular crease into the pane. Ryan's efforts, however, were about to come to fruition. He had found a spot on the throne's arm rest that matched the scepter's outline. After a few unsuccessful tries, he managed to twist it into place. The flames in the fireplace behind the throne extinguished and the wall behind the artificial logs slid open.
"I just knew it. The kind of people who used this room would be the types who'd have a need to get away unnoticed," shouted Ryan. Together with Kenshin and Isabelle, he ran towards the secret passage. Isabelle’s knight in shining armor pulled on a lever that protruded from the wall inside the passage. It prompted the fire to flame back up and the wall to close. Isabelle could see the palace guards pop out a glass disk from the window's cutout and reach for the handle just as the entrance to the secret passage closed.
A musky and dark, yet surprisingly warm hallway stretched to a faintly lit staircase. Isabelle, Ryan and Dr. Kenshin found their way along the hidden corridor and arrived at the base of the stairs. Passages lead off in three other directions.
Isabelle had a hunch; she knew where to go. "The eagle rises high above the masses! The top of the rotunda is the highest point of the building."
The two men exchanged a doubting look in the relative darkness before Ryan turned his head to Isabelle. Her choice of an escape route didn't agree with him much.
"We'll be stuck there like a cat up a tree. We should follow one of these tunnels."
Isabelle gave Ryan a look full of disappointed surprise. "We'll run right into Tasha's trap, that's not a way out."
Kenshin's face showed the strain that the stress of this chase had put on him. Sweat had formed a moat around his receding hairline. He had relieved himself of the burden that had laid so heavily on his shoulders.
"I don't have the strength for this sort of thing." He reached into his watch pocket and pulled out a thumb-size computer drive. "On here are the schematics for the launch facility in Madagascar. The whole complex operates offline. There are no outside connections. The complex is built into an old graphite mine underneath a lake that has formed at the location. There is only one hidden access shaft. It’s mined and under constant surveillance. You just can't get in."
Ryan reached for the chip-drive and thanked the scientist before he put it in his pocket. Isabelle knew where she had to go. "C'mon," was all she said to the two guys before she climbed the steps. Kenshin and Ryan hesitated, but eventually followed Isabelle. The source of the light on top of the stairs was the opaque face of a clock that overlooked the palace gardens. Isabelle and the two men were standing inside an enormous clockworks. She found a latch by the side of the clock face. Like a door, the large disk of milky glass swung open, leaving the ticking mechanism open. The festivities were continuing below. The glare from the balloon above Isabelle made her difficult to be seen from below. Under the cover of light, the three stepped out onto the perimeter of the domed roof. Isabelle latched the clock face. The gigantic helium balloon hovered above them. Three evenly-spaced tethers around the base of the dome were holding the balloon in place. Isabelle took a moment to size up the situation. She unhooked one of the tethers from the balloon and then from its anchor on the roof. She pointed to one of the two remaining straps.
"Ryan, unhook that one."
Unsure why, but lacking any better ideas, Ryan complied. The two climbed on top of the clock from where they could reach the small platform that leveled off the apex of the dome. Isabelle pulled herself over the railing that ran along its perimeter. She swiftly and skillfully fashioned two body harnesses out of the webbing that moments ago supported the large luminous sphere. The light was now swinging in the wind by a single tie-down like a child's balloon.
A sizable number of palace guards assembled below after a few of them noticed the commotion on the roof. Lead by one of their officers, the group stormed into the palace on their way to the roof. Isabelle knew time was running out. She handed Ryan one of the webbings that now looked like a parachute harness.
"Get into this."
A bit lost, Ryan watched Isabelle step into the loops formed by the nylon straps and followed her example. She motioned for him to follow her to the balloon's remaining tether. She unhooked the carabineer that held the floating bubble to the roof and connected it with hers and Ryan's make-shift harness. The balloon shot up, tightening the slack in between. Ryan was getting nervous.
"What?! Did you actually think you could just click your heels three times and float home?"
Fuji's spaceplane had entered German airspace. With no registered flight plan, his unusual craft quickly attracted the country's air defense forces. A squadron of Luftwaffe fighter jets
that had been flying patrol in the area took pursuit. The squadron leader had Fuji on his radar screen. His attempts to persuade Fuji via radio to decelerate and set down where met with silence. While he and his two wingmen had locked their radar-guided weapons on the spaceplane, Fuji knew they wouldn't fire upon a civilian plane during peace times. Even if he had been wrong about that, the scandal of massive civilian casualties in the densely populated north of Germany below ruled out the use of firepower against Fuji. Isabelle's mentor was still traveling at mach 2. Intimidated by his speed, the jet fighters continued their threatening transmissions.
"I'm sorry gentlemen, but unfortunately I won't be able to comply with your requests," was the only response Fuji gave while his ship was bouncing in the turbulence from the high-pressure front which had pushed out the morning's ice-storm. Fuji could hear a nervous growl from the cabin. With both hands on the yoke, fighting to keep the ship steady, he turned his head back and spoke in a calming, strong voice. "Don't worry love, you will see your friend in just a little bit." In his console, a duplicate of the image in Tasha's command post showed the perimeter of Troopers around Sanssouci Palace.
Kenshin nervously looked up at Isabelle and Ryan from the catwalk at the base of the dome. The guards below him had made their way through a utility corridor and reached an access shaft to the roof. The building's rotunda-roof cast a grotty shadow across the festivities as a gust of wind pushed the balloon light towards the other side of the palace. Isabelle and Ryan struggled to hold on to the top platform's railing. The wind pushed the balloon far over the edge of the building, leaving the entire ball in the darkness of the palace's shadow. The luminous orb bathed Isabelle in light with Ryan in her shadow, leaving her the brightest point over the festivities of darkness. Isabelle spotted the distinctive row of landing lights on Fuji's spaceplane approach at incredibly high speed. Ryan's eyes followed her look and noticed the rapidly approaching craft. He hurried to secure his glasses in his pocket. His mind was bouncing between fear and jubilation at such a dizzying rate that he was unable to formulate the question Isabelle knew he wanted to pose.
"It's alright, I've done this before off an ice float for a story." A statement that completely missed its objective of calming Ryan down. He was finally able to compose himself enough to figure out what Fuji and Isabelle were about to attempt.
"Fuji was there, was he?"
"He saw the report."
"Who was with you then?"
Isabelle gave Ryan an annoyed look. She was surprised someone as intelligent as Ryan would be asking such a question and replied, "Airhooks aren't designed for two." Isabelle had a much bigger concern and continued. "Let's hope Fuji was right about the blood-thinner wearing off in time."
Ryan's heart dropped into his stomach. The spaceplane had gotten close and was still barreling in at tremendous speed. Suddenly, the large clock-face at the rotunda's base shattered and an army of palace guards poured onto the lower catwalk. Dr. Kenshin threw his arms in the air, but to no avail. The first group of men dressed in attire of the Renaissance tackled the aging scientist to the ground and beat him brutally with steel batons. The next wave of warriors rose along the side of the dome towards Ryan and Isabelle.
That was the scene into which Fuji was piloting his unique airship. Paper and supplies were whirling across the cabin. He had opened the rear hatch and extended the plane's hydraulic arm. Tonati could tell he was getting close to Isabelle and kept relatively calm in his travel restraints. Isabelle and Ryan were easy to spot. Like a light bulb over their heads, the swaying balloon gave Fuji the first reassurance that Isabelle had done much more than just catch on to his airhook idea. His plan would have been pointless to announce on the tapped phone call. Isabelle had actually evaded an armada of Troopers and managed to float a tethered balloon. A rush of energy flooded Fuji's body that made the hairs on his arm stand on-end. Fuji saw how well he had taught his student. He looked back towards Tonati.
"You can be very proud of your companion."
Tonati's triumphant roar acknowledged Fuji's compliment, but moreover, it served as the regal announcement of the mentor's descent to guide his disciple over her hurdle. The plane approached the palace. Still too fast, Fuji brought the ship into a very tight 180 degree turn. At the curve's apogee, the arm protruding from the tail grappled onto the tether and yanked Isabelle and Ryan off the roof. The plane's utility arm had not been designed to withstand the forces of Fuji's maneuver and suffered a hairline fracture in its hydraulic cylinder. The pursuing fighter jets overshot the palace but soon turned in formation, a process much slower than the spaceplane's extreme maneuver. Fuji placed his ship on autopilot with a slow climb and exited the cockpit to get to the open aft section of the plane. He passed Tonati on his way who excitedly watched Isabelle dangle outside. Ryan had interlocked his body with Isabelle's right before the tether had tightened. He opened his eyes for the first time since their feet had lifted off the palace roof only to see he was now airborne. Terrified, he looked at Isabelle, who had a big smile on her face when their eyes met. Before he even had a moment to contemplate Isabelle's reaction to the situation, his attention was drawn forward. The balloon-light's power cable had run out of slack. The tension tore the globe and its socket out of their suspension on the center of the still fairly round balloon. The stress shattered the white-hot light bulb. Darkness enveloped the ominous ball below. Heat from the glowing shards of glass set the balloon fabric on fire. Isabelle and Ryan were skillfully dodging a hail of hot glass and metal, followed by the burning remains of the balloon. The plane was climbing at a steady rate, Isabelle and Ryan could feel their ears pop as air pressure decreased with altitude. Fuji's words rang in her memory.
"The blood-thinner will wear off in a couple of days' time."
It had been almost three days since Isabelle woke up with the strange scratches on her wrist. She could only hope that her body had metabolized the toxin Tasha had administered in her sleep. Another piece of burning fabric flew past her head and drew her attention back to the task at hand. "Help pull us in!" she shouted at Ryan who was dangling next to her. The three Luftwaffe jets had almost come about and wouldn't be much longer. Isabelle and Ryan were pulling with all their strength on the long piece of nylon webbing that was towing them into the night sky. The last piece of glowing glass dislodged from what little was left of the light's electric works. Ryan looked up from his hands towards the plane and spotted the hot projectile speeding towards them. Isabelle was too busy with the tether to notice. Ryan, still loosely interlocked with her body, reached for her shoulder and quickly pulled it towards himself. He managed to sent the two into a short spin, just enough to avoid being hit.
Fuji noticed Ryan and Isabelle's difficulties and operated the plane's articulating arm to bring them in towards the open aft hatch. The arm's hydraulic pump was pushing fluid into the cracked cylinder until it shattered in a violent explosion. A large piece of steel separated from the mechanism and embedded itself deep inside Fuji's right shoulder. The inertia of the quickly traveling object threw him across the cabin's cargo area. With the burst hydraulics cylinder, the mechanical arm lost support of its articulating end. The short-end segment of the robotic appendage was bouncing violently in the turbulent air. Like an alligator stunning its prey, it whipped Ryan and Isabelle up and down. Ryan was getting disoriented from the dizzying motion and lost all grip of the tether. The force of both their masses tugging had become too much for Isabelle who, too, lost her grip. The lightwarrior could feel the makeshift harness tightening around her torso. She felt dizzy and could only hope the source was her brain's motion from the unusual ride, rather than a burst blood vessel's paralyzing effects on her grey matter.
The unique craft continued its climb into Berlin's night sky. The German air force jets had completed their turn and were climbing with Fuji's craft like a swarm of grouper fish surrounding a shark. Fuji stood himself up and with an expression of great pain from his bleeding shoulder, stammered across the
cabin to the controls. He managed to pan the entire arm around its base, thus bringing it towards the end of the hatch. This turned the arm into the wind, creating even greater drag. Isabelle reached for the treads at the edge of the hatch and grabbed on. Ryan's natural reaction was to do as Isabelle did. The sounds of metal fatigue echoed across the cargo bay. The arm had not been designed to operate during flight in the atmosphere and was nearing the end of its ability to resist the sort of stress it was experiencing. The bolts and weld points holding its base overhead in the cabin were breaking, one after another.
With These Eyes Page 23