With These Eyes

by Horst Steiner

  The moment he had been expecting with great anticipation had finally come. A droplet of saliva ran from Gene’s mouth as his order filled the control room.

  "Drain the lake!"

  With military distance, the Trooper confirmed the initial stage of the deadly series of events ahead.

  "Initializing hydroelectric generators. Charging the mountain."

  46 TASHA AND ISABELLE

  Just a short distance away, Isabelle, Ryan and Tonati were catching the mayhem Tasha had caused from a river bank.

  "She tried to kill us," shouted a very upset Ryan.

  Isabelle looked at him and calmly commented, "she does that."

  This was a lot for Ryan to take in. He was used to the quiet sanctity of his office and the logic of his computers. He dried the mist off his glasses and placed them back on his nose. Much of what had happened did not make sense to him. Most of all, he was perplexed that Isabelle had anticipated Tasha's move. His eyes moved back and forth between the helicopter wreckage, Tasha and Isabelle. "How'd you know she was gonna be right here?"

  Isabelle and Tonati exchanged a look and she answered, a bit surprised at how clueless her genius friend was in this situation. "Instinct, Ryan."

  Dragged by the river's strong current, Tasha's lifeless body was approaching the unusual threesome. A locater beacon on the seat blinked red under the moonlight. Isabelle felt empathy for the woman in the river who was drowning before her very eyes.

  "She's probably still alive," she said to Ryan, who felt safe with Tasha where she was.

  He saw no need for a rescue attempt. "The current is way too strong to go after her. Besides, would you really risk your life for someone who wants you dead?"

  Isabelle was a bit disappointed in Ryan. Her knight in shining armor seemed rather selective with his helpful personality. Despite all of Tasha's aggression, she was still a human being who would die if Isabelle did nothing but watch her drown. The way she saw it, none of Nature's children deserved such a fate. It struck Isabelle that this was the wisdom Fuji had taught her. Isabelle was the light and she did not want a life in the shadows of darkness. The only way for her to be victorious was to rescue her hunter. Maybe, just maybe, this would convince Tasha of the way of the light. Isabelle removed her shoes and reached to take off her shirt when she noticed Ryan watching her with his mouth open, as if he was hoping for a show. There was no time to consider Ryan's true motives. After all, he had come to Isabelle's rescue and now it was time to save Tasha. Considering the urgency of her actions, Isabelle decided to keep on all her clothes. The defender of Nature dove into the dark rapids before her. Ryan nervously pushed up his glasses. A few strokes and Isabelle had reached Tasha on her way down-river. The current was too strong to fight, she grabbed on to the seat. The parachute was filled with the rushing water and tugged on the two with the speed of the rapids. A boulder stuck out of the river like an iceberg. The current pulled the chute past the obstacle but Isabelle and Tasha weren't so lucky. The parachute's lines swatted the two women into the rock with great force. The chair-back absorbed most of the force of the impact when it spun around and transferred much of the remaining kinetic energy onto Isabelle. Her left side and much of her back took the brunt of the force. Isabelle would have cried out in pain, but the impact knocked the air out of her lungs, leaving the courageous female gasping for her next breath. Unfortunately, her left was also the side with the pocket full of her medication. Isabelle had kept her supply of the lifesaving medicine on herself so she wouldn't be separated from it. Without her morning and evening injections, Isabelle's health would quickly be overcome by the strain of the virus with which she was born.

  Before Isabelle even had the slightest moment to contemplate the repercussions of her impact with the rock, the chair to which she was clinging and its occupant were dragged further down river. Moments later, Isabelle found herself and Tasha getting washed under a fallen tree that had caught the parachute. As if Mother Nature herself was giving Isabelle a hand, the tree laid just before one of the river's many turns. Its curved bank caught the two women like a nest the eggs from the mother hen.

  Tonati had followed them on the shore and was already there. He grumbled nervously. The puma was a bit unsure what to make of Tasha. He knew she was who had caused Isabelle and him their recent problems and now he saw her laying in an embrace with his lifelong companion. A moment later, Ryan arrived carrying Isabelle’s shoes. He had tripped over some thick roots as he tried to keep pace with the graceful puma. Isabelle opened her eyes. The warm and sweet-tasting water of the jungle river had safely delivered her and the unusual pilot to the rock that formed its edge. The journalistic world-traveler shook the water from her mouth and ears. The first thing she saw was her relentless and now unconscious pursuer. Isabelle reached for the release of Tasha's suspender-style restraints and her lap-strap. Tasha was unlikely to have suffered any back trauma. Her contoured bucket-seat had been designed to withstand the forces of ejection and impact. Tasha and her had shared the only collision, in which Isabelle suffered the brunt of the force. It was safe to say, Tasha had bigger problems to worry about. Isabelle reached forward. It took all her strength to catch the muscular woman and place her gently on the rock.

  Tasha laid on her stomach like a dead shark. Isabelle straddled the motionless predator and sat down on her muscular behind. She placed her hands on Tasha's lower back and shifted her weight forward. Isabelle pushed her hands very slowly along Tasha's back to her shoulder blades. A gush of water gurgled from the mouth of the otherwise inanimate hunter. Isabelle pushed her hands along Tasha's back again. A second, smaller wave of water expelled from her lungs. Isabelle looked up, she saw Ryan drying off his glasses with his shirt.

  "Help me turn her over!"

  Ryan felt it safe and stepped in to help. The pair stood before one of the most beautiful, yet lethal women either of them had ever seen. Isabelle wondered what it must have taken to guide her brilliant soul into the darkness. Tasha was intelligent enough, considering the tricks the warrior had played on her, contemplated Isabelle. It seemed with a different outlook on life, Tasha might have been a good friend. Isabelle leaned over to check her breathing when she noticed Tasha's locket open. Inside the sterling-silver heart was the picture of Tasha's parents in their palace in Eritrea. It was a smaller version of the photo on Tasha’s living-room wall in Los Angeles. Isabelle moved in to take a closer look, but Tasha coughed up more water and snapped into consciousness. Her angry eyes opened, looking directly into Isabelle's. Tasha's hands flung up and she was strangling her rescuer.

  "You're supposed to be dead!"

  Isabelle quickly moved her hands between Tasha's arms and pushed outwards. The dark warrior on the ground lost her grip on Isabelle's throat. She jumped up and left the hunter to her own devices, which unfortunately all manifested in aggression. Sure enough, Tasha still gurgling up more of the river, flung to her feet. Her right fist shot towards Isabelle's nose. Isabelle pivoted out of the way on her right foot. She reached for Tasha's fist with both hands and used her momentum to pull Tasha clear and out of the way. Not willing to settle for defeat, the career-commando swung around for another assault. A kick with her right leg landed Tasha flat on her back and, once again, gasping for air.

  Isabelle was a master of Jiu-Jitsu, the elegant art of turning an aggressor's dark energy against himself. Ryan was shifting repeatedly on his feet. Tonati had had enough of the assaults on his friend. It took the wildcat all but two enormous lunges and he found himself eye to eye with the now attentive assassin. An ear-shattering roar underlined the seriousness of the situation. Annoyed with Tasha's relentless and unsuccessful attempts to disrupt her quest for the truth, Isabelle looked into her green-brown eyes.

  "Will you just stop?"

  With her first full breath of air, Tasha made it clear that she was not ready to admit defeat. "I don't make deals with terrorists!"

  In disbelief, Isabelle replied, "Is that what you think?" She turned to he
r knight in shining armor, who was trying his best to hide behind his glasses and computer. "Ryan, show her."

  He carefully sized up the situation and decided his damsel and her animal provided enough protection from the serpent he was to slay. Ryan moved in a little closer. A few taps of the screen and he held the computer pad like a shield before the dragon. On the display, a schematic detailed the extend of the Gene's hidden lair of doom. Ryan pushed a button on the side of the device and up came a map of the target area of Gene's missile. Tasha thought this had to be a trick; her homeland at the epicenter of such a gruesome weapon. One that she worked to protect.

  "That's a lie!"

  Only the razor-sharp claws that extended from Tonati's paw reminded the untrusting fighter to keep her temper.

  "Your home country is the only one on the entire continent that hasn't let Gene's products overrun their market. You're a thorn in his eye."

  She could see the struggle in the captive hunter's eyes. Isabelle had done what was too difficult for most relationships to endure. She had presented Tasha with a truth that would require great sacrifice to accept. She could see anger, empathy and remorse race across Tasha's beautiful, large eyes like clouds in the sky of an autumn afternoon. Isabelle could see by Tasha's pained expression, that she must have been experiencing her first regrets from having made irreversible choices in her life, based on her inaccurate perception of reality. This was the right moment to draw Tasha a true picture of her actions.

  "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.