The Lost Sword

by Pitt, Darrell

  Sighing, he gave Scarlet a nod as they began their descent.

  Swimming in the jellysuit was easier than ever. Jack felt like the creature could almost read his mind as he rapidly descended, using the chain as a guide. In the distance, he could just make out Mizu City. He glanced over at Scarlet. Smiling, she gave him a thumbs-up sign. She was doing fine.

  Soon they arrived at Dome One. Peering through the skin of the city, Jack saw how the entire dome was now flooded. Personal belongings floated about inside, as well as squids and a school of fish.

  How terrible, Jack thought. Turning to the ocean floor, he started over to where he had seen the glowing object.

  It’s gone. Someone’s taken it.

  Then his eyes caught a tiny flash of light, an object glistening about a mile away. Signalling to Scarlet, they swam towards it, Jack’s excitement growing with every passing second. Finally, after being lost for centuries, the Kusanagi sword would again see the light of day.

  Swimming between two rocky shelves on the ocean floor, they reached the shining object. Fish darted away in panic.

  It looks different, Jack thought. It was glowing earlier...

  The object—some sort of handle—was half-buried in the sand. Jack pulled on it, but the sword would not budge. Scarlet gripped the handle too and they tugged harder on it. It still wouldn’t move.

  What—?

  A shadow passed overhead. Jack looked up in surprise to see a submarine. Then the sword’s handle dragged him and Scarlet downwards as the water churned and sand exploded.

  Too late, Jack realised the object wasn’t a sword at all. It was the strut of a huge door. The submarine was descending into an underwater dock.

  Jack and Scarlet tried to swim away, but the undersea suction was too powerful. Desperately trying to avoid being crushed by the submarine, Jack watched helplessly as two doors slid across, closing them off from the ocean.

  Water drained from the room, leaving the submarine in a shallow dock. Some lights flickered on.

  Jack looked about for a way out, but they were caught between the submarine and a metal walkway. The submarine’s hatch flew open and men with machine guns stormed out. A figure stepped out calmly after them.

  ‘Welcome to my underwater city,’ Fujita said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Jack and Scarlet had been dragged unceremoniously from the water, their jellysuits torn off them, and then taken to a cave. With so many guns trained on them, Jack couldn’t see how they could escape.

  ‘I demand that you release us,’ Scarlet said. ‘Or you will suffer the consequences.’

  ‘Thank you for your advice,’ Fujita said. ‘But I will ignore it.’ He smiled without humour. ‘I thought you had escaped me, yet fortune has returned you.’

  ‘What is this place?’ Jack asked. ‘And what do you mean about an underwater city? Mizu is the only underwater city.’

  ‘Those Darwinists!’ Futija said, his eyes darkening. ‘What would they know?’

  ‘According to science, the world must change,’ Scarlet said, ‘or we’re doomed.’

  Fujita laughed. ‘What matters is the here and now,’ he said. ‘If a few forests disappear or a few animals become extinct, so be it. Only one thing lives forever—money!’ He pointed to Jack and Scarlet. ‘Take them to the dragon!’

  Jack shot a glance at Scarlet.

  The dragon?

  They were pushed down a tunnel that opened up to a cavern the size of several football stadiums. It contained an underground city with apartment blocks adjacent to factories, streets and government buildings. Thousands of people could live and work here—but none did.

  ‘What is this place?’ Jack asked.

  ‘The future,’ Fujita said. ‘The ideal city. A resident here need never leave the confines of my perfect world.’

  Perfect world? It looks more like a jail, Jack thought. Who would want to live here?

  But as they crossed the massive city, Jack couldn’t help but be impressed by what Fujita had accomplished. Above this underground cavern were millions of tons of water. He had successfully engineered a submarine that could travel at these depths, as well as an underwater dock that could accommodate it. He had achieved the same goals as the Darwinists, but using steam technology.

  Jack and Scarlet were forced down another tunnel. It opened out onto a cavern almost as massive as the first.

  A scream caught in Jack’s throat.

  Directly before them stood an enormous creature with four squat legs as wide as the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral. They were attached to a long, reptilian body, covered in metal scales, with bat-like wings sprouting from its shoulders.

  The monster’s claws were long and sharp, as were its teeth. Anything in that mouth would be crushed to pieces in seconds. At the other end of its body was a tail, large enough to demolish a city building with a single swipe.

  ‘It’s...’ Jack finally found his voice. ‘It’s...’

  ‘Not alive,’ Scarlet said. ‘It’s a mechanical creature.’

  Now that Jack peered more closely, he could see the wings were fixed in position, meaning it could not fly, but merely added to its terrifying appearance. Circular hinges connected the legs to its body, steam leaking from a dozen places.

  The dragon’s eyes were curiously blank. The bridge must be up there, Jack thought. They must control it from there. Tiny portholes were dispersed across its body where more of Fujita’s men must have been stationed.

  ‘Why?’ Jack asked. ‘What is this for?’

  ‘Edgar Doyle was not successful in retrieving the sword,’ Fujita said. ‘Its power would have given me complete control over Japan. In the coming war, I would have kept Japan neutral. Once the other nations were weakened by war, I would have declared myself world leader, using the Kusanagi sword to destroy any who stood against me.’

  His face darkened.

  ‘But the sword has not been found. Possibly it never will be. So now I must use Plan B.’

  ‘Which is?’ Scarlet asked.

  ‘The final destruction of the Darwinist League. Their dreams of clean energy will die with them.’ Fujita pointed to Jack and Scarlet. ‘Place them aboard the dragon,’ he said. ‘I wish them to see the destruction of Doyle and the others.’

  Jack and Scarlet struggled against Fujita’s men, but one produced a bottle filled with a foul-smelling potion. A soaked cloth was clamped over Jack’s nose and the world swam around him.

  When he next awoke, he was in a gloomy cell, his head aching.

  ‘Scarlet?’ he said.

  Groaning, she lifted her head. ‘Jack?’ she said. ‘Where are we?’

  A distant engine chugged, and the room shuddered.

  ‘I think that answers your question,’ Jack said. ‘We’re on board Fujita’s dragon.’

  Scarlet’s eyes widened. ‘He said he was going to attack Tokyo!’ she said. ‘And the prison.’

  Jack cursed himself.

  Mr Doyle will be killed, he thought. Why did I ever try to find the sword? We would have been o
n our way back to England by now.

  ‘This is all my fault,’ he moaned.

  Scarlet nodded glumly. ‘It’s not all your fault,’ she said, ‘but it mostly is.’

  ‘Scarlet—’

  ‘What do you want me to say?’ she snapped. ‘You’ve followed Edgar Doyle around like a dog on a lead. Mr Doyle said he was a consummate liar, but you ignored him. Edgar doesn’t have a moral bone in his body!’

  Scarlet was correct in everything she’d said.

  ‘All right,’ he groaned. ‘But now we need to get out of here and warn the others.’

  ‘I’ve already been thinking about that,’ Scarlet said. ‘And I suggest we try the old-fashioned approach.’

  Pulling out her lock pick, Scarlet had the door open in seconds. Creeping to the end of the corridor, they reached a T-intersection where they spotted a man guarding a door at one end.

  ‘What will we do?’ Jack whispered.

  ‘Stay here and be ready,’ she said.

  Taking a deep breath, Scarlet stepped out into the hallway, stared at the man in shock and let out a little cry. She turned and ran in the opposite direction. Waiting until the man’s footsteps had almost reached him, Jack stuck out his leg and tripped the man over. A punch to the jaw rendered him unconscious.

  The dragon’s engines changed pitch as Jack and Scarlet dragged the man back to their cell and locked him inside.

  ‘It sounds like the dragon’s almost ready to leave,’ Scarlet said.

  ‘We don’t have much time,’ Jack agreed. ‘Do you have any thoughts about how to stop this thing?’

  Scarlet frowned. ‘This does remind me of a Brinkie Buckeridge book,’ she said. ‘She once had to stop a huge mechanical dragon from attacking Tokyo in The Adventure of the Laughing Monster.’

  Jack’s mouth fell open. ‘You’re joking.’

  ‘I am,’ she admitted. ‘But I imagine attacking the bridge would be suicide.’

  ‘Which leaves the engine room,’ Jack said. ‘Without power, this thing is just a lump of metal.’

  The mechanical beast shuddered, and gave a huge lurch.

  ‘We’re moving,’ he said. ‘I just hope we’re not too late.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  The motion of the metal creature reminded Jack of a roller coaster he had once ridden where he had been thrown about like a boat on a stormy sea.

  Sea water dripped through cracks in the plating as the dragon lurched from side to side.

  ‘Is this thing going to hold together?’ Scarlet asked, as they were thrown against a wall.

  ‘I hope so,’ Jack said. ‘Otherwise we’ll need to learn how to breathe water.’

  ‘Where do you think we are?’

  ‘One of the legs,’ Jack said, gripping a wall for support. ‘Something of this weight can’t swim. We must be walking to Tokyo.’

  ‘So the engine room must be upstairs?’

  ‘Probably in its belly.’

  They continued their lurching climb up a spiral staircase to the next level. Water continued to seep through a thousand tiny joins.

  This thing may look menacing, but it’s barely holding together.

  Reaching a dining hall, they saw a man at a stove in an adjacent kitchen. He was desperately trying to boil a pot of water. Tables had been bolted to the floor, but everything else—kitchen utensils, chairs and food supplies—were sliding everywhere.

  ‘We should stop for a meal,’ Scarlet whispered. ‘I’m good with a pan.’

  ‘I’ve eaten your cooking. I don’t think so.’

  Jack pointed to a door on the other side. They started across, but at that moment the pot fell off the stove. Cursing, the man grabbed for it—and spotted them. Screaming something in Japanese, he snatched up another pan and came towards them. Jack picked up a chair and hurled it, but the man knocked it aside.

  Reaching Scarlet first, the man swung the pot. She ducked and slammed a fist into his stomach. Jack leapt onto one of the nearby tables, and slid across it as the dragon tilted, kicking the man between the legs, and followed up with a punch to the face. Grimacing, the man raised the pan, ready to bring it down on Jack’s head.

  Clang!

  The man fell sideway, unconscious, revealing Scarlet with a frying pan.

  ‘I said I was good with a pan,’ she said.

  ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘Let’s find the engine room and stop this thing.’

  They continued through the creature, passing another porthole. Jack still saw only water, but it was lighter than before. We must be nearing the surface.

  Reaching another corridor, he noticed the rise in temperature, and the sound of crackling ahead.

  They spotted two men with empty wheelbarrows leaving a room, their overalls and faces black. The men returned a moment later, their wheelbarrows fully laden with coal.

  ‘The engine room is through there,’ Jack whispered, pointing to the first door.

  Scarlet tilted her head. ‘Do you hear that?’ she asked.

  The dragon’s sounds had changed. Jack raced to the porthole at the other end of a storage room and saw a patch of blue sky, and the skyline of Tokyo.

  ‘We’re almost there!’ he cried. ‘How are we going to stop this thing?’

  Scarlet frowned. Then her nose twitched. ‘What’s that smell?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s not me!’

  Her eyes focused on a nearby shelf. ‘Look!’ she said, pulling back a cloth. ‘It’s dynamite.’

  ‘Bazookas!’ Jack said. ‘Fujita must have it for bombs.’

  ‘A piece of this thrown into the furnace would cause the engine room to explode.’

  ‘How do you suggest we get it there? Mail it?’

  ‘I know!’ Scarlet said, grabbing half-a-dozen sticks. ‘Follow me!’

  They raced up the corridor to the coal room. A couple of blackened overalls hung from pegs. Each dragging a pair on, Jack and Scarlet smeared coaldust over their faces and put on caps. Scarlet tucked her hair away.

  ‘Are you sure this is going to work?’ Jack asked.

  ‘It worked for Brinkie Buckeridge in The Adventure of the Singing Dachshund.’

  ‘We don’t have a singing dachshund!’

  ‘We don’t need one!’

  Jack tucked the dynamite down his overalls, and they made their way to the door of the engine room. The intense heat from the furnace stung the back of Jack’s throat.

  There were no lights other than the glare from the open door of the furnace. Before it, the men worked like a well-oiled machine: two transported coal across the room while two others shovelled coal into the furnace. A man monitored gauges on the engine while another listened to a speaking tube.

  He barked an order and the men began to shovel more furiously. The sound of the enormous dragon changed again.

  ‘We’ve hit land!’ Scarlet hissed.

  ‘We’ve got to blow the furnace up,’ Jack said, ‘but I don�
�t see how.’

  If they tossed the dynamite in, it would detonate immediately, killing them as well.

  Jack snapped his fingers. ‘I need a piece of cloth,’ he said.

  ‘What for?’

  ‘To make curtains! Why do you think?’

  Scarlet partially undid her overalls, and tore off a piece of her dress. Wrapping the dynamite, Jack smeared coaldust over it.

  ‘There,’ he said. ‘It looks just like a lump of coal.’

  ‘You’ve got a funny idea of what a lump of coal looks like!’

  ‘It’s close enough. Wait here.’

  Jack studied the men. There was a tiny pause in their actions as the coal was poured from one wheelbarrow to the next. If he timed this right...

  At the very instant their backs were turned, Jack scooted to the nearest coal bin, dropped the wrapped parcel into it and returned to Scarlet. He expected someone to raise the alarm, but no-one had noticed a thing.

  Jack and Scarlet watched as the parcel was shovelled into a wheelbarrow and transported towards the fire.

  ‘Come on,’ Jack urged. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

  Racing from the room, they ran straight into the man who had left earlier. As he opened his mouth to shout, Scarlet knocked him out with a single punch.

  ‘That was fantastic,’ Jack said.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘Now, come on. We haven’t much time.’

  They ran down the corridor, passing a porthole with a view over the city. The dragon had already carved a path of destruction through several suburbs of downtown Tokyo. Suddenly, the machine slammed into a skyscraper—and the building buckled.

  Thousands of people will be killed! Jack thought. No!

  But there was nothing he could do. He watched in horror as the skyscraper toppled like a mighty tree and slammed onto a hundred smaller homes, sending a plume of smoke and dust into the air. People ran in terror.