With These Eyes (12 page)

Just a little way up the coast, the Santa
Monica pier was bustling with people. The cool ocean air was filled
with the aroma of fresh cotton candy and funnel cake. The cries of
seagulls called out over the general murmur and banter from the
crowd. During the winter, the pier became a favorite with people of
the west side who enjoyed the months when the beaches weren't
overrun by tourists. Many parents had come with their children for
a late afternoon at the amusement park on the wooden wharf. The
Ferris wheel was full of couples for whom the two-seat gondolas
provided a great make-out spot at sunset. Tasha's water-bottle
truck was parked behind the
Falafel Frigate
. The two-story
restaurant had become a popular spot for dinner and “happy-hour”
for many who still knew it as the
Fisherman's Frigate
.

Seafood had become the sustenance of the
desperate. The oceans where so heavily loaded with toxins that
those who ate its fruit even sporadically would face an early and
painful end. A spewing oil well a few years earlier had added
massive amounts of carcinogens to the seas. Even worse were the
high levels of mercury. The toxic heavy metal was continuously
leeching out of trillions of empty water bottles that floated in
earth’s oceans. This trend had gotten worse since Gene convinced
the world with the help of Michael's show that recycled plastic was
to blame for a recent wave of birth defects and illness. The truth
of it was that Gene had added drops of toxic waste to billions of
pallets of Apophis-brand water. This helped him save on disposal
cost but brought profits that spread like ripples in a pond. His
entire health-care machine was working beyond capacity. Hospitals
were adding cots to rooms and tents to parking lots. The massive
impact on world health lead to a ban on recycling, a move that kept
Gene's raw-material producing industries going strong. Regardless
of its menu, the restaurant continued to offer a stunning view of
the Pacific Ocean. It was the last establishment before the end of
the wooden pier, which extended a respectable length over the
water. Several of Tasha's Troopers were trying to blend in as
customers and one even as a busboy.

Outside on the end of the pier, people were
enjoying the ocean air and watching the sunset. One of Tasha's
Troopers disguised as a priest was pointing his hidden-camera Bible
at the crowd. Another Trooper dressed in a clown suit was getting
rather annoyed with some kids who were buying balloons from him and
blocking the view of the spy camera in the sunflower on his
lapel.

45 feet below the wooden platform, waves were
crashing against the pylons as the rising moon pulled the tide to
shore. Amongst the many sea creatures below the surface lurked a
somewhat unusual predator. Tasha had had enough of sitting in her
control room and put herself where she was happiest: in the middle
of the action. Her athletic body was dressed in fins and a
purple-trimmed wetsuit. Tasha's locks were waving in the water like
the tentacles of an octopus. Underwater weapons and a
suspicious-looking package were fastened to her arms and legs with
quick-release tape.

Inside the water-bottle truck, Troopers were
monitoring images from their spy cams and the pier's surveillance
system. On their main viewer, Tasha's goggle-cam showed the keel of
an approaching sailboat. Tasha had ordered the drone grounded
because of the proximity to the Los Angeles International Soskyh
Aeroplex -
LAX
. She didn't want to get her drone caught in
the net of airport radar.

Fuji had arrived on the pier above and was
walking to a spot at the end, near the falafel restaurant. This was
the bench where he used to sit with Isabelle and watch the whales.
Together, they would see the majestic guardians of the sea surface
to take their breaths just off the coast. When no boats or tourists
were around, the whales would sometimes come close enough to the
pier that Isabelle could look them in the eyes. Fuji had taught
Isabelle that their song held great benefit and that hearing it
would further align oneself with the rhythm of the universe. Many
people would wait for hours, sometimes entire days, and not see a
whale. When Fuji would go with Isabelle, it seemed these graceful
mammals appeared in abundance.

Fuji looked to his left and just as the sun
touched the horizon, he spotted Isabelle bringing her sailboat
about at the bottom of the pier. He saw his friend motioning with
the right arm for him to come down while her left hand was
straining to turn the wheel. Fuji climbed down a ladder on one of
the wooden pylons. Isabelle's boat was passing underneath the pier
next to the pylon where Tasha was waiting. She knew the GPS
location of Fuji and Isabelle's cell phones had been fairly
constant on the bench above when they had met in their past
excursions. This made it easy for Tasha to place herself amidst the
action. Like the octopus lurking for a fish, Tasha pushed herself
towards the keel of Isabelle's boat. She quickly removed the
suspicious-looking package from her upper thigh and fastened it to
the lower part of the keel with a power screwdriver. The packet was
about the size of a shoe box with mounting tabs on the short sides.
Sealed in several layers of plastic inside were two kilos of
Columbian cocaine, one of Apophis' less publicized products.
"Exhibit J in place," Tasha announced over the talk-back system in
her breathing apparatus. "Be ready to notify the coastguard of a
drug smuggler if she goes any further than a mile off shore." The
underwater warrior dove back behind the pylon.

Above deck, Fuji had just jumped onboard and
Isabelle steered her ship into the open water. Fuji ducked as the
sail's mast swung to port. He caught a brief glance down the stairs
into the main cabin where wires protruded from spaces once occupied
by electronics. He walked to the conn where Isabelle was steering
the ship towards the setting sun. Fuji gave Isabelle's shoulder a
squeeze to greet her. She could feel the "do not worry" that his
touch conveyed. Fuji noticed the GPS and sonar missing from the
pilot's station.

"I gather you still haven't gotten your
privacy back?”

Isabelle replied, "I thought this might give
us a chance to speak alone." She turned the ship to starboard and
sailed northwest along the coast as it curved towards Malibu. Three
dolphins surfaced at the port bow and swam alongside the boat for
quite a while. Isabelle continued, "I need to confront these people
and ask what it is they want from me."

"I don't think it's going to be that easy.
Someone's warning you to step back."

"They want me to kill my story on free
energy." Isabelle looked at the sky. Like a luminous orb, the full
moon was large so soon after its rise. Nature had put on a
magnificent display. The sky was turning bright-orange with the sun
touching the horizon. "Imagine, no one would fight over energy
anymore. Everyone could have food and heat. It would be the end of
inequity."

She looked down and saw Fuji raising the
spinnaker sail off the bow. The last rays of the day's sun filled
it with their bright orange light as the sail took shape in the
wind. The boat picked up a few knots from the added pull. Fuji
admired the colorful sail for a moment then he turned to his
disciple. "If you ran that story, you could stand to lose
everything. What would become of your puma?"

"What
will
become of Tonati if I allow
this to happen? What about the time after that? Look at what
happened to my father. He taught me the importance of integrity in
journalism. I cannot give in to these people."

Despite the point Fuji was arguing, Isabelle
had given him the answer for which he had hoped. "You know, I've
done my best thinking in my retreat."

Isabelle looked at Fuji, the orange glow of
the sky bathed his face in warm colors. "In the Arctic?"

Fuji smiled "yes." He had rarely spoken about
his place in Spitsbergen. Isabelle had spent her young reporting
years working for her father's news network in Alaska. These days,
she very much appreciated the warmth of Southern California's
climate. Going beyond the Arctic circle would take her away from
the security cameras and the traffic lights of Los Angeles that her
pursuer was employing ever so cunningly.

The technology of the city had paralyzed
Isabelle's life.

15 ASSENT FROM THE CITY OF ANGELS

It was a few hours after sunset. Isabelle,
Fuji and Tonati where in Fuji's four-wheel drive car. The trio was
travelling north towards Palmdale, a small desert community on the
high planes outside Los Angeles. The area's seemingly endless,
straight desert-roads were famous from countless motion pictures
and television commercials. Isabelle was in the driver's seat, Fuji
beside her and Tonati in the back.

"Don't you ever let others drive?" Fuji
asked.

Isabelle smiled. "Wouldn't it be selfish to
put the whole car at risk?"

"Other people are good drivers."

"Not as good as me."

Fuji returned the smile. Isabelle's
confidence put him at ease. He could tell she was strong enough to
face what laid ahead. The years he spent chanting with her every
day had put Isabelle in the rhythm. Fuji felt the promise he made
to her mother so many years ago had been a worthy one. It had been
a difficult task to provide guidance to a hard-headed individual
like Isabelle, but she had been an excellent student. She knew from
early on that she was a part of nature. Without the technology that
her adversary was using against her, she needed to rely on her
instinct again the way she had learned as a child in the jungle.
Isabelle was right. She was an excellent driver. Tasha's platoon
traveled surrounding Isabelle in the usual manner. Isabelle had
almost gotten used to her entourage. She knew they wouldn't be able
to stop her without drawing the attention of the public and
eventually the police. After a 45 minute drive, the three friends
were nearing their destination. The road sign read:

Palmdale Airport 2 miles

When Isabelle took the exit, she noticed
Tasha's Troopers continued on, leaving her on her own. Isabelle and
company arrived at Palmdale's small, private airstrip. A chain-link
fence enclosed the area. Isabelle drove up to the gate. Fuji opened
the padlock with a key he produced from his car's ashtray and let
Isabelle drive in.

"Have the
Pterodactyl
readied for
liftoff." Inside the command post, Tasha was preparing for an
aerial pursuit. "Company travels to the Lancaster facility. Looks
like our little package thinks she can just run away from her
problems." The view-screen showed Fuji's car driving across the
airfield.

Isabelle pulled up in front of his enormous
hangar. Fuji pushed the remote clipped under his visor and the
gigantic set of doors before them opened. As she drove in, Isabelle
could see Fuji's spaceplane parked inside. It looked like a cross
between the space shuttle and a jet fighter and was about the size
of a business-plane.

"What's this?" Isabelle had never seen a
craft this advanced.

"It's a leftover from my working days. You
could call it part of the severance package," Fuji replied.

Isabelle stopped the car next to the
unusual-looking ship. She walked around to the back of the car and
let Tonati out. Fuji grabbed their two suitcases off the back seat
and walked towards the hatch on the plane's side. The futuristic
craft had sparked Isabelle's interest. She had to see what sort of
engine propelled it. She walked towards the plane's aft when Fuji
stepped in and extended his right arm, suitcase in hand, and
motioned towards the hatch.

Isabelle reluctantly altered her direction
while commenting, "It looks like a spaceship."

"It's an experimental plane. Normal airports
don't allow it, so I keep it where no one cares."

Stairs extended from the open hatch. Isabelle
climbed to the top step and reached down for the luggage Fuji was
handing to her. Followed by Fuji, Tonati jumped in, curious to look
around. The interior was more utilitarian than elegant. The cabin
housed a cargo bay and a hydraulic arm with a cable winch. Fuji
stowed the suitcases in a compartment between hatch and cockpit. It
took Isabelle a little bit of convincing until Tonati was
comfortable with getting strapped in for the flight. A customized
body harness with tie-down webbing provided a secure hold for the
large cat. Isabelle kissed the top of his nose and a friendly growl
let her know that her furry friend was okay. Isabelle was ready to
go to the cockpit with Fuji.

"I'm driving this time," said Fuji with a
grin. He took the pilot's seat on the left. Isabelle sat down in
the remaining seat to his right. The cockpit featured a large
thrust-control lever in the center console, a screen in front of
each pilot and flight controls similar to those of a single engine
jet-plane. Fuji powered up the system and shortly thereafter the
craft began to taxi in virtual silence towards the beginning of the
runway. Isabelle was surprised she didn’t hear the usual rumble and
roar common to air travel.

"No engine noise?"

Fuji just smiled and continued to busy
himself with lift-off preparations. No one was in the control tower
this time of night and since the airstrip was closed, Fuji had
little to worry about other air traffic. When the plane reached the
take-off position at the beginning of the runway, Fuji turned on a
bank of blindingly bright landing lights that ran across the width
of the spaceplane. The entire length of the runway was illuminated
before them. Fuji reached for the throttle between the two seats.
He gave the silver lever a gentle push forward and the craft
accelerated along the runway. The thrust pushed Isabelle firmly
into her seat. About halfway down the long concrete surface, the
plane lifted off the ground. Fuji pulled a lever to retract the
carriage. The shaking and rumbling from the runway was gone and
almost silent as a glider, the craft gained altitude at an enormous
rate. The climb soon took them to the outer edge of the atmosphere.
The craft had continuously accelerated to this point. Fuji pulled
back on the throttle to level off at the current speed, fast enough
for an orbiter.