With These Eyes (29 page)

34 ALL HOPE IS LOST AT SANSSOUCI

At Schloss Sanssouci in Berlin, the grand
ball had been a busy who's who of prominence from politics and
industry, everyone still expecting Gene as the guest of honor. Many
guests were curiously anticipating Gene's historic announcement.
Only a select few knew of Gene's plan to declare himself emperor of
the world and of those only three knew how he was planning to
subjugate the world without resistance. Ryan had been enjoying the
waltz with Isabelle. This was all anyone could have wished for on a
first date, at least for the public portion. The dreamy moment came
to an abrupt halt when Isabelle froze in mid-step and let her hands
go off Ryan. She felt ill, Isabelle knew something really big had
gone wrong.

"I need to sit down. Something's not
right."

She turned and walked off the dance floor.
Ryan, unsure what just happened tried following her but his path
was blocked by dancing couples with every step. Isabelle walked up
the seven sets of stairs to the palace. Unaware of the full reason
for her discomfort, she had felt the bond between Lionel and Tonati
break. As she glanced at the opulent building, Isabelle noticed the
garden's main source of illumination, a powerful balloon-light that
floated over the rotunda's green copper-roof. It mimicked the light
of the moon and gave the evening a natural flair. She felt the
warmth from the heaters on both sides of the stairs that made this
a comfortable winter night outside. Even on a small scale, Apophis
seemed to have a knack for altering nature. Isabelle felt
off-balance. Her stomach hurt, but not from its digestive function.
It was something much deeper, more spiritual than biological. Since
she was out to save her father, she couldn't afford to think about
the fact that the worst might have happened back home. Isabelle
glanced at the various culinary creations along her way. It didn't
help the feeling in her stomach to see antelope steak on the
African tier or seal sausages that were stacked on a silver platter
on the Antarctica terrace. Isabelle looked ahead, one more long set
of stairs lead to the top tier. It was the most brightly lit
portion of the park. In the center of the plaza laid the palace’s
rotunda with its two immense wings extending to either side.
Isabelle noticed one of the guests with a familiar face standing a
bit awkwardly by himself. The man was nervously sipping on a
highball. The last time Isabelle saw him, his hand was holding the
model of a helium atom. Isabelle was looking at Doctor Kenshin. It
was her video call with him which lead to her race around the
world. She went towards him in a direct line.

"Doctor!"

"Isabelle. Your face is all over the news.
What are you doing here in Berlin?"

"I doubt anyone here watches TV, but let's go
in here and talk."

The rain earlier had warped the frame of a
set of glass doors, which had sprung open. She walked through and
pulled Kenshin by the hand that wasn't busy keeping his drink from
spilling. She had entered the palace's throne room. Red carpet lead
across a grand hall decorated in rare paintings and jewels. The
plush purpure floor-covering lead to a lavish throne carved from
emerald, covered with gold reliefs and jewels. A golden scepter
atop a pedestal by the side of the throne towered over the room
like the sun over the land. The flames in a fireplace several
meters in height behind the throne were giving off a comforting
warmth.

Outside, Ryan had found his way to the center
tier where the buffet of India had drawn in many of the ball's
ruthless guests. Before Ryan's disgust could even begin to flood
him, the buzzing of his digital assistant drew his mind into
cyberspace, but gave him little escape from a world of suffering.
His face turned to stone as he read the information that had
arrived.

Isabelle pushed the double doors shut. She
knew Kenshin would be able to provide another piece to her puzzle.
"What's really going on at the particle accelerator?"

Kenshin's eyes were those of a troubled man.
Dark circles under his eyes were telltale signs of restless nights.
His heart weighed on the brilliant scientist's persona. He ran his
weathered fingers through his grey hair. With a heavy sigh, he took
a seat on one of the velvet-covered chairs that lined the red
carpet. Isabelle took the chair beside Kenshin, reached out and
held his hand with both of hers. He took another deep breath. "I'm
glad you're here. Before I worked at the particle collider, the
biotech branch of the firm found a way to bombard tree DNA with
particles. The result were seeds that would grow plants with a
slight electrical charge."

This answered a lot of unasked questions for
Isabelle. "The trees would be lightning magnets."

Kenshin nodded in agreement. "Gene would
offer the seedlings to poor nations in reforestation programs.
After the trees were fully grown, he would use his climate
engineering division to lay cloud-seeds that would develop really
aggressive electrical storms. He'd seek out areas that would
usually not experience that sort of weather. Clouds would form
within minutes and generate enormous amounts of electricity."

Isabelle: "All needing someplace to
discharge."

Kenshin: "The negative charges would
concentrate over the area with the positively charged trees and
unload at once."

Isabelle: "Clove trees, right?"

Kenshin: "How did you know?"

Isabelle: "My mother worked in a village that
had been built for a tribe displaced during one of Apophis' slash
and burn operations. As part of their reparations, the firm had
built a town with a hospital and a research laboratory that offered
my mom the position of director of homeopathic sciences."

Kenshin: "That was your mother's
village?"

Isabelle: "I was young then and don't
remember every detail, but the scent was unmistakable. We were told
the trees were keeping poisonous spiders from coming to the
village."

One of the palace’s servants unlocked the
throne room's main entrance and entered to see why he could hear
people inside. He took one look at Isabelle and Kenshin before he
turned about on his heel and exited as fast as had appeared while
speaking into his lapel. Isabelle could hear the guard lock the
door behind himself. She had to hurry to find out what was really
going on. Kenshin held the key. She tried to understand his
involvement.

"How did you get drawn into all this?"

Kenshin explained. "Gene lured the other
scientists and me in, making us think we were going to end hunger
in the world with quantum energy. I poured the last ten years of my
life into this. I didn't know he was going to make a bomb out of
it."

Isabelle looked around the room that was
dripping with opulence. It wasn't hard to figure out the purpose of
the evening. "Tonight must be his coronation - to rule the world
with an iron fist. So where is he?"

Kenshin replied. "One of my colleagues was
travelling here with Gene’s flytilla. He told me they changed
course to the launch site. Gene wouldn't miss this unless he had a
really good reason."

It dawned on Isabelle that her cause was
having an effect. “The launch of what?”

Kenshin: "He developed a ceramic missile that
is slung from a superconductive track. The missile is so fast,
conventional ballistic weapons can't catch it."

"It carries no fuel?"

"Just a photonic warhead. A horrible weapon,
which releases a powerful photon wave that vaporizes everything in
its path. Nothing left, no plants, birds, people, structures.
Everything is erased. The ground melts and turns to lava. He is
launching this missile tonight during the fireworks display
here."

Isabelle: "It could destroy the whole
earth."

Kenshin: "His plan is to erase Africa and the
Middle East. The world that survives would be so afraid, its people
would be easy to subjugate."

Ryan slipped in from the terrace. He tried to
shut the large set of double glass-doors behind him, but the warped
frame would not fully close. Ryan proclaimed with a bit of panic in
his voice, "We need to block the doors."

Isabelle swiftly grabbed a lance off the wall
and slid it through the handles of the main entrance while Ryan and
Kenshin pushed a large wooden chest against the glass doors,
blocking them. Ryan had a very serious expression on his face. He
pulled his glasses out of the inside chest pocket of his tuxedo and
put them on as he walked towards the throne and Isabelle. He looked
at her awkwardly sad.

"I am so sorry."

Isabelle sensed this would be the worst news
possible. Ryan continued.

"My computer was still looking for anything
de Fleur
."

As if everything was moving in slow motion,
she listened to Ryan deliver this information. The sounds from the
ball, the guards outside, all seemed to have disappeared while
Ryan's words, big as planets, filled her universe.

"Your father just passed away."

"No, No, No, this can't be," thought Isabelle
as the grim news knocked her backwards like a fighter getting
pummeled in a boxing match. Numb from pain, Isabelle moved to one
of the room's large windows. Outside, an army of palace guards had
gathered and was looking for a way in without causing a
disturbance. A single tear ran down Isabelle's cheek as she looked
into the night where dozens of people had gathered over food and
music. The breath from her words formed a circle of condensation on
the window.

"I could have been there for him. I should
have stayed."

Her pain echoed across the throne room. Ryan
was uneasy. He had no idea how to act in such a difficult moment.
He was used to the cold logic of computers. The intricate workings
of a woman's emotions were uncharted territory for the otherwise
brilliant young man. Maybe this had been the wrong moment to tell
her. With the windows locked and the main entrance blocked, Ryan
thought his genius was better applied to the search for a way out.
The windows wouldn't hold the palace guards for long. Ryan knew
this wasn't the best time, but he had more to tell Isabelle and Dr.
Kenshin, who looked helpless and lost with the situation. While
picking up candlesticks and looking behind paintings, he announced
to Isabelle, "Tasha has the palace surrounded."

The sound of breaking wood could be heard
emanating from the entrance. Unseen by Ryan, the guards had cleared
the hallway outside the throne room and were working on getting in
without raising the suspicion of the guests. Inside, Ryan
continued. "Oh yeah, and these guys. Tasha put a bounty on your
head; one million Euros - dead or alive."

Isabelle reached into her purse and squeezed
her mother's beads in the palm of her hand. She was crushed. The
lightwarrior had become an orphan. Her journey across the world had
neither saved her father nor prevented Gene from the terror he was
about to unleash on the world. Maybe if Gene had come to Berlin,
but it was her own doing that had sent him to personally ensure the
launch would take place without interference. With every hopeless
thought that crossed Isabelle's mind, more palace guards appeared
outside until each of the double glass doors that stretched the
length of the room was blocked. The door lock at the main entrance
had given way to force, but the heavy chest still leaned against
the entrance in a slightly tilted, upright position. The guards'
ruckus had drawn the attention of a few of the guests who weren't
used to such activity in their presence, and for a little while,
the noise of forceful entry subsided. In its place came the
whispering of commands. The Troopers outside drew automatic weapons
and batons. Isabelle saw herself trapped with no hope of escape,
let alone victory. Her outlook had never been so bleak.

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.