“They don’t seem to have any response,” Yuri stated. She was right. Compared with the initial missile attacks, the antiaircraft lasers were all bark and no bite.
We were close to the coastline again. Lovely Angel’s altitude slowly got lower.
And that’s when it happened.
We were being hailed. Visual communication.
I flipped a screen on. On the tiny communication screen a woman appeared. She was an older woman wearing what looked like a khaki military uniform. She was probably in her mid to late thirties. She had a piercing look in her eyes, and a slim build. She came across as intellectual and frigid. Her hair was a reddish-blond color. She had gray eyes. I had a feeling we had met somewhere before.
“You two are the famous Dirty Pair, am I right…?” said the woman. She had a deep, chilly voice. “I have heard some war stories.”
“It’s a pleasure—” I responded. “You are the organized crime syndicate Lucifer, correct?”
“Dear me…” The woman laughed out of the side of her mouth. “I thought you were only good at blowing things up, but I also see you have a powerful imagination.”
“Ha ha ha,” I laughed, unphased. “To kill Lamier’s most powerful man, Standalf, assume his authority, and then to take over this solitary island as your own base… such bold actions could only be done by one large crime organization, and that’s Lucifer, no doubt.”
“You seem to have it all figured out. All the ducks are in a little row—” the woman conceded. What do you know? My guess was a home run. “But let’s get back to that game a little later. For now I want you to raise up and fly your ship around this island.”
“What did you say…?!”
Just when I was about to blow this case wide open, and she calls our hard work a “game.” She pushed my buttons a little too hard.
I responded again, in a shrill voice.
“Or you could just surrender right now! This ship can turn your entire island into a floating lump of charcoal, and I’ve already alerted the United Space Force!”
“Well, aren’t you the courageous one…”
“Shut your trap!” I shouted even louder. I couldn’t stand sarcasm… “If that’s how you want it, we are going to fry your entire island right now! Get ready!”
“Now, please wait a moment—” The woman gave a composed laugh again. “We have Space Smashers here. If you act hastily, you could be releasing infinitely more power than you intend to. You might want to rethink your strategy.”
Gulp!
I choked. What a dirty… Space Smashers she said! Throwing those into the conversation! What a slimy way to play…
“No matter how many people have died due to Dirty Pair screw-ups, I don’t think you are prepared to take the responsibility of killing seven million tourists, now are you?” she said in a voice that could have come from the bowels of the planet.
“After you take a lap around the island, I will send you landing coordinates!” she continued. “Then I want you to touch down. Oh, and how rude of me. My name is Isabella. After you land I’ll invite you up to my castle.”
Cough!
I clenched my jaw, and helplessly nodded my head, while Yuri, in faith, brought Lovely Angel around and began a turn around the island, as instructed. We got up to three thousand meters. If they really had Space Smashers, then we really had no other choice than to do what she said. Dammit! I should have anticipated something like this.
We received the coordinates by laser transmission. We were told to land just east of the center of the island. The landing spot was inside the volcanic crater. Damn, if only we had swept the east half of the island first!
The stern of Lovely Angel dipped down and we prepared for landing. I had one hand on the laser trigger and the other on the missile launch trigger, in case there was some sort of trouble, but the enemy remained quiet. It looked like they really were going to let us land. Maybe they planned to hold us hostage to the United Space Force.
As we descended into the crater a huge man-made structure came into our field of vision. It was made completely of volcanic rock and dirt, no sign of any vegetation anywhere. It was the same reddish-brown color as its surroundings. From far away it was unnoticeable. That was some camouflage.
This was Isabella’s castle, as she called it. It was built in a spectacular Middle Ages style. It rose from the crater floor at a breathtaking scale. The highest tower was very possibly over two hundred meters tall. About one kilometer from the castle was a flat plain with a single landing pad.
Lovely Angel slowly lowered her altitude. An uncomfortable-looking Mugi began to let out a low growl from the spare seat. I-I wanted like to let out a growl myself!
On one screen something was moving. It was small. Turning up the magnification I could see that it was a small submarine jet. It was a combination of a submarine and a jet plane. A really unusual sight. We were at twenty or thirty meters above the surface. It felt as if we were crawling into the ground. Suddenly one section of the castle opened up. A large scale laser gun turret slowly revealed itself. What was going on? I was wondering when the laser cannon spit out an energy beam. The target was the submarine jet. So that was an enemy of Isabella?
Several bursts were shot, all focused on the submarine jet. If the jet didn’t do something, it was toast! I covered my eyes—and then what happened?! Probably the laser blew the submarine jet into a million pieces. Actually the sparkling light-blue submarine jet took off forward. A barrier! I couldn’t believe it, the submarine jet was equipped with a laser barrier.
“Yuri, hover!” I said to Yuri. Whoever this was, he was putting on quite a show. We couldn’t properly follow our original instructions to touch down, and we held a position at an eight-hundred-meter altitude.
“Yuri!”
We suddenly heard a man’s voice.
“Kya!”
We shook with surprise. Someone was using the channel we had left open when communicating with Isabella.
“Yuri!”
There was a visual. It was a man’s face. Cou-could it be? It was Thunder! Wasn’t it Thunder? Over his shoulder we could see Lucha. They were in a really narrow space. Some sort of cockpit… No way… inside the submarine jet?!
“Strike the castle, Yuri!” Thunder said, almost screaming. Yuri this and Yuri that… Hello! Aren’t you forgetting somebody? Humph! “Now’s your chance! The Space Smashers are stacked up in there, and they aren’ activated. She’s got no battlefield smarts. We gotta barrier, so they can’ get us. But we can’ attack neither. Go get ’em, Yuri! Knock that castle into the ground!”
“Yup!” Yuri answered. “I’m all over it!”
She looked over her shoulder.
“Hammer in some missiles!” she shouted.
Hey, hey! I was being ignored, but I knew when it was time to do my job.
I lined up with the castle wall as well as three spaceships, and launched our last remaining missiles. I didn’t hold back. The United Space Force should be here any time.
The three spaceships were blown to pieces, and the rampart was now half rubble.
“Yuri, let’s get low!” I said. “We can use handjets to fly into the castle and nab Isabella!”
“Okay!”
I launched a fire-extinguishing shell to put out the fire and we let Lovely Angel hover above the launch pad.
Mugi, who until now had been quietly grumbling, jumped from his seat and was ready for action. He usually was never this hyper.
With handjets strapped to our backs, we opened the bow’s emergency hatch. We fired up the jets and first Yuri took off from the hatch into the air, with me right behind her.
And then I couldn’t believe what happened…
“Gyaaon!”
With a single cry, Mugi jumped from the hatch—a good eighty meters above the surface of the crater.
“Aah!”
As I swallowed my breath, I watch Mugi fall to the ground in a straight path.
“Mugi!”
Steering the handjets, we followed after him. Hitting the ground he sprang into a high-speed sprint. Really high speed. Darting between rock formations, I couldn’t keep track of him.
I wasn’t sure if we should focus on Mugi or find Isabella. But at that moment, humanity’s crisis came first. Grudgingly I changed course back to our original direction, and entered through the opening in the castle wall.