MY JSA - pt. 6

"My next task was to accompany Shiera in my civilian identity and make sure there would be no other assassination attempts.

“The plane trips were uneventful.  Either Mochtar had no other plans to dissuade Shiera, or his assassins were too cowardly to attack her when she had company.  The last leg of our trip deposited us in Jakarta.  Nova Singgih was a geologist with a fair command of English.  She was a good hostess too, and planned to let Shiera spend the night with her.  Confident that Shiera would be safe for now, I went to the waterfront to look for my crate.  Under cover of night, I opened the crate and donned my Hawkman wings and helmet.  I’d packed a hammer as well.  If it was a good enough weapon for Thor, it would do all right for me.

“I had no guarantee that Shiera, as impulsive as she was, wouldn’t sneak out to explore Krakatoa’s island that night.  That meant Hawkman had to glide over there right away.  It was midnight when I alighted on an outcropping of rock on the island.  Between me and Krakatoa was a village.  Nova had told us some locals had decided to relocate to the island, even though it wasn’t safe.  Krakatoa was billowing up some ominous black smoke, but it was also my impression that I saw something moving in the smoke.  Just then, a flaming ball of fire streaked through the sky, straight out of the smoke over the volcano, and struck the village!  Most of the buildings were little more than shacks, and they lit up like matchsticks....I’m afraid to say most of the villagers were consumed in the conflagration right away, though I was able to swoop down and save some.

“When the worst of the fire seemed to be over, I had to find out what caused that fireball.  I soared back up into the air, and decided to do some aerial reconnaissance over the volcano. Amazingly enough, I four saw people walking along just inside the rim of the crater!  I could tell they were wearing hoods over their heads, but couldn’t see from where I was how they were able to withstand the heat that close to a semi-active volcano!  I dropped down towards the crater, and the four men fled down into the volcano when they saw me.  The inside of the crater seemed to be riddled with tunnels, and they disappeared down one of them.  I advanced as near as I could to pursue them, but all the way at the bottom of the crater was a pool of molten lava. The heat was maddening above that flaming pool. How anyone could live there was beyond me!  I had no choice but to turn back.

"Back on the mainland in Jakarta, I looked in through the upstairs windows of the hotel Nova and Shiera were staying in, and found Shiera’s room.  As I watched her sleeping, I noticed the door to her room closing.  Concerned, I forced the window to her room open, flew in, and turned on the light.  There was a pair of Indonesian scorpions on the floor -- one near my foot!  I swung my hammer and crushed it at once.  The Indonesian scorpion is only five inches long, but it’s poisonous and temperamental.  I had to chase down the other one and crush it too.  Shiera was certainly surprised to see me in her room so late.

“’Ooh, the hawk!’ she exclaimed, instinctively clutching her bed sheets to her to conceal her bare skin.

“’I’ll explain all in a minute after I check on Nova next door,’ I told her.  A minute later, I dragged Nova into Shiera’s room.  ‘She seemed to be asleep,’ I explained, ‘but she could have been responsible for the scorpions.  Talk, woman.  Do you work for Mochtar?’

“Shiera was in a nightgown by then and, trusting soul that she is, she helped Nova up to her feet.

“’I promise you I don’t,’ Nova told us, ‘but I do know who he is.  Dr. Mochtar is the finest geologist in Southeast Asia -- or was.  His theories on using geothermal energy to power weapons shocked the scientific community.  When normal avenues of funding abandoned him,

Mocthar went to the black market, and has been consorting with criminals since.’

“We had sent Nova back to her room so Shiera and I could talk it over.  I told her everything that had happened at Krakatoa earlier that evening.

“’So you paid a visit to the fire ghosts already,’ she said afterwards.  ‘And it’s true they live in fire and flame.  I believe what Nova told us too, Hawk.’

“’If she is telling the truth, then we have to find out what you know that Dr. Shiddig doesn’t. Why Mochtar considers you a danger, and not her.  She didn’t have scorpions placed in her room...’

“’Thermal insulation,’ she said, without batting an eyelash.  “I remember now. I was assisting the editor on a science journal two years ago, and recommended he turn down an article a Dr. Mochtar had written on thermal insulation.  It was poorly written and looked too hypothetical, but it was a detailed design for thermal insulation suits that would allow for close observation of active volcanoes!’

“I began to tell her my plan for getting one of those suits in the morning, but she interrupted.  I would have to get her one too, she told me.  And with that she let her nightgown slip away.  She can be so...persuasive.

“The next morning, the two of us were on the volcanic island, staked out near the ruins of the decimated village.  My hunch was right, and within a few hours we spotted men moving about the ruins.  Spreading my metal wings, I soared into the air and dived down on them.

"They looked like natives, but up closer I could see they were wearing thick, black leather suits from the neck down.  I had my hammer in hand, and connected with each of the three men as I whirled past.  By the time Shiera caught up, none of them were in any shape for standing.  I stripped off one of their outfits, removed my harness, and tried it on for size.  Despite the hot weather, I felt amazingly cool inside this thick bodysuit.  On his person was a hood that completed the ensemble.  Shiera followed suit, and then helped me re-don my wings.  Scooping her up in my arms, we returned to the sky for a second aerial assault on Krakatoa.”

Hawkman stopped there for a minute, as our meat course was just now being served.  Delicious-smelling filet mignon was sat in front of everyone, and despite Scotty’s full stomach he vowed to eat at least half the thing.  “It hardly seems fair that I have to talk through the main course,” Hawkman joked, “but a deal’s a deal, I suppose.

“Landing on the lip of the volcano, we could see another patrol of six men heading to intercept us.  In hindsight, it might have been better if we had just snuck up to the volcano, because the alarm was sounded, and the patrol had red-hot spears to throw at us.  I pulled Shierra behind a rock just in time as the first salvo of deadly missiles landed on the other side.  ‘Stay here!’ I told her, as I dashed out from behind the rock and charged them at full sprint!  One guard held back and handed a second set of spears to the throwers, but I brought my metal wings around me and deflected every one of them.  I unfolded them only when I was close enough to swing my hammer into the ribs of the nearest one.  Even with his padding he went down from the force of my swing.  I spread my wings out to keep them from flanking me as I let another one have it.  But I still had four on me, and they had reinforcements coming.  I’d beaten down two more when the last two original guards managed to get a hold of my wings.  Now my plan had backfired, because I was pinned.  The five fresh guards dived on top of me, trying to drive me to the ground.  I was in a loosing struggle just to stay on my feet and keep the hammer in hand, but I still took out one more of them before I was crushed to the hard, cold lava beneath us.

“Leather cords were bound around my wrists behind my back, and I was slowly dragged back to my feet.  The devils got Shiera too, and did the same to her.  We were brought before their ruler -- Mochtar.  He was a giant of a man, clad in a black, insulated suit and hood like his men wore, only his hood had a half-skull mounted atop it like a cap.  He leaned on a spear, and was seated in a cave not far down into the basin.  Behind him was some great, humming machine with pipes running from it out of the cavern.

“’Outsiders,’ Mochtar said. ‘I have expected your return, winged man.  I will wrest whatever secret allows you to fly from your lips before you die.  Still, whatever it is, I think it cannot compare with what I have created...’ he used the spear to tap the machine behind him.  ‘This is but part of the colossal engine I am constructing to tap Krakatoa’s limitless geothermal energy. Harnessing the sheer power of the volcano, I can generate fireballs from the sky, create earthquakes -- perhaps even destroy the earth!’  He turned to Shiera then.  ‘Too bad such beauty must perish in the lava beds, but I cannot spare you.’

“Shiera gasped and choked on the hot air, as her hood was removed.  Mine was as well, though Mochtar allowed me to keep my hawk helmet on.  Small comfort, considering how warm I knew it would soon get under that mask.

“‘I won’t tell you anything if she dies,’ I said.

“’Perhaps you will trade your secret of flight if she dies a quick death instead of a slow one,’ he countered.

“All the while we’d been talking, I’d held the ropes that bound my arms tight behind my back against my wings.  Although they look like feathers, every part of the wings are made from a wondrous anti-gravity metal.  Better still, they had rough edges that could cut through rope. Since I couldn’t move my arms very fast, I had to stall for time.  I bargained with Mochtar, pleaded for Shiera’s life, and gave vague answers to every question he put to me until he became angry with me.

“’Take the wings from him and toss him into the lava!’ he ordered his men.  ‘I’ll divine their secrets myself!’

“But that had been all the time I needed, and as the guards converged on me, I unfolded my wings, snapping my bonds!  I grabbed the spear of the nearest one, and swung him into the guard next to him before they knew what was happening.  Recovering his spear, I still had four guards to fight single-handedly again, but I backed Shiera and myself to the wall of the cave so they couldn’t get behind us. The spears had wide rubber grips to keep our hands off the hot metal poles, but the rest of the spears were deadly weapons.  Knowing I could block thrown spears with my wings, they rushed me.  I was lucky to have that spear to block them.  One by one, I managed to make shots to their heads with the haft of my weapon, sending them all reeling.

‘Clear the track, boys, the express is coming through!’ I joked.

“Dr. Mochtar was raging like a madman now.  ‘Stop him, you fools!  Stop him before he ruins everything!’ he yelled before he threw himself on me with a wild leap.  ‘I’ll finish you myself!’ he declared.  I told Shiera to run as I caught the brunt of his attack.  He was big, strong, and skilled with his weapon.  He kept me on the defensive, pushing me back across the room and towards the generators.  We neared ever closer to the spinning turbines of the great machine.

And that was the moment when I stopped faking, dodged his next thrust, and watched as it struck the inside of the machine.  The spear was torn from Mochtar’s hands as the turbine chewed it up, but the mangled spear was now hopelessly caught in the engine, and the stuck turbine was quickly overheating.  Dr. Mochtar realized too late what I’d made him do, and he threw his hands around my throat in a last effort to avenge himself upon me.  I grasped his wrists and twisted them until he released his grip.  He staggered back, but bull-rushed me with surprising strength until I was pushed halfway back across the cavern.  I delivered a chopping blow to the back of his neck that sent him sprawling to the floor.  I had the notion that I could still take him into custody, and went to lift him up, but he delivered a ferocious kick to my side.  Now I was angry, and I waited for him to rise to his feet before I pummeled him with my fist.  Again and again he fell back towards the mouth of the cave from the right crosses I delivered onto his face and arms.

“Mochtar yanked the hood from his own head so he could wipe the blood and sweat from his nose and mouth.  He looked behind me with his mouth agape and a look of horror in his eyes. Glancing back, I could see that the increased heat and pressure were too much for even his brilliant coolant system, and the machinery had burst into flames.  From elsewhere in the crater came the sounds of explosions.

“’I’ll get you out safe,’ I said, offering my hand.

“But Mochtar glanced at it with disgust.  ‘No, flying-man,’ he said.  “Not as your prisoner.’  And with that he jumped backwards off the ledge deeper into the crater.  I glanced over the edge to try and spot him, but there was smoke rising then from the lava tubes beneath the crater.