Chapter Eight: The Best Laid Plans
Sky Captain fell through the sky like a lead weight, resisting the urge to vomit as he spiraled and flopped about. He reached inside his jacket and withdrew the grapple gun strapped against his chest. Squinting, he targeted the oversized barrel at the rapidly shrinking plane and fired its alloy cable, not knowing if it would hit the plane in time.
Meanwhile, the heavy guns went off in Polly's hands, hurling metal through the approaching monk's head and chest. Terrified, she dropped the guns in her lap; killing, even when justified, was Joe's game, and not something she enjoyed participating in.
"Dex, I could really use your help right about now!
"Don't worry, Polly," he said. "I'll have you out of this in a jiffy."
Dex activated the Warhawk's blast shield from his control console. Steel plates rapidly slid over the canopy, forming an impenetrable shell.
"Nice little toy there, hon" Polly cooed. "Now let's get Joe!"
The Warhawk tore through the sky with reckless abandon, and still the monks struggled to tear open its blast shield. Chanting pagan incantations in gravelly bass tones, they pounded at the steel plates with their charged power gauntlets, shattering the glass canopy and punching deep, fist shaped dents through the metal but never breaking it. To Polly's wide-eyed disbelief, one of the dents narrowly missed clocking her in the face.
"Dex!" Polly screamed. "We need to save Joe now!"
"I'm on it, Polly, but I'll need your help! I'm going to divert power from the auto pilot and convert the plane into a magnet. Kinda like the boots, only stronger. If we can get close enough, it should pick up his boots and reel him in. The thing is I need you to fly while I set this up."
"Oh is that all?" Polly piped, nervously clutching the throttle. "You do realize that I'm not the pilot!?"
"You'll be fine," Dex said as he began gutting the remote console, reshaping it to suit his needs. "Just aim the nose down and keep her steady."
Beads of sweat cascaded down Dex's youthful brow as he soldered circuits together. Minutes later he had successfully finished the work; all he had to do was activate the magnet and pray it worked.
It's not the best way to go, Joe thought as he struggled to control his freefall, but it's not like I have a choice in the matter. A sudden tug nearly ripped his right arm off. Sky Captain glanced up and saw that the grapple gun's line was taut and rigid—it connected! But to what? He'd worry about that later. Servomechanisms spun in rapid succession, reeling in the cable with a high pitched whistle.
There was a familiar tug on his boots; somehow, Dex and Polly had rescued him. Sky Captain hit the underbelly of the Warhawk feet first with a thud and winced at the dents it left. He slowly strode topside and smiled mischievously when he saw the last two assassins precariously magnetized to the nose of the plane.
Snapping a fresh piece of gum, Dex watched his friend's arrival on the radio imagers, and rolled back a portion of the steel plates to welcome him. Sky Captain wrapped himself around Polly as he eased into the cockpit. She looked at him over her shoulder, and he saw in her eyes that shimmer of unspoken longing in her eyes that he knew radiated in his own.
"How could you leave me with those monsters!?" she snapped.
Sky Captain chewed his lower lip and considered throwing her overboard. The moment spoiled, he fell into his seat and closed the blast shield over them.
"Prepare to dive," he growled as the plane continued its trajectory into the ocean.
"But what about those monks on the plane" Polly asked.
"What about them? We're going to Nanjing."
Stay tuned for Chapter Nine: The Lion's Den