Chapter 8
Final Answers
"Trouble Bubbles! These guys actually had Trouble Bubbles! I'll be damned!" Tunnel Rat followed his statement with a short whistle. The sight of one of the circular vehicles—not much different than flying chairs topped by huge glass globes toting a pair of jet engines strapped their the backs—was truly an awkward blessing.
"What else do you think these guys have lying around?" asked Lady Jaye.
Flint ran the palms of his hands across the spherical covers of the two dusty Cobra Flight Pods, dimly viewable in the dark night, yet shining with potential.
"Who cares?" said the warrant officer, "Our mission has just been saved."
1.
Riding against the wind across the Syrian Desert, Flint kept his pale hands clamped to the steering handles while trying to keep the crazy Trouble Bubble in the air. Whatever engineer thought these things up needed to be shot. End of story.
Now, take off was fairly easy. Push a button, up you go. Even the Jetsons could understand that. Keeping it airborne was also easy; it was designed to keep itself up. But with moped-like controls and frighteningly small rudders, keeping the flying chair from spinning out of control as it passionately fought your commands to face forward, now that was the challenge.
After a few minutes of practice and near-death experiences, Flint felt that he had the hang of flying the flight pod. Now, in his opinion, only Stalker could handle the stress of flying the second Bubble, as well as successfully complete the battle against Major Bludd. He had no choice but to take the mission's number two man with him.
Saying their farewells, the two Joe leaders lifted off the ground in the Flight Pods, whining their engines as they rocketed away across the desert sky.
Much to their own amazement, the Joe warrant officer and Joe ranger managed to keep a speed of over one-hundred-fifty miles-per-hour, more than enough speed to catch the major before he reached the border—if he hadn't left Ubaylah before the moment of their attack. They also kept an altitude of two-hundred feet, to help broaden their viewing range. Despite the limits of the dark night sky, the Joes knew that their job was too important to simply turn back on.
Speaking over headset, Stalker contacted Flint, "We'll be reaching the boarder in a couple of minutes, Flint, and there's been no sign of Major Bludd. What should we do?"
Frightened by a sudden shaking of the Trouble Bubble, Flint kept his stare forward, "I think that we should split up. You head southwest, I'll head northeast. Maybe the Major didn't take the road."
"You think he's roughing it?"
Flint slowly nodded. "Yep. Let's go."
Taking cautious, wide turns, the two Joes went their separate ways.
2.
He couldn't fight it anymore. Despite the fear, it had to happen:
Flint yawned.
Looking at the control panel, Flint bit his lip. The gas meter was almost to the halfway mark. If it went much farther, he wouldn't make it back. The Flight Pods sure couldn't last long.
Flint yawned again.
It had been a brutally long day, without much sleep. Creeping over the eastern horizon, the sun began to bring a touch of beauty to the desolate, barren wasteland. It was quite a heart-warmer.
But it also was the answer to all of Flint's questions.
A small black dot zipped across the Syrian Desert floor, drilling a northwestern bee-line across the rocky ground. If not for the little hint of sunshine, Flint would have totally missed the black vehicle.
After reporting his discovery to Stalker, Flint reduced engine power and began a descent upon the little target, which soon revealed itself to be a Stinger jeep.
As he attempted to prepare the Flight Pod's missiles, the control panel began flashing red. "What the heck?" Looking down to the Stinger, Flint could see a pair of Surface-to-Air-Missiles launch from the back end. After cussing out loud, the Joe warrant officer grabbed the turret cannon's control and squeezed the trigger 'til it hurt.
Whether it was a reward from his kiss to Lady Jaye, or just a shining of his skill, one of the missiles exploded; but its surviving twin burst from the cloud of smoke and speared straight for the Trouble Bubble. Seeing no other choice, Flint pulled the red switch, killing the Flight Pod's power. The shining glass ball dropped and tumbled backward as the red rocket thundered over it, missing only by inches.
After falling forty feet, Flint pressed the blue button.
Nothing happened.
He quickly pressed it again.
Nothing.
Smacking it this time, he waited for a response.
Not a sound.
Cussing again. Flint looked over at the red switch. He had forgotten to re-set it.
Once it was back in "Active" position, he pressed the blue button yet again.
Blammo. Engine fire galore.
Gently regaining control of the Trouble Bubble, Flint brought it to a stop just ten feet from the ground.
"Looks like you could use another flying lesson."
Looking up, Flint could see Stalker's Flight Pod whine onto the scene about eighty feet above him.
"Yadda yadda yadda. That thing's still got two missiles. We need to take him out together. Ready?"
"After you."
Flint smiled, "Yeah. After me."
Now chasing after the Stinger, the Flight Pods started shooting their turret guns, which had little effect against the armored jeep.
Stalker pointed to his left, "Hey, check that out!"
Flint looked over to see more desert—and a dry river bed. New strategy shot quickly into his mind. "We need to get the Stinger into that wadi." Ordered the warrant officer
"That'll be tough." Dreaded Stalker.
"You don't join the Army for a cake-walk, Stalker; you of all people should know that." After receiving a salute from the Joe ranger, Flint led the pair around to the right side of the black jeep and started firing solely at its right door.
At first reluctant to move, the Cobra vehicle eventually surrendered to the Joe barrage and turned left—straight for what Flint would later learn is the Wadi al-Sawab. After a minute of driving, the Stinger dropped into the river bed and attempted to climb out the other side.
"Stop him, Stalker!" called out Flint.
The ranger's Trouble Bubble swerved across the trench and blasted the jeep back down. As the dark vehicle attempted to get away, it fired its two remaining missiles into the air behind it, but they were fired in panic; it wasn't likely that they were even aimed, since they didn't come close to hitting anything.
"We've got him! I'm going in!" Flint pushed forward on his controls and dropped his pod into the trench directly behind the scrambling Stinger. With his control panel shining green now, Flint activated the missile launch trigger and fired off his Bubble's two rockets. In moments, the back end of the black jeep exploded in a fiery blast.
Nearly jumping out of the Flight Pod before it settled to the ground, Flint ran through the wadi over to the Stinger to pull open the driver side door and apprehend Major Bludd.
But before he even reached the front end, the door was smashed off the side of the jeep and sent flying through the air. Flint skidded to a stop and fell backwards, gawking with amazed fear. Out of the driver's seat crawled a Battle-Android-Trooper. The black clothed, yellow-belted and silver-faced robot looked over to the G.I. Joe warrant officer, then raised its left hand. Using that hand, it grabbed its right hand and twisted it off. After tossing the right hand away, it reached back into the burning, smoking jeep and pulled out a machine-gun-arm attachment, and twisted it onto its right forearm. After its featureless faceplate flashed red, it aimed its arm at Flint, who was nervously scrambling backwards towards his Flight Pod.
Machine gun fire filled the air—but it wasn't Flint who was torn to pieces. Opening his eyes again, the Joe warrant officer looked at the BAT lying in pieces at the side of the jeep. Turning his focus to the side of the wadi, Flint stared in awe at Stalker standing atop the edge of the trench holding his smoking M-32.
"Damn, Stalker, you certainly know how to make an entrance."
The Joe Ranger skidded down the slope of the wadi until he stood next to his friend, then helped him up. "I could have shot earlier. I just wanted to give you a lasting memory."
After slugging Stalker in the stomach, Flint examined the Stinger. "That BAT was all alone in this jeep."
"Cough, cough. Must have been a decoy. Looks like we missed the Major after all."
Slamming his hand against the hood of the Stinger, Flint hung his head low and looked down at the ground and thought for a few moments. "I can't accept that. What if…"
"What if what?"
"What if the Major knew we were coming all along?"
"Say what?"
Within minutes, the two Joes were back in the air, racing towards Ubaylah.
3.
Sand and gravel blew away as the Bubbles settled to the ground. Flint and Stalker stepped out of the Pods slowly, just taking a moment to stretch or crack their backs.
Lady Jaye walked over to Flint with a look of concern. "So how did it go? You two still look a bit focused on something."
Quickly catching on to what they were looking at, Tunnel Rat nodded at the APC. "He's still in there. Want me to get 'im?"
"No." said Flint as he marched by, "You guys all stay out of this."
4.
Although the troop transport was full of unconscious, wounded soldiers, it still held one healthy Joe tied up near the front of the vehicle. Dusty was the only wounded soldier still awake, and couldn't help but notice Flint and Stalker crawl into the big vehicle and sit down across from Scimitar. They were complete stone-faces…but surprisingly, so was he.
"I want to know why you haven't been fighting." Demanded Flint.
"I already explained to Stalker--."
"Bull!" barked the ranger. "I want the truth this time. Who sent you?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Scimitar, almost without a flinch.
Flint leaned in closer. "When did you tell Major Bludd to evacuate Ubaylah?"
Scimitar remained motionless. Dusty could see the possible traitor's stone-face expression begin to quiver.
Stalker began drilling: "Look, I don't know how a Cobra supporter made his way into the G.I. Joe team, but I promise you this, you aren't making it past Guantanamo Bay unless you start talking."
With that statement, Scimitar's eyes bugged out. "Look, I…I had to. I couldn't have you Joe…bastards…come here and start killing my people. I figured if I got Cobra out of here fast, it would all be over…sooner. It's not like I support Cobra, come on. I really did want to join and kill them."
"If your personal beliefs are that strong, you have no place joining the military of any country. That's fanaticism." Said Flint, who quickly turned back to business. "Now, answer our question: did you inform Major Bludd of our attack?"
Sniffing in thought for a few seconds, Scimitar finally answered, "Yes. I used the radio while we were re-fueling outside of Ar Rutbah."
"Was he expecting the call?" inquired Stalker.
"Yes. A bit sooner, maybe, but he knew it was coming."
Flint leaned back with his hands on his knees. "Kind of explains why the terrorists were all set for us when we arrived. Damn. I should have seen this sooner." Scratching his head, the Joe warrant officer started walking out of the APC, slowly checking the bodies of the injured Joes. "I hope you're proud of what you've done, Scimitar. Get the 'cuffs out, Stalker." With that, Flint jumped out of the transport.
Stalker began untying the ropes and staring coldly at the fallen Joe desert trooper. "Did you get all you wanted out of this?"
"My brethren are dead, and my fellow soldiers are wounded. What do you think?" Scimitar turned his face away.
"Now you know how stupid it is to work with the bad guys. It always backfires on you." Stalker clamped the handcuffs and left the APC.
Dusty, barely able to keep his eyes open anymore, drifted into a long, yet very unpleasant sleep.