Chapter 4

by Carycomic

The next morning, Wonder Woman got in touch with J.J.'s grandfather in her everyday guise of Diana Prince, the Washington, DC, correspondent for the New York Daily Globe. After telling him what she was after, and what she had found out so far, he told her how to contact a certain retired army ranger named Sergeant Rip Jagger. The latter then arranged for a private meeting, at San Francisco's Japanese Tea Garden, between herself and a semi-retired CIA operative code-named 'Byakko'.

"The White Tiger."

That meeting took place at high noon within forty-eight hours of her phone call to Sergeant Jagger. Byakko telling her to make herself recognizable, at the appointed time, by appearing to read a Japanese-language edition of Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' on one of the benches put out by Golden Gate Park. She followed these instructions to the letter. And, to his credit, the man who subsequently identified himself as 'Joe Tanaka' did not keep her waiting. He sat down right next to her without even waiting for an invitation to do so!

"What can I do for you, Ms. Prince?"

"I'm trying to find out what happened to an alleged 'Martian' whom the Germans code-named 'Scorpio' during World War I following the Armistice. But the closest information I could get on that subject was a Depression-era story about the Scorpion League! A free-lance spy ring, composed of expatriate Germans from Western Samoa, who were based in Los Angeles, working for the Russians, and ultimately broken up by a naval intelligence officer named Donald Winslow."

Byakko chuckled. "Oh, Donny-boy had a large part in breaking them up, all right. But, while it's true they were sending most of their stolen intel to Russia, it was to Japanese-occupied Port Arthur! And they weren't from Western Samoa. They were from one of the western Marshall Islands. More specifically, an outlier of the Ralik Archipelago called Scorpia."

"During World War I, that island had been used by the Germans as a combination sub base and naval weapons test center. Under the personal supervision of a Japanese defector named Matsu Hiromasa! Yes, I know Japan was an ally during that war, but Hiromasa proved himself to be a scientific ronin: willing to sell his genius to the highest bidder! And, back then, that was the Red Circle: the Kaiser's most feared brain trust! In any event, the island became a pirate haven for a sea-going crime syndicate called the Tseng Brotherhood in between the world wars. They were equipping their pirate ships with all the latest marine engineering technology at that time. Most of it bought from the Scorpion League's chief contact: Matsu Masahiro."

"Hiromasa's twin brother... and would-be avenger."

Diana stopped her short-handed scribbling and looked the fifty-something Nisei straight in the eye.

"Could Hiromasa's defection have been motivated by the chance to work alongside an extra-terrestrial visitor?"

Byakko carefully considered his reply before actually answering.

"That would certainly be any scientist's wet dream. But, if Scorpio really was a Martian, and he really was smuggled out of Germany to that island at some point prior to the Armistice, he was certainly long-gone from it by the time it got leveled by saturation bombing during World War Two. I ought to know. My judoka sensei and I snuck Winslow on to that island, the night beforehand, to act as forward air guides!"

SOMEWHERE BENEATH THE NORTH ATLANTIC

(TWENTY-FOUR HOURS EARLIER)

Emil J. Krellik opened his eyes at the sound of the soft knocking on his cabin door. At which point he smiled as he slowly came out of the yoga lotus position he had been meditating in.

"Kamerad Haifisch. What can I do for you?"

Ivan 'The Killer Shark' Sharkov, captain of the Soviet Typhoon-class submarine 'Megalodon', saluted him before replying.

"We have reached the desired distance. Approximately forty-nine kilometers east of Blackhawk Island."

"Ah! Gut. Have the men assemble at the transport. We will depart in ten minutes from now."

"Da, Tovarish."

Sure enough; the space shuttle-sized 'mini-sub' exited its highly modified mother ship, without incident, ten minutes later. Whereupon it proceeded full speed due eastward.

Meanwhile a Lockheed Jetstar was already beginning its approach pattern to Blackhawk Island. Occupying the passenger seats nearest the cockpit were J.J. and Spider-man. Occupying the co-pilot's seat was Captain America. And serving as chief pilot was Agent 140 of SHIELD's distaff Femme Force unit.

More informally known as Zinda Blake.

"Zinda Blake?" J.J. had echoed in delighted astonishment when she had first introduced herself. "As in 'Lady Blackhawk'?! That Zinda Blake?"

She had laughed in modest embarrassment. "I see my fame precedes me."

"A well-deserved fame," Spidey had replied. "Your air raid helped free Tony Stark from his Viet Cong kidnappers."

"I was merely SHIELD'S liaison to the Blackhawks, at the time. That's all ancient history, though. Let's concentrate on the mission at hand."

Which is precisely what the Star-Spangled Avenger did when he broached the change of subject.

"Do you know what, if anything, the Soviets might be trying to appropriate from Blackhawk Island that they would go to all the trouble of asserting geopolitical claim to it?"

Zinda had shrugged. "Heaven knows, the Blackhawks collected a lot of trophies from their exploits. But, personally? The one I'd most hate to see the Commies lay hands on is... the Scorpio Key."

"And why is that?"

"Because rumor has it that it was invented by a genuine Martian, on the Kaiser's behalf, back in 1917! But, before it could be deployed, the lab where it got invented was bombed to smithereens by an Allied outfit called 'the Midnight Squadron'. Unfortunately, that didn't prove effective enough to destroy the Key itself. We know this for a fact because it wound up getting salvaged from the lab's ruins by Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker and his Totenkopf Kommandostaffel, twenty-five years later. It took the combined efforts of the Blackhawks and Col. Fury's old outfit to prevent that."

Cap pondered this before asking one more question.

"Were there any further attempts to steal this Scorpio Key?"

Zinda nodded. "Two, as a matter of fact. Both of them made by post-WWII iterations of the Scorpion League. The first one, in 1949, led by Hal Ward, blacksheep brother of Peter 'The Scarab' Ward. The second, in 1960, by Rex Gray."

All further questioning on this topic was halted when the cockpit radio suddenly sprang to life.

"Blackhawk Island Tower to approaching aircraft. Blackhawk Island Tower to approaching aircraft. You are entering restricted airspace. Identify yourself, immediately, or be fired upon! Over."

Zinda could not resist grinning as she lifted the microphone in her right hand to reply.

"Agent 140 to Tower. Agent 140 to Tower. How are you all doin' down there, Captain Action? Over"

There was a considerable pause before the voice coming over the speaker replied with an evident lighter tone of voice. "Consider yourself cleared for landing, gorgeous. Over and out."

Tbc

GLOSSARY

Scorpion: the crime-fighting nickname for a Golden Age Hillman Comics character who was basically a plainclothes vigilante (think Sam Spade with the looks of Archie Andrews). In some stories, his real name was given as 'Hal Ward'. In others, it was 'Rex Gray'. For my own story-telling convenience, I've amalgamated him with his two super-villainous namesakes from the old Blackhawk comics.

Peter 'The Scarab' Ward: Nedor Comics' answer to Golden Age Billy Batson. The difference being that Ward's transformation into a superhuman was achieved by rubbing the golden scarab centerpiece of a magic ring from ancient Egypt!