The Quest for Paradise

It had been a long journey and one fraught with peril, but now the old man's suitcase was once more in my possession. Okani reached for it and I let him take it from me as Tolak, myself, and several other warriors headed for the shelter of the jungle.

It was a complete miracle that the case had not washed away in a high tide, but thanks to trees felled by laser fire the case had gotten snared and held up from floating back out to sea. Reaching a sheltered alcove we stopped and silently Okani passed the suitcase to me.

Even now the sounds of trees falling in the distance sounded far too close for comfort as the invaders from above went about the process of setting up a base from which they would establish a foothold in these lands of Undersea. I only hoped that the journey to reclaim the old man's case had been worth it.

Logic dictated that if Tolak's people were to even have a chance at escape then they needed a diversion through which to buy some time in order to do so and I was hoping that whatever the case held that it would be the key to accomplishing that. Like a remembered phone number of a beloved relative I dialed in the lock code for the case that the old man had given me.

The case popped open with a hiss of expressed air. The first thing I saw was a synthetic looking handgun, which I took out and set aside. It was very light feeling for a handgun.

The rest of the contents of the case were literally foreign to me. That it was an elaborately contrived suitcase bomb I had no doubt of, but how to make it tick? How had the old man even got this past the scanners for that matter?

The answer to that came a moment later as I realized that all the working parts of the bomb were made of either plastic or some other synthetic material. The old man had been quite the terrorist it would seem, but strangely down here this bomb of his fabrication seemed almost patriotic.

I saw a lever and given the tubes of what I surmised were liquid chemical triggers set to react with each other and form an electrical discharge I now felt confident of how to set the bomb off and I indicated as much to the others gathered around. Closing the lid I glanced around my silent audience and whispered with grim reality, "We have to get this within their camp before we pull the lever. One of the armies down here has female warriors. One of you has to get me her clothes, while the rest of you take out those they will have watching for attackers. Do not let them point their weapons at you, because metal will shoot out at high speed and kill you. Understand?"