Chapter Eight: Stay Close!!

***********************************************************

Mishiida Alexander

“True love is always gradual. It grows on you with time.”

Chapter Eight: Stay close!!

Somehow people have this strange notion that only love at first sight is true love or love at all. Nothing can be farther from the truth. What you feel at first sight is only infatuation budding out either as a result of physical attraction, social clout or financial flamboyance. Love, and more specifically true love is what develops between two hearts over a period of time, when the two individuals realize how they complete each other, one making up for what the other lacks, and when they both feel a strong urge to do their best to make the life of their other half happier and comfortable. Infatuation wears off as soon as the sexual appetites have been pleased whereas love begins when the sexual interests are over. If a relationship doesn’t last that long then there never was any love between the two.

As we follow our friends Alexander and Mishiida, we realize the vast differences between the two but we still feel a connection between the two. Alexander may have brought her right to the doorsteps of entrapment but where was the need for him to tag her along in the first place? Mishiida may be in some kind of hurry but why is she still hanging around with Alexander if he is wasting her time? We may not have the answers to these questions at this moment but then right now we are too pre-occupied with something else to bother finding an answer right now.

With our hearts pounding so hard against our pericardial cavities so as to nearly pop out of our bodies, we stand in the middle of a deserted street scanning every building, every brick around us to spot prying eyes. As Mishiida walks towards the toy rocking horse in the front lawn of a house on the opposite side of the road, we slowly step back until our backs rest with the Caravan, a bit scared at the thought of the firepower that might shatter the fake serenity of the surrounds that engulf everything around us. We turn our heads and see Alexander walking towards the gas station, turning his head around again and again, walking at a pace as if he doesn’t want to walk anymore, as if he will turn around any moment and run to Mishiida. Or perhaps we are hoping against hope, he’ll do something and get her out of there. There is simply no other movement in the area, not even the rolling of leaves. Even the wind has frozen for a few moments, as if stopping by to have a look at what is happening, or rather what is going to happen.

Mishiida steps on to the lawn and kneels down right next to the rocking horse, perhaps enticed by the vibrant and colourful object that it is, lost in some deep thought. As she puts her hand on the seat of the horse gently and rocks it slowly we notice a head rising from behind a window, helmet first. Our heart nearly jumps our of our mouths, as a couple more rise, all dressed in helmets, jackets, with black paints on their faces, M-16s in their hands. We notice one of them giving a thumbs-up to someone behind us. We quickly rush around the caravan and notice similarly clad men sneaking from behind the house on our side of the road. Four men holding strange looking propelling guns sneak in front of the men and as they do so something catches Mishiida’s attention. As she quickly turns around we hear a familiar voice, “Now!” as we notice Colonel Rick rushing out of a house behind our Caravan. The four men fire their hand guns and four nets are flung over Mishiida. Just as the nets catch Mishiida by surprise, the men inside the house smash out of the windows and the men on our side of the road, make a dash towards her and pounce on her like a hungry leopard sneaking up and pouncing on it’s unsuspecting prey. In a flash, Mishiida is all entangled in four thick rope nets and nearly ten to fifteen men are trying to pin her to the ground.

“Bring the heavy metal container around now,” Colonel Rick yells on the radio and then says to his men, “More men on her, don’t let her go.”

As we notice more men, around fifteen to twenty to make a fair guess, rushing out of their various hiding spots we hear an ear-shattering shriek and we grab both our ears and miss the sound of shattering glass. As ten to twelve heavy bodies covered in still heavier armoured jackets and ammunition are flung around in all directions, Mishiida pushes herself on her feet still caught in the webs, and we duck to avoid being cleaned by a near-ton man who flies over us and over Alexander’s jeep.

“Out of the firing line quick,” Colonel Rick instructs his men as Mishiida struggles to get out of the nets.

“Fire,” Colonel Rick’s men waste no time in getting back on their feets and out of the firing line.

“No,” we notice Alexander is still around and hasn’t walked to the gas station and rather rushes towards us as we get back on our feets right next to Colonel Rick who’s himself got a gun with modified barrel in his hands, perhaps for the anti-armour ammunition.

The next moment around thirty guns roar in unison and only in one direction, but their sound is muted by another of Mishiida’s war cries as she tears the nets to shreds.

The first volley of bullets hits her and she lets out a shriek. But this time it’s not ear shattering but rather softer and somehow sounds a bit painful. As the moments nearly slow down to a stupor we notice the bullets hitting her one by one from all directions, the one’s hitting her body covered in her suit making no impact on her but the ones hitting her bare skin causing deeper abrasions than what we noticed the first time. As the anti armour bullet's head hits her bare skin tearing her outer skin layer, the secondary charge contained inside the bullet just about manages to scratch her black coloured underlying tissue just enough to spill out a green liquid that we guess is her blood. But this time her wound doesn’t heal instantly or rather completely. A hard green coloured clot develops at the site of the wound much like our healing wounds but her neither her black internal tissue, nor her outer sand coloured skin heals up this time.

She immediately takes a high leap and lands on the roof of the house behind her as the soldiers follow her reloading weapons and firing at will now.

“Stop it,” Alexander has also nearly run back to the Caravan but before he can get any closer a big elbow knocks him to the ground.

“Stay inside your skin kid, it’s a job for men,” Colonel Jerome rebukes him as one man under Rick’s command grabs and pins him to the ground.

We hear another ear shattering shriek as we notice Mishiida has just seen Alexander been knocked down. Her hands move in a flash and before anyone can count from one to two she covers her entire body up in her suit, removes her bracelet and converts it into her helmet and puts it on her head. As the soldiers standing below on the ground empty their weapons on her, she stands atop the roof, feet planted firm and wide and hands on her hips. She waits for them to finish their rounds at leisure. As their weapons fire the last bullet housed in their magazines their jaws drop and as they slowly disengage the empty magazines to replace them with fresh magazines, as if in a daze, she swoops down on the first two soldiers standing closest to the house. She pins them to the ground, one slap on their face each and they are left unconscious.

She get up walks slowly and majestically to the middle of the road, turns her head around and spots the soldiers reloading their weapons. She shrugs her shoulders, raises and drops her hands in disgust and as they open fire, she pulls out her weapon, and knocks everyone one by one, talking her time, stopping for a moment to swap the gun in her other hand, scratch her butt and then swap the gun back to her firing hand and continues. As Colonel Rick realizes what’s happening he drops his gun and charges at her. Before he could get to her, she knocks each one of his thirty odd men unconscious.

Colonel Rick lets out a war cry and lunges at her, showing all the martial arts skill he’s learnt in his carrier as an amazing soldier and an excellent leader. She stands there as he hits her again and again. Finally when he is tired, he pulls out his revolver and points it at her head. She takes her helmet off, folds it and puts it on her wrist and then slowly puts her weapon on Rick’s forehead. She looks into his eyes and he stares into hers’, his nostrils inflating violently as he breathes hard to get his anger as well as heavy excited breathing in control. They stand there for a few seconds when Rick realizes he is in no position to win and puts his gun down. But Mishiida stays still, her weapon still pointing at his head. She stays like that for a few moments before she brings her weapon down, as if trying to make a point.

“Shoot at her head you idiot,” Colonel Jerome yells at him but Rick doesn’t move and looks on at Mishiida.

Colonel Jerome realizes Rick is not going to shoot, “Get out of my way,” he says as he rushes at Mishiida bare hands. He flings his body in air with a fist pointed straight at Mishiida but before he could even touch her, she grabs him mid-air from his neck with one hand. As he hangs in her hand struggling with both his hands to unlock her grip she looks at him.

“Take this bitch,” he says as he pulls out his commando knife and tries to slash her arm. The knife fails to even scratch her and falls of his hands. She looks at him for a few seconds, still holding him in her grip. But when he doesn’t give up his struggle she flings him over Rick and into the side of Caravan.

She looks at Rick, then at the man holding Alexander to the ground and then again at Rick.

“Let him go,” Rick says.

“Yes sir,” the soldier says as he lets Alexander go.

As Alexander gets up Mishiida runs up to him.

“Are you alright?” Alexander asks, but Mishiida is too worried about him. She runs her hands over him as if checking he is alright.

“I am alright. Are you alright?” Alexander asks again but she holds him from his shoulder and turns him around like a bob and checks if he’s alright in the back as well and then turns him around again.

When she’s finished scanning him, she looks back at Rick, walks up to him and yells in his face, as he holds his ear with his hands and collapses to the ground yelling, “Ok! Ok! We are sorry!”

She finally stops and turns around and looks at Alexander. Rick gets up on his feet and points to him from behind her with his hand and eyes, “Stay with her.”

Alexander looks on at him, then walks up to her and motions her towards the Caravan. They both get on the jeep and drive away with the Caravan.

“Why did you let her go?” Jerome complains.

“What could have I done?” Rick asks, “I am sorry I didn’t invite her for dinner if that’s what you were expecting me to have done.”

“Leave that aside Colonel, just tell me one thing, where the heck is my anti aircraft gun?” Jerome roars into his face.

“We didn’t have enough time to transport it with us this time?” Rick replies.

“How do you expect me to work with you if you are not going to provide me with what I need? I am not here for a picnic down-under,” Jerome is really angry.

“Neither are we, Colonel! But things take time and we didn’t have enough. We had to make arrangements for a mobile command centre to follow her,” Rick said.

“Oh! So you already knew you will not be able to catch her and you set up a mobile command centre! Are you working for us or for her?” Jerome retorts.

“That’s outrageous! No one can question my sincerity and dedication to my job Colonel. You say that again and I will rear a family of vultures on your meat,” Rick is outraged.

“Just like you killed her right now? Colonel we both saw she is vulnerable to anti-armour bullets. Why didn’t you shoot her in her head?” Jerome questions.

“Because I didn’t want to kill her, that wouldn’t have served any purpose,” Rick replies.

“You didn’t want to kill her? Look at what she has done to your men,” Jerome quips.

“I can see very well Colonel, they are all still alive. She could have killed all of us but she didn’t. I see that, you don’t,” Rick replies.

“Oh! So she is a saint! What about the three men she brutally attacked at the bar, the ones' who are still in a critical condition in the hospital, and what about your injured police officer?” Jerome asks.

“Let’s not forget Colonel that was her first contact with humans and they were the ones’ who attacked her first. They are injured but not dead, and injury to the officer was an accident,” Rick replies.

“So you think she knows human anatomy well enough not to have killed them intentionally?” Jerome asks.

“Perhaps she does. If she knows where to find Uranium, I am sure she knows more about us than we know about her,” Rick replies.

“What happened guys?” their conversational deadlock is broken by Craig who has just flown in a chopper to check the ground situation himself.

“We lost her,” Rick says.

“He means he lost her,” Jerome quips.

“Lets’ not argue guys. We will blame each other when we go fishing together. Right now lets’ just concentrate on the job at hand,” Craig remarks, “If she’s escaped, what’s the next plan of action.”

“Before we start all over again, what happened to my request for a satellite access?” Rick asks.

“The same that happened to my anti-aircraft gun,” Jerome comments.

“You mean the one you forgot at home?” Rick retorts.

“Colonel, we’ll pull our legs and if the need be our pants when the party time arrives. Lets’ stop this bickering for now,” Craig reminds the two of the business at hand, “We will get satellite access in a few hours time from now. The new satellites have been launched and will be operational soon. We are already in negotiations as we speak.”

“Finally some good news,” Rick takes a deep breath.

“Also the team from NASA has arrived at Sydney and is being flown in to Adelaide as soon as possible,” Craig continues.

“Finally some good news,” it’s Jerome’s turn now.

“What happened to your team that you were sending to inspect the site of her first encounter to look for her vehicle?” Craig asks as we overhear their conversation as the three walk inside the rear of a big vehicle and as we enter we notice how it has been modified into a fully functional command centre.

“My men will be arriving at the sight just about now,” Rick replies as he looks at his watch.

 
***********************************************************

Chapter Seven: Conniving fate

***********************************************************

Mishiida Alexander

“While infatuation is all about I want, sex is all about I did, love is more about I should.”

Chapter Seven: Conniving fate

One of the primary differences between infatuation, sexual interest and love is, while the first two are all about pampering and satisfying yourself and your ego, love is the only one which is about pampering the other half of your relationship, sacrificing your own interests to satisfy the one you love. What a pity most of the human population barely gets a chance to move from the first two levels to the final stage of ultimate happiness. What’s even more pitiable is the fact that the fast pace of our lives, the never ending greed for and the struggle to gather more, they both have sabotaged our senses to such an extent that our sensibilities to identify and appreciate true love when it actually happens to find us have diminished to the extent of near extinction. If we like someone, we get desperate to sleep with them, which is infatuation. If we get to sleep with them, we feel the need to move on to the next one, which is sexual predation. We don’t have time to think about what the other person in relationship with us wants, how the other person feels about the state the relationship is in, and lastly, is the other person even happy in it at all and if not what is wrong with the relationship. The bottom line would be, “We’ve lost our patience with love.”

We are following a very unlikely couple we could have come across in our lives. A couple in the sense that they are stuck together even if not by choice but by situation, Mishiida due to her need to find what she is looking for and Alexander, initially to help a damsel in distress and now to save himself from trouble. And an unlikely one at that because we all know they are poles apart, right from their origins to aptitudes, physically to chemically, and intentions to emotions.

As soon as Mark finishes his radio conversation with the base informing them the spotting of what they are searching for and who she is with, we make a dash and hop in the jeep behind Alexander Rai and Mishiida.

“Has someone ever told you that you look a lot like,” he opens his mouth to talk some nonsense and then realizes it and changes the conversation, “Never mind.” And we feel relieved he didn’t say "Winston Churchill standing in a balcony" this time.

She is meanwhile lost in her own thoughts as she impatiently rubs at the navigation gadget she is holding in her hands. She fails to understand what he says but she pushes the gadget towards him, points at the gadget and looks at him with a grim pleading look as if saying, “Please hurry!”

“Ok! Ok! I’m driving you down there. Don’t get impatient now,” Alexander replies.

As we sit through some more of his nonsense we finally arrive at the next gas station, the one Mark was referring to. We make a dash to the station and notice a tall, lean and mean looking man standing in front of the toilet door and as soon as he sees the open jeep with a caravan, he rushes inside it. Alexander pulls into the gas station and Mishiida looks at him questioningly.

“Oh! Sorry I forgot to go to the toilet at the last one,” he says rolling his hand over his tummy. She fails to understand and gets off as well but he rushes to the other side and motions her to sit down.

“You don’t have to come. You can’t come with me. You just wait here, I’ll be back soon,” he tries his best to make her understand what he is saying using all kinds of hand movements. She may not have understood a word or a single gesture but she realizes he wants her to wait in the jeep, so she sits down. Once she settles down he looks around and walks towards the toilet and we follow him. He knocks at the door and asks, “Anyone in there?”

“Come in,” a stern voice allows him in and we enter along with him.

“Hi my name is Alex,” Alexander starts to speak, when the other person cuts him out.

“Cut the introduction bit out. Here are three things for you, a pen with a microphone, a mobile with a tracking device and a minute ear piece. Put them in your respective pockets and ear quickly,” the man says.

“Who are you?” Alexander asks.

“Not your girlfriend, rest is immaterial,” the man definitely means and sounds business.

“Great, for a moment I got scared of my sexualities,” Alexander takes a jibe.

“Don’t be a schmuck and get lost now. Stick to the track and leave the rest to us. Keep talking to the bitch till we pick her up. Now get moving,” the man’s rudeness makes us wonder if it is a bullying tactic.

“Not before I’ve done it,” Alexander replies coolly.

“Done what?” he asks sternly.

“Well I haven’t driven around so far to come over here and leave without using the facilities,” Alexander says putting both his hands on his tummy as both us, and the man realize what he is referring to.

“Get out of here and on your way quick. We don’t do your father’s stables,” the man stares really hard into Alexander’s eyes as if trying to stomp them into his brain.

“I don’t care man. I need to go means I need to. You better step outside quickly,” Alexander is unperturbed, perhaps a bit agitated inside by the man’s insulting and threatening mannerisms.

“Are you nuts? You’ll blow up the whole mission. She will see me and get suspicious. Now get your filthy self out of this toilet before I pull you apart limb by limb and then flush you down the toilet,” the man is still rude and forceful.

“Now look here mate, it’s been two long days in the desert and I don’t know how long I’ll be chauffeuring your guest around. I won’t take a chance especially when these happen to be my favourite trousers,” Alexander says as he moves around to the toilet seat and starts unhooking his belt, buttons and flier.

“What are you doing?” both us and the man nearly scream out.

“Mate, if I were you, I’ll turn around and stand in that corner,” Alexander replies as he makes himself comfortable while both us, and the man rush to our nearest corners.

“You stupid moron, do you even realize who you are messing with,” the man nearly roars.

“Feel blessed mate, you are the only privileged one to share with me what even my girlfriend has never been lucky enough to, my most private moment. Gosh, it’s a really nice feeling to have a conversation with someone other than yourself while indulging yourself in your most intense moment,” Alexander rubs into the gash.

“Will you shut your mouth,” the man roars.

“Do you have today's paper by any chance?” Alexander asks.

“Shut up! Shut the hell up and hurry up,” the man spews at him.

“As long as it takes mate, as long as it takes,” Alexander replies.

“Do you see this?” the man asks lifting his shirt up exposing a handgun.

“Wow! That’s a nice ring. What’s the stone you are wearing?” Alexander loves to live dangerously.

“Do you want this stone big enough to have your name with beginning and end dates inscribed on it as well?” the man asks as he pulls his gun out and points at Alexander while still looking away from him and into the corner.

“I doubt if that will make it any faster but you can come around and try putting it on my temple if you want to,” Alexander puts a right hook right under his chin.

“Oh GOD! Why did I bother?” the man moans as he hits himself with gun in his hand.

Alexander starts humming “My heart will go on and on.”

“Damn darn! I need a bonus this month,” the man’s condition becomes pitiable.

“Don’t worry mate, I’ll recommend you for a bravery award,” Alexander takes another jab at him as he bangs his head against the wall.

“Please hurry up!” he finally requests.

“It’s all done mate,” Alexander says as we hear him pull up his zipper, flush the toilet and then wash his hands.

“Please don’t take too long to leave the station,” the man pleads again as Alexander walks out of the toilet and nearly bumps into Mishiida who has become really impatient now and has nearly walked to the toilet.

“What are you doing here? C’mon lets go,” Alexander says as he holds her from her arm and motions her to leave even though she seems a bit interested to see what was behind the door where Alexander had just been.

“There’s nothing in there. Lets’ go,” Alexander says again as he walks towards the jeep and Mishiida follows him.

As soon as Mishiida and Alexander hop on to the jeep Alexander scratches his head, thinks for a moment and jumps out.

“I’ll be right back,” he says as Mishiida gives him a questioning angry glare.

Alexander walks back to the toilet, pushes the door, walks inside, looks in the mirror and tries to set his hair.

“What now?” the man asks dropping his shoulders.

“Oh! I just forgot to fix my hair,” Alexander replies.

The man pulls out his gun and puts it on Alexander’s forehead, “Now listen Miss Universe, I’ve had enough of you for the day. Now are you going or do you want me to forget my duty and kill a beauty?”

“Ok! Ok! Chill,” Alexander says leaving the toilet as the man struggles to get some fresh air. The look on his face says it all as he kicks the wall and smashes his gun on his forehead three or four times.

Alexander walks back to his jeep, gets on it, starts it and then says, “Actually I had this strange feeling while driving today, as if one of the tyres was wobbling. I better check the air pressure before we leave.” And Alexander pulls up his jeep right next to the toilet where the air pressure check point is. We hear the man banging his head against the wall as Alexander gets off the jeep and checks the air pressure for each tyre one by one including the spare wheel.

“The pressure seems alright with the jeep, I better check it for the caravan as well,” Alexanders says as he hops back on to his jeep, takes his time reversing and realigning his jeep along with the Caravan and gets off to check the tyre pressure for the Caravan wheels. We momentarily step inside the toilet to visit our not so gentlemanly friend and we notice how he’s stuffed his mouth with paper towels to muffle his angry grunts.

After a healthy eight to ten minutes Alexander finally gets on the jeep again and drives off, and one angry man finally gets a chance to walk out of the toilet, fire three shots in the air with a loud scream that startles our friend at the gas station counter inside, and takes a long deep breath, actually a few of them. We make a dash back to the jeep and grab our seat. But something has really changed now.

Alexander is sitting there very quiet and with a serious look on his face. Mishiida notices the change just like us and looks at him with constricted eyes as if wondering, “What happened?”

“Ok! Ok! I will,” Alexander says in a hushed voice as we along with Mishiida look on at him trying to figure out what he is talking about. We realize he’s talking to those sitting in a far off place now. We also realize, it’s time to visit our friends on the other side now.

We make a dash back to the gas station where we notice our friend talking on the radio, “Sir, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to return to Adelaide base or do you want me to drive down behind them.”

“Keep following them for now until further instructions. We’ve told him to drive forty kilometres per hour less than the speed limit. That should give us ample time to plan our next move,” the voice at the other end is of Rick. We realize they have set up their base somewhere at the RAAF base in Adelaide. We make a dash to the same and after scrolling every nook and corner of the base we finally reach the underground control room where everyone including our friend Jerome and Craig along with some men that we guess constitute Rick’s team are stationed, monitoring various screens and gadgets.

“Speak louder. We can’t hear you properly,” Rick nearly yells in a microphone.

“I can’t. She will get suspicious,” we hear Alexander’s hushed voice come through the speakers.

“She will get suspicious if you’ll speak in a hushed voice. Just keep looking at her but talking to us. She won’t understand a word you are saying,” Rick sounds sense.

“Ask him where they are heading to,” Craig asks.

“He wouldn’t have a clue from what I make out,” Jerome replies, “He’s only following the direction her navigation device is pointing in.”

“He’s right,” Rick replies, “Now all we need to know is two things, where and why she is heading to?”

“Wrong,” Jerome contradicts him, “All we need to know is the next town we can lay an ambush for her.”

“Are you kidding,” Rick is taken aback, “There will be people inside the town, how are we going to get them out of the harms way in case she were to clash with us, which most likely she will?”

“Ask the local police station to clear a section of the town for us, perhaps towards the other end of the town and lets’ lay our siege over there,” Jerome answers.

“But that won’t be possible at such a short notice besides we don’t even know what route they are going to continue along. We need to track them for a bit more time to get a general idea as to where she might be heading to so that we know which town to lay the siege in,” Rick makes a point.

“What do you have in that desert to interest her, opals, minerals, metal, gold? Just what do you think might be her interest in there?” Jerome asks.

“None of these perhaps, but you forgot to mention Uranium,” Rick replied.

“No, I didn’t,” Jerome quips with a smile for having made his point.

“What’s the next town on their way to Panalatinga Uranium mine?” Rick asks.

“They are heading towards Taylorville at the moment sir,” Lieutenant Ron Morgan says as we check his name from his id.

“How long will it take for them to get there,” Jerome asks.

“About an hour and a quarter at current speed sir,” Ron replies.

“How long before we get their?” Jerome asks his next question.

“Three quarters of an hour via choppers,” Rick replies.

“That means we don’t have much time to waste,” Jerome says.

“I would rather say we let them drive a bit further down to Morgan because Taylorville is not much of a town. There are only a few houses scattered far and wide. At Morgan however, we will have buildings and structures to set ourselves up as well as it will give us more time to prepare ourselves,” Rick replies.

“I’ll leave the cooking to you Colonel. Call me when it’ time to dine and I’ll show you how to feast,” Jerome quips.

“Don’t feed yourself to sleep. I won’t waste a chopper ferrying an elephant around,” Rick takes his jibe at him.

“Perhaps you should have bought more vehicles than green bags in last budget,” Jerome takes his dig.

“Can we get to work gentlemen,” Craig interrupts.

“Alexander, are you listening?” Rick asks on microphone.

“Yes, I am,” Alexander replies.

“Keep driving the road you are on. In and hour and a half you will reach a town called Morgan. I want you to drive to it as slowly as you can, get there and pull up just a couple of hundred yards after the gas station over there. Do you copy?” Rick sounds stern.

“And what do you want me to do?” Alexander replies.

“Just get out of the vehicle and out of the way as soon as you can?” Rick replies.

“What about my caravan and jeep?” Alexander replies.

“We’ll buy you a new one,” Jerome quips.

"And also free car wash for one year at select car-wash locations across Australia," Craig the politician butts in. Both Rick and Jerome give him a strange look. "I think I'll leave the negotiations to you guys only," Craig corrects himself.

“What does that suppose to mean? What are you going to do with her?” Alexander gets a bit excited.

“Leave that to us son. You do what we tell you and you will avoid trouble,” Jerome says.

“Nothing you need to worry about. Just do as we say,” Rick adds.

“Look, I am the one bringing her to you, but let me make it very clear to you, I don’t want you to hurt her in any way,” Alexander replies.

“Perhaps you would like to tell me which shirt goes with my underwear next,” Jerome rebukes him and continues, “Do as you are told and leave our job to us.”

Alexander gets quite but we can sense his displeasure at the situation and the tension he is under. As Rick gives directions to Ron to contact the local police officer to quickly evacuate the area and then gives directions for his team to assemble to depart, we decide it’s time to hop back to our friends Mishiida and Alexander.

As we get back to the jeep, we realize, the atmosphere has changed in the jeep completely. Mishiida is getting impatient with his driving while he is all tensed up. Mishiida finally nudges at him, flashes her device and points at the other vehicles as they drive past them blowing their horns at Alexander for his ridiculously slow driving on a highway in country side.

“Ok! Ok! I am driving you where you want me to. Stop pushing me now. Will you?” Alexander gets agitated, “Can’t you see the big caravan attached behind the jeep,” Alexander continues pointing towards the Caravan he’s towing behind his vehicle.

Mishiida reclines back in her seat, folds her arms and sits there quietly but we can see the tension on her face, how she wants to run away to where she wants to and how she’s stuck there with him. After nearly an hour and a half of uncomfortable silence in the jeep we finally get to Morgan and as instructed Alexander drives a couple of hundred metres past the gas station, pulls his jeep over to the side and gets out of his jeep. There is an eerie silence and solitude around, a look as deserted as in the middle of a burning desert. Mishiida looks at him as she gets off the jeep and walks around to him as if to ask, “What happened?”

“I need to go to the gas station, you stay here,” Alexander says to her pointing at the gas station. Mishiida’s shoulders drop as she probably believes he is going to waste more time walking into another gas station. She starts following him but he stops her once again.

“You stay here,” he points to her to stay near the jeep as he walks away from the spot towards the gas station, "I'll be back very soon." Mishiida understands what he is trying to say from his gestures but is not sure whether to follow him or not. She takes a step towards him but then stops. As he walks away Mishiida stands there for a few seconds as if retrospecting whether she’s doing the right thing letting him lead the way. She finally turns around to grab her seat in the jeep again when her attention is drawn towards a small rocking horse lying in the front lawn of a house. She walks towards it while we stand their in a corner scanning in all directions to notice any movement.

***********************************************************

Chapter Six: Do you know her?

***********************************************************

Mishiida Alexander

“Who’s worthy of love when the strongest of men sell for the cheapest of prices?”

Chapter Six: Do you know her?

Fate has a strange habit of twisting itself round and round like a spinning bob. As soon as one gets used to a certain pattern of living, it changes its’ direction leaving every plan in disarray. One is left with no choice but to develop an ability of homeostasis towards life and situations. Alexander must have been planning of burning the screens across the globe one day with one Oscar winning performance after another while Mishiida, well lets’ just stick to the familiar terrain for the moment.

So as we spy on our fellows discussing, or rather fighting their brains out at ASRI, Canberra, Colonel Jerome of the US Army drops a bomb when he requests for anti-aircraft artillery.

“What? An anti aircraft gun? What on earth do you need that for?” Craig asks.

“I know why he is asking for it but I don’t think that will be necessary,” Rick replies, “The injured officer has already told us how the bullet could not penetrate her inner tissue layer. We have already picked up anti armour ammunition. An anti aircraft gun won’t be necessary.”

“How do you know? What if our ammunition fails to penetrate her carborundum backed tissue? What will we do then, request her to do us a friendly favour and walk into our captivity or thank her for being such a lovely guest?” Jerome is not impressed. “The way bullet-protection works is, the more the layers of protecting material better it’s stopping power. Now I don’t know much of biology but I do know that tissues are generally made up of layers of cells. What if your anti-armour ammunition comes a cropper against her?” Jerome makes his point.

Rick reluctantly yields to Jerome’s demand and the three men decide to head to the Royal Adelaide Hospital immediately to see the injured officer and gather all the information from him. As they fly in a specially chartered plane, we make a dash to have a look at our friends in the desert. When we find them both sleeping sound, we head to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. As we enter the room in which the injured officer Superintendent Mathew Grey is housed we overhear Rick speaking, “Are you sure you saw the bullet ricocheting from a dark internal layer and her outer skin regenerating?”

“One hundred percent Colonel,” Mathew replies.

“That makes the whole thing very sticky,” Rick replies.

“Why do you say that,” Craig asks.

“That means her body can recover from wounds quickly, maybe not from all but definitely the superficial ones,” Rick replies.

“That’s exactly why I am asking for a big gun,” Jerome feels like he’s been vindicated. “By the way, you mentioned she was in a vehicle earlier, which offcourse she must have been cause she hasn’t come to earth in an envelope from outer space, but you also said when you confronted her she was on foot?” Jerome asks.

“Yes Colonel, that’s true as well,” Mathew replies.

“I don’t understand, did her vehicle perform a vanishing act in that instance?” Jerome inquires further.

“We actually found her with two huge boxes. We thought,” Mathew stops to find suitable words to express his take on the issue.

“And you thought she has folded her vehicle and safely packed it into one of them? You watch a lot of television with your kids?” Jerome takes a dig at him.

“I am sorry sir,” Mathew is taken aback.

“You should be after all the shabby investigation that has been done and the kind of experience you have in this job. Why would she walk dragging her luggage around when she can fly, or drive?” Jerome questions.

“Perhaps she ran out of fuel sir,” Mathew replies.

“Perhaps she did, but then where is her vehicle,” Rick asks, “Did you ask your men to search for it?”

“They did Sir, but they didn’t find any trace of her vehicle over there. So we thought she might have actually folded her vehicle into two boxes. Who knows how advanced technology these aliens have?” Mathew clarifies his situation.

“You may or may not be right. The only way to find out is to inspect the sight. I will dispatch an expert team to investigate the scene of your encounter with the lady,” Rick replies.

“Have we got any leads to her current location, or any fresh sightings?” Craig asks.

“None in the last few hours I’m afraid but men have already been dispatched,” Rick replies.

“I can’t wait to see her,” Jerome quips.

“I’m sure she’s not in a hurry,” Rick replies.

The three men leave the hospital for their rooms in a local hotel to catch some sleep before a very early morning start for their work while we make a dash back to the desert just about at the break of dawn.

As we enter the caravan Alexander is just waking up while Mishiida is still asleep. Alexander wakes up pushing his blanket to the side turning around and up and puts his feets on the floor, rubs his eyes trying to wipe out the sand and realizes he still has the esteemed company of a gorgeous lady with him, and even though he fails to count us in but we don’t mind it. He rolls his hand on his tummy and then looks at the girl who is also waking up now with the sun finally showing up and the light coming in through all the windows, bright yet soft. She takes her helmet off, folds it and wraps it around her wrist once again, turns the nobs on her other wrist band to reshape her attire. This time she lets the trousers stay long down to her boots, while her top modifies into a U-neck sleeveless top exposing midriff slightly. She pulls out her hair pin and ties her hair into a pony tail again. She sits up straight, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. We notice something strange about her skin and take a closer look at her. Her skin changes from smooth to granular with the granules shifting position and turning around. After a few seconds, her skin becomes smooth and radiant again and she opens her eyes. We realize, she’s just dry cleaned herself up, or basically taken a shower. Alexander looks at her and his shoulders drop when he notices how easily she has refreshed up.

He gets up and walks out of the caravan and we follow him. He walks towards the back of the caravan, goes behind it, cranes his neck around to make sure Mishiida is not coming, and then we regret why we followed him. We leave him to himself and walk back into the caravan. We notice Mishiida has pulled out her weapon and has crouched on her knees in battle mode as she concentrates on the strange sounds she is hearing. We want to tell her it’s a false alarm and not her enemies firing new laser weapons. After a minute, Alexander walks back into the caravan, with a big smile on his face. He notices Mishiida holding a gun, crouched on her knees, looking at him with a questioning stare.

“Oh C’mon now, stop exaggerating,” Alexander realizes, his voice has been heard. She looks at him blankly and we look at him pathetically.

“Now that’s not fair. It’s every human being’s birthright,” he reasons. “Besides I’ve been a gentleman, I walked out and away you see,” he reasons but she doesn’t get a word of it and keeps staring at him, now a bit coldly.

“Wow! What a gentleman!” We think to ourselves.

“Now wait a minute, this is my caravan and you are in my camping space. I will do what I want to,” he says but she still stays silent, her eyes constrict as if questioning him as to what he’s saying.

“Go to hell, I don’t care” he says as he turns around to leave the caravan. As he approaches the door, he turns his head around, looks at Mishiida and whispers to himself, “Bitch!”

Mishiida finally gets up, puts her weapon back into it’s case and walks out into the open where Alexander is picking up and packing his stuff. She pulls out her homing gadget, if we may refer to it as so, and nudges him.

“Yeah, yeah, we are leaving soon my mom but let me pack my stuff first,” he says nodding his head and pointing to what he is doing. She understands and moves back and lets him do what he is doing.

It takes him about twenty minutes to pack all his stuff into his caravan and get ready to leave. Mishiida hops into the passenger side seat while we make ourselves comfortable in the back of the jeep. Alexander shows her his seatbelt and motions her to tie her own but she doesn’t understand him. He tries a couple of times but when she doesn’t understand he bend on to her side and grabs her seatbelt and pulls it around her. As he does so for a split second his arm touches Mishiida on her prides startling her. She gives him a glare and he says sorry and ties her seat belt. But something stops him for a moment and he looks deep into her eyes for a few. Somehow he realizes what he was originally doing and so he starts his vehicle, makes a prayer and gets going. He’s hardly driven a few yards and we notice Mishiida grabbing on to the edges of her seat sitting completely upright, her eyes open wide and her hair almost standing up on top. This coming from a girl who herself gave worst treatment to many men just yesterday. We can’t help but laugh.

As soon as we hit the main road Alexander turns on his mobile and attaches it to the charger.

“Oh! My mobile! We talk on it with other people. I am expecting my director’s call,” he tries to explain to her when he notices her looking curiously at the device.

“We will soon get into the coverage area. My director might call me today regarding my first show date,” he explains with a proud smile and dreamy eyes.

We sure enter the coverage area and the mobile certainly rings, but the ring says it all, “I am no angel baby!”

“Yikes! That’s my girlfriend! Damn! She will kill me! If I talk to her she will kill me right now and if I won’t talk to her she will kill me latter but very painfully. Oh GOD! Why did I have to turn this thing on? Somebody help me,” he starts to panic like a school boy who failed to finish his homework and is about to face his class teacher.

He pulls over to the side, grabs his mobile in both his hands and pleads to Mishiida, “Can you please take this call for me? Help me. Say something, say anything.” And the call drops off.

He screams out loud and Mishiida closes her ears and we roll to our sides laughing at the sight. “Look who’s closing their ears,” we say to ourselves.

“I am dead!” is all he says.

“I am sorry, but you don’t know my girlfriend,” he says. “When Hitler died, he was reborn as a girl, and for some damn darn reason, of all the billions of people on this earth, I had to be the one to hook up with her,” he laments on.

Mishiida meanwhile sits there watching him cry with her arms folded and a stern look in her eyes as if saying, “Dude, what’s your problem?”

He realizes she doesn’t know what he’s talking about so he asks a stupid question, “You know Hitler, don’t you?”

When he gets no reply he continues, “Well Hitler was,” and stops and starts thinking about how and what to explain. “You see, Hitler was a cross dresser. He used to wear a mini skirt over tights. And since he wasn’t sure about his sexuality, he grew a small moustache to keep both sexes interested,” and we nearly fall out of the jeep laughing.

But Mishiida is still not impressed. “I guess we are getting late. We better get moving,” he says as he puts the jeep into a gear to drive. And the phone rings again, the same ring.

“I am dead!” he repeats himself before gulping a big lump down his throat and mustering all his strength to answer the phone in a very meek tone, “Hello!”

“Hello what?” the roar from the other side, we are sure it must have been audible in a half-mile radius.

“Where are you Alex? Why didn’t you call me? What are you up to?” Damn it’s an ambush, we think to ourselves as we scroll for cover and a sympathetic feel for Alexander takes over us.

“Robyn! Sweetheart! I love you baby! I was missing you all the time. I was just not in coverage area,” Alexander struggles to pacify her.

“How dare you get out of the coverage area?” and Mishiida nearly falls of her seat scared as much as we are.

“That’s a lion, that’s a Gorilla, no it’ Godzilla,” we think to ourselves.

“I am sorry sweetheart. I was kidnapped against my will for ransom. It’s only when I told them that my father is bankrupt did they let me go. Otherwise do you think I will even dare to dream in my wildest fantasies to get out of coverage area?” Alexander replies from under his skin and we can’t help but look for our abs we just lost somewhere in the sand rolling over it laughing.

“Damn you cheat! You liar! I have had enough of you! I am going to teach you a lesson!” Robyn is really angry, “You can go wherever you want to baby because I’ve found a new boyfriend. It’s over between us!”

“Really?” Alexander is mightily relieved and so are we but he quickly rectifies himself, “I mean, how could you do this to me? I love you Robyn and I can’t live without you. Please don’t do this to me. I won’t survive.”

“I don’t care. It’s over between us. You go to hell what to me,” Robyn sounds adamant.

Alexander fist pumps the air and says a soundless “Yippee!” but continues on the phone, “No Robyn, please don’t! I love you and I need you. Baby, you are the only one I care for on this earth. Please don’t leave me.”

“Really?” Robyn’s voice changes, “Do you really mean that? I am sorry baby. If you love me so much I will not leave you. I will tell Charles to find another girl. It’s not that late yet.”

“Now look Robyn! Lets’ not be hasty over here. We both need some time to think. I mean Charles is a good guy and I am sure he loves you deeply as well. Look, it’s been a long day. Why don’t we talk about it tomorrow? I think you should go out with Charles again and get to know him better. I love you and I want to see you happy,” Alexander tries to salvage the situation as he bangs his head against the steering wheel.

“You scoundrel, you don’t love me! You only want to get rid of me! NO! I won’t leave you! I love you and I am staying with you! Damn you! Just come back home once and I will sort you out,” and Robyn bangs the phone down and Alexander lets out another cry, “Why me?” Mishiida puts her comforting hand on his shoulder. He looks at her and cries out, “Mummy!”

After a few moments of more lamenting we finally get going again. We travel for almost an hour when we come to our first countryside town gas station. Alexander pulls his jeep to a pump, picks up the nozzle and starts filling it, “Now look, I don’t know who you are and what you want, but I have my own problems to deal with, my own career to make. I will drop you wherever you want to but after that you are on your own. And I am doing this because you are our guest,” he says to Mishiida who’s still sitting in the jeep. We however notice the guy at the gas station counter looking curiously at our friend. There’s another guy in the store near the drinks aisle but he seems not to have noticed our arrival at all.

Alexander fills up the gas tank and pulls out his wallet and showing it to Mishiida explains, “I am going inside to pay. You stay right here.” He is getting better at using sign language.

He walks in and we follow him inside. The guy at the counter is looking at him questioningly. We hear the news flash on the radio.

“United States and India are launching three new satellites today while France and China are launching two each. Worldwide communications will be restored latest by tomorrow and television channels will be back day after. So please hold on.”

“Do you want to buy some protection as well,” the counter guy asks Alexander with a wink.

“Oh no, she’s just a friend, nothing like that,” Alexander replies with a blush.

“Do you know her?” we turn around to check in the direction of the voice. The other guy in the store that we thought didn’t notice our arrival asks.

“Don’t look at me. Keep looking at the counter. She should not know that we are talking to each other,” he continues as Alexander’s face turns pale.

“Do you know what you are escorting,” the guy asks again.

“Who are you?” Alexander asks.

“You haven’t answered my question first,” the guy sounds stern and business like.

“No I don’t know her. She just walked up to my caravan last night and now she wants me to take her somewhere,” Alexander replied as he fumbled with the cash from his wallet, his nervousness visibly getting the better of him.

“So you mean, she can talk to us? Where does she want to go?” the guy asks.

“Who are you asking me all these questions?” Alexander asks turning his head around.

“Don’t look at me idiot! I am special officer Mark Wembley from the Central Bureau of Investigation. Do you know who she is,” Mark replies.

“How do I know? Can I see some id?” Alexander asks.

“She is dangerous and wanted. Looks like you haven’t been listening to the radio,” Mark says as he puts his batch on the counter.

“I know she is an alien. I heard that,” Alexander replies.

“Then you also know you are committing a felony by helping her, I guess?” Mark continues, “Do you know how much trouble you are in for this?”

“Look officer, I’ve got nothing to do with this. She just asked me for help,” Alexander replies and as he does so we notice Mishiida is getting impatient and she gets out of the jeep and starts to walk towards the station.

“Look, I can see you are a well meaning man. I can help you! Where are you heading next?” Mark asks.

“I don’t know. She just shows me a gadget and I am just driving in the direction of a flashing dot. Right now we are heading west on this road and will be for a while,” Alexander replies.

“Good! There’s another gas station about thirty miles from here. I want you to stop there and go to the toilet. One of our men will be waiting for you inside. He will hand you a tracking device. Just follow wherever she is taking you and leave the rest to us,” Mark quickly replied.

“But,” Alexander is about to say something when Mark cuts him, “No ifs and buts son. You are in trouble and only this will help you,” and Marks moves away from the counter as Mishiida walks inside. Alexander hurriedly pays the bill and motions Mishiida to walk. They get into the jeep and drive off while we are still waiting in the gas station to check what Mark is going to do.

“Number Four calling base!” Mark gets on the radio and gives them Alexander’s plate number and a brief description of the situation and what needs to be arranged. When he finishes, we decide it’s time to continue following our friends Mishiida Alexander.

***********************************************************