A YOUNG SUCCUBUS NAMED DELICIA by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 34 – MOUNT FUJI

 

11:03 (Japan Time)

Friday, December 21, 1973

Kawaguchiko Train Station

Thirteen kilometers north of Mount Fuji (southwest of Tokyo) Japan

Patricia, followed closely by John and with her arms loaded with luggage, stepped out of the train which had brought them from Tokyo, prompting the nearest Japanese porter to converge on her with his chariot.

‘’By the Nine Hells!’’ She exclaimed in Draconic to John. ‘’With all this fine, sexy and exotic lingerie I bought around Shinjuku, I’m going to have to pay a fortune in U.S. Customs import duties when we go back to Los Angeles.’’

‘’It still will be less expensive than paying for the gas to run your gas-guzzling Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am.’’ Sneakily replied John, making Patricia grumble: the OPEC oil embargo was now being fully felt in the United States, with prices at the pumps rising constantly and with pumps being often empty, resulting in long lineups at the stations which still had gas.

‘’I still love my car: it helps attract more boys to me.’’

‘’Is it really your car that attracts them, or your boobs?’’

Patricia pulled her tongue out at John before putting down her suitcases and bags on the chariot brought forward by the station’s porter. They then made their way to the taxi

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stands, where they took a cab to go to the Fuji Lake Hotel, situated nearby on the shores of the splendid Lake Kawagushi, within full view of the majestic Mount Fuji, one of Japan’s three holy mountains and the object of pilgrimage for centuries.

Having reserved in advance a Western-style room at the Fuji Lake Hotel, the couple was able to quickly install itself in a room of the 1930s era establishment. To John’s satisfaction, their room faced directly Mount Fuji, with its snow-capped slopes and summit. Going to the balcony, John stared with melancholy at the volcano.

‘’Every time that I look at Mount Fuji, it awakens old souvenirs in me, very old souvenirs, Patricia. It was in fact my secret home for centuries, until the early 18th Century, when it last erupted and destroyed my cave. That was also when I lost my

mate, Kannon56. She was killed in the eruption, or so I presume: I was away at the time and, when I returned, I found the entrance to our cave blocked by freshly solidified lava. For days, I desperately hoped that she had been able to make it out intact, but I never saw her afterwards, nor did she answer my telepathic calls.’’ Seeing tears appearing in John’s eyes, Patricia approached him and gently put one hand on his right shoulder.

‘’I am sorry for your loss, John, truly. Is there any chance that there could be a way to get to your old cave?’’

‘’I…I tried to find one many times over the centuries, but was unsuccessful. The nearest I could get to it was by the old Fuji-ko shrine in the Hitoana Cave, which is situated in the Aokigahara Forest, on the northwest slope of Mount Fuji, but I could go no further.’’

Patricia patted John’s shoulder in encouragement as he lowered his head in sadness.

‘’Well, maybe I could help you with that, John. I have a few magical powers that could allow me to get to your cave.’’

Those words made John’s head snap back up as he looked at her with renewed hope.

‘’You do? What powers do you have exactly?’’

‘’I can teleport precisely where I want to, as long as I have a good idea of where I am going. I also can turn into ethereal form and be able to walk through solid walls or obstructions. If you want, we could go together to that Hitoana Cave when you will feel like it.’’

56 Kannon: Japanese pronunciation of Guanyin, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. She is one of the most beloved Buddhist divinities.

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‘’Tonight, maybe?’’ said John, crazy hopes rising in his mind. Patricia nodded her head once at that.

‘’Tonight will be fine, John.’’

His response was to hug her with joyful strength.

‘’Thank you, Patricia, from the bottom of my heart. You are a real friend. I will owe you, big time!’’

‘’I will take some sex as a payment, later on.’’ she replied with malice.

16:02 (Japan Time)

Starting point of the trail to the Hitoana Cave

Northeast limit of the Aokigahara Forest

Mount Fuji slopes

The driver of the taxi which had carried Patricia and John to the point where the trail to the Hitoana Cave started looked with concern at the couple through the opened window of his car.

‘’It is going to be dark soon. Are you sure that you want to go to the cave at this hour, sir? They say that the place is haunted.’’

‘’Don’t worry about us, good man.’’ replied John casually. ‘’I have been here many times before and know the forest well. We will walk back: the fresh air will do us good.’’

Only half convinced, the taxi driver nonetheless made his car turn around and sped away, leaving Patricia and John alone at the forest’s edge. Both wore Winter coats and hiking boots, while Patricia carried a Nikon 35mm still camera in its protective leather case hanging from her neck by a leather strap.

‘’So, shall we get on our way?’’ asked John.

‘’Yes! Show the way! By the way, is it true that this forest is haunted?’’

‘’It certainly has the reputation for it, Patricia. In the past, poor families came here to abandon very young or very old members who were not wanted or were considered a burden. More recently, the Aokigahara Forest has become a favorite place for those who wanted to commit suicide. In fact, this forest is the second most popular suicide location in the World after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.’’

‘’Wow! I can see why the locals would think of this place as being haunted.’’

‘’Do you believe in ghosts, Patricia?’’

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‘’I do, as I met a few ones in the past, mostly around cemeteries in France. Most of the old superstitions about ghosts are wrong, but they are basically souls who cannot find peace for some reason or another. They are mostly harmless and are invisible to people who can’t perceive magic, but they sometimes appear to the living and scare the shit out of them.’’

‘’Can you see them?’’

‘’Yes! One of my innate magical abilities as a Succubus is ‘True Seeing’, which allows me to see beings in ethereal form, among other things. I myself can transform temporarily into ethereal form.’’

‘’Decidedly, your magical abilities are definitely superior to mine, Patricia.’’

‘’And that’s normal, John: I am an Outsider, a being from another plane of existence who was shaped by magic, while you are an extra-terrestrial being with magical talents. Mind you, your fire breath is one mighty weapon, I will give you that.’’

The couple mostly stayed silent as they walked up the long trail of stone steps towards the Hitoana Cave. They arrived there after maybe twenty minutes of walking, by which time the Sun was about to set. The couple paused at the entrance to the grounds of the ancient shrine; a small deforested area nearly filled with rows of simple stone monuments reminiscent of gravestones. John let Patricia look around for a moment before pointing at the bigger central monument.

‘’This is the Hitoama Asama Shrine, dedicated to the resident divinity of Mount Fuji. The cave entrance you see under

and in front of it is the cave I spoke to you

about. It leads to an ancient shrine at the

end of the cave, some 100-meter-deep.

Shall we go in now?’’

‘’Wait! Let me check out our surroundings first.’’

‘’You mean, watch for ghosts?’’

‘’And other things.’’ said Patricia, dead serious. Uttering a ‘True Seeing’ spell, she nearly recoiled at once with both surprise and alarm, making John stiffen.

‘’What? What do you see?’’

‘’Ghosts! Hundreds of ghosts! They are all around us, watching us. However, they don’t seem to be making any hostile gestures…for the moment.’’

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Patricia then paused as she examined more carefully the half-translucent shapes floating close to the ground around her and John. The majority of the shapes were tiny, the size of mere children or even babies, while a strong minority of the other shapes looked like old people. All looked at the couple with sadness or despair on their faces. Patricia then remembered what John had said to her about unwanted young children and old people having been abandoned in this forest. She felt nearly overwhelming emotions as she remembered the time when she had herself been abandoned by her mother, Lilith, in a narrow, dark back alley of Paris in 1932. The sight of the tiny shapes and the memory of her dead adoptive mother brought tears to Patricia’s eyes.

‘’So many children here, all abandoned to die in this forest. I even see babies, dozens of them.’’

Deeply shaken, although he could not see the ghosts himself, John spoke softly to Patricia, careful not to sound hostile towards them.

‘’What are they doing?’’

‘’Right now: nothing! They are simply watching us. I will try to communicate with them telepathically.’’

Patricia then concentrated, her eyes fixing one of the older-looking shapes, that of a decrepit woman who held two of the young ghosts by the hand.

‘’Can you hear me?’’

‘’Yes! Who are you? How come you can communicate with us? Nobody we saw here before could.’’

‘’I am myself not from this plane of existence. How long have you been here?’’

‘’For me, centuries! I was abandoned here when my family, which was very poor, could not feed me anymore. Somehow, I never went to Heaven, or even Hell, after I died. Instead, I found myself stuck here for eternity, like all the poor souls you see around.’’

‘’But, all those children, they had to be completely innocent souls. Why are they stuck here, instead of being in the Celestial Plane?’’

‘’Probably because they never felt the love that they rightly expected from their parents, or because they felt bitter at being abandoned. Each of us have separate reasons for being stuck here.’’

Patricia felt fresh tears on her face: the feeling of sadness and despair permeating the shrine grounds was almost overwhelming. Looking at John, she spoke to him in a shaking voice, near sobbing.

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‘’We…we have to do something for all those poor souls. This can’t go on forever!’’

‘’But, what can we do?’’

‘’I…I don’t know! Let me think a bit.’’

Reviewing all the possibilities in her mind, Patricia had to conclude that she by herself could not do more for the ghosts than offer them some gentle words. As for John, he was obviously even less able to help in this situation. In truth, only a deity or something close to it would have the power to help all those lost souls. The word ‘deity’ then triggered a thought in her mind. However, that thought was also a very scary one for her. Another look around at the hundreds of children’s’ souls watching her finally convinced her.

‘’John, I am going to attempt something, something that could potentially bring death to me. Whatever happens, please don’t react and stay aside.’’

‘’What do you mean? What are you going to do, Patricia?’’ Patricia didn’t answer him, instead concentrating in conjuring one of her most powerful spells.

‘Celestial Hound Archon, I implore and summon thee for your help to save innocent souls.’

Nearly at once, a humanoid shape appeared out of

nowhere, materializing a few paces in front of her. It

had a canine-like head, a muscular body and wide

shoulders. The being seemed disoriented at first, as if it

was confused by its new surrounding. It quickly enough

glared at Patricia and started to take out of its scabbard

the huge sword it carried across its back.

‘’HOW DARE YOU SUMMON ME? YOU ARE A

DEMON! DO YOU WANT TO DIE?’’

‘’Please calm down and hear me out.’’ said softly Patricia, hiding her fear as best she could. Even though she most probably could defeat this Hound Archon in a fair fight, more Celestials would then probably follow, some even more powerful than her. Somehow, her tone convinced the Celestial not to strike her down right away, although he did completely draw his sword out.

‘’SPEAK!’’

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‘’Thank you! First, yes, I am a Demon, a Succubus to be more exact. I summoned you in order to get help for all the little innocent souls you see around this hallowed ground, trapped for eternity on the Material Plane. Could you get help in order to bring all those children’s souls up to the Celestial Plane, where they rightly belong?’’ The Hound Archon looked around at the hundreds of ghostly shapes, then back at Patricia.

‘’And why do you wish that? I never saw demons show pity or concern for others before.’’

Patricia took a deep breath before answering.

‘’Because I have some Celestial blood in my veins. Now, will you help those innocent souls or not?’’

‘’I don’t have the kind of power needed to free those souls from their burdens. I will have to get someone a lot more powerful than me, demon.’’

‘’Then, go!’’

The Hound Archon disappeared at those two last words, making John Hideyoshi blow air out in relief.

‘’You summoned a Celestial to get help for those ghosts? You are either braver or crazier than I…’’

His sentence was cut short by the sudden apparition of a nearly three-meter-tall humanoid with a bald head, golden skin, brilliant topaz eyes in a most handsome face and huge white feathery wings. It had a bow in its hands and a greatsword at his belt and stared hard at Patricia as he spoke in a

deep, booming voice.

‘’YOU ARE A BRAVE AND UNUSUAL

DEMON INDEED. YOU ALSO HAVE QUITE A

POWERFUL MAGICAL AURA. WHO ARE YOU EXACTLY?’’

Bracing herself as she faced the Solar, one of the most powerful of Celestials, Patricia spoke

as calmly as she could.

‘’Who I am is not important now. What is important is to save all the innocent souls who you can see around us and who have been trapped here for centuries. I am asking for your help to break their bonds to the Material Plane and to bring them to the Celestial Plane, where they rightly belong.’’

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As the Solar scanned the area of the shrine and eyed the hundreds of small ghostly shapes, Patricia thought that she saw for a moment a glimpse of pity and sadness in the Celestial’s eyes. The Solar then looked back at her, this time in a noticeably softer way.

‘’I NEED TO KNOW YOUR MOTIVES TO ACT THE WAY YOU DID. WHY DO YOU CARE FOR THOSE SOULS?’’

‘’Out of simple goodness, believe it or not. I myself was abandoned by my mother on the Material Plane when I was only five years old. Before you curse her for supposedly being heartless, know that she did that to save me from all the Demons who wanted to kill me in the Abyss, for I was an abomination in their eyes. My mother is a Succubus, but my father was a fallen archangel named Gideon. He died covering my mother’s retreat as she jumped to the Material Plane with me.’’ The Solar reacted to that by slowly lowering his bow while staring at Patricia.

‘’I KNEW GIDEON: HE FELL FROM GRACE ONLY A FEW DECADES AGO. SO, THIS WOULD MAKE YOU A HYBRID DEMON-CELESTIAL. INTERESTING! THAT WOULD TEND TO EXPLAIN YOUR POWERFUL AURA. YET, YOUR MOTHER HERSELF SHOULD HAVE BEEN OF HIGH DEMON LINEAGE FOR YOU TO HAVE INHERITED SO MUCH POTENTIAL POWER.’’

‘’My mother is the great Lilith. You should know about her: she gave the royal finger to your God eons ago.’’

Instead of becoming angry then, the Solar smiled with amusement at Patricia.

‘’QUITE SPUNKY, ARE WE? YES, I KNOW YOUR LILITH. GOD ALSO REMEMBERS HER VERY WELL. AS FOR GIDEON, HE ALSO HAD QUITE A STRONG CHARACTER, ALTHOUGH HE PROVED TO BE MISGUIDED IN THE END.’’

‘’HE SIMPLY SHOWED FREE WILL!’’ replied forcefully Patricia, before lowering her voice. ‘’I am proud of being his daughter.’’

‘’AND HOW MAY I CALL THE DAUGHTER OF LILITH AND GIDEON?’’

‘’Delicia is my name and sin is my game. Now, are you finally going to get off your buns and help all those little souls?’’

The Solar gave a warning look at Patricia before facing the crowd of ghosts and raising both hands up. He then sang a long incantation in Celestial, an incantation that actually sent some painful vibrations through Patricia’s body: the demonic part of her apparently didn’t like the Celestial words very much. As the Solar finished his incantation, Patricia saw with growing joy the shapes of the child ghosts starting to detach themselves by the dozens from the ground and climb towards the sky. After less than a minute, all the

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ghosts had flown up skyward. When Patricia turned to face the Solar again, tears of joy in her eyes and on her cheeks, it was to see that he had been watching her reaction to the unbinding of the souls. The face of the mighty Celestial was most sober now as he stared at her.

‘’SO, YOUR MOTIVES AND YOUR COMPASSION WERE REAL, DELICIA. IT IS A WONDERFUL SURPRISE FOR ME TO SEE SUCH EMOTIONS IN A DEMON. THERE IS HOPE FOR YOU YET.’’

‘’Hope for what? For me to go to the Celestial Plane? Forget it: the parties there suck! Oh, I forgot: they don’t hold real parties up there. If you meant hope to see me do some more good in my twisted demonic ways here on the Material Plane, then I accept the compliment. And thank you for helping all those souls. By the way, how should I call you?’’

The Solar made a big grin as he bent forward towards her, putting one big hand on top of her left shoulder.

‘’URIEL IS MY NAME AND REPENTANCE IS MY GAME! GOODBYE, SPUNKY DELICIA! DON’T WISH TO SEE ME AGAIN, AS IT WOULD THEN PROBABLY BE THE DAY YOU DIE.’’

The Solar then disappeared in an instant, leaving a hugely relieved Patricia alone with John in the middle of the hallowed ground. John nearly ran to her before happily hugging her.

‘’Patricia, what you just did was both fantastic and most courageous. All those poor souls will now be able to rest in peace. I will owe you big for this.’’ Gently taking John’s head with both hands, she made him look at her and smiled to him.

‘’What you owe me is two lick jobs and a good fuck, my dear John. Now, I believe that we came here to find a way to your old cave.’’

‘’Right! Follow me!’’

With both Patricia and John possessing the power of ‘Dark Vision’, the couple didn’t need to use a flashlight or torch before entering the mouth of the cave situated under the central stone shrine. Being an official Japanese natural monument, the cave had been adapted for the needs of tourists and visitors, with a central walking trail carved in the black volcanic rock and with a handrail running along the tunnel which followed the cave’s entrance grotto. There were also overhead electrical lamps, but those had been switched off in the late afternoon, before the couple’s arrival. Walking

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slowly down the dark tunnel, John and Patricia covered a hundred meters before seeing the end of the tunnel. There, the tunnel split in two, with a small, shallow cavity situated above a much larger cavity where a Buddhist shrine had been built. The shrine was made of crudely cut wood planks and contained a single, badly eroded stone statue. The whole thing appeared very old and, in this deep, surreal dark tunnel, had to have a strong effect on the common visitor. John contemplated the shrine in silence for a moment before speaking up.

‘’This is the farthest I was able to go during my previous visits. It is now up to you and your magic, Patricia.’’

She didn’t reply at first, walking slowly around the shrine to go inspect the rock face behind it. The tunnel actually split in two there, but both tunnels went only a few yards further while quickly shrinking in size, to end in rock faces formed by solidified volcanic lava.

‘’How far from your old cave do you estimate that we actually are, John?’’

‘’A good five kilometers at the least. Originally, this tunnel went all the way to my cave, where it opened up. However, the 1707 eruption both crumbled most of the tunnel and filled it with lava. I don’t even know if my cave still exists: it could well have been filled with lava then, in which case there would be nothing for me to return to.’’ Feeling his discouragement, Patricia patted John’s shoulder in encouragement.

‘’Everything is not lost yet, John. Now, I will need to telepathically explore your ancient memories about your cave. I need to have a good visual picture of it, along with its approximate location, before attempting to teleport to it.’’

‘’I’m all yours, Patricia.’’

‘’Good!’’ She replied with a malicious grin. ‘’That’s the way I like you. Hold still, please and start thinking about your old cave.’’

Approaching John, Patricia put her forehead against his and closed her eyes before concentrating on opening a mental link to his memories. She stayed motionless like this for a good two minutes before opening her eyes and stepping back.

‘’I am now ready to go.’’

‘’What if my old cave is filled with solidified lava? Could you be in danger of staying stuck there?’’

‘’No! If your cave doesn’t exist anymore, then my teleport attempt will simply bounce and I will reappear here nearly instantly. If I don’t reappear at once, then it will mean that I found some kind of free space deep inside Mount Fuji.’’

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‘’Then, I can only wish you good luck, Patricia.’’

‘’Luck is for losers.’’ she replied with a grin just before disappearing from the spot where she had stood. His heart now beating furiously, John waited to see if she would return at once after bouncing on rock. His hopes then grew dramatically as seconds, then minutes, passed without a sign back from Patricia.

‘’By my ancestors! Please make her find my old cave.’’

16:51 (Japan Time)

Underground cave, Mount Fuji

As soon as she rematerialized, Patricia anxiously looked around her in the pitch darkness surrounding her, trying to figure out where she was. It was quickly evident to her that she was not near the underground shrine anymore, as she could now see that she was in a vast cave. She however could not see all of the cave, as it was larger than the range of what her natural dark vision allowed her to see in the blackness. She thus walked towards her left until she met one of the walls of the cave. She however had to go cautiously, as part of the ceiling had crumbled a long time ago, covering the floor with boulders and rubble and making walking treacherous. Touching a boulder lying near the wall she had approached, she cast a ‘Light’ spell on it. The boulder immediately started to glow, shedding light in a six-meter radius around the boulder. Turning ninety degrees to her left, she walked for about fifteen meters and cast ‘Light’ on another boulder. She repeated the same process another six times and ended up being able at last to see the whole of the cavern in normal light. It was big, measuring a good eighty meters by 150 meters, with a ceiling that had an original height of at least thirty meters. As she was examining the ceiling to see how solid or stable it was, Patricia felt her heart accelerate suddenly: the crumbling of part of the ceiling had made visible a reinforcing structure of metallic bars sunk into the rock. Without it, the whole ceiling would have caved in, instead of only the surface layer of rock cracking up and falling. What she had taken to be rock boulders and rubble was actually pieces of some kind of concrete. If anything, this was proof that she was now standing inside the ancient base of a technologically advanced alien civilization, rather than in the lair of a beast.

‘’Hell, John, I did find your cave after all.’’

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She then decided to go get John before doing more exploring of the cave. Concentrating and picturing the image of the underground shrine in her mind, she teleported back to the tunnel, making John nearly jump from the surprise.

‘’Damn, Patricia, you scared me! So, where did you end up?’’

‘’In your cave, I believe, unless caves with ceilings reinforced with metal bars are common around here.’’

John very nearly pushed a scream of joy, keeping it in at the last moment. Instead, he kissed Patricia on her cheeks.

‘’Patricia, you’re fantastic! Can you transport me there?’’ Her response was to grab him by the waist and glue him next to her just before teleporting. When they reappeared in the big cave, John had to sit on a nearby boulder, so strong were the emotions he now felt as he looked around him.

‘’My old base, at last!’’

As John went over his emotions, Patricia walked towards what looked like a mound of rubble and chunks of concrete, situated near one extremity of the cave. As she got closer to the mound, she started noticing some curious details and she slowed down her pace as she examined it more carefully. Revelation then hit her like a sledgehammer as she stopped near one end of the mound.

‘’Er…John, you better come here, quickly!’’

Intrigued by her tone of voice, John came to her at once while being careful not to twist an ankle on the pieces of rubble. He then became thunderstruck when he was able to see what Patricia was looking at.

‘’Kannon!... My poor Kannon!’’

He then collapsed on his knees, raked by sobs. Wanting to respect her friend’s grief, Patricia slowly backed away from the skeletal head of the dragon and discreetly examined the rest of the remains, which were nearly completely covered up by rubble and big chunks of concrete. John’s mate had obviously been killed when large pieces of concrete falling from the ceiling had smashed her head. The general position and posture of the dragon’s corpse then made Patricia wonder about it and she got closer still from the mummified body. Using all her senses, including magic detection, she soon saw something that prompted her to frantically start removing the rubble covering one side of the dead dragon’s belly.

‘’JOHN, I FOUND SOMETHING!’’

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The sight of her uncovering part of his long-dead mate angered John at first. It however took him only a second to understand that she did not mean to desecrate Kannon’s remains. Getting up on his feet, he quickly joined her near the belly of the corpse.

‘’What is it, Patricia?’’

‘’I can sense life under this rubble, right under the belly of your mate.’’

‘’Life? How could that be possible?’’

A thought then struck his mind, making him join up Patricia in her digging. The two of them soon uncovered the whole belly area of the corpse. What they saw under the belly made John’s eyes open wide.

‘’Eggs! Two eggs! Kannon was probably trying to protect them from falling debris when she was struck and killed. They look intact!’’

‘’And I can sense life inside both of them.’’ said Patricia, measuring the full importance of their find. You obviously would know better than me what to do now, John, so how should we proceed with those eggs?’’

‘’Let me do this, Patricia.’’ said John, gently pushing her aside before kneeling next to the eggs, his body pushing away the mummified belly which had covered the eggs for so many centuries. Very cautiously grabbing one of the eggs with both arms, he delicately lifted it from its nest and twisted his torso, then put down the egg on the floor.

‘’Hold it so that it won’t roll or tip over, Patricia.’’

‘’Got it!’’ replied Patricia before putting her hands on top of the one-meter diameter brown egg. Its shell actually had a rough texture, unlike the polished texture of chicken eggs, and it was quite heavy, proof that it was still full. John soon put the second egg next to the first, then joined Patricia in examining them.

‘’I…I can’t believe that they survived for so long here without either hatching or dying.’’

‘’The how is not important, John. What is important is that your old mate left you two living offsprings.’’

‘’You are too right about that! By Drokos, this could completely change my life from now on! I now have two little ones to care for.’’

They were both silent for a moment, until Patricia spoke again.

‘’I suggest that we use some chunks to stabilize those eggs in vertical position, so that we would be free to see what else we could find in this cave.’’

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‘’A good idea, actually. I am anxious to see how much of my old equipment survived that eruption.’’

After ensuring that the two precious dragon eggs wouldn’t roll around, John led Patricia in a detailed search of the cave. While the dragon-sized furniture, now mostly rotten or in pieces, had fared badly the passage of time, what they found in a number of adjacent rooms carved out of the rock proved to be generally in better shape, albeit covered with dust. The largest of the connecting rooms was actually filled with alien machinery, all of it silent and dark.

‘’The life support systems section.’’ explained John as he entered the big secondary cave with Patricia. ‘’Power is off, which is not too surprising in view of the time and lack of maintenance.’’

‘’Where you qualified technically to maintain all this, John?’’ The bar owner nodded his head soberly.

‘’I was what you would call today an engineer. However, I have been cut off from all this for centuries now and everything I learned then has somewhat faded in my memory. I am not sure that I could still do the job properly today. Also, bear in mind that, in my society, many things which Humans do here using machines and tools were done by us via the use of magic. My people were what you would call master magicians, thus concentrated their technological knowhow on things that magic couldn’t do, like long-range transportation and communications, space travel and data processing. Let’s see what is still functional now… Hum, the geothermal power core is not responding and appears completely dead. The ventilation system seems intact on the whole but has no power to operate. I also suspect that the ventilation shafts of the base have been obstructed or filled with lava during the 1707 eruption. The air is stale in the cave… The water pumping and filtration system is definitely out: a big chunk of falling concrete smashed the unit to bits. Let’s go next to the command room.’’ Walking out of the life support systems cave, the duo went to a much smaller cave close to it. Still big by human standards, it must have been considered fairly small by dragon standards and contained two huge separate electronic consoles and what looked like a big metal cylinder. John frowned when he saw that big chunks of concrete had fallen on the consoles and the cylinder, damaging them. The console on the left was actually split open by an angular boulder to which was still attached a few reinforcing metal rods.

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‘’Damn! The long-range communications unit is a goner. It allowed us to communicate around the planet and also with ships passing through the Solar System.’’ That last sentence made Patricia look sharply at her friend.

‘’Dragon ships come frequently to the Solar System?’’

‘’Not by human standards, sorry! In the twelve centuries I have been living on this planet, only one ship passed nearby, checking on us after my original ship dropped my parents off and continued on its mission, heading to another star system.’’

‘’And may I ask what was the mission of your ship, John?’’

‘’Simply said, to seed habitable worlds by dropping off a mated pair of our kind on each suitable world found. The task of that pair of mates was then to multiply and, to a lesser degree, help guide whatever sentient race there could be on their world towards enlightenment. I and Kannon are the descendants of the original pair of dragons dropped on Earth, who were known in Japan as the deities Amaterasu and Susano. Unfortunately, circumstances and luck proved to be unfavorable to us here on Earth and a number of young dragons died during the centuries. Me and Kannon were actually the last dragons on Earth in 1707, when Mount Fuji erupted and caused all this damage. But now, thanks to you, I have two hatchlings who will be able to perpetuate my race on Earth. For that, I will never be able to thank you enough.’’ John then put a tender kiss on Patricia’s lips before looking warmly at her.

‘’Would you help me raise and protect those two hatchlings, Patricia, as my new long-term mate?’’

‘’I would be honored to, John.’’ she replied soberly, very much conscious of the kind of responsibility she had just accepted to take on. ‘’However, that leaves us with one problem concerning them: how the hell do we bring them back to Los Angeles? It is not as if we could have them put on our return plane as checked baggage. I could also see the response of U.S. Customs officials to them: ‘No sir, you are not allowed to bring agricultural products in the United States’.’’

John giggled briefly at Patricia’s joke before becoming serious again.

‘’With luck, we may have a solution for that problem here, in this cave. But first, let me check something here. Please step back for a moment.’’ As soon as Patricia was out of the way, John started to morph, growing quickly in size. After a few seconds, the bar owner had changed into a gigantic golden dragon. However, contrary to popular stories and fables, there was nothing fierce or repulsive in his new appearance. Rather than the usual bat-like wings of fables, this dragon had

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large wings covered with feather-like, thin golden scales, while his elongated head and muzzle, situated at the end of a long neck, also covered with golden scales, had smooth lines and a noble appearance. Its tail was proportionally short and both of its two forward legs could also serve as arms, with agile, six-digit fingers ending in claws, something John demonstrated then by sitting back on his rear legs before opening a drawer in one of the consoles and searching in it. He finally took out of the drawer four large, polished black gems, each suspended from long, beautifully crafted gold chains. Staying in dragon form for the moment, he kept three of the gems and gave the last one to Patricia.

‘’Take this jewel and wear it around your neck, Patricia: it is actually a personal communications device and works via telepathy. Thus, only me, you and other telepaths can use it or even figure out its use. The chain is fitted with two separate sets of clips, so that it could be worn by either a human-sized or dragon-sized being. To activate it, just touch it with two fingers and think your message. It is powered by your personal aura and can thus function indefinitely.’’

‘’How far can it send a message?’’

‘’Its range is global and can even reach the Moon, if you ever go there of course. Now that you will help me with the two hatchlings, this will help us stay in contact at any time. One more thing about it: if anyone tries to forcibly take it from your neck, it will then send a powerful neuronal shock to your attacker’s brain, knocking him or her down.’’

‘’I love it already. It is also a truly beautiful jewel. Thank you, John!’’

‘’Well, now that this is done, let’s go to the next cave.’’

What they found in the adjacent cave seemingly discouraged John. That cave, which was quite large, contained what looked like two big metallic eggs, each about three meters in diameter and height and resting on metallic legs. The top half of the eggs were transparent and showed two sorts of seats located on opposite sides of a central housing. However, parts of the ceiling had also crumbled in this cave, crushing one of the ‘eggs’. John stared bitterly for a moment at the destroyed machine, then went to examine the second machine. It had received a glancing blow from a falling piece of rubble but that blow had only created a long crack on one side of the transparent dome topping the machine.

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‘’Well, this gravity craft may not be fit anymore for space travel but, with luck, it could still be able to fly. Let me examine it for a few moments, Patricia.’’ As the dragon gathered a few human-sized tools and instruments from a tool bench on one side of the cave, Patricia looked up at the ceiling, searching for an exit meant to let the craft fly out. She nearly immediately saw a large, six-meter diameter hole in the ceiling, but rubble had fallen down from the vertical shaft and had piled up, nearly blocking it.

‘’From the looks of it, John, even if your machine can still fly, you may not be able to fly it out of here. I suspect that the exit shaft is blocked.’’

‘’I have something to take care of that problem…if it still works, that is.’’ replied the dragon as he was opening a hatch on one side of the nearly intact machine. He then morphed back into the human shape of John Hideyoshi before entering the machine with his tools and instruments. Being out of her depth technologically in this case, Patricia patiently waited, going slowly around the cave containing the two machines and looking at the various things in it while John worked inside the intact craft.

John pushed a triumphant shout after maybe four minutes, as lights appeared inside the egg-shaped craft.

‘’IT’S WORKING! NOW, IF WE CAN TAKE IT OUT OF THIS CAVE, WE WILL HAVE A WAY TO CARRY THE HATCHLINGS BACK TO LOS ANGELES.’’

‘’And how do you propose to reopen that exit shaft, John? I couldn’t feel a single draft of wind coming out of it, which means that it is most probably obstructed by debris or solidified lava.’’

‘’We had digging machines which we used nearly three millenniums ago to enlarge and carve out this base. If they still work, then we will make quick work of those obstructions.’’

‘’THREE MILLENIUMS AGO? And you expect these machines to be still functional, John?’’

John gave her a disarming smile as he stepped out of the flying craft he had just examined.

‘’Well, this craft is still working, no? Our machines were made to be long-lived, like me and my brethren. We also produced our machines and tools in two sizes: dragon-size and human-size. I will get human-sized disintegrator diggers.’’

‘’Uh, did you say ‘disintegrator diggers’?’’

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‘’Yup!’’ answered John as he went to a row of human-sized equipment lockers and opened one, taking out something which looked like a metal backpack with shoulder harnesses and with a large projector-like object on its front. John put on the harness, ending with the projector thing resting against its chest. Patricia could now see a number of controls and buttons fitted to two handles meant to orient the projector by up to a few degrees around a frontal arc. John pushed a button and a whining noise, like a turbine starting to spin, started being heard. He then approached the pile of rubble which nearly blocked the ceiling’s exit opening, speaking to Patricia as he went.

‘’This digging device works by disintegrating large surfaces of materiel, be it rock or metal. With it, we could create a brand-new exit tunnel in a couple of hours at the most. I will however concentrate on reopening the original exit shaft.’’

‘’You know what most Humans would do to get their hands on such a powerful device, John?’’

‘’Oh, you don’t need to remind me about the affinity of the Humans for war, Patricia. But you are right: most armies today would kill to get their hands on my disintegrator diggers. Be assured that I am not about to let them have any of my machines. Be careful: I am starting to dig now.’’

A two-foot-wide beam of intense blue light suddenly shot out of the projector carried by John, as a loud crackling sound also started. The energy beam however proved to be of limited length, which John apparently could adjust at will. Starting with the top of the rubble pile, John vaporized the whole pile in only half a minute of work, a feat that impressed Patricia to no little degree.

‘’Wow! This thing is really powerful! But how are you going to dig out the shaft now? You would need to have something to lift you up the shaft.’’

‘’I have it!’’ Replied a smiling John just before starting to float upward silently. ‘’This digging harness also includes a directed gravity propulsion unit which permits me to fly around while digging. Wait here: I shouldn’t be too long.’’

‘’Directed gravity propulsion, disintegrating digger, telepathic communications device…’’ Muttered Patricia to herself. ‘’And I was taking John to be a simple bar owner all that time.’’

After about ten minutes of digging work up the shaft, John flew back down slowly, emerging from the shaft opening and landing softly on the floor of the cave.’’

‘’Job done! The original opening of the flying out tunnel is now free of debris.’’

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‘’YES! I actually started feeling a slight breeze coming down from the shaft. That digging device really works fast.’’

‘’It does! Now, we only need to load the two eggs and a few other important things in this craft, then we will be on our way to Los Angeles.’’

‘’Uh, how fast is your machine, John? Are we going to spend half a day in the air?’’

John smiled at her question.

‘’It is fast enough that even the missiles used by Humans won’t be able to catch us. We will be in Los Angeles in about two hours. There, we will drop the eggs and my other stuff in the basement of my bar, then will return here to load more things. What is in this cave complex is too precious and too sensitive to risk seeing Humans get their hands on them.’’

‘’Why not leave them here? After all, the Humans have not been able to discover this cave for centuries.’’

‘’True, but Humans have proven way too adept in advancing their technologies and science during the last few decades. I don’t give them more than a couple of decades before they will be able to detect this cave complex via remote sensors.’’

‘’Hum, you may be right. Let me give you a hand to load your things in that egg.’’

‘’That ‘egg’ is more properly called a directed gravity craft, Patricia.’’ gently corrected John, making Patricia smirk.

‘’Alright, let’s load your things in the ‘watchamacallit’ machine.’’

‘’Patricia, you are truly incorrigible.’’

‘’I know! I am a Demon, am I not?’’

Apart from the two precious dragon eggs, John loaded an assortment of tools and instruments inside the intact craft, including the small-sized disintegrator digging device. He then sat, or rather laid down on the pilot’s couch, a narrow but well-padded bench inclined thirty degrees from the vertical and with a posterior rest. Once in position, his hands had easy access to the controls of an instrument panel attached to the couch.

‘’As you can see, Patricia, these two couches are made to fit either human shapes or dragons in shrunken size. Now, relax and enjoy the ride.’’ Activating a command, John made the craft lift slowly and silently off its skids, then made it float to a point just under the shaft’s opening in the ceiling. Going up slowly and

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cautiously up the narrow shaft for about 200 meters, John then made the craft go forward and soon emerged into the blackness of the night on the slopes of Mount Fuji.

‘’We are now out of the ground. Hopefully, some tourist won’t decide to explore the cave where the mouth of the shaft is during the time we will be on the way to and from Los Angeles.’’

Twisting her head and looking back, Patricia saw that they had emerged from a cave entrance half hidden by vegetation.

‘’Don’t worry about that, John: I have a way to hide that entrance. WALL OF STONE!’’

John’s eyes widened when he saw a flat vertical stone wall appear just inside the mouth of the cave, blocking it entirely.

‘’Wow! Your magic is truly powerful, Patricia.’’

‘’As it should be, John. After all, I am the child of an Arch-Demon and of an Archangel. Harold McMasters has also taught me many new things about magic during the last year and a half. Right now, I could probably stand up toe to toe to one of the Demon princes of the Abyss in terms of magic.’’

John nodded his head slowly, preoccupation on his face.

‘’And that could attract the attention or envy of many who would want to use you to their profit, Patricia, either in the Abyss or on Earth.’’

‘’Well, they are welcomed to try…if they really want to die. Now, let’s get on our way, shall we?’’

‘’Yes Boss!’’ jokingly replied John before making his craft jump upwards while accelerating quickly to hypersonic speed.

02:15 (California Time) / 19:15 (Japan Time)

U.S.A.F. air defense control center, Vandenberg Air Force Base California, U.S.A.

The master sergeant manning one of the radar screens of the Vandenberg Air Force Air Defense Control Center felt his hair suddenly stand up on his head as an impossibly fast dot appeared on his screen, prompting him to shout urgently at the duty officer of the center.

‘’SIR, I HAVE A SINGLE HYPERSONIC OBJECT APPROACHING LOS ANGELES!’’

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The duty officer, an experienced Airforce major, nearly ran to his station and looked at the radar screen with growing alarm.

‘’Only a missile could go this fast. DOES ANYONE ELSE HAVE THIS

CONTACT ON HIS SCREEN?’’

‘’I DO, SIR! IT HAS BEEN DETECTED BY THE RADARS OF THE EDWARDS FLIGHT TEST CENTER. I READ ITS SPEED AS MACH SIX PLUS!’’

‘’My God! We are under attack! Sergeant, record this track from now on. CAPTAIN SCHUMAKER, ALERT NORAD AND THE PENTAGON: MISSILE DETECTED PENETRATING OUR AIRSPACE AND HEADING FOR LOS ANGELES AT MACH SIX PLUS.’’

‘’RIGHT AWAY, SIR!’’

‘’LIEUTENANT REED, ALERT MARCH AIR FORCE BASE! HAVE THEM SCRAMBLE THEIR INTERCEPTORS ON ALERT! LIEUTENANT WOLMACK,

ACTIVATE OUR NIKE SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILE BATTERIES!’’ As his subordinates frantically got busy, the major anxiously followed the speedy dot on the radar screen: it was definitely heading for Los Angeles. He couldn’t help close his eyes for a moment then as a wave of intense emotion washed over him: his grown son and his little family were living in Los Angeles.

‘’Please, God, don’t let this happen.’’

Completely unaware of the panic they were creating, John and Patricia smiled on starting to see the lights of Los Angeles at night in the distance.

‘’You see? I told you that this craft was fast.’’

‘’And you didn’t lie about that. With luck, we could complete two return trips and be back in Japan before the Sun rises there.’’

As John was making his craft decelerate while approaching the sprawling city, Patricia’s acute vision caught on a dot of light in the distant sky: it was approaching their craft, fast!

‘’Hey, something is approaching us from our left! It is quite fast too.’’ John looked in that direction, only to feel his heart jump in his chest.

‘’IT’S A MISSILE! WE ARE BEING FIRED UPON! DAMN, I DON’T HAVE WEAPONS ON THIS CRAFT!’’

Patricia muttered a curse between her clenched teeth: those Humans had decidedly been making way too much progress technologically during the past decades. However, she realized that she would have to do something, fast! Taking a decision, she touched

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the machinery cover in the center of the craft and muttered a quick spell before patting John’s shoulder.

‘’This craft is now invisible and will be so for about ten minutes. Use that time to land your craft at the bar and unload it. I will join you there shortly.’’

‘’Wait! What are you going to do?’’

‘’Play anti-missile defense, that’s what!’’ She replied before vanishing from inside the craft.

Having teleported out of the craft, Patricia found herself freefalling through the cold air of the December night sky. Unfortunately for her, her present repertoire of spells didn’t include ‘Levitate’ or ‘Feather Fall’. Promising herself to correct that deficiency when she would have the time to do so, she then concentrated on the approaching missile and shouted in Abyssal.

‘’MAGIC MISSILES!’’

Two tiny red dots shot out of her extended right hand and flew in an instant to the approaching missile, hitting it squarely. To Patricia’s relief, the missile then exploded while still a hundred meters from her. Now that she had gotten rid of the most pressing threat, she quickly undid and removed both her shirt and her bra and rolled them into a tight ball which she held by one hand. Now topless, she morphed into her natural demonic form, making a pair of large, feathery black wings deploy in her back. Flapping her wings vigorously, she braked her fall in a few seconds, then started flying at medium altitude towards Los Angeles. She actually enjoyed that, as she had very few opportunities in the recent past to be in her natural form and to fly around.

‘’Aah, I should do this more often.’’

In the Vandenberg air defense center, the major watched the missile disappear from the radar screen just as it was about to get to the intruder.

‘’SHIT! OUR MISSILE GOT SHOT DOWN! LIEUTENANT WOLMACK, FIRE ONE MISSILE FROM BATTERY ‘DELTA’!’’

‘’BUT, SIR, THOSE ARE ARMED WITH NUCLEAR WARHEADS! WE WILL INCINERATE PART OF LOS ANGELES IF WE FIRE ONE OF THEM.’’

‘’YOU PREFER TO SEE ALL OF LOS ANGELES DISAPPEAR IN A MUSHROOM CLOUD, MISTER?’’

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‘’MAJOR, THE OBJECT IS DECELERATING QUICKLY. IT IS NOW FLYING RIGHT OVER LOS ANGELES AT LOW ALTITUDE AND IS MANEUVERING.’’

‘’WHAT? DON’T TELL ME THAT THIS IS A MANNED PLANE.’’

‘’IT APPEARS SO, SIR.’’

‘’HELL! CONTACT THE INTERCEPTORS FROM MARCH AFB! VECTOR THEM TOWARDS THAT INTRUDER!’’

‘’YES SIR!’’

In the directed gravity craft, John let out a sigh of relief when he saw the incoming missile explode away from him. He also saw Patricia transform and start flying on her own after a few more seconds. Now reassured about her, he started decelerating his craft while going down, heading towards the Little Tokyo District. He was arriving within sight of the building containing his bar when two menacing shapes flew by him at high speed with a loud double ‘WOOSH’. He frowned as he watched the two McDonnell-Douglas F-4 PHANTOM fighter-bombers perform wide turns to come back in his direction.

‘’Nice try, boys, but you are too late now.’’

John then started his final descent, soon being too low to be picked up further by the airborne radars of the F-4s. The fighter jets were still flying around, searching visually for his craft, when he landed smoothly on the flat roof of his building. Knowing that he had only a few minutes left before his craft became visible again, John hurried to take out the two dragon eggs and the other items brought from Japan, then ran to the roof trap giving access to the inside, unlocking the safety padlock on it and throwing the trap open. Grabbing one of the eggs, he cautiously went down the steep stairs to the upper floor and continued on until he was in the secret basement complex under his bar. Gently laying his dragon egg on top of a folded wool blanket, John then ran up to the bar, where he found the barman, Roman Radu, and the waitress, Priti Kumar, busy cleaning up things there.

‘’QUICK, COME WITH ME TO THE ROOF: I HAVE THINGS TO BRING TO THE BASEMENT!’’

‘’Boss? But we thought that you were on vacation in Japan?’’

‘’I still am…officially. I will explain later but, now, I need your help.’’

‘’Coming, Boss!’’ replied Roman, dropping his drying cloth on the bar counter, with Priti Kumar following close behind him. The three of them managed to take

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everything down to the basement rooms in only two trips, by which time Delicia was landing on the roof, still topless and in demonic form. John took a second to kiss her on her lips.

‘’Thanks for the timely help, Delicia. I thought for a moment that we were going to be toast up there.’’

‘’Indeed! Those Humans are really getting too good to my taste at inventing machines of war. Are all your things safely inside now?’’

‘’Yes! We should now go back to Japan. Unfortunately, it is now too late to do a second return trip before the Sun will rise. We will have to wait another night to bring in the rest of my things.’’

Then turning to face Roman Radu, John gave him quickly a few short instructions.

‘’Roman, I will have to ask you to watch over the two large eggs I brought, and that until I come back from Japan. Just don’t touch or move them in the meantime and don’t let anyone else see or approach them.’’

‘’Uh, no problem, Boss. May I ask what those eggs are?’’

‘’You may: they are dragon hatchlings…viable ones.’’

Both Roman and Priti opened their eyes wide at those words, with Priti then joyfully clapping her hands together.

‘’Ooh, we are going to have baby dragons here? That is fantastic!’’

‘’Well, don’t let the tiger in you devour my eggs, Priti.’’ said jokingly John as he was about to get back in his craft. ‘’I should be back tomorrow night with more stuff. Roman, could you acquire in the meantime a few large canvas tarps, along with some aluminum modular tent frames and some sandbags to anchor them on the roof, so that we could hide this craft from direct sight?’’

‘’No problem, Boss! I will take care of everything.’’

‘’Thanks, Roman! Thanks to you too, Priti! I will see you again tomorrow night.’’ With Delicia back into her human shape of Patricia Love and in her seat, John sat back inside his craft and closed the hatches, then took off in silence. By then, the two fighter jets had gone away, having probably given up on their elusive target while also getting low on fuel.

02:31 (California Time)

Vandenberg Air Defense Control Center

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Major General Albert Brown, having been awakened in a hurry from his small duty room, was reviewing grimly the tape recordings of the radar tracks showing the intruder that had just caused so much excitement.

‘’Too many different radars detected that intruder for this being simply a false echo. You reacted correctly, Major Lorentz.’’

‘’Thank you, sir!’’ replied Lorentz, secretly relieved that his general was not going to blame him for overreacting. ‘’The two interceptors from March AFB did pick up the intruder on their radars as well, at least at first, but then lost it in the ground clutter when it went down.’’

‘’In which area did it go down, Major?’’

‘’Right in the downtown area, sir, around the Chinatown and Little Tokyo Districts.’’

‘’Hum! I will have the Air Force Police go have a look around there, both by car and by helicopter. If that thing landed inside Los Angeles, then we must find it, quickly!’’

‘’SIR, I HAVE AGAIN THE INTRUDER ON OUR RADARS! IT IS NOW SPEEDING AWAY FROM LOS ANGELES AND ACCELERATING TO HYPERSONIC SPEED!’’

Nearly running to the console of the radar operator who had just shouted his warning, Brown saw a dot flying quickly across the radar screen, coming from downtown Los Angeles and heading out to sea.

‘’Dammit! What could possibly go this fast? I am sure that the Soviets can’t possess such a fantastic craft.’’

‘’Uh, maybe we should classify this incident under the standing U.F.O. file, sir.’’ suggested Major Lorentz, making Brown nod his head slowly.

‘’Do that, Major! Assemble all the data we have on this incident and be ready to brief NORAD on it in the afternoon.’’

‘’Yes sir!’’