The Kraken Wars - Part 4

A Pair of New Weapons

The contracts from Consolidated Airship Transport continued to arrive at Sprokit & Kogg.  Jack and Phineas continued fly convoy patrols and the Kraken beaks continued to pile up.


Wyatt was spending more and more time on Tong Island. He carefully and gently explained  to Elder Tong that his cafe crew was superbly trained and would produce five star meals regardless if  he was there or not. However, Elder Tong and Wyatt both knew that it was his presence at the Green Door Cafe that kept his patrons returning. His greetings to them and the knowledge that the magnificent food on their plate was prepared especially for THEM by a master of the culinary arts was essential to the unparalleled  success of the Green Door Cafe.

Wyatt also knew that this leaf; this mystery that defied all understanding, was important. He suspected that it held importance far beyond his cafe or it's patrons or for the entire Tong Family. Whatever the leaf might do, or not do; it was connected to the continued attack of the Kraken.

Wyatt Tong knew the the reason behind it all was sinister and evil to the core.

Tong Island Lab by night

Wyatts new building on Tong Island looked like most of the buildings on that battered shore; weather beaten and scruffy. Beneath the roof of the shabby exterior was the best laboratory he could assemble, with connections to the science labs of Caledon Oxbridge University and the huge knowledge pool therein.

Wyatt placed the leaf in a sealed and locked case, he then boarded his own airship and quietly flew to C O U. He moored his ship and strolled across the green lawns to a little known part of the large campus. The Biological Research Laboratory appeared to be a small brick building with a heavy bronze door; that was the above ground portion of the facility.

He walked up to the receptionist desk and spoke softly, "I wish to speak with Dr.Starla Celeste please.”

The man behind the desk was slender, with a pinched expression on his face and an attitude that radiated polite irritation. "Do you have an appointment"?

"Please give her this card", he said. He placed the card on the desk and stepped, one step back.

"Dr. Celeste is very busy. You must call through proper channels and make an appointment," said the man at the desk.

"Send her the card. If she will not see me, I will leave. But, I will stay until you send the card."

The man at the desk stood up. "I will call Security!" he said.

Wyatt smiled and nodded and said, "As you wish."

The man picked up the card as though he feared being soiled by merely touching it. He placed the card in a reader and typed on a keyboard.

Wyatt sat in a waiting chair, his case on his lap; and waited.

In a few minuets the door of an elevator opened and a woman in a smart tailored suit stepped out. Her long chestnut hair was braided and hung to her lower back. She had  brown eyes, freckles and a confident stride that brought her to the desk. The man behind the desk stood and began to speak.

"Dr. I tried to explain to this person that…"

She silenced him with an upraised palm, then her index finger pointed down and he sat.

"Wyatt, how good to see you. How did you manage to escape from that wonderful kitchen of yours. Come, you can tell me over coffee. It's a lovely, dark French Roast today."

As she took Wyatts arm and turned toward the elevator, Wyatt turned, smiled at the
receptionist and waived bye bye.

The office on the second floor of the facility was only known to a small number of people. It was bright and rich and personal. They sat on a leather couch next to a bronze and glass table where Wyatt opened his case and removed the glass framed leaf.

"What is this and where the heck did you get it?

Wyatt told his friend and former professor, the entire story. Ten minutes into the tale, she stopped him with a raised hand. Starlas voice was calm when she spoke into the intercom on her desk,"Cancel any appointments, giving reason number one and hold all calls. If something seems like it might be important, send it to my tablet with a ping.
Thank you. I am sorry if I seemed abrupt earlier."

Wyatt left her office three hours later. He returned to his office at the Green Door Cafe, reviewed the menu for the evening meal, thanked his staff for their efforts and sat at his desk to review his notes.

The leaf had been left with Starla Celeste for further evaluation and consultation. She had been at first puzzled about the leaf, but in the end realized that there could be no purpose for this but to use the Kraken as an attack organism. However, this was a completely unknown technology; who developed it, how it was developed and the basis for how it was done was  unknown. Nothing like it had ever been seen before, of that she was certain.

Starla assured Wyatt that she would contact him as soon as more facts became apparent. He continued to go about his own research at the Tong Island lab with the aid of a powerful binocular microscope and a huge database, on loan from Caledon Oxbridge University.

Wyatt Tong was not the only member of this clan of Kraken hunters to gear up and change tactics. Jack had contacted an old friend and the individual who had helped get the avalanche started on it's downhill plunge. Jacob Elwood worked as an advisor to several levels of the Navy, and  was well connected with most of the contractors who supplied it with special equipment and ordinance.

Another glass case with leaf therein sat on Jacks desk in the offices of Sprocket & Kogg and as it leaned against the lens of his view screen, it seemed to radiate. No, that wasn’t right, but it soaked up all the attention in the small room. Both men stared at it, then Jack looked at Jacob, his eyes wide, scarcely breathing.

“Our suspicion is that this leaf is somehow making the Kraken attack. Now, for what reason seems obvious. Someone went to a lot of trouble to make the Kraken crazy enough to attack with single minded ferocity”

"So, you see Jacob, all  the attacks and all our battles with Kraken have taken place over open water. There were no other airships in the sky and no ship traffic on the surface. Therefore, there has to be a submarine of some kind involved."

Jacob nodded and said, "OK, but that still begs the question of why anyone would wish to do this. I can see no reason to…"

Jack was nodding.

Jacob slammed his fist on the desk hard, "Pirates; it has to be  prirates ! Of course. They set the Kraken on a trade route and simply sit on the bottom and wait for the booty to fall from the sky."

Jack kept nodding.

"Jacob, I need some way to see them.  I know they are there.  Bane and Doom both carry torpedoes and it's not enough to kill their Pets, we need to be able to hit THEM as well. We are doing well with respect to funding. The Beak Bounty and the Kraken bodies are piling up. However, I can't afford to throw torpedoes around with no clear target."

Jacon became quiet and a stern look came over his normally cam face.
"I have something. You can't tall anyone about this. Only you and I and Phineas can be in on it. We must be clear on this."

Jack nodded his assent.

"The Ministry of Naval Procurement recently bought this little Gismo. I will have to install it on your Cutter and . . .  Ok, it's complicated.  You don't have to know how it works, just how to use it. I need Kraken Bane for a couple of days, then we can test the device and you can prepare to be amazed; it's pretty dang cool."

Procurement on The Device took two days and Jacob installed it in Kraken Bane with help from Jack and Phineas. The installation was simply a matter of getting power from the Cutters engine generator to the device. The tricksy part was concealing it from the rest of the crew. The decision was made to conceal it in the mount for the ships wheel, where it could be accessed by the Captain only and be unseen by the crew.

They flew the Cutter from Hollywood Airport where the work had been done in a locked and guarded hanger. Kraken Bane lifted off and headed South on the Blake Sea.

Jacob instructed Jack to open the panel and Phineas flipped the small switch that activated The Device. Instantly the surface of the sea, in a 360 circle around the Melin Class Cutter, simply disappeared. Jack and Phineas gasped and Jacob chuckled.

Fish seemed to swim in the air and sea plants seemed to sway in the breeze rather than the waves.

Both men turned to Jacob and said in unison, "How"?

"The device generates a field, I have no idea what kind of filed and likely couldn't explain it if I did. We installed it on a couple of high speed flying boats but the field is quite limited and only someone standing within a two foot radius of The Device can see the effect. It is therefore of pretty limited use, but I think it fills the bill for what you need.  This Device is on  the books as having been installed on a Flying Boat that was lost in an electrical storm, over a year ago and only wreckage was found on a reef near the Seychelles. So, No Discussing this with ANYONE !  Jack; Phineas, I know and trust you both, but news of this would end my career”

"Why not go through proper channels"?

Phineas had the answer in a second, "Because we need it now. Not when we are too old for solid food."

When the laughter died down, Jacob continued. He held up a small cylinder. ”This small device will be placed in each of the four torpedoes on your Cutter. It fits into the forward stabilizer and converts it to a control for direction and depth. Please don't ask me how, I have no idea. You wear this set of goggles and you will see a set of cross hairs on the left lens. As long as your target is in the cross hairs the torpedo will home on that target."

"I am sure you can't tell us how this works"

"P F M.   Pure Freaking Magic."

To Be Continued


(c) All text and pictures by Jack Tracker