Data 4: Jihad at 25,000 Feet Akbar was in a rage now. He started to fire indiscriminately at anyone he could vent his anger at. Ami ducked down just as a stray bullet buried itself into the left temple of the passenger in front of her. Akbar grabbed the flight attendant, and ripped her blazer, vest and shirt off, leaving her bra barely hanging by the tattered straps. She began to cry as Akbar stormed forward into the cockpit. "GO TO HELL, INFIDEL!", he roared as his gun spat bullets everywhere. The pilot, co-pilot and navigator fell dead. Akbar then went to the control and programmed the auto pilot on a course for Lawndale. He then stormed back into the first class compartment. "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is His prophet!," roared Akbar. "The Great Satan will burn in Hell for all eternity! Death to the American Satan! The infidel must die! ALLAH AKBAR! ALLAH AKBAR!" Akbar then undid the buttons of his shirt and revealed the nuclear device strapped to his abdomen. With a calm dexterity he armed the device for the precise moment the plane would be flying over Lawndale High School's football field. Ami was still in a ducked position. She was trying to get her mini-computer/communicator that she always carried with her and try to send a message back to Tokyo; she finally found it and activated it. "This is Ami!," she began; "Usagi, Rei, Mako, Minako, Mamoru, anyone, can you hear me! We're being held hostage!" Akbar heard what was going on, and stormed right to Ami's seat. He grabbed Ami by the hair and roared a savage yell. "You will pay for that, you American pig!," he screamed. "My name is Mizuno Ami," she began to reply. "I am a citizen of Japan. That is all I will tell you!" "American, Japanese, it doesn't matter to me!," Akbar yelled back; "You will pay for what you did, infidel!" Then Akbar savagely threw a left hook right into Ami's right eye, causing her to yelp in excruciating pain as she collapsed on the floor. He then began to kick her on the floor, kicking her in every conceivable area: her head, her pelvis, her legs, her shins, the base of her spine, the solar plexus. He then took the butt of one of his guns and began to hit her with that as well. Fifteen horrifying minutes later, Ami was horribly black and blue. Ami began to cry. "DON'T CRY, YOU BITCH!", Akbar roared as he slapped her across the face. He then seized her by the collar of her seifuku and ripped it in half. "Take the rest of your clothes off now!" Ami was too afraid at this point to refuse. She took what was left of her tattered clothes off and submitted to a humiliating search. There was nowhere Akbar left unexamined. "At least you don't have any more devices on you!;" shouted Akbar; "As far as I know, you might be an agent for the CIA or the FBI or even working for the Russians! I don't trust you, you swine! I'm locking you in the lavatory until we reach our destination!" "But what if we have to go to there?," said one passenger. Akbar fired his machine gun and killed him. "SILENCE!," he roared. He then took the nude Ami and threw her into the lavatory, putting a food cart next to it so Ami couldn't open the door. Ami was all alone now. She could see bruises all over her body. She hadn't felt so alone or so helpless since her mother told her that she was getting a divorce from her father. Ami began to cry. "Queen Serenity, help me in my time of need!", she sobbed silently. ----------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- Akbar had returned to the first class cabin. He was extremely enraged now. He began to scream out a diatribe against the United States: "The Great Satan must pay for his atrocities against Islam! The Great Satan must be destroyed for his supporting the Jewish interlopers in Palestine! The Great Satan must suffer for his sins of arrogance! Death to the American Satan! The infidel must die!" Everyone on the plane was cowed into silence with his ranting. Suddenly, he said, "I now hereby order all of you to sing!" "What do you want us to sing?," asked another passenger. Akbar commanded, "You are to sing 'Morning Has Broken' from that great singer Yosof Islam, or as you infidels know him, Cat Stevens. He supports the Ayatollah Khomeini's death sentence against that pig, Salman Rushdie. Anyone who refuses to sing will be shot! ALLAH AKBAR! ALLAH AKBAR!" Slowly, at first, the crowd began to sing: "Morning has broken/Like the first dawn..." "LOUDER!," Akbar screamed. The crowd began to sing louder. Akbar then headed to the cockpit, shoved the corpse of the pilot aside and got on the radio to announce what he had just done. After that, he sent a machine gun burst into the radio, disabling it. He then returned to the first class cabin. ----------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- Back at Japan, the news spread like wildfire as soon as it got off the wires: "We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming here at NHK to bring you this special bulletin. A Japan Air Lines jet from Narita Airport to Berlin, Germany, has just been hijacked by a terrorist who says he's with Islamic Jihad. He has set a course for the United States, destination unknown at this time. He claims to have already killed several passengers and will kill more unless he is given free passage to the United States. His ultimate intentions are unknown at this time. NHK will keep you posted on further developments as this alarming situation develops." ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- Gov. Nagai, having heard the news, made hasty arrangements to address the issue at a press conference: "My friends, I have received this distressing news myself only moments ago. My heart goes out to those aboard, especially our own fellow countrymen, who are now facing indescribable terror. To the hijacker, I must warn him that any further deaths on his part will result in the condemnation of the world." "I assure everyone here, that if I am elected, I will introduce legislation that will address the threat of terrorism here in Japan. We only know too well that not even our nation is immune; witness the serin attack on the Tokyo subway system just three years ago. I propose that a joint special unit consisting of SDF and National Police personnel be formed to help combat the scourge of terrorism while at the same time adhere to the prohibitions of Article 9. I propose that better security measures be put in place at our airports, railway stations and maritime facilities. It is time to send a message to terrorists of all stripes that Japan will no longer be an easy target for them." Gov. Nagai left without taking any questions from the press. ----------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- The Sailor Senshi were gathered at Sendai Hill Temple when the news broke. Rei and her grandfather didn't own a television themselves, but Kumada Yuuichirou, a retired rock singer who had been living in the shrine for several years now, had one in his room. When he saw the bulletin, he raced out of his room and into the courtyard. "Guys! Guys! You've got to see this!," Yuuichirou said; "It was just on NHK, but I can get it on CNN as well!" Since Yuuichirou had a satellite dish installed, he could pull in the American cable channels like CNN. "What's going on, Yuuichirou?," Rei asked. "Something about a hijacking or something like that, Rei," Yuuichirou replied. Everyone scrambled to Yuuichirou's room. He had tuned in to CNN. Wolf Blitzer was at the State Department covering the event. "We can now confirm that Islamic Jihad is behind this," Blitzer said. "The Imam Al-Kabaz, who heads the Beirut branch of the organization, announced that it was Akbar el-Salaam who took control of the JAL flight from Tokyo to Berlin and has now set a course for the United States. Islamic Jihad still refuses to reveal where in the United States the plane will land, if it does at all." "Oh, my god! Ami's on that flight!," Usagi said. "What can we do?", Haruka added "Right now, they're right in the middle of the ocean." Suddenly, Rei's grandfather raced in. "Rei! Rei! Come quickly!," he said. "The Great Fire is raging out of control!" Everyone ran to where the Great Fire was burning. Sure enough, it was indeed burning furiously as it had never burned before. "This is not a good sign," Rei said. "There are demonic forces at play here." Phobos and Deimos, Rei's pet crows, had flown in and witnessed the fire. They were beginning to act strangely, like Rei had never seen them act before. "In all my years I have been the priest of this shrine, I have never witnesses anything like this!," Rei's grandfather said. "In fact, nowhere in the shrine chronicles has anything this intense ever happened until now! May all the kami and megami of our faith protect us at this trying time!" Usagi turned to Daria and told her, "Now you understand the seriousness of what we do here. This is no kid's game we're engaged in. I used to be a big crybaby and whine a lot, but now I know what my destiny is. I'm supposed to lead humanity to a better future, and fight those who would destroy that vision. Daria, you have to tell me right now: Are you in for this--no matter how high the stakes get in this situation--or are you out?" Daria now knew the gravity of the situation. God only knows where the terrorist was taking the plane; even the people she cared for (in her own way) might be in danger. "I'm in," Daria replied in her calm, monotone voice. "I request that all of you leave me here while I meditate," Rei asked. "Now, when all Hell's breaking loose?," Mako said in shock. "I will pray for the deliverance of the hostages," Rei replied. Rei's grandfather and Yuuichirou ushered the others out of the room. Rei got on her knees, the sweat from the intense heat of the fire dropping from her forehead like mad. She raised her hands in supplication. "Mother," Rei began, "I know you can hear me. I have prayed to you since your death. You know that I miss you dearly, but you and Grandpa taught me the ways of the miko. I pray to you now to help my friend Ami. She too has suffered pain and suffering in her life, and now her own life is in jeopardy. If she is in mortal danger, help her. I cannot help her myself now, for she is far away. Listen to my entreaties, Mother. This I pray in the name of Amaterasu-Omikami, the Great Heaven Shining Deity who watches over our people." Suddenly, the fire died out. A woman in flowing red robes, robes that seem to be aflame with the very fire of the Sun itself, appeared; she had long, flowing black hair and her eyes seemed to be aflame with solar fire themselves. It was Amaterasu-Omikami herself. Rei did not want to admit it, but now she was trembling. "Do not be afraid of me, my child," Amaterasu-Omikami began to say; "I have heard your supplication and all shall be done as you have asked." She reached a hand out to her forehead, and it seemed energy flowed from her to Rei. "Receive this gift of mine; it is extra energy to help you in the ordeal ahead," Amaterasu-Omikami said. "Go in peace, my child." With that, she vanished, and Rei seemed to faint. She recovered a few minutes later and left the room. She did not dare reveal at the time what had happened. ----------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- It was the morning of the big game at Lawndale, due to the time difference. The Lawndale Militia had gathered for a pre-attack meeting. Anthony Corlew stood up deliver a pre-attack speech: "My comrades in arms! This is the big day we have been planning for months now. If we need yet another reason why we need to take over Lawndale, then the nation, it is in the news we've all heard this morning. The hijacking of the JAL flight proves that we need to seize power. If we had a government that was not afraid to use its military might when needed, things like this wouldn't happen. Our present philandering, draft-dodging President does not have the balls to use his powers that are given to him. And if--God forbid--the hijacker explodes the plane over our airspace, it will not look good for us. Therefore, in the name of all that is right with the white middle class, let us mobilize and take our positions." The members of the militia got up and began to move out. ----------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Vander Helffen was watching the coverage of the hijacking situation on Asahi TV. He had summoned Yoriko, who was expected to arrive shortly. Yoriko entered. Dr. Vander Helffen motioned her to sit down. He said: "Yoriko, now is the time for us to launch 'Operation Iron Fist.' Now that the attention of the world is focused on this hijacking, now is the time to strike. Get our best ninja soldiers together and get some sarin bombs and proceed to the joint SDF/USAF base near Yokohama. Now is the time to strike while the iron is hot!" "Understood, Dr. Vander Helffen," responded Yoriko.