The pirate at the anti-air gun is just pulling up the tripod when he hears a loud roar coming from the fog above. He quickly tosses the legs back down and points the barrel skyward. His prey appears out of the clouds coming straight toward him. An easy target.
All of a sudden, he feels a jolt crash through his back. He spasms uncontrollably, then falls to the ground, Lancaster standing over him, his Electro-Shocker in his hand.
Everyone else hears the roar from above and looks up to it. They wait for the blasts from their own weapon to take it down, but they don't come, and the ship fires a series of shots, hitting the back of their ship, and transforming their engine into a red fireball. The phantom vessel disappears in the cloud cover as quickly as it had appeared.
A group of the pirates rush to the anti-air gun. Finding their friend on the ground and the gun still set up, a group of them run to the ground, and a few of them scatter, searching for the assailant.
The ship overhead fades back into view. It's clearly coming for another pass. As the one on the gun focuses on his target, another who is close notices a rising humming noise coming from the gun, and another notices that the original gunner's pistol is missing.
At that instant, just before the gunner can fire, a shot rings out from behind some cover, hitting the over-heating anti-air gun. The weapon explodes, knocking down or killing all around it.
Those who were searching for Lancaster suddenly see where he's coming from. They charge his position across an open slate of ground. This makes them easy prey for Little Jack flying overhead. He cuts them down with Gatling laser fire and continues on.
By the time a second wave comes, Lancaster has changed position. He creeps up the edge of a coral hill, looking out at the group of pirates searching for him. He is about to ambush them again when he is grabbed from behind. This wasn't part of the plan. He swings both directions, but the man is choking him. He pulls up a gun and brings it to Lancaster's head.
Lancaster practices a move Little Jack taught him, dropping suddenly to one knee and pulling the man down, and over his shoulder. He does, and the man flies off him, along with Lancaster's hat.
The others come running, pulling their guns and leveling them at Lancaster. All they need is room between their captain and the stranger. But the two are locked in combat, wrestling and punching one another. Presently, as Lancaster punches at the captain, he over-swings, and the man grabs him around the neck, pointing him at his crew. It's his firing squad.
"Wait a minute," Lancaster says. "You don't have a way off this island. Be reasonable and give yourselves up."
"We intend to have a ship," the captain says. "We got an overload gun what can take your friend out of the sky without much of a scratch on the pretty paint job."
Lancaster struggles. There is nothing he can do. The pirates point their guns. As long as they hit Lancaster, nothing will hurt the captain. "You won't feel a thing," the captain says. "Just go limp and let it happen. Shhhh." He nods at his crew.
But just before they are able to pull the triggers, a loud zipping noise comes from all above them. They look up just in time to see a dozen or more wires appear out of the fog, and soldier's feet are right behind them. The pirates fire, hitting a couple of the security personnel, but then they get a volley, and they take out almost every pirate.
When they reach ground, they stick their chests, protected by body armor, at the pirates as they step forward, their guns ready. The captain tosses Lancaster aside and runs with his friends. But there are few places to hide on this small island, and they are all rounded up soon enough. Lancaster usually doesn't like to work with outside help, but this time he needed it.
Lancaster and Little Jack are able to look around the island for a few minutes before the other archeologists get there, so they take advantage of the opportunity. Lancaster realizes almost instantly that this is not the village Dr. Makoto had paid him to find out about. But this may be a more fascinating find, discovering that the Zeborno had an island-faring civilization in addition to their land-based cities.
This means little to Little Jack, who conveniently now wears pearl jewelry and a coral ring. Lancaster doesn't ask. He saved his life. The archeologists, too, let it pass. These two men found something that outweighs anything they have found in years.
But still, Lancaster wonders if there's more to be discovered.
THE END
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