Ash Ketchum: Hunt For Jade Dragon

Ch. 10 Someone Drops Out

   I woke in the night drenched in sweat. I had dreamed about the Ampere again. This time I was trying to save someone trapped inside, but the smoke and flames and the force of the water kept me back. I wasn't sure who it was, I just knew it was someone important to me. When I finally got to them, they were underwater, drowned, their limbs and hair floating, lifeless. Then I saw the person's face. It was white and swollen, and his eyes were wide open. It was me.

   It took me several hours to fall asleep again. I felt like I'd only slept a few minutes when Clemont woke me.

  "Ash, it's time to get up."

  "You've got to be kidding," I groaned. "I didn't sleep."

  "More nightmares?"

  "Yeah."

  "Just stay in bed. I'll tell them you're sick."

   I rubbed my eyes. "No, I've got to get up."

   As I gathered myself, Clemont sat back on his bed." Where were you last night? "

  "I went for a walk."

  "With who?"

  "Just me."

   Clemont frowned. "I thought you were with Serena. Why didn't you come get me?"

  "I wanted to be alone."

   He looked at me with concern. "Is something wrong?"

  "Yeah." I exhaled slowly. "Does it ever bother you about what we did to the Ampere?"

  "We did what we had to do."

  "I know. But all those lives . . . there were innocent people on that boat."

  "Not so innocent," he said. "If you take the beast's money, you are part of the beast. That's the way war is. There is no middle ground." He leaned forward. "We either stopped the Galactic from enslaving and killing more people or we didn't. That's the only issue." He looked at me quizzically. "Did something happened last night?"

  "On my walk I met a woman. Her husband was on the Ampere when we blew it up. She said we killed him."

   Clemont nodded slowly. "No wonder." He looked me in the eyes. "Listen, if he was on the Ampere, he knew what was going on. In fact, he might have been the one who told them that we had to sink the boat. He accepted the risk, just like we did. We almost died on that boat."

  "But we didn't."

  "No, we got lucky." He seemed to study me for a moment, then he said, "What you're feeling is called survivor's guilt. It happens in war. But you can't blame yourself for the chaos of war. You stood up to the bully to protect someone else. You didn't do it because you wanted to or for personal gain. You didn't act carelessly. You did it to protect others. That makes you a hero and no matter how awful war is, that doesn't change that fact. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Especially yourself."

   I pondered his words for a moment, then said, "Thanks, Bro."

  "That's what I'm here for," he said. "Now can we get some breakfast?"

   After another big breakfast we met with Surge again. This time he had a map of the island of Taiwan taped to the wall behind him.

  "Today we're going to talk about your mission. We now have positive verification from our informants that Jade Dragon is being held at the Taiwan Starxource plant, waiting for the Volta, the Galactic's science boat, to arrive." He walked over to his map. "The Starxource plant is located about here," he said, touching a point on the map with his finger, "in southwest Taiwan, just a few kilometers northwest of the city of Kaohsiung, the second largest city in Taiwan.