Brann and I hurried up and into Hiroshima Castle. There were rows and rows of military vehicles parked before the Castle, each gleaming in the moonlight.

Brann whispered that the war effort evidently was not going all that badly for the Japanese if they could maintain these cars.

I pointed out that the tires of many of them had creases in them from sitting there for a long time. According to my borrowed memories these cars were only very rarely used, there being a serious lack of fuel.

Since I maintained an invisibility aura around us, we were able to walk around in the dark castle unhindered. There was not central directory of prisoners so I had to locate each prisoner by mind signature, seeking out minds with an American stamp to them.

The prisoners were scattered through out the castle to keep them isolated from one another. After I located one, Brann and I would travel to his cell. Brann would curl his fingers around his mouth  and  blow  an  imaginary  bugle.  The  tune  he  played was something to do with Joshua blowing down the walls of Jericho, I do not recall the exact title.

Even though he blew softly, the notes still pealed out in the dark hallways. This tune he directed at the doors locks and after a few notes they crumpled to dust, then we pushed the doors in and got the serviceman without causing alarm.
Had I been able to let go with my heightened powers it would have been no problem for to have maintained an invisibility shield around all of the prisoners and ourselves, but being restrained, after six I felt some strain.

When we had collected ten of the prisoners my mind seemed to be straining at the seams to hold us all in.  I told Brann we would have to make two trips, that after we picked up the next prisoner we would have to secure them somewhere.

It was on the eleventh prisoner that I made a serious error.

I located another American mind and Brann blew the lock on the door.  I dropped the invisibility shield on Brann. we pushed the door in only to find ourselves face to face with a Japanese officer.
Seeing Brann, the Japanese Officer knew we were not Japanese.  Shocked  I  scanned his mind. He did have an American mind, he was a Kibei, an American born Japanese who had been sent to  Japan for education and had been caught there after the war began.

He was also working as a spy for America but could not let us jeopardize his mission. The Kibei officer shouted for guards. Brann blew taps and Kibei fell asleep. The damage was done. I snapped on the invisibility shield and we ran from the Castle.
A few minutes later the Castle was on full alert. It was 9:22  p.m.,  Radio  Hiroshima broadcast an air raid full alert. People ran from their homes to shelters. The Castle was put on a full alert and this hindered our rescue efforts. I allowed myself to dip into the brimming well of energy surrounding me, drinking near the edge of a waterfall, drinking until the current swept me along and I hovered on the brink.

This sustained my mental energies for a time allowing me to erect an invisible shield around all the prisoners, Phineas Brann and myself until we had reached the Aioi Bridge. A side effect of taking in so much energy in one dip was that it increased the entropy on my borrowed body, that is it rotted real fast. From the  reactions of the prisoners and Brann,  I could tell I was quite ripe by the time we had reached the bridge.
We hid the prisoners under the bridge. Brann was reluctant to leave any prisoners in the hands of the Japanese but was also unsure  as  to  when  the  bomb  would  be  dropped.  He  told  the prisoners that if we had not returned by sun rise to make their way towards the hills.

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Character of El Head created by David Rush ©1996

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