Zoltan thanked his lucky stars , he was just on his way to Washington when the call from Wallace came in. Zoltan was amazed at  how one man managed to find a giant woman when millions of dollars of drones and thousands of soldiers couldn’t was beyond him.

   In the end he didn’t care, all he had to do was call the White House and proudly announce he had found Jessica and he would have to reschedule. They let him go, seemingly afraid of what Jessica could do if she was not in their custody any longer.

 He had of course wanted to go alone but someone had gotten wind of Jessica’s location and  stupidly sent a battalion of infantry and artillery to pen her in, something he only found out after disembarking the chopper. Which is how he found himself in a wide open field, thirty miles from the rich enclave of Palm Creek arguing with a very obdurate major over how to deal with Jessica; who at the very least seemed to be amused by all the tanks and infantrymen pointing their guns at her, Wallace nowhere to be seen.

“Now I know you’re not used to being in the presence of someone so large but do you have to stare at my chest? I can see your beady little eyes moving up and down ogling me,” A loud thunderous laugh rolling over the men, half of whom switched to making eye contact with her.

 She was lying on her stomach, watching everyone , not even perturbed by all the firepower they had brought. If she could survive F-35s, she rationalised, then rifles and tanks ought to be child’s play.

“ Major Williams, I don’t care who sent you. Tell your men to stand down and let me deal with Jessica,” Zoltan ordered the middle aged pudgy Caucasian man.

 “That thing is a threat, she caused untold amount of damage in Miami. I cannot let you walk in there, she could flatten you under her palm if she wished,” Williams replied.

 “Major, the only damage was a flattened Ford Fiesta and about a hundred grand in food. No human casualties and the only injuries were caused by civilians trying to escape. None of it by her. I suggest you check your facts,” He glared down at him.

  “We’ve never dealt with-” Williams’ latest attempt to bar Zoltan failed as he shoved him aside and walked on, the former stumbling about as he tried not to fall over. He wasn’t even in combat fatigues or wearing the standard load bearing vest in such situations.

 “ Jessica,” Zoltan called out, catching the giantess’ attention as she looked down.

“I was wondering when you’d come to talk to me General,” she replied, hardly feeling down, despite having her father leave her again.

“How’s the real world treating you?” He asked , aware of the murmurs from behind as the rest watched the odd sight of a General talking to a scantily clad giant.

“ A lot of screaming, shoot and running from me. Is this how the world is today? Shooting everything’s that different seems to be the trend nowadays,  ” Jessica replied sarcastically.

 “ The world wasn’t ready, which is why you have to come back.”

“No,” Jessica answered firmly, inching closer to Zoltan. The sudden movement prompted the soldiers to raise their rifles towards her, hundreds of clicks as the safeties were switched off.

“No, safeties back on. I can handle this,” he said as another round of clicks sounded off.

“Why not?” He had dealt with a moody Jessica before, this should be no different.

“Because someone bombed my house and left me for dead so I think I am owed an apology and an explanation. Plus I’m not going back, the world knows I exist. You kept me there because you were afraid of how people would react if they found about me. Now they know so I won’t go back.”

 “ Well I didn’t order your house bombed or else why would we even be talking?” Zoltan spread his arms , gesturing towards the battalion of men not firing at her.

  Jessica shifted about, getting on to her knees, unsettling the men as she rose higher into the sky. She thought it best to refrain from fully standing, let them get really used to being around her  first.

“ Good point so that leaves Lauren but why her? And why is Jack at Rockford Camp?”

She immediately knew Zoltan had no idea about that, his befuddled expression said it all.

“I thought he got released, where did you get that information from?”

“Papa told me, said he got it from Michael,” Jessica said.

He still didn’t believe her , why Lauren would authorise this but so far, in the aftermath of all this, he hadn’t thought to even contact her. Neither had she made any attempt to reach him, remaining eerily silent on the matter while he raced about trying to put out the fires started by the media.

Something was wrong and worse, he knew nothing until now.

 “I haven’t heard from Michael but I think Lauren is planning something, I don’t what it is but she is the one who tried to kill you.”

Now it was Jessica’s turn to be the disbeliever, “ I don’t know why she would but let me go to Rockford Camp and I’ll find out why.”

 She didn’t know what to feel right now, why would Lauren do such a thing? She was always happy to see Jessica, a motherly smile on her every time they met. She granted Jessica a lot of leeway, letting her wonder about the island freely; a tablet complete with internet access and thousands of e-books ; any reasonable request was likely to go through, Lauren granted it. Occasionally her father would have to talk to her and even if it was denied, Lauren was gentle about it.

Why would she turn on her this way? Her train of thoughts was interrupted by Zoltan, already working out a solution to their predicament.

“ Jessica, I’ll send soldiers in, lock down the place and we’ll get answers. You just stay here and we’ll take things from there,” He turned but Jessica placed her palm in front of him, blocking him off whilst sending a slight vibration through the field. Zoltan did a one eighty turn, facing her, some what surprised she even tried that on him.

“ Why send them in? Isn’t Rockford one of your army camps?” She couldn’t fathom why he’d need to do that. If Lauren was up to no good, a simple call would be enough to stop her. Why would he even need such a drastic course of action?

Zoltan sighed, he had an idea of where this would be going. He looked up at Jessica, brows slanted down as she frowned.

“ Through one of our deals with Leighton, we let them use one of our camps in the event we needed to train people strengthened through any projects we started with them. I know all of the men there may wear green but they answer to Leighton and if Lauren is up to no good, they won’t stop over a phone call.”

“ You mean I could have been there, learning how to fight?”

Zoltan chuckled, so she knew what she had become. Wallace must have told her.

“ It’s only for people between five to seven feet, you don’t qualify.”

“ Oh, so what would you have done with me? Send me in to force some less civilized natives to surrender, worship me as a goddess?” Jessica asked jokingly.

 Zoltan laughed along, they were the only two having what could be called a normal conversation,to everyone else it was as relaxing as a Mexican stand off.

 “ Hardly, you were never meant to go overseas. Your status as a weapon was never intended for foreign deployment. Now wait here while I-”

“ General, you can keep your men in green here. Why risk all of that when you have one woman who can do all of their jobs?” Jessica said ,this time dead serious about it.

“Ah,” That was what come out of Zoltan’s mouth. It had a lot of merit and very little drawbacks, save for one. Jessica had no experience in combat, at all.

“ Good idea but you’re no soldier, you don’t know what it is like to be in a warzone,” he rebuffed her offer, leading to Jessica scoffing at his refusal.

 “ I’ve been bombed and shot at AND I survived without a scratch on me. I can lift a tank,” Jessica did so , lifting a nearby tank the size of her hand easily, it had weight but to her, it felt like solid air.

This did have the unwanted desire of startling men near her but Jessica allayed their fears by quickly putting it down.

 “ Easily and looking at all the toughed grizzled veterans pissing their pants from the sight of me, I’ll be the scariest thing since Batman and Robin. I should come out in one piece unless you ALSO gave Lauren an air force” She grinned happily at her own argument, there was nothing else to add.

 “ No I didn’t give her any planes, the two who bombed your house are not authorised to do anything else she asks. You can go in their stead but you’re not going in there and wrecking the place.”

“Got it.What are the rules?” Jessica gave Zoltan the thumbs up.

 “ No killing anyone, or at least do your best to not to take any lives. I don’t want blood on our hands, this is not a war against some distant land where no one will recognise the dead. Don’t use lethal force, I’m hoping they’ll surrender the moment they see you but there’s always a few idiots who won’t listen.”

 “You know I’m very gentle. I never broke anything and if I did,it’s because of your shoddy workmanship,” she flashed an impish smile.

 “ Right, I’ll have the chopper guide you to the place because I am going to assume your Dad never left you directions to it,” Zoltan said. He looked back at all of the men gathered and back at Jessica. There was certainly a lot less risk involved, he made a mental note to mention this to President Richards when the inevitable tongue lashing came; it might soften the blows.

“ No, he only called you,” Jessica answered.

“Of course he did- that clever bastard,” Zoltan suddenly exclaimed, understanding why Wallace had even called him in the first place. Really clever, he thought.

Jessica didn’t take well to the term Zoltan used and made it clear, “ Hey that’s my dad!”

“ Calm down, I call a lot of people bastards. Anywhere, you better get going. I don’t know when or where Lauren will be but just get to Rockford Camp.”

 This time Jessica rose to her full height and to those below, it was like the Statue of Liberty had come to life.

 “ If I do this, will you promise to let me stay off the island? I am not going back there, there’s nothing for me.”

Zoltan thought about it, the whole idea of her on the mainland, running free made him uneasy. It wasn’t her though, there were smaller but no less powerful people who would make a lot of noise about that.

“ We’ll see,” He answered. It was the best he could do for now.

*******

“ Lauren, please,” Michael pleaded to Lauren who had dropped by to pay him a visit. He noted the spring in her step as she walked in, the laugh lines on her face visible from her grin. She was wearing more casual wear, jeans and a loose cotton shirt that she didn’t bother to tuck in.

“ I always knew Zoltan had a mole planted in Leighton. Before I knew it was you, I actually thought it was Wallace for a while , thought Zoltan would blackmail him using Jessica but no, it was you,” She pointed a finger at him.

 “ I bet it was more money; and you were a total fool in taking it,” Lauren paced around the room as she went off on her monologue.

 “You could be in Yangon with ten million dollars after Mr. Park closes the deal but you had to get greedy and take a little extra pocket money. Bet you were going to betray me weren’t you? Take all the money for yourself” She stopped pacing as she waited for Michael to answer. From the back , Jack watched the drama unfold as he kept to himself, hoping no one would notice him.

“ I was,” Michael answered curtly, “ I was planning to go with you to Yangon, make the deal and then leave you with nothing. Until I found out you were selling to the North Koreans, that is where I drew the line.”

“ Drew the line?” Lauren snapped at him.

 “ You’re a goddamn mercenary. I read your files, you worked for Blackwater for god’s sake! How many Iraqis did you torture and kill under them? Yet you would take the high ground over a simple transaction?”

 “ I just couldn’t stand the thought of having a bunch of 200 foot Koreans marching on the major capitals on the world and imposing a dictatorship on them,” Michael deflected his eyes from Lauren, feeling remorseful.

 “Had I known you were planning to sell to Kim Jong Un I would have ended the deal a lot earlier and we’d never be in this mess. Surely you can see that? You would be causing anarchy in the world if the deal goes through, you’d be creating Lovecraftian gods!”

Lauren laughed and if she had laughed any harder, she’d have reached the level of a Bond villain.

“ The world is already in the crapper. I’m just shaking it up a bit. Doesn’t matter to me at all, I’m just getting what I deserve: one final payday before I retire.”

“You’d have that too if you stayed on as CEO and played it straight. Why do this?”

“Because I’ve had enough of playing babysitter to that overgrown brat!” Lauren’s sudden upturn in volume shocked Michael who took a large step back as she lost her temper.

“ When I became CEO at the age of 32, the youngest in the history of the company and what happened after that? A mad scientist turns his daughter into a monster and I have to feed, clothe and hide her from the world while the government is paralyzed by indecisiveness.

‘One moment it is train her to be a killing machine then its keep her locked up forever. All this while Zoltan slowly moved in and placed a glass ceiling on the company while I spent every day reviewing Jessica’s condition. Enough is enough, I’m doing what I should have done years ago and set her free, let the people of this ‘great’ country decide her fate!”

She slammed her hand against the bar, a loud bang echoing throughout the room.

“ You’ve gone mental,” Jack spoke up as he moved to the front, he couldn’t keep quiet any longer.

“ Oh Jack, I almost forgot about you,” Lauren remarked.

“ You really want to be the woman who ends the world? Letting a bunch of crazy communists take over?”

 “Communists, capitalists, fascists, what does it matter?” Lauren shrugged nonchalantly.

“I don’t care and the both of you can rot in here for all I care. This time tomorrow I’ll be in Burma and rich while you two will be here until somebody remembers to even let you out. Tah, I have a plane to catch , ” Lauren waved goodbye to them as she walked off.

 From there it was a short ride by car to a nearby airfield where Lauren’s private plane, a G5 was being prepped and ready for take off while several technicians in blue work overalls ran safety checks. Lauren approached one of them, keen to know how much time before she could leave.

  “How much longer?” She asked one of them.

“Give it a couple of hours, we need to refuel and make sure everything is in order,” He replied.

“Alright, I can wait. Has the pilot arrived?”

He nodded, “ Yes, waiting in the cockpit. Probably napping.”

Lauren chuckled, “Let him sleep,  it will be a long flight.”