The chase continues. Doug and Chris Scott fought their way through what they thought was a rogue virtual reality program, but which turned out to be something much more frightening and unfathomable-a true alternative reality. On the way back to Hong Kong where it all began, they died in a plane crash and awakened in an empty universe. Their only company is the mysterious Grasshopper Man, who serves as occasional messenger and guide. Another young couple falls into the alternative bittersweet nightmare, computer programmer Stan Brent and his mathematician wife Audrey, in this second book of The Grasshopper Man series. Trapped in what they come to call The System with them are colleagues Mary Wells, Luke Simmons, and Jacob Ellery. The mercenary computer guru Ann Crenshaw and her two assistants, Todd Richards and Brett Thompson, follow them into the trap. They are pursued through time and place by Indonesian pirates, battle their way across wartorn France, relive harrowing episodes from their own pasts, and endure other adventures in Nepal, Irian Jaya, New Zealand, the U.S., and other times and places. Their only help comes from the enigmatic Jane, who was sent in to rescue Doug and Chris and became trapped herself. But how long will she be there to help? On the outside, four homeless Chinese children from mainland China are trapped in their own adventures, intersecting occasionally with the others in The System. The storylines continue to explore the nature of Reality as they continually prove that "Love is the most important Reality."

The Blue Plane

Book Two of The Grasshopper Man SeriesBy T. Austin Campbell

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 T. Austin Campbell
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-4935-6

Chapter One

Waikiki Beach, Spring of 1988

Stan and Audrey Brent looked up Waikiki Beach at Diamond Head and then out to sea at the sun as it toyed with the horizon, slowly slowly approaching the edge, and then sinking rapidly into the sea. They had been at Duke's Waikiki Barefoot Bar and Restaurant many times and had seen many sunsets, but they never tired of it. Moments like this made you believe in God. They were interrupted by the arrival of the cute waiter clad in aloha shirt and shorts delivering a Hula Pie to share, a Duke's special, which they'd dug into with relish. They rolled the sumptuous decadence across their tongues. When they finished, though slightly bloated, they walked down the steps to the beach and turned left toward Diamond Head. Waikiki Beach had certainly changed in the decade since their first visit during their honeymoon and they had spent less and less time there as the years went by. Nevertheless, for old times' sake, they always stopped there for a few days. They usually timed it for the end of their yearly Hawaiian vacations, but this time it was near the middle, a break between longer stops on The Big Island with its still smoldering volcanoes and Kauai with its luxuriant tropical plants. One reason they kept coming back was for moments just like this one, where they could walk hand-in-hand in the foam of the spent waves rolling in. They reveled in the warm trade winds, the sparkle of the last rays of sun on Diamond Head, and sighed contentedly as dusk descended.

Audrey noted the sigh but had to ask him, "Are you still writing code in your head, or have you finally begun to relax?" She glanced at him, still admiring his tall lean body after ten years of marriage, perpetually surprised at how strong he was despite spending all day at a computer. He needed a haircut, she observed in a wifely way, his dark brown hair was short but beginning to curl a bit over his collar.

"You know I'm always writing code!" Stan grinned, "But yes, I am beginning to relax." He put his arm around her and stepped farther in so the waves washed up nearly to his knees. Stan thought of Xanadu Systems in Laurel, Maryland, where he was a computer programmer as well as a systems analyst. He had written everything from word processing packages to wacko esoteric specialty programs. His thoughts flashed—very briefly and with a bit of chagrin—to the period in his youth when he had been a renown hacker, one of the very best at breaking into supposedly secure systems just for the challenge. When they wanted to, he and Audrey could mix business with pleasure as Audrey was a finite mathematician at the business college of the University of Maryland a few miles down the road from Xanadu. She was better at turning her mind away from work than was Stan, but on occasion he would notice her staring off into space and realized that she was playing the mind games required to decipher the intricacies of a complex formula in her head. They were a couple of geeks who had met in graduate school, gotten married, and had been working for about ten years. "And how about you? You seem to enjoy Hawaii even more than I do," Stan bantered.

"Lava beds, botanical gardens, tropical jungles, peace and quiet? What an exciting life we lead!" Audrey said dreamily. Her cornflower blue eyes sparkled and a small smile curved her lips. The last rays of sun brought out the red in her auburn hair as she pulled it away from her lightly freckled face. She too was tall and athletic. Neither looked like the geeks they really were.

"Oh I think a lot of people would like to be in our shoes. Some would probably even give a body part or two to be here!" Stan replied. Some young Japanese tourists came running down the beach, vacationing hell bent for leather, as usual. Stan and Audrey quickly sidestepped to get out of their way.

She sighed and smiled suggestively, "So ..., I'm tired, but not that tired. How 'bout you?"

"I must confess, I was thinking along those lines, as tired and full of hula pie as I am," Stan replied with a teasing leer.

They walked slowly up the beach to their hotel, The Royal Hawaiian, and had mai tais on the lanai overlooking the beach. Then they rode the elevator up to their room, undressed, and fell into bed. They snuggled and brushed their lips and....

Stan looked out the window of the plane at the beautiful green paradise known as Kauai. Small wonder Kauai was so green, he thought, recalling that the guidebook claimed that some areas had as much as 460 inches of rain a year! They could feel more of the shackles of their real lives—their work-a-day lives—falling off as they entered the small airport at Lihue, went through the maddeningly slow process of getting their luggage and rental car, and hit the road on their favorite drive in all the world. They headed north then angled west following the coastline. They succumbed to their hunger and pulled into the sprawling Princeville Resort and were soon having a light lunch of poke—a Hawaiian mainstay (pronounced po-keh in Hawaiian) which consists of seasoned diced raw fish, kukui nut, and seaweed—and luau pork sandwiches. The restaurant nestled in beautifully landscaped grounds above a lovely bay edged by misty volcanic peaks. They smiled at each other as they ate and held hands across the table on occasion, finally feeling truly relaxed.

They meandered the grounds for a bit, then continued their drive to the Limahuli branch of the National Tropical Botanical Gardens almost beyond the end of the road. Limahuli occupies an area where some of the first native Hawaiians settled. Despite being nerds and geeks at home, when they traveled they loved learning—broadening their interests and knowledge. They loved all the -ologies—anthropology, archeology, geology, ecology, and botany—and especially sought out sites with interesting civilizations, both primitive and advanced, and interesting geology. Some artifacts of the ancient settlement are still visible at Limahuli. The terraced gardens and ancient irrigation channels were being carefully excavated and restored. Stan and Audrey thought that there was no more important site on the Hawaiian Islands than Limahuli because it displayed many of the reasons Hawaii was unique. Hawaii is the most isolated land on earth, a range of unique animals, birds, and insects evolved here to pollinate the unique plants that had evolved in the isolation. For example, the plant tourists called "cabbage on a stick," alula, looked nothing like its ancient ancestor, a bellflower, and would have become extinct if botanists had not rappelled down a cliff face to pollinate the last remnant plants and begun cultivating them at Limahuli.

The brochure told of a Hawaiian tradition that young warriors, to prove their manhood, hauled large logs to the peak of Mount Makana in Limahuli, set them afire, and sailed them out to sea on the trade winds. Unfortunately, the practice had been discontinued because of the dangers to gardens and people! Stan thought, "Wow, I'm glad I didn't have to do that to impress Audrey; I'm not sure I'd have managed it!"

Stan and Audrey were nearly alone in Limahuli while hordes of tourists nearly stopped traffic on the coast roads trying to glimpse humpback whales. Stan was scornful of the ignorance of the whale watchers. Humpbacks did not even evolve in...