Kenshi sat on his couch early in the morning staring at a blank television. His mind was fixated on finding Leslie as it had been for the past few hours. His long moment of concentration was finally disturbed by a knock at the door. If someone had driven up, he must have been too lost in his mind to have noticed it. He got up and walked to the door. He turned the knob and pulled it open to find that it was Tanso.

Tanso greeted Kenshi, "Hello there." Kenshi just nodded his head a little. Tanso's expression became more serious as he continued, "I heard about your predicament last night. I came to see if there is any way I can help you."

Kenshi responded, "I've decided to go to the capital."

Tanso looked curious. "You think they took Leslie to Washington?"

Kenshi answered, "No. But I'm sure that the president of the country would be able to get her back for me."

"What makes you think that he'll be willing to?"

Kenshi's angry face grew. "If he doesn't, I might kill him."

Tanso became surprised. "Slow down Kenshi, you need to think about this. Assassinating the president is probably not a very smart thing to do, even for a centra. We already have it tough enough as it is."

Kenshi clenched his fist. "Well let's just hope that he is willing to cooperate."

Tanso continued protesting, "Plus I'm sure they're ready for an attack by one of us. They've probably beefed up their security by 10 times."

Kenshi narrowed his eyes. "I'll destroy anything that gets in my way."

Tanso continued, "Well how do you intend on getting there? It would take days in a car even if you drive fast. Plus they're likely to see you coming ahead of time; I'm sure they're watching for you anyway."

Kenshi responded, "I'll fly there."

"I have a better idea. I have a friend who works in the airline business. He's a mechanic at Nineveh airport. He can probably get you on one of their airplanes without anyone knowing. You should be able to take care of the rest."

Kenshi's angry expression lessened. "When can I leave?"

Tanso answered, "I don't know. I'd have to call him to ask. Do you have a phone?"

Kenshi pointed and said, "Of course."

Tanso walked to the phone and picked it up. After hearing a dial tone, he dialed a 7 digit number. Kenshi watched and listened to Tanso's side of the conversation. After a minute of conversation, he hung up the phone and looked at Kenshi. "He thinks he can do it. There's a flight leaving for Washington tomorrow at noon. It should give you a little time to calm down a little and regain your sense."

Kenshi replied, "I'll do it."

Tanso smiled, "Great. I'll have everything planned out and probably call you tomorrow."

A day passed for the planet, a sleepless eternity for Kenshi. Every phone call caused him to jump and run to answer it. It wasn't until around 10 AM that he received the correct call.

"Kenshi, meet me in the parking lot of the airport as soon as you can."

Tanso's words were just the cue that Kenshi had been waiting impatiently for. He didn't waste any time leaving the house and taking off in his car. After about 40 long minutes, he finally reached the airport. It was a fairly large airport, though not quite the size of an international airport. He had to drive a little in the parking lot before finding Tanso. He was parked in the back of the lot where no one else was so they wouldn't be noticed.

Tanso explained the plan. "You see that area of trees over there?" Kenshi's eyes followed his pointing finger. "You'll need to get over there without being noticed. When you're in the trees, you'll need to travel through the woods until you get beside it. Then you can make your way behind it. Then just use this cellular phone. The number's on speed dial 3. Let it ring once and hang up. Ron should come out of the back door if the coast is clear. If he's not out in a few minutes, fly on top and wait for him there so you won't be seen. He'll take care of the rest."

Kenshi replied, "Thanks."

"It's nothing. But tell me... Have you calmed down from yesterday?"

"A little. But I'm still prepared to kill anyone that gets in my way, even the president."

Tanso lowered his head. "Let's hope you don't start a war between us and the humans."

Kenshi replied, "We are humans even though they don't believe it."

Tanso finished, "Good luck Kenshi."

Kenshi, with the phone that Tanso had given him, started walking casually to the wooded area that Tanso had pointed to. He pulled the hood of his jacket over his head to try to conceal his identity from anyone that passed by. And as he was about halfway, one person did drive by but she didn't seem to recognize him. Kenshi reached the edge of the woods and looked down the driveway leading to the parking lot. He saw no one around so he walked into the woods. Once he was in, he started traveling a little less casually and a little more hastily. He started flying since this was now his fastest way to move himself. However, he wasn't used to flying between such densely packed trees and had to be careful.

It was only about a minute before he was beside the structure. He looked at it; it was about 200 yards away. He could fly this distance in a few seconds. He flew over the fence and above the building. He slowly peeked over the edge to see if anyone was behind it. It seemed clear so he floated down to the ground. He waited only a few seconds before a middle-aged man opened the door. The man signaled Kenshi to enter the building. Kenshi walked in behind the man.

The man turned to Kenshi. "So you're the infamous Kenshi that everyone talks about."

Kenshi replied, "That's right. And you must be Ron."

Ron said, "You look angry. Don't let that overcome your judgment."

Kenshi's eyes narrowed. "I don't have time to chat about my emotions."

"Alright. Just crawl into here and I'll screw the panel on. It's probably cramped in there but airplanes aren't full of secret rooms."

Kenshi started crawling in. "I can handle it."

Ron picked up the cover. "I'm sure you can also handle getting this thing off when you arrive."

Kenshi said, "Thanks," as Ron placed the cover over the hole and started screwing in the screws.

Kenshi sat in the small dark compartment in silence for a long time. Then finally he heard the voices of two people. One he recognized as Ron, the other he assumed was the pilot. Soon after, his sensitive hearing picked up the sounds of several people walking inside the plane. Shortly after, the engines fired up. Kenshi felt the plane start moving. It moved for several minutes but it never seemed to leave the ground. Then it stopped again and the engines died. It was another long wait before he heard the passengers boarding the plane. After they were all on the plane, the engines kicked on and the plane started moving again. But this time, after reaching enough speed, the plane climbed into the air. This began one of the most enduring waits that Kenshi had ever had to face. He did, however, manage to sleep through part of it.

After the test of endurance, the airplane started to land. Once the wheels made contact, Kenshi kicked off the panel. He took a brief glance outside and confirmed what he expected, the sight of a runway. He pushed himself out of the compartment, having to fight the wind as he freed himself. When he was finally completely outside of it, he took to flight and made his way behind the airplane. Then he changed his course and started flying upward hoping that no one saw him. As he ascended, he looked around for the downtown area. He saw tall buildings several miles in just left of the direction that the plane was traveling when it landed which Kenshi assumes was northeast. He flew toward the buildings as fast as he could. It took him only around a minute to near the buildings. He started flying around them, hoping that he would see the white house nearby. He didn't have to fly far around them before he saw across a river what looked like the white house to him. He flew towards it. As he got closer, he confirmed it to be what he was looking for. He flew above it and landed in the front lawn. He thought it looked rather inactive for the capitol of the country. He proceeded across the lawn and up the front steps.

Kenshi walked through the doors and, to his amazement, saw no one there. He started searching around. He walked down a corridor but saw nothing of interest. He found a flight of stairs and climbed them to the second floor. As he was searching the second floor, he started hearing music. As he approached the music, he could tell that it was hard metal. Finally he reached the room that the music seemed to be coming from. On the door, a small sign said "President's Office." Kenshi opened the door. He saw a large desk with a man sitting behind it in a cushioned roller chair. However, this man was not the president and was, in fact, a centra. Kenshi walked into the room as the centra turned down the music.

The centra was the first to speak. "Wow. I never thought I'd meet the prince of the dragons."

Kenshi narrowed his eyes. "Where's the president?"

"I don't know. The whole government seems to have gone into hiding so I figured I'd take their place."

"Do you know where I can find Leslie?"

"Ah, I've heard about your predicament. All I've heard is that they took her to a secret place to hide her from you. That's the damn government for you. Fuck them all."

Kenshi clenched his teeth and fists tightly. The other centra looked surprised, but just as he was about to say something, Kenshi flew through the shatterproof window. He flew up and landed on top of the building. He sat and thought for a while. But his thoughts didn't seem to lead to any good ideas. After a while, he gave up and started flying back to the airport to try to find a ride back home. Today was a failure but he would never give up until he had Leslie back.