<br />
She looked at him in amazement and her cheeks turned a little red. "Do you think so?" She mumbled uncertainly. Her gaze went past him to the wall, as if she saw the one standing there for whom she took all this upon herself. C17's heart contracted painfully at the soft glow that entered her eyes. *Just why? *, he wondered silently and fought the feeling down.
<br />
"How is that?" He asked, secured the bandage with two pieces of tape and stepped back.
<br />
She moved her wrist carefully.“Good, it hardly hurts anymore.” She sucked in air through her nose and shook her head. "You scrubbed your hands thoroughly, but the rest of them could still use it ..."
<br />
"The same goes for you," replied C17. "We both stink of putrid swamp within a hundred yards."
<br />
“Then I'll go first.” She fished fresh clothes from her pile and disappeared into the bathing compartment.
<br />
A good hour later they were both showable again and C17 started the engine. "What does the radar say?" He asked.
<br />
"Further west," said Lunch after pressing twice. "Hopefully not another swamp."
<br />
"This time it is sure to be a secluded beach," promised C17 and the helicopter took off.
<br />
...........
<br />
Three hours later...
<br />
"It's a beach," said Lunch, not without sarcasm in his voice. "But cozy ...?"
<br />
C17 put his hand behind one ear. "What did you say? I don't understand you!"
<br />
Lunch formed a mouthpiece with his hands.“I said that ...!” The rest were drowned in the screams of the coastal divers. Several thousand of these quite large sea birds had secured a nesting place in the rock face in this rocky bay and were now either perching on their eggs or arguing with the neighbors about every millimeter of space.
<br />
C17 polled the radar for the fifth time in a row. The result stayed the same. The dragon ball was in the rock face, in one of the thousands of nests. But in which one?
<br />
The Cybrog came close to Lunch, who was scanning the rows of nests with binoculars. "Do you see something?" He asked aloud.
<br />
She shook her head. "Then I have to look personally!", He said. "As long as they're sitting on their eggs, you can't tell if there's a dragon ball with them or not."
<br />
Without waiting for Lunch to agree, he took off, heading straight for the rock face. To the birds he was about as welcome as a sea eagle. Never underestimate the power of the crowd.As soon as he got too close to their nests, a whole swarm of fathers ready to make sacrifices rushed at him and chopped at his face with their shovels.
<br />
"Stop! Get out of there! Stop it or I'll roast you!" he waved his arms around wildly, but it was no use. For every bird he brushed aside, two new ones were added. Suddenly there was a loud bang and the birds let go of him. Lunch was standing directly under the nests, the rifle ready to fire in his hands and firing a bullet here and there just past the rock face. The noise drowned out the birds' cry and the roar of the surf, and also startled the brooding mothers. The birds decided to prefer to defend their nests against the predator on the ground. Lunch seemed to have been waiting for it, for she quickly reloaded and fired again before the bravest of birds attacked her.
<br />
"Come on, come on!" She called up to C17, who of course couldn't hear that in the noise, but her energetic wave towards the rock face was sign enough.He zigzagged up and down the wall at lightning speed, and finally he spotted the orange ball in a nest with two gray-shelled eggs. One grip and he shot down again, where Lunch crouched behind a rock and lashed out wildly with the rifle. C17 fired a couple of energy charges that exploded with loud pops above the flock of birds. Immediately the birds scattered. 17 landed next to the disheveled lunch that was bleeding from several small wounds on arms and hands. "Quickly back to the helicopter," he said, handed her the one-star dragon ball and pulled her after him towards the helicopter, which was a long way away on a ledge near the surface of the water.
<br />
The further they got away from the rock face, the quieter it became. The birds were apparently content to have driven the supposed egg thieves away.
<br />
In the helicopter, C17 Lunch helped treat her wounds.
<br />
"I'm starting to look just awful," she sighed, looking at herself in the mirror of the washing compartment."More plasters than skin."
<br />
"Hey, chin up!", C17 grinned, "these are all heroically acquired wounds, in the fight in your great trust, right?"
<br />
"But I don't feel that heroic," said Lunch, making a face. "Where are you going next?"
<br />
"To the southwest," he said, and sat in the pilot's seat.
<br />
"Well? No more sayings from the South Sea beach?", She asked ironically and sat down next to him on the copilot's seat.
<br />
"Let's put it this way, if it is one, then we're lucky.", He smiled and fastened his seat belt.
<br />
"A bit of luck would be nice for a change," Lunch muttered, grabbing her seatbelt. "A dragon ball lying in front of us as if on a presentation plate ..."
<br />
..............
<br />
<br />
"Now you'd be right," she grinned when the helicopter touched down on the white sand four hours later. "There we have the beach. There are even palm trees here. Fancy some coconut milk?"
<br />
"Maybe later when we find the Dragon Ball.What does the radar mean? "
<br />
Lunch checked the position of the blinking green dot. "Over there," she pointed to the southern half. "About thirty meters from the beach in the sea."
<br />
"Also diving ..." C17 grimaced. "I hate salt water."
<br />
"Are you rusting?" Asked Lunch, astonished.
<br />
"No stupid jokes," replied C17, stroking his hair. "I'm made of titanium, but my weight always pulls me down like a stone."
<br />
"It's okay, I'll go diving for you this time," Lunch said. "I enjoy doing something like that. I spotted a rubber dinghy over there. If you take it outside and inflate it, I'll see if I can find a diving suit or something ..."
<br />
A little later, C17 was standing next to the inflated rubber boat and waiting impatiently for lunch. "Have you found a wetsuit or not? If we still have to buy one, we should go, because the next town is a good half hour flight time from here."<br />
“It's not necessary!” Lunch stepped outside and C17 felt his mouth suddenly go dry. The diving suit fit like a second skin and did not hide any of its still tight curves. Her hair was gone under the headboard. She held the fins in one hand and the compressed air cylinders in the other. "It's lucky that I went diving on the island of Muten Roshi every now and then. There is a very nice reef there with wonderful pink feather corals. And a few shipwrecks with interesting junk that I was able to hit quite well."
<br />
"That looks like you", C17 grinned and pushed the boat into the water. "Shall I go with you?"
<br />
“So I have to fish you out if the boat capsizes?” Lunch shook his head. "Thanks, but I think I can do it on my own."
<br />
"Okay," said C17, who was both relieved and disappointed, "please be careful."
<br />
“I always am.” With strong strokes, Lunch rowed about thirty meters out of the bay and threw the anchor.She checked the radar display and nodded in satisfaction. Yes, the job had to be here. After stowing the radar in the waterproof bag, she dropped the anchor and put on her goggles. Her fins on, the oxygen bottles strapped to her back, the mouthpiece clamped between her teeth and she fell backwards into the water.
<br />
A wonderful underwater world opened up in front of her, colorful schools of fish, corals of all kinds and colors, but she had no view of these beauties. The color orange was the only thing she tried to catch as it slowly sank to the bottom of the sea. There was white sand between the individual coral banks, and that's where she put her fins. Particularly noteworthy was a huge clam, about three meters in diameter, one of the large killer clams that were found everywhere in the warm seas. It was more by chance than intended that Lunch peeked inside the clam, which stood a hand's breadth open to suck in fresh water.Lunch wasn't entirely sure at first, but when she was standing in front of the clam there was no more mistake. The dragon ball was right there, inside the curved shells, like a large orange pearl. * I'm lucky! *, thought Lunch, stretched her arm between the bowls and her fingers closed around the glass ball. At the same moment, however, the shells also closed. Lunch was still trying to pull her arm out, but the clam had already pinched it. Luckily for her, Lunch caught a stone with her free hand, which she could press between the shells as a wedge over her arm so that they would not close any further. For the moment her arm was a little bruised, but otherwise still intact. However, it could not be pulled out. Sizzling hot, she remembered stories of divers who had literally got a limb squeezed off by one of these clams. She had air for about three hours. But what then?
<br />
C17 paced restlessly up and down the beach.It had been an hour since she went into the water. If the Dragon Ball couldn't be found, it would have reappeared long ago. Okay, with all the crevices and crevices of a coral reef, it could take a long time to be sure, but still ... somehow he had a damn bad feeling. No matter what he said to himself, it wouldn't go away and so he made up his mind. With a life jacket on his body and two armbands on his arms, as well as diving goggles on his nose, he stepped into the water, towards the place where the bot bobbed in the waves. When the water would not carry him despite his swimming aids and the waves were already splashing around his lips, he paddled with all his might through the water like a torpedo to the boat, to which he clung tightly with both hands. One, two deep