RTT Chapter 14 / Plan Backfire Part 5

After the scientists removed the body of Doctor Sadler and cleaned up the amount of blood on the floor, they returned to their normal duties. M. Bison was in his chambers, packing up what he needed such as a few of his other alternative general attires. Cammy was packing up her stuff too. Soon they were set to leave.

"Be careful my liege," said Dr. Astro. "The US Navy is heavily armed and will be able to spot you."

"Don't be concerned, Dr. Astro," Bison said. "My undercover agents will sort that out. I'm sure the Navy will be on high alert once they uncover or get a hold of our spies or those working for the Russians."

"What about your body?" Dr. Alexander asked. "Has it shown any signs of weakening further from the Psycho Drive's power?"

"No, it hasn't yet," replied Bison. "However, my Psycho Power has gotten stronger... looks like my current body may have something that I might have overlooked when I designed the guidelines for it. But no, there is no signs of it getting weaker for it's been a few months now, almost approaching half a year."

"Half a year has nearly past, sir?" said Dr. Astro. "But that means you only have about six months to live before the energy of the Psycho Drive consumes you!"

"As I told you before, I am aware of that when it happens," said Bison. "I'm sure my scientists are making spare bodies for me once this current one is done... that is until I have returned with my prize to serve my new host and not only that... but the Titanic and her cargo, the rare mineral that she's carrying, which will be a major boost for Shadowlaw as well as the very making of my fleet of battleships that I plan to use the Titanic for."

"Good luck, sir," said Anouk Rurup. "We hope you make it back."

"I will return," Bison said. "If the enemy or any of Titanic's salavage crew try anything foolish, my Dolls will take care them."

He turned to Cammy.

"So my charming Killer Bee, lets go claim our prize and help Russia put an end to this Cold War."

"Yes, sir." Cammy replied as she and the Dolls followed their leader, heading towards a Shadowlaw helicopter.


Admiral James Sandecker and Matthew arrived at dawn, at the Titanic salvage site, a few days later. Their helicopter landed on the stern of the USS Denver. As they exited, they saw two Navy officers and a man in handcuffs walking to what looked a cop chopper.

"What's that all about?" Matthew asked the Admiral.

"I don't know, I was going to asked the same thing" replied Sandecker. "Maybe Dirk and others will tell us."

The two were greeted by Pitt, Giordino and Rudi a minutes later. Once settled in his cabin, Sandecker along with Pitt, Seagram, Matthew, Rudi and Giordino talked about a recent event that happened prior to his arrival.

"So from what Dirk told me, you apprehend someone called, Howard Merker." said the Admiral.

"Yes we did, sir," said Rudi. "Pitt and Giordino saw him doing something unusual, which made them suspicious. He tried to escape but they caught him before he had a chance and placed him under arrest."

"He told us that he was a spy, working for the Russian Navy and admitted being the one who kept giving us the strange interferences," said Giordino. "He's now being airlifted back to United States where further questioning will be held."

"That could also explain why that Russian ship is here," said Pitt. "NUMA security is on Red Alert. That way, we can double the watch."

"One thing's for sure, we'll no longer hear those strange signals anymore." Matthew said.

"But what worries me is that... how much the Russians already know about the operation?" Seagram said.

"That Gene, is the problem." Pitt replied.

"Dirk, what does Merker's record say about him?" Sandecker asked as he lit one his cigars before starting to smoke away at it.

"It's quite good," said Pitt as he showed him the papers. "Listen to this. He was a civilian technician in Vietnam, got captured, spent two years in a prison camp and then he was in a hospital in Japan for almost a year to get over that and married a Japanese girl."

Sandecker took the information and looked at it more closely.

"That's what it says here," he said. "Only the girl wasn't Japanese. She grew up in Nam Dinh. Her parents are still living in Haiphong and her brother's the number two man in the N.V. army Intelligence."

This came to a complete surprise to Pitt and the others.

"What!" cried Rudi.

"How the hell did we miss that one?" asked Giordino.

"It was painted over," said Sandecker. "We were supposed to miss it."

Dirk Pitt sighed in disappointment. But the capture of Howard Merker was enough for them to turn the tide round in getting the momentum back. But Bison's undercover spies were still lurking around and were unable to be noticed and caught. When Captain Prevlov was told about this, he was not pleased at all. He called Bison on the phone but had no luck at all.

"American sources must've found out, somehow," he said. "But don't worry, I have another trick up my sleeve."


As the Titanic salvage operation continued, the hydrazine tanks were being checked by the crew. They were being kept within the Denver's lower decks. In the main control room, on the bridge, Daniel Matthews was asking James Sandecker about his career and how he invented NUMA.

"Admiral, have you ever been involved in the Navy?" Daniel him.

"Yes," said. Sandecker. "As a matter of fact, during my career in the Navy, I was once stationed on the battleship Iowa. She was a great ship and I rarely see her nowadays. My last command was on the Navy guided-missile cruiser Tucson. I've retired since then. I was first appointed to the position of being the Director of the National Underwater and Marine Agency in 1978. I've only had the job for three years."

"Maybe me or the others could prove as 'extra' helpers," Daniel suggested. "That's if you want us to help out with any future projects."

Sandecker seemed to like the suggestion. He turned his head to Dirk Pitt.

"What do you think of that, Dirk?"

Pitt grinned and nodded.

"I think it's a fascinating idea, sir. After all, I did ask our friends to come with us and to help salvage the Titanic and her cargo."

"Yeah, had we not, things might have been different," said Emily Life, who had overheard as Kiara gave slight nod.

Matthew Anderson was later informed by Rudi Gunn that another press conference for him and Sandecker was to be held in Washington, but they both could not go because the reporters were too busy with the 1980 election that was taking place. In the meantime, Matthew, along with Robert Ballard, continued in exploring the Titanic but they had to be much careful for the wreck was in the dangerous stages of it's raising. Soon exploring the wreck would be called and investigations into Titanic's sinking would have to be closed.


It was only a few hours after Matthew had returned to the USS Denver from Washington with Admiral Sandecker. Exhausted from the travel, he decided to head back to his cabin and made his way towards his bed. Dark bags and bloodshot eyes showed the effects of pushing away an invasive media and dealing with a giant international secret. Why did those Soviets have to try and force the world to be like them?! Wasn’t ruining their own country enough? The stressful thoughts caused a growl to ascend from Matthew’s throat and he punched the wall in anger, then sighed as he tried to rest his head in his palm. Then a familiar sharp feeling from his fingertips made him jump back and look at his hand.

“Damn it! No!” he hissed as he saw where each of his fingernails should have been were five large black claws.

Matthew felt them on the other hand as well and ran as fast as he could into the bathroom, realizing what was going on. Fortunately, he reached it in time and slammed the door, then went to the sink and splashed warm water onto his face, helping to calm himself down. The large black claws shrank back into fingernails and Matthew looked at his hand not once breaking his gaze.

Stress, pain and anger are a very powerful thing to Matthew… something that can turn anyone into what they fear most… a monster… those words, which his mother had once told him twenty years ago, were just as true back in 1977. The feeling of M. Bison throwing his body against a steel wall in a torture chamber, somewhere deep within Shadowlaw territory. The event was painful enough that all the colours of the memory had turned to shades of crimson.

“That was only a mere taste of my power foolish boy,” Bison growled, his piercing white eyes staring through the innocent brown ones of Matthew.

He approached him, grabbed him with a glowing hand by the throat and slammed him hard against the wall three more times. Matthew collapsed to the floor with his now dirtied and sweaty mop top frazzled on his head where drops of blood had now accumulated from his mouth and every so often hit the floor, mixed with his saliva.

“Look at me you twit!” Bison said as he forced Matthew’s head up to meet his gaze. “Now, will you do as I say and get me those munitions from the Lusitania?! I suspect that it has a weapon contained within it that will increase the power of Shadowlaw!”

Matthew looked up at him, saying, “Not a chance…”

Bison slammed him against the wall and whacked him hard against the floor five times, and shocked him with the energy from his psycho drive. “Why are you so persistent?! I'll force you to do what I say! NOW!”

At this point, Matthew had broken enough bones and organs in his body he couldn’t even move. “You want to know why…?” he coughed in a raspy voice.

Bison picked him up and held him to his face still clenching his throat.

“Why?” he said, sounding extremely serious in his expression as he stared right into his soul.

Matthew grinned as he gave him his answer, “I’m American… We don’t negotiate with ruthless tyrants… Kiss my backside…”

Bison slammed him harder than he had the previous times against the wall and charged up his power from his psycho drive and began shocking Matthew to death slowly and painfully while at the same time pushing him harder a little bit every second into the wall.

“Oh who am I kidding, why do I need you?!” Bison said, laughing psychotically. “Sure, you raised Columbia last month, but I can just as easily get one of my men to do what you’ve done by just copying what you’ve written down. And do you think we will stop at just killing you? We already know where your friend John Grant is! The one who lead the expedition with you! We can get him to do the work instead!”

He continued torturing him, Matthew’s vision at this point getting fuzzy.

“I already killed your pathetic excuse for a girlfriend this morning. Caroline is dead!” Bison said, grinning more.“And as further penance for what you said to me, I’ll personally kill your mother, your father, your sister and the rest of your family!”

Matthew was close into passing out as his eyes closed. But then ten seconds later they opened again with his irises now turned gold as his entire body glowed white. A sudden rush of energy blasted Bison ten feet away. But that was nothing to him and he simply continued standing up unharmed with his cape wrapped around him.

“How… how is possible?” he said, looking on in slight surprise as two very angry brown eyes staring back at him, with brown bangs gently swaying to the rushing air in front of them.

A fluffy tail dropped down and began swaying very angrily. Rows of sharp teeth were revealed in an angry snarl followed by a threatening inhuman growl. Matthew stood there angrily, no longer human. He was a werewolf.

“BISON!!!” he yelled out angrily. “YOU TURNED ME INTO A MONSTER!!!”

Bison charged at Matthew, but the werewolf dodged him as his fist went straight through the wall. Bison then teleported himself behind Matthew and tried to punch him that way, but again, the wolf simply ducked right before he reached him and then stood up. Matthew was still greatly weaker than him, but he had fast enough reflexes this time to miss his blows. Bison deliver his Psycho Crusher attack, but Matthew jumped into the air spinning like a top and dodged it. He curved in an arc over to the table and grabbed his stolen backpack with the files from the Columbia expedition in it. Bison teleported over to him and attempted an uppercut, but Matthew ducked and jumped to the other end of the room, quickly darting out the door, escaping the chamber.

"That's something I never expected but what amazing reflexes and speed," Bison said to himself. "There will come another time where I'll cross paths with that fool. But he won't be so lucky."

After taking out most of Shadowlaw's security, Matthew made out alive and ran into the darkness.


That event was something that Matthew remembered too well. Every second of it was haunting. Looking at himself in the mirror again, he noticed a pair of wolf ears on the top of his head and a tail.

“Awww damn it…” he cried out.

He tried really hard to get rid of them but nothing he did could make them vanish. He sighed, tucked his tail into his pants and stuck a baseball hat on his head to hide the ears.

“Yeah… That’ll work.” he said.