KILL TWO BY TWO - by Bob & Wanda Duncan
Dropped on a Pacific Island in 1945, Doug and Tony are engaged in a
deadly game by a despairing Japanese flyer.
As Doug and Tony tumble out of the Vortex, of Time into an island
jungle, Tony sprains his ankle. Doug is scouting for medical supplies
when he is spotted by an old Japanese Sergeant, Itsugi, who opens fire
on him. Doug hits the dirt just in time, when the gun jams Itsugi
is easily overpowered. The pair discover they are on a Pacific Island
that's just been abandoned by the Japanese, and the time is of course
WW II. Tony is testing his bandaged ankle when another Japanese, Nakamura
appears and easily gets the drop on the American pair. The young flyer
tells them he means to have a little sport before killing them. He's out to prove how
superior he is. Nakamura conjures up a clever game: they are, he says, two and two, and they
will stalk each other through the jungle, he handicapped by a partner who is an old man. Nakamura then offers some information and a prize. The Americans will be landing today, thinking the island
abandoned, but the Japanese have a mass air attack planned. The prize is the shack - in it is a radio
transmitter they could use to warn their side. The Tunnel now knows the island is near Iwo Jima and
the time is February of 1945. To get an exact fix on the endangered pair, they have sent for on expert on the area. Doug. meanwhile. manages to slip into the shack storehouse and gets away with six grenades, a theft soon discovered by Nakamura. Doug melts into the jungle, puzzled by talk he's overheard between Itsugi and Nakamura who seems to think he deserves to die. Doug, with Tony, rigs a jungle trap, then sets of a grenade to lead him to the spot. But Nakamura discovers the booby-trap. Then the Time Travellers split, Doug to try to get Nakamura and Tony to try to rush to the shack to wire for help. The expert has meanwhile arrived at the Tunnel. He is grizzled Dr. Nakumura and he faints at the sight of the young man on the island; it is his son, long thought dead. Nakamura was a Kamikaze pilot, the Doctor explains, but he abandoned a mission and was then left on the island to do the honorable thing - kill himself. This is what Nakamura is really trying to do. Thus his father offers an impossible alternative - no information on the island's location unless the Tunnel will pick up his son. Reluctantly, Kirk orders a fix on Nakamura. With the Americans be now passing the island, the Tunnel needs to move quickly. But Nakamura has decided to fulfill his sacred obligation: he offers himself to Doug to kill. Doug can't to it, but a landing Marine takes care of it for him. Then, as the island is taken, Doug and Tony are swept up into the Vortex of Time.
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