A Glint In Time (History and Time) (28 page)

Charles looked around the parking lot. It was strangely empty. A few people and pickup trucks were clustered in the delivery area loading what looked like sheets of plywood, but they never heard the shots. Charles reached across the seat and pulled Willy inside the car so he was face down on the backseat. He closed both back doors and drove calmly toward Homestead.

BUG OUT AND CHEST PAINS

Thursday, August 18, 2011
0800 Eastern
TCA Headquarters
Homestead ARB, Florida

Excerpt from the Personal Narrative
of Major General Ted Arthurs (USAF Ret)

Recorded July 2015
CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET /TA

"You can't change things drastically. There are too many possible spinoff effects to control. My goal was to control the environment and then trust to others."

Sorry to get you up early, José, but it looks like
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we're going to bug out." Ted Arthurs said across the video conference line. "This Hurricane is a category three going to a four and it's headed more or less this way. The base went on evacuation notice at sunrise and most of our folks are gone already. You have four trainees here now and they'll be on an American Airlines flight, along with Sally and our two kids, out of Miami headed to Vegas at about noon."

"All right, Sir, we'll meet them and get them setup. Did General Landry and Doctor Wirtz get off to Japan?" Jose Valenzuela asked.

"They left last night. The orders from the Joint Staff are to see if they can open discussions on preliminary protocols for time displacement technology. We think the Japanese are going to be very surprised. Landry and Wirtz might be there a while or they might have to commute. The important thing is that you'll have to pick up the surveillance task out there."

"We're up to speed on that.Will you be flying your white jet our here? Jose asked.

"I'll drive Sally and the kids up to the Miami airport, make sure they get out okay, and then come back down here and fly the jet outThe wing commander wants everything flyable out of here. Sally should be here with the kids in a minute and then we have to get on the road.Traffic heading north is already a mess. We'll have to use back roads through South Miami to get to the airport."

"So you'll be out of there by about 1400?" Jose asked.

"Sounds about right."

"Okay, Sir, We'll see you a few hours after that."

The trip to the Miami airport, normally about 45 minutes or less, took two hours on jammed roads. Ted couldn't park at the packed airport and had to drop Sally and the kids on the outer ring. Sally kissed him and told him to get the hell out of there. The kids shouldered their backpacks and they headed into the airport. Ted checked his cell phone and American Airlines reported the flight as on time, so he reluctantly left them.

On the return trip he was headed south, opposite the evacuation traffic, so he made excellent time. In the sky, the clouds had a funny look. High curved streamers moved quickly, but there was no rain and no substantial wind. He decided to make a quick stop at the house to check the storm shutters and to look for anything loose outside before going to the hangar.

The subdivision was deserted. People here still had memories of Hurricane Andrew and were taking the evacuation order seriously. Ted pulled into the driveway and used the car's remote to open one garage door. He intended to just make a quick pass around the house and to drag anything left outside into the garage. He had one foot on the driveway and the other still inside the car when he heard as much as felt a blow to his head and then fell into darkness.

He woke up in pain. Even breathing hurt. He opened his eyes and figured out that he was laying on his back on a garage floor. In fact, it was his own garage floor.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" A voice asked. "I know how it hurts. You've got three broken ribs on each side. You'll live, but it will hurt for a long time.

Ted couldn't do much more than moan. He drew his knees up, but his head and chest all hurt. A face came into his view. "At least you're alive. That's what I always thought. Now, it was worth all of the waiting. I wanted to take your wife and kids, but they moved too quickly this morning. So I just waited. It was worth everything to me when I saw you drive down the street."

"Why?" Ted managed to croak.

"I want you, Arthurs. I want you to confess to using your project to change history. I want you to tell me how it works. I thought for years about using your project for revenge. I thought about the things I'd do if I had the power you command. But, in the last year I realized that I'm not going to be able to exert enough force alone to control your system. And, alone I won't be able to avoid the CIA's goons. But, when I get you to tell me everything, then I'll put the secret of time manipulation up to the highest bidder. There are people who would pay anything or do anything to change one little thing back in time."

The guy was obviously a nut case, but Ted managed to keep his immediate responses buried. The pain reduced his smartass level considerably. His eyes were closed when he heard a clang. He swiveled his eyes and saw that the guy had dropped a tire iron on the concrete floor. Then, the pain exploded again as the guy grabbed the front of his shirt and his belt and said, "Get on your feet. You can do it. It actually hurts less than laying flat. Believe me, I know."

Ted balanced on his feet in a bent over stance. There was another car parked next to his in the garage and both garage doors were down. He was between the two cars. He figured that he had been dragged out the passenger side of his car and apparently gotten whacked on both sides of his chest with the tire iron. He was bruised and broken, but not bleeding. As the guy had said, the pain was less when he was standing.

"Look in that car." he was ordered. Now, there was a gun, a small caliber long barrel revolver, in the guy's hand.

Ted moved his head and a first couldn't figure out what he was seeing. The guy opened the car's back door and the smell hit him. It was the stink of death.

"That was my brother. He didn't understand. I loved him, but I couldn't let him stop me. Not now. Look at him. I killed my brother. You should understand that I'll do anything to you that will make you talk. I'll make you scream your secrets."

Just a few minutes ago, before a blow on the head and crushed chest, Ted could have taken this guy. A slap to the gun and a jab to the throat and the guy would have been struggling for air through a crushed larynx. But Ted's head was spinning and his arms would barely move.

"Who are you?" Ted gasped out.

"You really don't know? You met me when that old fool Landry came to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2001. My name is Charles Abrahamson. Right after the 9/1 1 attacks I tried to get the Department of Defense and the President to use your project to defend our country. No one would even talk to me. I asked the Senate Majority Leader to put me in charge of a cross-government committee to investigate the project and to take it over if necessary. I went to a friend, at least I thought she was a friend, who ran a group at the CIA. I told her the story and hoped that the CIA could find a way to take over the project and use it like it should be used. My

next step was to go to the Washington Post. Instead, I was bound, gagged, thrown on an airplane, locked in a cage, and beaten."

Ted's mind cleared. He knew more about Charles Abrahamson than even Charlie knew about himself. Ted knew that in one time line of history Abrahamson had successfully taken over the project, with the President's authority, and used it in a cold-blooded way to change time. Ted had seen the pictures that Landry had pulled back from the days after 9/1 1. The pictures showed someone much younger and less worn, but it was the same guy.

"You were talking about things that couldn't be talked about, Charlie. You really picked the wrong time to break the rules."

Abrahamson didn't say anything, but he picked up the tire iron and rapped Arthurs lightly on the right side of his chest. Ted was too slow to get out of the way, he gasped, but putting a hand on his car at least kept him from falling.

"Keep the smart comments to yourself. The only thing I want from you is a full description of how this time bullet thing works and a confession of what you've done with it. You got Castro, didn't you? Did you get any of the 9/1 1 planes?"

Ted stood a little straighter. The phrase "home pool advantage" rose into his head. The words on the cube he had probably sent back to himself. You win in your own pool his coach had said.

"Charles, I'm one person who agrees with you. I'm one person who thinks that all of this secrecy is its own danger. By the way, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the President don't agree with me. I don't agree with you that it should be sold to the highest bidder, but maybe we can negotiate that. In any case, I don't see the Project staying a secret forever."

Abrahamson stepped back. "You'll tell me the details?" He thought he could play along with this fool's silly idealistic ideas and turn them to his own benefit.

"Oh, better than that. I'll take you over there and show you everything."

"What?" In that one word Abrahamson conveyed that he was excited and apprehensive.

"Think about it. You know there is a hurricane evacuation going on?"

Abrahamson nodded. "I heard on the radio yesterday. After..." he waved the gun at his brother's body.

"There is one civilian security person at the Project and he'll be happy to get away if I release him. Then, you and I can have a chat and I'll give you a demonstration."

"You drive." Abrahamson said. "If you give me any reason, I'll fill you full of enough small holes to make you bleed out slowly and painfully. And, I'll save one for me." Again, he looked toward his brother's body. "I have nothing to lose. '

THREAT AND RESPONSE

Thursday, August 18, 2011
1300 Pacific
McCarron International Airport
Las Vegas, N V

Excerpt from the Personal Narrative
of Major General Ted Arthurs (USAF Ret)

Recorded July 2015
CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET /TA

"There were some things that only Bill and I knew, some things that only Fred and I knew and, assuredly, there were many things that only Sally and I knew. The idea is that compartmentalizing information reduces the risk to individuals and to the information you are protecting."

Sally was happy to see JoseValenzuela waiting for them in the airport lobby. The flight had been pleasant enough and the kids had enjoyed the view of the Grand Canyon on the approach to Las Vegas. But, even from twenty feet away Sally could tell that Jose was tense.

Jose briefly greeted his four trainees who had returned on the flight with them and pointed them toward a van pickup area on the perimeter of the airport. Then, he turned to Sally.

"Hello, Ma'am. Do you have luggage to pickup?" "Ma'am, Jose? What happened to calling me Sally?"

Jose appeared to be nervous. "Ma'am, uh Sally, we haven't heard from the General. He should have been airborne about two hours ago.There was a flight plan filed, but never activated. None of his telephone numbers answer. Everything goes to voice mail."

"Have you talked to base operations at Homestead?"

"Yes Ma'am. They don't have many people left because of the evacuation, but I just got a call. They sent someone to the hangar and the white jet is still there. He never took off. He didn't enter the hangar today, so it wasn't a maintenance problem."

"So, something happened to delay him between the Miami Airport and the base?" Sally was tense now. Since all they had was carry-on luggage, she waived him past the baggage claim area. Simultaneously, she waved the kids toward the passenger pickup area. Jose thought she looked a little like a tank commander ordering her column forward.

"Let's get to the backup facility, Jose. Right now."

They all piled into the nine passenger van. One of the Warrant Officers, a good looking guy about Sally's age, said, "Ma'am, if you would like, the kids can come over to our house and stay with my wife and my kids."

"Thank you, Mr. Olson, but my kids stay with me." "Yes Ma'am." was the quiet reply.

She didn't tell anyone else to call her Sally.

* * * *

The ride from McCarran Airport to the alternate facility in Boulder City was about 30 miles and Jose averaged better than a mile a minute on Interstate 215 and Nevada 93.

Sally, of course, had to try Ted on his cell phone, the home phone, and the Project phone. The phone at the Project should have rung through to the security desk, but there was no answer.

She asked Jose, "What's the security status at your facility?"

"Full up, Ma'am. Full recall of all personnel and highest level of security. My folks have an expanded perimeter. They know a lot more about the physical security business than I do and they're serious."

Sally didn't ask what Jose meant by an expanded perimeter, but she understand when they were on the road past the Boulder City airport. A pickup truck sat by the edge of the

road. One man was inside. Another appeared to be casually walking up the road. Jose slowed and waved at them.

"I understand that they have a way to block the road." Jose said. "I didn't ask for details."

They pulled the van into a metal building that looked like a warehouse for a farm store. Inside the warehouse, she faced the entry portal for the poured concrete building. When she entered the facility, Sally looked at the guard post and said, "M-16s? Were did you get M-16s, Jose?"

"They're borrowed. I told the security squadron at Nellis that we were having an exercise. All of my people are qualified with the M-16.They also know how to take the red exercise devices off the barrels. I bought ammunition from the unit party fund."

"I thought that was a hell of a party when I saw the charge." Sally observed.

"Mr. Greyborn," Sally addressed one of the senior Warrant Officers wearing a Battle Dress Uniform and a tactical load bearing vest, "that looks like a Beretta 92 in your gunslinger holster. Is there another one in the armory?" She had interviewed each of Jose's Warrant Officers when they were training in Homestead and she and Ted had been able to get most of them to their house for dinner. They all knew her reputation and some version of the Project's history going back to Indonesia.