Justification For Killing (46 page)

“
What!! No!! You can’t
come. It’s too dangerous!!”

“
Well
it’s just as dangerous for you as it would be for me. I’m coming,
if not I’m telling Grandpa you are going to steal
Pegasus
, and then you
won’t be going either, Mr. Smarty-Pants. After I spill the beans to
Robert Scarburg the Second, you won’t be able to get within a mile
of his time machine. What do you think of them apples, Robert
Scarburg
the Fourth
?” She said, throwing considerable emphasis on ‘the
Fourth.

He solemnly pondered the
situation and its ramifications. He surely cannot let her go with
him, but if she does not go he doesn’t get to go either. He knew
her; she would tell Grandpa all right. What to do? What to
do?

After considering the
alternatives Forrest make a decision, “All right Sis, you can come
with me under two conditions.”

“
Anything, anything, I’ll help you steal
Pegasus
. What are the conditions?
”

“
It is
my mission - I am the boss, what I say goes - agreed? And I am not
stealing
Pegasus
,
I am only borrowing it for a while.”

“
Yep,
you’re the boss, and what you say goes - agreed, and we are just
borrowing
Pegasus
– got it Forrest. Borrowing does sound better than stealing.
I hope, for your sake Forrest, Grandpa sees it that way,” she said
with a devilish smile.

During the drive back to
headquarters, Forrest’s mind wasn’t as blank as it was on the drive
home now he had company, and he had the makings of a plan. He kept
thinking about all the things that could go wrong, especially now
that Olive was coming along. His mind was racing, he should have
been thinking what could happen if ‘The Plan’ worked, and plan
accordingly.

“
BORROWING”
PEGASUS

Forrest and Olive Marie
walked up to the automatic glass entrance doors, they did not open,
Oscar, the guard looked up from his desk and grinned. As he walked
across the slick tile floor, they could hear his keys, clipped to
his belt, jingling as he opened the door, “Hey, Forrest, hey Olive
Marie, sorry, we lock the doors after everyone has finished. What
are you both doing here at this hour of the night? Did you all
forget something?”

During the drive back from
his apartment to SCAR headquarters a million things must have
passed through his mind, but an answer to Oscar’s question, ‘Forget
something?’ was not one of them. Having no preconceived plan
Forrest blurted out, “Nah, Grandpa, I mean Captain Scarburg had a
big meeting today, well, it would be yesterday now, and assigned
Olive Marie and I some tasks. We had to come back tonight and get
some of my notes to complete our assignments.”

“
Yeah, I noticed on the
sign-in sheet where Dr. Lonnie Joe Wheeler, Jacque Jollett, Sam Lin
and Si Lei Kim all signed in yesterday morning. Something big going
on?” The guard inquired.

“
I don’t actually know all
the details Oscar we’re having another meeting this morning so
maybe Grandpa will fill us in on more of the
particulars.”

“
Come on in you two, just
sign in and let me know when you all get ready to
leave.”

“
Fine, thank you Oscar,”
Forrest replied while they signed the log-in book, “but we might
just stay and complete some of our projects before
leaving.”

“
You know you both can
stay as long as you like - my shift ends at 4 a.m., so if you’re
not out by then sign-out with the next guard coming on duty. Have a
good evening both of you, well, what’s left of it. Don’t work too
long, you both need to go home and get some sleep.”

Walking toward the
elevator door with Olive close by his side Forrest answered without
turning around, “Uh huh, see you later Oscar.” Just a couple more
steps and a push on the “Up” button would get them out of Oscar’s
sight, and they could begin solving the four-digit code problem.
The shiny steel door opened immediately on pressing the “UP”
button. Inside Forrest selected his work floor - floor number four.
He could not wait for the elevator to stop on the fourth floor. By
the time they reached the second floor Forrest had already swiped
the access card through its slot. The yellow light began blinking.
He knew if the correct code numbers were entered the light would
turn green. All right he said to himself, here goes nothing. His
hand was trembling as he reached out with his right index finger,
9... 7... 4... 3..., nothing, nada, no green light. No problem, he
thought, 7... 9... 4... 3..., again nothing. Now he was beginning
to get worried. What if the elevator were programmed like
computers? He might only get three tries before being automatically
prohibited from further inputs. He would be deemed “unauthorized,”
and it is highly possible an alarm bell would sound notifying the
guard someone was tampering with the elevator controls. He had not
thought of that. What if this elevator were set up this way? What
if... what if... the heck with what ifs, nothing ventured, nothing
gained. Here goes.

“
Sis, start reading out
these numbers, and I will punch them in.”

She started with Baba’s
numbers - no luck. Well, he did have a touch of luck, after entry
number three nothing happened, he was not locked out - no alarm
bell rang out. Olive Marie continued calling numbers and Forrest
kept entering different sets of four digit numbers. Around 3:30
a.m. they had gone about as far as humanly possible. They had tried
number after number, nothing worked. Both were about to give up
when, without thinking, Forrest pressed the numbers 1–2–3–4. He
heard a metallic sounding ‘ding’ as the yellow light changed to
green - No...! No...! “Are you kidding me, 1...2...3...4? Sis, tell
me the code number isn’t that simple, is it?”

But it was that
simple, the elevator began to move. A slight ‘bling’ bell sound
indicated they had passed floor 3..., another ‘bling’... floor
2..., ‘bling’... floor 1... on the elevator continued down
traveling three floors below street level. At the last ‘bling’ the
elevator door opened, but Forrest stayed inside, frozen in his
spot, he was afraid to move. He knew what they were about to do was
wrong... but his Grandpa should accept part of the blame also; he
was wrong too. He should have allowed his Sis and himself to go on
the President Kennedy mission -
we’re not
kids anymore
! Forrest thought. Yeah,
that’s right... at least that was the way he justified it to
himself at the time.

“
Come on Forrest,” Olive
Marie said stepping off the elevator.

It was dark inside
the circular lab except for a number of the small display lights on
the desk-sized launch control consoles that never powered down, but
the light that caught his attention was one low wattage spotlight
shining down on
Pegasus
from high in the ceiling.

There was just
enough light to allow the two of them to walk around in the room,
they could see
Pegasus
sitting in the center. Under that dim light, it had a
majestical aura, which seemed to give the whole thing a mysterious
glow. Feeling excited yet scared at the same time; maybe they had
bitten off more than they could chew. They must have walked around
that beautiful object two or three times. Forrest had seen it
before but was still utterly mesmerized by its brilliant titanium
surface.

Fortunately he had worked
in the lab many times. He knew where everything was located. Who
and what were in each office. He knew most all the people who
worked in the launch facility. He knew everything except the most
crucial thing at this moment - he did not know how to turn on the
lights!

“
Forrest, please, it’s
spooky in here – could you, please turn on the lights?”

Oh, my!
He thought
. Is this the
way it is going to be the rest of the trip... nag... nag...
nag?

A revelation came to
him... the electrical equipment room! The circuit breakers that
controlled all the lighting must be in there, and he knew exactly
where the room was located.

Standing in front of the
breaker box, he did not know which breakers to switch “On.” A
number of them were already in the “Off” position. Could he damage
some piece of essential launch equipment by turning its power ‘On’
when it possibly should remain ‘Off’?

“
Well come on Forrest,
turn the lights on!” Olive Marie demanded.

He didn’t come down here
to turn back now. Switching all the “Off” breakers to the “On”
position, through the door they could hear motors beginning to hum,
see fan blades starting to turn, the light came on, the launch
facility was coming alive!

With mind racing,
they left the equipment room to return to
Pegasus
. Now they had to figure out
how to get into Mike Watkin’s office. Mike was the assistant launch
boss, the Chief of the Flight Prep Crew. Forrest had assisted on
Launch Two and Launch Three, both of which were unsuccessful, but
he remembered all the basic procedures Mike performed on the launch
console computers. He was hoping Mike had not reprogrammed the
master computers used when his Grandpa flew on Launch Four. Forrest
wasn’t quite sure, but he did not know if he could get this machine
out of the lab.

He had conveniently
forgotten to tell sister Olive Marie this. He wanted her to believe
he knew what he was doing.

He had to gamble; he did
not know how to change the destination coordinates nor could he
change the date of arrival. All he could hope was Mike Watkins had
not changed the computer data.

Okay,
he thought as he approached Mr. Watkins’s office
door,
he always locks his office. I have
no choice I will break the window on the door and reach in an open
the lock from the inside.
Picking up a
wrench from a workbench he smashed the glass. Shattering glass flew
all over the floor.
Their shop vacuum will
take care of this with no problem,
he
thought. Just as he was about to reach inside to unlock the lock
Olive Marie grabbed the office doorknob and gave it a slight turn.
Surprise – the door wasn’t even locked.
Oh, I’m sorry Mr. Watkins
, Forrest
thought.
I know how tidy and organized you
are. If I had only tried the doorknob first, oh well, no use crying
over spilled glass now.

At least some things
were going in their favor; numbers were still being displayed on
the ‘
DEPARTURE
’,
‘
DESTINATION
’ and
‘
RETURN
’
readouts. Were they the same ones used for Grandpa’s Launch Four?
Forrest was not sure, but he certainly hoped they were.
We could end up in an African swamp in
prehistoric times
, he
thought!!

If he had remembered
correctly, all he had to do was reset the launch time and activate
the launch countdown sequence on the Launch Computer. This Launch
Control Computer would send
Pegasus
to the ‘
DESTINATION’
coordinates
automatically. Departure was still set for 2:29:30 on 21 November
2012 the current date was December 6, 2012. Fortunately, these were
the easiest setting to change. The button next to the display could
change the numbers by merely allowing each individual number to
advance or recede to the number desired. Once the
‘DEPARTURE’
date was set
a double click would set the departure time ten minutes from the
present time. That was just enough time to enter
Pegasus
, fasten the
safety belt, sit back and enjoy the ride.

Forrest changed the
departure date to 6 December 2012, grabbed his folder on President
Johnson, and pressed the button twice. Running into the Launch
room, he was just in time to hear the hissing sound of air escaping
from the ‘flying saucer’ and watch the hatch beginning to open. By
the time they had covered the distance from Mr. Watkins’s office
to
Pegasus
the
entrance hatch was open and wide – all they had left was to get
inside and wait the allotted ten minutes.

As Forrest sat waiting for
the final few minutes to pass before ‘blast off’, he thought of
Grandpa, what would he think of him? He had always valued his
opinion, and did not want him to be disappointed in his conduct. He
certainly wasn’t too concerned about Olive Marie. She had always
been a favorite of his Grandpa. He will not be too hard on her, but
for Forrest that will be a different matter; however, he reasoned
if he could find out some good solid damning information on
President Johnson, Grandpa would forgive them both.

The minutes passed slowly,
not knowing what to expect. He sat perfectly still, afraid to move.
He had only watched from Mr. Watkins’s observation window during
Launch Two and Three. He also knew he and Olive Marie could be
living in the last couple of minutes of their lives. This
time-travel stuff, he reasoned, wasn’t nearly as perfected, as he
would like.