A Glint In Time (History and Time) (11 page)

"That larger rucksack has bedrolls for our boarders." Margaret nodded her head lamp toward the piles of bags where she had gotten Sally's clothes. "We keep a rotating shift around the clock, so you can sleep, eat, or anything else anytime you want. If you want some exercise, I prefer that you do it after dark. If you need to use the bathroom, let me know and we'll duck out to the ladies' room together."

Sally found a very thin and light, but yet warm blanket in the rucksack. She wrapped up in it and sat near Margaret.

"What do you do in the Air Force?" Sally asked. "I mean you don't live in holes in the ground all the time, do you?"

"Oh no." Margaret replied wryly. "Normally the only contact I try to have with mud is through the tip of a Mark Eighty-Two five hundred pound bomb. I fly F-16s like Ted. This Special Operations stuff is what they call a career broadening tour for both of us. I never thought that playing Army would be any fun, but it has its own appeal. Ted eats it up."

"So Ted is a pilot too?" Sally asked.

"Oh yeah. Only he's a dual-rated hotshot. He's in rotary wing -helicopters- and F-16s. But I've got more F-16 hours. While he was out learning to fly helicopters I took time out to have his baby."

"Captain, got a minute? Captain Arthurs says he needs you over at the comm console."

The voice from the dark mercifully ended the conversation. Sally felt like she'd been kicked in the stomach. She clicked off her light, rolled over, and pounded her fist into the plasticized Indonesian mud."She had his baby!" she yelled within the confines of her own mind."Oh, damn, how do I always pick such winners?"

SITREP

Saturday, August 26 1995
Indonesian Countryside

Excerpt from the Personal Narrative
of Brigadier General Ted Arthurs

Recorded May 2006
CLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL /TA

"The chain of command was a little strained."

Sally wasn't sure how many hours she had slept. Things inside the hole in the ground looked pretty much the same. Ted was dozing in the corner, his face lit by the light of the computer screen on his lap. "I hope he gets radiation burns on his balls." Sally thought to herself. Andy and another man were eating from plastic bags in another corner. They had a flashlight with a red lens set between them. Sally crawled over to them.

"Andy," Sally said, "Margaret said I should let her know when nature calls. Well, it's knocking."

"I'm not surprised." Andy said. "Let's you and I go out and we'll find her."

"That should be fun." the other man observed.

"Yeah, the Captain might be a hot shot jock, but she's pretty damn good at this hide and seek shit.. uh, stuff, too." Andy said.

Andy picked up a pair of goggles and handed them to Sally. "No reason for you to stumble around in the dark." He said.

When Sally put them on, Andy reached over and flipped a switch on the goggles. The whole room suddenly lit up. "Wow!" Sally exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's something, isn't it?"

Sally and Andy emerged from the hole in a crouch. Although everything was in shades of green, Sally could see the field as though it was daylight.Yet the cool air and quiet sounds told her it was night. Andy silently waved his weapon over his head, held up the other hand with one finger in the air, closed the hand into a fist, and then pumped it up and down. Then he sat down in the grass. "You can walk around a little bit and stretch if you like. I know it's no fun being in that hole."

About two minutes later, after Janet had identified some bats flying from the trees across the clearing, she heard a metallic click. "Friendly coming through." Margaret's voice said.

"I was waiting for a rubber knife in the back." Andy replied.

"I told you guys, no games out here." Margaret said.

Just then, Margaret put her hand in her pants pocket and pulled out a pager identical to the one Ted carried. She briefly held it under her goggles."Andy, would you take Sally over behind a tree, get her back inside, and then take the perimeter for a few minutes, please? I need to see what Ted wants."

When Sally returned to the hide out, Ted and Margaret were close together, apparently reading something on the small computer screen.

"What the hell is all this from the Department of Justice?" Margaret said. "Why do they have their underwear in a bind about Janet?"

"It says to me that she is one of theirs." Ted said. "She's either DEA or FBI or something. What great damn cooperation."

"Sally," Ted said looking from the screen. "Here is what we know.The State Department has initiated a welfare query through the Indonesian government. They say that they are having discussions at a high level, but there is no progress. I had a duty officer at CINCPAC in Hawaii pick up the phone, dial the Ammero Group, and ask for Doctor Wirtz. He was told that Bill was 'unavailable.' Then he went down the list and asked for Sonny, James, and even our older brother Jaya. They were all unavailable. I asked him to keep trying every few hours."

"The Department of Justice is now making urgent queries about Janet. We knew that the Woo brothers were up to their necks in smuggling everything from Chinese

immigrants to weapons and opium paste, but we didn't know that the Justice Department was somehow involved. I told Justice to bug the Ammero Group too. I want them to know that a lot of people care about what happens here."

"The official word I've gotten it to act to stabilize the situation. We're supposed to try and stop any significant experiments, and, oh by the way, determine the status of Dr. Wirtz and Janet Dwyer and withdraw them if it can be done without creating too much of a fuss or making anybody in Indonesia angry. It's a typical State Department, DoD, political compromise."

"Here's what I've done. I got CINCPAC to roust the Military Attaché in our embassy out of bed. They've told him to rent some vehicles and a helicopter and to rendezvous with us at first light. I doubt that he'll be able to do that, but we'll see what he can do. There are a lot of oil companies doing business here and some of the small crews rent services and equipment to the highest bidder.Although they might not do business here any longer if we get into a real tussle that makes the government mad."

"This confrontation stuff makes me nervous." Margaret said. "We have no status here. At the very best we'd be detained as illegal aliens.At the worst, well..."

"The team will stay in the trucks and out of the way. Even if we get taken hostage, we won't call you in. But if we need you it will be for a deadly force extraction. Then we'll either escape and evade on our own or rely on the skills of the State Department to get us out."

"Oh barf." Margaret said. "But then she turned to the other two men in the hide out and said, "Okay, leave behind most of the rations. Pack light. We'll either be in E and E mode or on a big jet tonight. Pass the word."

"Sally," Ted said. "You and I are the only folks who are here legally. In the morning we're going to fly into the arms of the Woo boys and stabilize the situation -whatever the hell that means. Get all the rest you can for the next few hours."

FINDING FRIENDS

Sunday, August 27, 1995
Indonesian Countryside

Excerpt from the Personal Narrative
of Brigadier General Ted Arthurs

Recorded May 2006
CLASSIFIED CONFIDENTIAL /TA

"Sometimes, the direct approach works best."

Sally climbed out of the hole, blinking in the sun. She and the rest of the team were dressed in dark pants and light shirts. The other team members carried a collection of backpacks and bags. She thought that their uniformity would give them away, but then she remembered that many locals dressed that way. although the Americans were too big and walked all wrong to be taken for locals.

They had stayed hidden for nearly half the day waiting fora message confirming that the Embassy's Military Attache had rented the transportation and would meet them. The sun was hot and high. They walked for almost a mile to a crossroads. They met several people on bicycles and trucks blew them away in a cloud of dust, but no one paid them much notice as they trudged down the road with their backpacks.

It was noon when the three pickup trucks pulled up. Ted and one of the drivers conversed briefly and then they heard the whup whup sound of a helicopter. "Damn single engine Huey." Margaret said even before they saw the white helicopter come over the trees.

"Probably older than either one of us and noisier than the gates of hell. " Margaret said to Sally.

"But" Andy offered, "they don't usually fall out of the sky of their own accord. That's how they got to be around so long."

"Yeah, but you're an old paratrooper. You fall out of the sky all the time and you're still around." Margaret said. There were laughs all around and then she added, "Okay, after Ted checks out the bird we'll split up and board the pickups. We'll keep the drivers from the oil company. That way it looks like we belong. Sally, you'll go with Ted in the Huey. You'll wait half an hour for us to get into place before you take off. One team will try to get as close as possible to where you are. They'll have grenade launchers with smoke, CS tear gas, and high explosive fragmentation rounds plus their personal weapons. I'll be monitoring communications and working with the National Reconnaissance Office.There's an NRO real-time imaging satellite overhead that's been watching over the team since we landed. They'll be watching you and giving me a better play-by-play than you get on Monday night football. Remember to switch on the radio transmitter before you take off."

Both Sally and Ted were wired with radio transceivers that would let the team know if they were in what Margaret called "grave danger" that required a "lethal force" rescue. When she had briefed Sally, Margaret had sounded like she was looking forward to the grave and lethal parts.

A tall man with gray streaked hair got out of the helicopter. He and Ted walked away from the chopper and, from their body language, Sally could tell that Ted was doing a lot of explaining. Margaret said, “The US Military Attaché in Indonesia is a Navy Captain. Navy Captains don't like getting rousted out of bed to rent trucks for a bunch of Air Force junior officers.Ted can handle him."

The team moved to the trucks and Sally moved closer to the helicopter as it sat in the field.Ted was folding a map after conferring with the Attaché. The older man seemed to be torn between staying to watch them take off, going on the mission with them, or getting the hell out of the area. He stood apart for a while and then marched over to a waiting embassy car and left. After half an hour spent reading incoming messages on his laptop computer, Ted said, "You ready Sal? Let's go see if we can be a rescue squad. Radio on?"

The helicopter was noisy. Sally wore sound deadening earmuffs while Ted had on a headset for communications with the pilots from the oil company. The helicopter was only airborne for a few minutes before it dropped fast and flared into the roadway in front of the headquarters of the Ammero Group.

Ted waved her out of the helicopter and led her toward the residential building. "We've made an impressive entrance,

now let's be audacious and go look for our friends. Besides, we need our passports out of our rooms."

They entered the residential building without seeing anyone. The doors to their rooms were open and they stayed together while they retrieved their passports. Sally also recovered her credit cards. "Wave at the cameras, Ted said."

"Bill! Janet! Are you guys here?" Ted yelled. There was no answer. They went into each room and successfully found the passport for each of their friends.

"Well, Ted said, "Let's go see who noticed our entrance."

They walked toward the headquarters building and Sonny Woo came out of the front entrance. The big guy from the limousine and the bathroom was behind Sonny. He had a huge bruise across his nose and eyes. Two other men were in back of him.

"Why did you come back? What do you want? " Sonny asked.

"We want Bill and Janet and we want you to stop the time machine." Ted answered.

"Doctor Wirtz may leave at any time, but Janet Dwyer is a spy who will be turned over to government authorities. Doctor Wirtz refuses to leave her. As for our experiments, you have all been well paid. The rest is no concern of yours."

"Like Hell!" Sally said. It was the first thing she had really said in nearly twenty-four hours and she was mad. You're going to create a thermonuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union."

Sonny shrugged. "So you say. That does not concern us."

"Sonny, " Ted said, "Our government has evidence that your family is engaged in the smuggling of opium paste into the United States and into other countries. That should concern you. The government of Indonesia has signed several international agreements promising to limit the drug trade. If Janet has any official status, I'm sure it is covered by those agreements. Janet entered the country legally and we want her to leave legally, right now."

Sonny, who was standing halfway down the stairs, turned to see his older brother watching through the double doors. Jaya glared at the party on the stairs and then nodded once.

Sonny said nothing, but he motioned for them to follow him through the doors. When Sally and Ted got to the doors, Jaya was gone. The three goons were lined up on both sides of the door. The one with the bruised face glared at Ted and bunched his fists, but Ted ignored him.

They were led downstairs to a room that Sally knew must be near the laboratory that held the time machine. The big power cables ran in racks over their heads. Janet and Bill were sitting together on a low couch in the corner.

"Sally,Ted... what the?" Bill stopped as Ted held up his hand.

"Any damage? Are you two okay?" Ted asked.

"Janet has a twisted ankle. It's swollen. She got it kicking one of those gorillas in the groin. It was beautiful to watch until she tried it again and the second guy caught her foot and twisted it. I punched him in the nose."