A Glint In Time (History and Time) (25 page)

Landry pulled over a laptop computer and clicked up some pictures.“The location is Boulder City, Nevada. It's about eight miles south east of Boulder Dam and not that far from Las Vegas and Nellis Air Force Base. Boulder City Municipal Airport is due south of the city. Just about two miles southeast of the airport runway is a power substation with direct feeds from the dam. Right near that substation, now substantially expanded, we have created a smaller version of this facility in a building that looks like a commercial warehouse. If the metal warehouse blows away, it will reveal a highly survivable reinforced concrete blockhouse built inside."

"The concept is that it will have a small crew of operators and maintainers, but enough for a 24 by 7 operation. In all it's about a dozen people and some contract security. We interconnected with the hardened communications systems setup for Cheyenne Mountain and Peterson Field in Colorado and we extended strategic alert and warning capabilities to this facility. It's not big, but it's fully capable."

"What you won't have," Wirtz added, "are the database maintenance specialists, an economist, a sociologist and other analysts."

"You also won't have any PhD physicists. But, you will have a good staff of military people with training in physics. The Army is phasing down its deployment of tactical nuclear

weapons, so they have some highly trained and steady warrant officers without immediate jobs. Their specialty is nuclear weapon maintenance and control. Most of these people are within a few years of retirement and they don't want to transfer into some other career field, .there isn't much open to them as warrant officers anyway. . so, with the help of the Chairman, we vacuumed them up. The Army bureaucracy didn't put up a fight. These are very bright folks. Lots of graduate degrees and pilot licenses among them. Boulder City is a very good place to live, so their families are happy. Although I understand that four of the spouses are Realtors and they have all descended on the same neighborhood. The troops haven't been briefed in on the mission. We've been waiting for you so you look like the expert."

"Do I get to learn how to do the Harry Potter thing with the screen?" Jose asked.

"Absolutely, it gets them every time."Landry replied and they all laughed.

A DEAL FOR FREEDOM

Tuesday, March 8, 2011
1030 Eastern
CIA Headquarters
Langley, VA

Willy was as nervous as a twelve year old kid sitting in a chair outside the principal's office. He told himself that he shouldn't be. He had plans and backups to his plans. He knew how to swing this kind of deal, but this was the CIA. Since 9/1 1 they made their own rules. The door to the waiting room opened and a prim woman who looked like she sucked lemons for fun nodded at him. He flashed on what the scene would be like in a Japanese office, with the beautiful bowing hostess, and wondered if, after today, he would ever be able to go back to Japan.

This meeting was the result of several years of planning. The timing was finally right. The election of 2008 put his party firmly in the driver's seat in Washington, but a few more pieces had to fall into place. Finally, a US senator that owed him payback for campaign funding had ascended to the lofty position of Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. With that move, Willy gained the introduction and backstop he needed with the CIA and Homeland Security. He was pretty sure that he wasn't going to disappear like his brother.

Willy knew the background of the man he was meeting; his responsibilities and capabilities. The groundwork had been done. It was time to make the play.

"Senator Abrahamson, how do you do? I'm Jack Lee. The Senator's note said that you had some important information for me? " Jack Lee made the last statement into a question. He was tall, thin, almost gaunt, dressed in a nice blue suit, and presenting a smile with plenty of teeth. Willy had to look up to him to shake his hand. Lee was nice enough to not go back and hide behind his desk, so they both took armchairs facing each other.

"Actually, Mr. Lee, I'm here to make a deal." Willy said almost as soon as they were seated. He was looking for the advantage of surprise.

"A deal of what kind, Senator?" Willy noted that the bureaucrat continued to use his title even after that fairly abrasive opening. Good, the man was living up to his reputation as a smooth operator.

"The most simple kind. I have something that you want and you have something that I want."

"Your brother?" Lee asked.

Bill had to pause for two heartbeats. Yes, this guy was every bit as good as his reputation. "Obviously." He replied.

"I'll tell you what." Lee said. "I think it's time your brother came home, regardless of what you have to trade."

Willy only nodded. This wasn't what he had anticipated. But, he was both a horse trader and a poker player. He steepled his fingers to slightly hide his face.

Jack Lee nodded back. He was appearing to be every inch the reasonable man. Willy was sure that Lee could play a fool or a psychotic equally well. "You know the political landscape as well as I do, Senator. That's why you're here now. The present administration is well entrenched. The Patriot Act is on its last legs. Before the election of 2012, the excesses of the past administration must be purged. So, I'll see your deal and raise you."

Willy moved his right hand in a move that clearly said, "Come ahead."

"Your brother is healthy and in recent years he has been well cared for. He claims that he now understands that he can't ever talk about whatever it was that caused him to be put away as a threat to national security. I don't know what it was and I surely do not want to know what it was. But, if we turn him over to you, then it will be up to both of you to guarantee his behavior. He can't come back to Washington. Take him to Montana and set him up with one of those agricultural companies you are close to. He writes no books, he gives no interviews; he doesn't even write a letter to an editor or author a blog on the Internet. He maintains total silence. And, we will hold both of you accountable for his behavior."

Willy tilted his head and shrugged. "Deal." he said.

Lee looked him in the eye, "And, how do you sweeten the pot?"

In a few short sentences Willy explained how it had come to his knowledge that the Japanese were working on a top secret weapon project on the island of Hokkaido. He listed far fewer details than he had originally planned on giving, but he gave enough to make it seem like he had come in with a fair trade in mind.

Lee listened politely, made notes, and asked enough questions to let Willy understand that Lee knew Willy was holding back. Willy got the unpleasant feeling that if Lee wanted more information, he would come back to Willy to get it.

Willy stopped talking and Lee sat silently for a moment. "Are you going back to Montana soon?" he asked.

"Yes, tomorrow morning." Lee appeared to be counting.

"I'd say that your brother should arrive in Great Falls in about three days. It could be four. He'll probably come in on a flight from New York. Someone will call you and ask you to meet a flight.You should make some preparations. He will be a little disoriented, maybe depressed, maybe angry. If there is someplace private you can take him for a while, it would be best for both of you."

"We have a family house in the mountains." Willy said.

"That would be just the thing." With that, Lee shook Willy's hand and showed him out the door of his office. An escort, a burly man in a dark suit, was waiting in the outer office to take him out of the building.

OUR FLYING CLUB

Wednesday, June 8, 201 1
0830 Eastern
TCA Headquarters
Homestead ARB, Florida

Excerpt from the Personal Narrative
of Colonel Jose Valenzuela

Recorded July 2015
UNCLASSIFIED

". . . . .
Wow. My own Jet!"

Jose knocked on General Arthurs' office door, heard "Come in", opened the door, crossed the carpet, and snapped the general a salute. "Good morning, Sir."

Arthurs returned the salute casually. "Good morning, Jose. How did your education progress yesterday?"

I'm still drinking it all in, General. But, it sounds like a great job. I'm happy, thrilled, scared, and alert. I don't even know what I don't know, but it looks like General Landry and Doctor Wirtz really have me setup."

"Good. I like the scared and alert part. We just don't know where the shit will come from, Jose. But, on a much brighter note, I am about to give you every boy's dream.

And I don't mean my secretary. My wife made sure that Mrs. Marsh is happily married and typically pregnant. So, it's not her. Let's go for a ride."

It was a short drive down the base road to a hangar near base operations. They parked in a spot that said "General Officers Only" and walked up to the hangar. "That's about the only perk left." Arthurs observed about the parking spot.

Arthurs had to talk to a security post through a two-way intercom mounted outside the door and then enter a passcode into the electronic lock. Once inside the hangar, Jose saw that it was crowded with aircraft. There was a Lear carrying the emblem of the Immigration Customs Enforcement Agency, a helicopter from the Border Patrol, two Army versions of the Beechcraft King Air loaded with specialized electronic intelligence antennas, and two white T-38 Talon supersonic Air Force trainers. Arthurs led the way to the two T-38s jammed into the back of the hangar. "Which one do you want?" he asked.

Jose didn't know how to respond.

"We've been told that we need to be able to get to Washington DC on a moment's notice. We can request a ride from the Special Air Mission folks out of Andrews, but in a real crunch it would be hard to get a priority. So, we have some support aircraft. Although they're wearing Air Force colors, these are really two F-5Fs from Taiwan. The Taiwanese are upgrading, so we ran these through a depot level overhaul in Taiwan, replaced the radar with a fuel tank, and had them painted USAF colors. Any crew chief would

recognize the F-5 wing and the internal gun, but to most folks they look like any of the T-38s flown by the Air Force, NASA, and about ten other countries. On a good day you can make it from Nevada to here or to Washington without stopping. Although you'll usually want to stop at Eglin, Moody, or Barksdale to get gas if you're going west against the winds."

"I get my own jet?"Jose was able to say in a strangled voice.

"Well, we get our own jets" Arthurs said. "I've got one too. There is a downside. You never have an excuse and you never should probably have more than one little bitty drink in any one hour period. You're always on call. You can keep it at Nellis. They have F-5s and can maintain it. Oh, you will also have a detachment of the Nellis Aero Club at the Boulder City Airport.There is a Diamond DA-40, confiscated by the drug enforcement guys, waiting for you there. I understand that several of your Army warrant officers are lined up to fly it. That's how you're supposed to get from Boulder City to Nellis in a hurry. It's about a twenty mile flight.You'll be on approach for Nellis about seven minutes after you take off from Boulder City."

"How do I get current?"Jose asked. He hadn't flown a T-38 in a dozen years and he'd never been in the fighter version, the F-5.

"There are a couple of guys in the Air Reserve unit here who are instructors. They'll check you out. Fuel management and weight and balance are the tricky parts because the nose is so light without the radar. The gun acts as ballast.

You'll need a current altitude chamber ride and ejection seat training, but you can do all that here. Without the radar it's a pretty simple airplane. The biggest problem is navigation, so we put a GPS in the panel."

"My own jet."Jose ran a hand over the smooth wing of the bird that first caught his eye. It was love at first sight.

Jose spent each of the next seven days in some kind of training, orientation, and planning. He got his flight physical and aircrew training done, flew the F-5 on the weekend along with instructors, worked at memorizing the names and backgrounds of all of the people he would have working with him at Boulder City, talked history and physics with Wirtz and Landry, and made operational plans with Arthurs. Sally briefed him on the reports and paperwork expected of a commander, but assured him that she would back him up with daily video conferences. His personal training included a firearms refresher, security briefing, and instructions on the use of a secure encrypted cell phone.

On the next Wednesday, Jose again reported to General Arthurs. He was wearing a desert brown flight suite and had a personal equipment bag over his left shoulder."We're getting ready to go, Sir. Bill is going to fly to Vegas commercially. I'll take General Landry with me in the jet. I sold my car here. It was nothing I was attached to."

"And, you do have your own jet."Arthurs laughed. "Let Landry fly for a while. He's a good stick and he's got lots of stories about flying F-4s.When do you want to do the facility commissioning ceremony?"

"I was thinking in about a week. That will give us time to get the people organized in Nevada, get the initial mission briefings out of the way, and setup some roles and duties."

"Sounds good. I'll fly out for it. I'll talk to you on the video call in the morning. Hey, you're on Pacific time. We'd better reset the morning briefing or you'll be up at 5AM every day."

"Your wife took care of that, Sir.You'll brief at 10AM local. I think she has you scheduled into the gym every morning at 8AM from now on."Arthurs groaned and gave him a salute that told him he was dismissed.

Jose wasn't out of the office five minutes when Ted heard the unique warble of the secure voice telephone on his credenza. Since everyone who called him on this system usually had a lot more rank than he carried, he answered like a first year Air Force Academy Cadet. "Major General Arthurs, Sir."

"General, this is the Chairman's exec, Jack Peterson." Peterson was a one star general who sat at the right hand of the Chairman and had access to Chairman's inner thoughts. . . preferably before the Chairman even thought them.