The Gravity of Anti-Gravity (18 page)

“There’s a guy who works at JPL. His parents were born in
Russia and he speaks the language. He should be able to help,” I added.

“Good; now Cushing and Waterman are getting into it. I’ll turn up the volume. This should be fun,” Rolf said.

“When this whole debacle is over; it will be my pleasure to see Morton and Burton lying face down in some shallow grave somewhere. They have taken a carefully crafted plan and turned it to crap. They are way too clever for their age. I’m starting to think they have some outside help,” commented Cushing
.

“Let’s hope this
zip drive they gave us is legit. We’ll copy it and give it to our Government techs to check out. If they say it’s good, at least it will give us something to give to Montenegro to keep him off our backs for a while
,”
said Waterman
.

“Cushing,”
Waterman continued
,
“I’m tired of being blamed by you every time we get caught by those punk scientists. They go to the President, he questions you, you blame me and I’m out on the street.”

“Don’t worry
,”
said Cushing, “even if it comes to that, you’ll be extremely well compensated. If you want to buy yourself a tropical island somewhere complete with hot and cold running bimbos, you’ll be able to afford it. Sometimes we all need to take one for the team.”

“You are so full of shit, Cushing! Knowing our benefactors like I do, the only tropical island I’ll see is the one they’ll show me before they feed me to the sharks.”

“I can protect you Waterman but if you keep talking like that, I’ll push you out of this plane myself.”

“Screw you
Cushing!”

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

For the first time I saw Rolf reach for a gun. It had been neatly concealed in a holster in his waistband. He walked to the door stood beside it and asked “Who’s there.”

“FBI,” was the answer.

Rolf slowly opened the door with the chain still connected.

“Show me your badges,” he ordered. He inspected them and said “Just a minute.” Then he holstered and concealed his gun and opened the door.

“I am Agent Flynn and this is Agent Rivera. We are here to take the first shift in your security detail. We always like to meet the people we are protecting so we can get to know them and they can recognize us. It reduces problems if things ever do heat up.”

We did introductions all around. “OK thanks guys we’ll all sleep better tonight knowing that some of America’s finest are on the job,” Stella said.

As the men left, Agent Rivera gave Stella a long approving look.

“Hey Agent Rivera,” I said, “don’t forget you two are the protectors and we three are the protectees.” My comment only got a grunt from Rivera as he left.

“Feeling a little jealous Bill,” Rolf said.

“You know, I don’t know where that came from,” I confessed.

“You don’t Mr. Burton?” Stella said, as she gave me one of her impish smiles.

It was about ten when Stella said, “It’s been a long day Bill, why don’t we go to bed.”

“Does that include me?” I asked with a hopeful grin.

“Only if you want it to, lover boy,” Stella said softly.

“Rolf, is it OK if I stay?” I asked. “I don’t want to be in the way.”

“No problem, I am going to stay up a little longer and monitor your two friends. I want to be a witness if they decide to kill each other. Also I want to research this
Montenegro that they referred to. See you in the morning.”

Just then, the phone rang. It was Mrs. Brooks the wife of Dr. Brooks. Stella answered.

“Is this Dr. Morton?”

“Yes it is.” Stella responded.

“I am Shirley Brooks, Dr. Arnold Brooks’ wife. Have you seen my husband tonight or might he be there in a meeting or something? He hasn’t come home yet and he hasn’t called. He’s never done this before. I’m sorry to call Dr. Morton, but I’m scared.”

“No Mrs. Brooks, we haven’t seen him since late this afternoon. He was on his way to his office about 3 PM just before Mr. Burton and I met with the Police.”

“Arnie told me about that. Are you alright Dr. Morton?”

“Yes I’m fine, but call me Stella. Shirley, have you called the Police?”

“No, not yet, they always say on TV that you have to wait 24 hours before they consider someone a missing person.”

“Well in this case I think they will make an exception.” Stella explained. “Call the
Pasadena Police. Ask for a Detective Oliver. If he’s not there, ask for whoever took over for him. If Oliver brought his replacement up to speed, he should help you. We will contact the FBI. You may get a call from them. If Dr. Brooks comes home, or if you just want to talk, don’t hesitate to call. We will help in every way we can. Good bye, Mrs. Brooks.”

“Rolf,” Stella began. “You go outside, find the FBI guys and tell them to notify their people about Dr. Brooks. I’d send Bill but if they are any good, he won’t find them. You will. When you get back, we’ll use your locator to find Dr. Brooks. Let’s hope that he had it with him.”

“Stella, do you really think Dr. Brooks was abducted?” I asked.

“At this point I don’t know. Since he is so closely associated with the project, the criminals may think he knows as much as we do.”

In about fifteen minutes Rolf returned. “I found one guy sleeping and the other one reading the paper. I think I scared the hell out of them when I knocked on the car window. I told them about Dr. Brooks and I waited until they called it in. I got the department chief’s number in case we come up with anything. With a crack pair like these guys protecting us, we’d better keep our guard up.”

“OK, let’s see if we can find Dr. Brooks,” said Stella.

With that Rolf plugged a strange device into his laptop. “Let me isolate Brooks’ signal. OK it looks like the signal is coming from Riverside. Now let me get the address. It’s 44703 Reilly Parkway, Suite C. It looks like a warehouse. Bill, I want you to call it in. The FBI doesn’t really know who I am and I want to keep it that way. Tell them the locater device is yours and if they ask, you bought it at Radio Shack.”

I called the FBI number Rivera gave us and a Special Agent Rodney King came on the line. I tried not to laugh as I explained who I was and why I was calling. He was aware of the situation. I gave him the address of the warehouse and explained how I knew that Dr. Brooks was probably there. He said he would send an FBI team from the
Riverside area to the warehouse and they should be there within the hour.

A little after midnight, we got a call from Special Agent King. “My agents broke into the warehouse in
Riverside. It was empty. Unfortunately they found the remnants of a grey business suit coat in the corner. I am sorry to say it had quite a bit of fresh blood on it!”

“Thank you Special Agent King. If you’ll hang on we’ll see if Dr. Brooks is still in possession of the locator we gave him.”

Rolf fired up the laptop and got a signal. As Rolf peered into the screen he said, “It appears the locator is traveling down Highway 15 toward Las Vegas. They are just approaching Victorville and are just passing the intersection of Highway 18. If I were to guess I’d say they are driving some kind of van or small enclosed truck”

I relayed the information to King.

“It’s late so there shouldn’t be much traffic out.” Agent King said. “I’ll get the CHP involved and my guys will be heading out that way too. Call me if the signal gets off the highway.”

“Ten-four,” I said, hung up, looked at Stella and commented. “Sorry but I always wanted to say that.”

About five minutes later the signal exited the Freeway at Lansing Blvd. I immediately called King and let him know. “That confirms it.” King said. “The CHP has been following a white van and it just pulled off the freeway at Lansing so that’s our guy. As soon as we get more back-up in place we’ll pull the van over and see what they’re carrying. I’ll call you when it’s over.”

We heard nothing for almost an hour; then it came on the news.

“Just in, breaking news from Victorville! About a half hour ago there was a shootout between police and two armed gunman about a mile off Highway 15 on Lansing Blvd. Police and CHP officers said they pulled over a white van and when it stopped two men jumped out and started shooting. One officer was slightly wounded. The two gunmen are now dead. The identities of the gunmen are unknown at this time. The Police found a man tied up in the van. Reports indicate that he had been badly beaten but is alive. He was rushed to Victorville General where he will undergo surgery. We will get you more information on this bizarre story as facts become available.”

The phone rang again and it was Special Agent King. I put the phone on speaker. “In case you haven’t seen it on the news, we found Dr. Brooks in the white van. He is seriously injured but the hospital people say he’ll pull though. He’s in surgery now. I just informed his wife and I’m sure she’s on her way to the hospital. It’s a good thing we got to him when we did. They tell me he would have been dead in an hour.”

“What about the guys in the van?” I asked; “the ones who are dead now. Who are they?”

“They had no identification on them. We will run facial recognition on these guys but if they’re not in our system, it won’t lead anywhere. We did get some evidence from the van and we are following those leads now. The guys were white, possibly Russian or eastern European, but my people weren’t sure. We normally don’t divulge this much information but you folks are key and the more you know the more you might be able to help us piece this case together and figure out who’s giving the orders. I’ll call if we get any more information and you do the same.” Then King hung up.

I sat down in shock. “Dr. Brooks is one of the good guys. That damn Flying Wallenda has caused nothing but mayhem and it’s not over yet. Maybe we should turn over everything to the Feds and put ourselves in the witness protection program. This whole mess isn’t worth getting anybody else hurt!”

“Bill, it’s not like the Feds have acted with any kind of honesty or integrity,” warned Stella. “What makes you think that will change in the future?”

“Good point; maybe Buckholder’s group is the way to go,” I said.

“Maybe it is Bill,” Stella said, “but I think we should follow our game plan and go see the President. Something tells me he’s not involved in this conspiracy, but based on how he answers our questions, we should be able to figure it out. All of the people close to you have protection and unless the enemy brings in a small army, we should be safe for a while. We’ll give Dr. Brooks a day to recover and go visit him on Sunday. If he’s able to talk he should be a gold mine of information.”

“OK,” I said, “I’m going home now and I hope I can sleep.”

“Before you leave Bill,” Rolf said, “I want to give you something.” He opened the end table drawer and took out a small hand gun.

“Oh no,” I said, “I’m kind of anti-gun. They scare me.”

“Let me show you how to operate it.” Rolf proceeded to give me a lesson in gun basics. He showed me how to load it and the operation of the safety. When he was done I had at least a little confidence that I wouldn’t accidentally shoot myself so I took the loaded gun, with the safety on, slipped it in my pocket, and went home.

-25-

I slept in until noon on Saturday. I called Brenda to confirm our date but I couldn’t muster the courage to tell her that she had FBI protection. I hoped I would be able to tell her that evening.

“Bill, I’d like to go to
Lacy Park in San Marino. They are having an outdoor concert with folk music. I know it sounds a bit retro but it will be fun. My parents want you to come over for dinner too, you know, before we go to the concert. They really haven’t had much time to talk to you since I’ve been back and they said they’d like to get reacquainted.”

“Sure Brenda, I’ll look forward to it. I’ll be there about six. Bye,” I said and hung up.

This is just great I thought. The first chance I have to say anything more than hello to my girlfriend’s parents and I have to inform them that, because of me, they are in danger and I’ve arranged for the FBI to protect them. That’s a real ice breaker!

Then I reminded myself that I still had to tell Pops and Grandma the same thing. I wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. Maybe when I wake up this time, I’ll find out all this crap in my life is just a dream.

I forced myself to get up and go into the living room. I asked the two people I loved very much to turn off the TV and said. “We need to talk.”

With that I had their undivided attention so I began speaking at a much faster pace than normal. “You are both aware of the hot water we are all in because of my little science project. Well, unfortunately the water just got hotter. Last night two members of some criminal organization kidnapped Dr. Brooks, beat him to get information and were eventually killed by the police in a shootout. I have arranged FBI protection for you and me because of the danger we are in. If you have no further questions I’m going out.”

Pops and Grandma sat there in stunned silence. I grabbed my phone and quickly walked toward the door when Pops, at the top of his lungs yelled, “stop right there young man!”