While the military argued whether gay people could serve in the trenches, Michael would be opening up new opportunities for advancement by the hundreds if this didn’t go right.
3
Military Base, Colorado Mountains
Bethany Anne drove the rental car, an unpretentious Toyota Camry, to the base entrance and offered her credentials to the guard. After she finished her talk with Martin, it took her thirty minutes to grab her ready bag and make it to the airport and up the steps and onto the executive jet waiting to take her to Denver. The plane was already scheduled to pick up another at the Denver airport, so she wasn’t able to just land at the base.
While her group had some pretty special responsibilities, she had never warranted a private jet. This special treatment was puzzling, and after due consideration, she realized whatever she was being reassigned to had to be pretty important. This was going to be a very expensive trip for the taxpayers, and regardless of how the media (well, some of the media) portrayed her offices, they were pretty good with their budgets, or had been under Martin’s leadership.
Taking the credentials offered him, the guard confirmed with the computer that she was the appropriate person and that she had business on the base.
It didn’t escape his attention that her last name was the same as the General’s, nor that she seemed to be spitting mad right now, just like the General often enough.
Having received her badge back, Bethany Anne thanked the guard and started her drive over to the temporary officers’ building.
She still had a few hours before her meeting with the General.
General Lance Reynolds listened to the rough voice on the phone.
General or not, Lance didn’t have a high enough security clearance to know a tenth of the total story Frank was telling him. Frank was pretty sure he himself might only know about half of it.
But what the General did understand caused him to bite down pretty hard on his cigar, and his irises, had there been anyone to see them, they’d swear were going black.
He interrupted his caller, “You’re telling me that the U.S. military has an honor debt to an independent group of individuals who live inside our borders? Furthermore, that they’ve been here since before we even became a country and have been secretly helping us do raids and other black-ops work our best can’t handle?”
Frank, on the other end of the line, cleared his throat, “General, if it wasn’t for this particular family, we wouldn’t even HAVE these United States.”
The General wasn’t sure what he meant by that, “Why? Does this have to do with the two Japanese cities we took out in World War II? We had another bomb ready to go in about ten days, and we would have flattened the country and made it a glowing parking lot.”
A lot of innocents would have died, but that was war.
Frank, used to working both with bureaucrats and officers, continued because if this General didn’t get the message, then they all were about to have a serious problem.
If the General didn’t honor the debt the U.S. owed Michael’s family (out of ignorance, Frank felt—not dishonor), he knew that things would only escalate.
The U.S. military, Frank knew, had one creed that really didn’t change unless ordered by the President.
The U.S. military never backs down.
Rock, meet hard place.
This would mean that Michael’s children and grandchildren would start focusing on U.S. military interests, which covered the world. Finally, and this was the kicker, it would mean that Michael would also wake up any of his immediate children who were still asleep. Many of those children were pretty damn scary.
While Frank couldn’t begin to know which side would ultimately win, he knew one thing. America, weak because of the decimated military, would be ripe for another country to attack.
“General, let me ask you a question. Has it ever, even in the slightest, occurred to you that General Washington was pretty damn lucky?” Frank let the line go silent.
The cigar chomping stopped. While the General was loud, he wasn’t stupid or slow, and this non sequitur took him a second to puzzle out.
“You’re trying to suggest to me this family helped win the Revolutionary War?” While a little taken aback, Lance had always known that there was something fishy about the history books and some of their explanations of how the battles were won.
“No, not all the way. Obviously our good men, women and children took care of most of it. However, there are a few stories that are not included in any history books, General. The reason is that it would be obvious that we should have had our asses handed to us by the British in a couple of very strategic and important battles. Somehow, against all expected results, we got a win in our column. What I’m telling you is that I have the original archives, and I assure you, we would not have pulled out of the dire circumstances, and would have lost according to all the simulations I’ve run. General, we had a 96.9% chance of speaking the Queen’s English if the family hadn’t been involved.”
“So why did they do it? Apparently, they aren’t revolutionaries.” This was if this contact could be believed, but it was starting to interest Lance who enjoyed history.
“That both is and isn’t true. They aren’t revolutionaries or colonials, however, they do fight Evil, sir, and if that didn’t come across the phone in appropriate importance, that is Evil with a capital ‘E.’”
“So they came to the colonies to do what, exactly?”
Frank started to warm up to his topic. While he wasn’t comfortable being around Michael or his family, he certainly appreciated what he and the family had done and still did for the country.
“This is how I understand it. They had been fighting against certain interests for a significant amount of time before we were a country.” Frank hedged his story, should he admit that Michael was the supreme patriarch? No, probably not. If Michael wanted the General to know, he would let him know. He was pretty particular about not throwing his role around. “One of the leaders of the family, they call them patriarchs, was following some pretty nasty characters when they bolted and stowed away on a ship sailing for the colonies.”
“He spent a couple of months tracking them down and tying up the business, and when he looked around, he had met and befriended a few of those who were already here. He liked that they were working to build a new society. Significantly more than he liked the royalty issues plaguing many of the European countries at the time. He sent letters to two of his trusted relatives explaining that he was going to stay to protect this land and then disappeared.”
“So how did his family get involved with the colonial war?” Lance was definitely interested now.
“Well, sir, this family member is well educated, very convincing and extremely wealthy.” Frank didn’t have to explain how that last part would have been very helpful to the war effort at that time. “Likewise, his family back in Europe, in this case France, had many influential friends at court, and he gave Benjamin Franklin a letter to pass on to Michael’s family. Believe it or not, it wasn’t all good ‘ol Benjamin’s exquisite tongue’ that got us the help from the French.”
“That’s not nearly enough to get them appreciated as much as you’re suggesting…” Frank cut him off.
“General, a significant percentage of the wealth for the war was supplied by the family, and it was used to get the necessary materials and favors to help make the revolution happen. Also, the contacts in Europe who shouldn’t have gotten involved did. People to this day are trying to figure out how that happened. Finally, there were certain battles that were going to be lost until the patriarch got involved.”
Lance heard the singular and wanted clarification, “Just how many of his clan were involved?”
“It’s family, sir, not clan. And there were no others. There was just one of the family over here at the time. In fact, he is personally responsible for going into one of the British camps at night… and by the time the sun came up the next morn
ing, not a single man was left alive. This was a fortified encampment, General. This was the larger part of a full battalion, somewhere around eight hundred, I believe. The only people shot had been hit by random firing from scared men in their own camp. Everyone else seemed to be cut apart by a knife or many knives.”
“Where did you research this information? I’ve never heard that story, and I’ve studied all the battles of the war.” Lance had often wondered about a couple of missing parts. He just figured the victor wrote the history books and hadn’t spent the time to research it further.
“Well, let’s just say that America has a set of history books, and then ANOTHER set of history books. One day, if everything works out, I’ll ask you to come to Washington to read some interesting volumes I have.” Frank didn’t expect that to happen, but if he could offer the General a carrot, what could it hurt?
“Fine, assuming I believe you, what now? I believe you said something about the present and the future?” Lance’s eyes were starting to squint again. He could feel a migraine coming on, and he just knew this wasn’t going to make him happy.
“Sir, I have a contact coming to see you. He should be there shortly, arriving by plane to give you more information. The rest of the explanation has to wait until then for security reasons.” Frank was feeling a little better. It at least looked like the General was going to let Carl meet with him. Hopefully, his meeting with his daughter didn’t derail the whole thing.
“Fine. I’ll meet with him at 18:00. Until then I have a base to run.”
“General, I very much appreciate your patience. Thank you.” With that, Lance heard the click of the receiver.
Putting his down on the cradle, he yelled, “Kevin, I need you in here!”
On the other end of the line, Frank sighed. This would have been so much easier and less stressful if Michael hadn’t had to be woken up.
The radar control tower was pretty quiet. This base, while they had flights in and out, wasn’t a major location for any Air Force activity. So, it could be hours between significant events.
‘Jimmy’ Chan, Technician 3rd Grade, was manning the radio when a pilot on the appropriate channel requested permission to land. He seemed to be flying a small personal business jet.
“Hold for permission, stay ten miles out.” Jimmy scratched his head. Although the pilot had the protocols, the flight wasn’t on the list. He decided to bump this up to the OIC.
“Sir!” he yelled, getting the attention of the officer in charge to come over to his station.
“What do you have, Jimmy?” Technical Sergeant Max Stripten looked over the readouts while Jimmy explained.
“Sir, we have a request to land from a civilian aircraft. They’re about eighty miles out, coming in very fast. They have the right channel and the right information, but it seems weird we weren’t notified.”
Max reached across and switched Jimmy’s windows over to show incoming aircraft. As he reached the right tab on the screen it was refreshed, and the aircraft was now shown as arriving in just a few minutes.
“Well, OK, looks like we have them. You’re right. That is flying pretty damn fast for something that isn’t one of ours. I wonder what they have? Hmmm, put them on runway three. It looks like they might need the room to slow down. Have them park over by Hangar Five and let’s receive them appropriately.” With that, Max stood up and was walking back to his desk when he got a phone call.
Leaning over his desk, he picked up the phone. “Sergeant Max Stripten speaking,” Max laid his pad and pencil down on his desk, not taking a seat just yet.
“OK, I understand, VIP status, one person coming off the plane, treat as foreign dignitary.” Max paused, apparently listening to more information, “Will do, Master Sergeant.” Max hung up the phone.
He raised his voice and shouted back to Jimmy, “Call off the special engagement. This flight is apparently VIP. Leave them on three but now switch them over to Hangar One.”
Hmmm, Jimmy thought, I wonder who’s so special they get Hangar One?
Using the keys to enter the room for Temporary Officers, Bethany Anne laid her suitcase down and stepped into the adjoining bathroom.
A couple of minutes later she stepped out and noticed the yellow message light on the phone blinking.
Picking up the phone, she rang the desk. “Bethany Anne Reynolds here, I have a message?” She knew she was a little short, but this whole situation just pissed her off.
First, she gets pulled of her case, her f’ing case that she had been closing in on for over four months.
Others? Others had worked on it and gotten nowhere, so she was handed it as a last ditch effort before it went into the archives as unsolvable.
Now, she was not only off the case, she was out of the loop and who knew what desk jockey they were going to give it to.
She narrowed her eyes. If they gave it to Tim, he would screw it up and the last thing she would see before she died was the bars in her cell after she choked his ass.
That would be right after she kneed him in the nuts. Since she was going to jail, she might as well get even for the lurid comments he’d made when no one else could hear him.
That thought caused her to smile a little.
She never bothered with H.R. for Tim’s obvious sexual issues. She figured one of these days she could coax him onto the mat at martial arts practice and then the accidental ass-kicking would be hard to argue. Plus, he wouldn’t want to be seen as whining that a girl beat him.
He really was a dick.
From the other side of the line, Bethany Anne heard a tinny voice that just grated on her last nerve. “Ma’am, I have a message from the General. He’s asked to meet at 18:30 instead of 15:30.”
Pausing, the operator wasn’t sure what else to say. Officer Reynolds was from another part of the service, even if a little clandestine, but she was the General’s daughter.
“Fine, I understand and thank you.” With that Bethany Anne hung up.
Huh, the operator thought. That went well.
4
Military Base, Colorado Mountains
Carl listened in to the conversations inside the radar tower. If they only knew, he thought, this plane actually is only at 60% power. It really wasn’t going all that fast. However, since business planes shouldn’t go past the speed of sound, they kept the speed down.
It wasn’t often that he used the family’s spying and hacking equipment when not supporting an operation. However, if this went bad? Well, then all the rest was going down the drain. So yeah, he decided he was going to make damn sure nobody was getting lazy down there.
Fortunately, Carl thought, Michael hadn’t come onboard with him and wasn’t at the base.
Yet.
The older gentleman was escorted into the General’s office by Sergeant McCoullagh, who supported the gentleman as he sat down. He had to be close to ninety, the sergeant thought.
So far, the General still had little in the way of hard facts about what was going on. He couldn’t get through to anyone high enough to give him any insight and the security clearance of his caller, Frank, was high enough to require someone next to the President.
There were always multiple ways to skin a cat and forewarned is forearmed.
“I appreciate you coming to see me, Mr. Swenson.” General Reynolds clasped his hands in front of him, looking at the elderly gentleman across the desk trying not to show a smile on his lips.
Mr. Swenson, thin and reedy, his voice a little breathless but still strong for his age replied, “Hah! Your little fetcher back here told me that if I refused his request, you would just reinstate me.”
“Well it’s within the purview of the U.S. Military to make that happen.”
The General smiled. Mr. Swenson was actually a pretty high-ranking officer in the operations side when he retired. When you retire, you can always be called back to active duty.
“Yeah, yeah. I understand you wanted to see me. What’s it about, Lance?” Tom wen
t way back with the General, they knew each other when he was getting ready to retire, and Lance was just starting his upward movement.
“It’s the damnedest thing. I’ve got a bunch of scientists all over my base looking into dark holes and old boxes trying to see what went on back in World War II. I think they hope to find some proof of UFO experiments taken from the Nazis. So, one of the grunts was down on Five when a klaxon started to sound.
“He searched out the noise and found a vault door opening with a note attached about some honor debt we owe somebody. I’ve had the records checked and you’re the only person who was here during that time who might have a goddamn clue what the hell is going on that I can bring here to discuss what happened.
“I’ve got spooks calling me with security clearances that go above the President and a note from the original base commander who piss all died about seven years ago and didn’t leave another note anywhere I can find.”
Tom was listening while trying to think back to those days. He was only twenty when he was here, his memory was a little spotty that far back. “When was this?”
“Sometime a few days before or after the bombs were dropped.” Lance pulled the envelope out from underneath a couple of reports that had buried it.
He tapped it on the desk in front of him, catching Tom’s attention.
“Is that it?”
Lance nodded his head affirmatively.
“What’s on the other side?” Lance turned the envelope around so Tom could see, without handing him the envelope.
Lance was looking right at Tom, so he caught the moment Tom’s squinting eyes focused on the phrase, ‘On your honor’.
Those squinting eyes suddenly got very, very big.
The visitor’s plane was taxiing to the area around Hangar One, designated as such because it was the closest to the base’s opening into the mountain.
Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set One: Books 1-7, Death Becomes Her, Queen Bitch, Love Lost, Bite This, Never Forsaken, Under My Heel, Kneel or Die (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets) Page 3