A Glint In Time (History and Time)
Page 9
"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, 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."
"Okay, Bill, you get on one side and I'll get on the other, we'll carry her out. Sally, you get their stuff." There were two small gym bags next to the couch. Ted put his hand on Sally's back as if to push her toward the bags. Then he moved his hand to the front left pocket of her pants. She felt something heavy slip into her pocket. "Push the switch all the way." Ted said.
Sally heard Ted and Bill arguing with Sonny Woo at the door.They were putting on an act -trying to figure out how to get Janet through the door while effectively blocking the door and diverting attention from Sally. She bent over the bags and slipped the cylinder out of her pocket. It was an inch in diameter and three inches long. There was a small slide switch that had four positions labeled "SAFE, 1 3 5" along the side. The bottom of the cylinder was flat and smooth. It was obviously a magnet. This thing had to be an explosive. Where could she put it for maximum effect?
She looked around and saw the power cables in the tray overhead. Those cables had to power the capacitor banks that fed the lasers James Woo used in his time machine.
She pushed the switch to the "5" mark and jumped for the tray. She wanted to put the cylinder right on a power lead, but she missed and it fell into the tray. "It will have to do." she thought. She grabbed the bags and ran for the door. Bill, Janet, and Ted had just passed through the door and one of the goons was staring at her.
Bill and Ted had Janet in a fireman's carry and they were smoothly negotiating the hallway. Sonny Woo walked silently in front of them and two of his men were behind them. They went up one flight of stairs and headed for the front doors. There was no one in sight. They went through the doors -still no one around. But then they saw that there was no one in the helicopter either. The pilots from the oil company were gone.
Ted raised the tiny microphone in his sleeve to his mouth and said, "We're out with all three civilians, but the pilots are gone. Fire in the hole in three. Anything for us?"
Margaret's voice came out of Ted's sleeve and Sally's bra, "One man walked up to the chopper and talked to the pilots. They climbed out and left on their own. They're walking down the road. Nobody touched the chopper. More is coming from NRO surveillance center."
Ted said, "Head for the chopper."
"They put a car at the end of the drive. One guy parked it and ran like hell. It's a setup. They want you to take the car. Probably booby-trapped."
"Bill, get Janet in the back cabin. Strap in. Sally get in the left seat up front."
Ted ran ahead to the right door of the helicopter, opened it, jumped in the seat, and turned on the master power switch and the fuel pump. It took Sally a second to figure out how to work the door latch, then she got into the left seat. She heard Bill and Sally getting into the open cabin behind the pilots' seats. Ted pressed the starter button and the Lycoming 53 engine spooled up the blades began turning overhead.
"There's activity around the building." Margaret reported.
"Light on the skids!" Ted said into his sleeve. Then he dropped his hand and pulled up on the collective. "Hold on!" he shouted toward the back seat.
"Men on the roof. Weapons visible. Team two, smoke and gas on the roof." Margaret's voice was barely audible over the helicopter engine.
"Sally, tell me what she's saying." Ted shouted.
Sally shoved her hand down the front of her shirt and pulled the small radio from the front of her bra. She held the small speaker next to her ear. At the same time, she saw two explosions, one whiter than the other appear on the roof. Then she heard Margaret say the word, "Stinger."
"Stinger! Stinger!" Sally shouted to Ted.
Ted pivoted the helicopter to face the building. The maneuver stopped their forward progress, but gave him a good view of the man standing waist deep in the smoke
and gas with a missile tube on his shoulder. The air was calm and the smoke, which was designed to be heavier than air so it hugged the ground, was spilling over the roof onto the ground. Ted drifted the helicopter to the left and bobbedthe nose upand down.There wasaflashfromthe backof the tube and Ted only had a millisecond to react. At full power he popped the helicopter up less than fifty feet.The missile flashed under the skids. Looking through the windows set low into the forward part of the helicopter, Sally felt like it went right between her legs.
"Deadly force!" Margaret said in her ear."Fragmentation.â€." but she stopped as the building was rocked by an explosion. Black and oily smoke rode the tip of red flames. The back part of the roof was gone and anyone on the roof was overcome or blocked by the hot black fumes.
"Tell Margaret to bug out." Ted said to Sally. The helicopter shuddered as he climbed and banked. Sally repeated the words into the radio.
"Margaret wants to know your intentions." Sally relayed. Then she thought, "I'll bet she does."
"Tell her I'm making for the embassy helipad. I'll be violating airspace left and right because I don't know any of the frequencies or have any clearances, but I know how to get there."
The trip to the embassy wasn't as exciting as the departure. Ted followed a main highway into the city and then cut across a high-rent residential area. He made a
gentle landing on the embassy helipad. They were met by US Marines in battle gear with M-16s pointed in their direction. "Easy Marines!" Ted shouted as the engine spooled down.
"We're friendlies." His words had absolutely no effect on the Marines. They were honoring the threat implied by an unauthorized and unexpected landing. Ted, Sally, Bill, and Janet spent a few minutes face down with arms and legs spread under the barrels of the Marines' weapons until the Military Attaché arrived. Ted thought that the Navy Captain took his time about telling the Marines to let them up, but then after a quick discussion on his walkie talkie, he was anxious to see them gone.
"The civilians are going to airport. There's a flight to Malaysia in about two hours and there are three tickets waiting. From there you're on your own.They want you the hell out of her right away! Captain, the ambassador wants a de-brief before you leave. I've sent some embassy Marines to meet your team outside the city. They'll pass them the right paperwork and take care of the weapons. You'll join up with them, we'll fly you commercially to Guam, and then you'll take military air back home from there. My Marine Captain can't wait to add your goodies to his arsenal."
Someone produced a wheelchair and Sally and Bill maneuvered Janet into it. The only thing anyone asked them was whether they had their passports. A Marine medic put an elastic bandage on Janet's ankle, gave her some pills, and then they were in an embassy car headed for the airport. It was evident that Bill was angry at
Janet and that Janet was a bundle of emotions, so they didn't try to speak in the car or
on the flight. Janet slept most of the way. They were met at the airport in Malaysia by two men who identified themselves as FBI agents. The younger agent took Bill and Sally into a private room in an airport lounge. The agent spent an hour telling them that they had been involved in a classified operation and hinting at all sorts of grave consequences if they ever mentioned it to anyone. It quickly became evident that he knew nothing about any aspect of the operation, but was giving them a briefing out of some manual.
Then Janet entered the room supported on the arm of the older agent. Janet stood between the agents at the door of the room and said, "Bill, I'm sorry that you feel betrayed. We didn't know if you were part of an international scheme to launder drug money or what. But my affection for you is genuine. My enthusiasm for your work is genuine. I want to thank you for refusing to leave me with the Woos. I'm sure you saved my life." With that, she and the older agent turned and closed the door behind them. The younger handed them two packages of plane tickets. The final destination was Atlanta and the first leg of the trip departed in an hour. He stayed with them until they boarded the plane.
EXPLANATION AND ADVICE
Tuesday, October 3, 1995
1000 Eastern
Ritz Carlton Buckhead Hotel Atlanta, GA
* * *
Excerpt from the Personal Narrative
of Brigadier General Ted Arthurs
Recorded May 2006
UNCLASSIFIED
"They were test shots done many months later. Proof of the concept, so to speak."
* * *
Sally was attending a seminar on communications planning at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in the trendy Buckhead section of Atlanta. She ducked out of a class on new telecommunications tariffs to check her voice mail. She had been back from Indonesia for a month and she was still trying to smooth the ruffled feathers of some of her clients. Her voice mail system told her that she had four messages. She hit the one button on the keypad to play the messages.