“Alright Oria, I can tell you’re developing a strategy. Do you care to share it with me?”
“Sure. Let’s disable their tracking and COM systems. Also, let’s create a small stealth shield around Karen’s car. I’ll get her to drive faster and slip through any speed traps. Just make sure no matter what devices they use to measure speed that they don’t work. Our tail will have fun trying to keep up with us. When we get through Salisbury, have the stealth shield also block visible light for about 5 minutes. That should catch the hot-shot Captain’s attention.”
“Aye, you sure have a devious mind Oria. Anything else I can do for you?”
“No, I think that will do for now.”
Oria returned to the car ready for dinner and an interesting remainder of the trip. When he climbed back into the car, Karen drove them to the McDonald’s just down the road on the right. They drove through the drive-thru and continued back out to 50 East.
Once the Porsche left Cambridge, the traffic cleared enough for Karen to get up to 80MPH again. Oria watched Karen as she again focused intensely on her driving.
“Karen, how fast can this car go?”
“It’s pretty fast. I’m told it can get up to 160MPH but I’ve only taken to about 120MPH.”
“What’s that feel like?”
“What, you want me to go faster?”
“Sure, you have that detector.”
“Yes, but they have laser detectors and helicopters. There’s no way that I can stop in time to avoid detection.”
“What if I told you that I have a device in my bag which will foil their stuff?”
“Yeah right and my car has stealth technology. What kind of a device? Are you sure?”
“Really, this device will work. Take it up to 120 or 130, unless you can’t handle that speed on this road?”
“I can handle the speed. Look, I could lose my job if I am caught speeding that fast. That would be the final blow on this crappy day that I’ve had so far.”
“You won’t get caught. Besides, I’m sure Bronson is more interested in me than firing you from your job for speeding.”
“You know General Bronson?” Oria’s last comment surprised Karen. She wasn’t sure what he knew about her official involvement. Then she had a sinking feeling in her stomach, what if Oria was just playing her and not really interested in her. How could she have allowed herself to get so emotionally involved? Question after question rolled through her head.
“I don’t know him. Look, I didn’t mean to cause you distress. If circumstances were different, I’d tell you more.”
“Oria, who are you and what do you want? This is not fair. You have to be able to tell me something!” Karen’s knuckles turned white as she gripped the steering wheel while arguing with Oria. She tried to concentrate on her driving.
“Karen, I really want to, the stakes are too high and I don’t want to compromise your position in the Air Force.”
“What do you mean ‘compromise me’?” Karen felt a surge of anger. Was Oria manipulating her? Was she not already too involved and in over her head?
“The timing’s not right. My intention is to help the United States; you’ll have to trust me.”
“Trust you?” asked Karen as she let off the accelerator a bit. “So your interest in me is purely professional?”
“Karen, my interest in you started out as a personal interest. It’s just coincidence our professional lives overlap. I am falling in love with you. As it is, I probably have unwisely told you too much.”
The car was slowing down as Karen was processing what Oria told her. “Oria, I have to confess too, I’ve fallen in love with you too! “Ohmigosh, the car is bugged.”
Oria chuckled “Yes, I know. Don’t worry about it though. I’ve blocked all outbound transmissions.”
“You what? So, that’s why they told me they couldn’t hear anything. What else have you done, Oria?”
Oria laughed at Karen’s outburst. “Don’t worry Karen, you won’t get into trouble. Go ahead and accelerate to 120 or 130MPH.”
“What? You still want me to speed? Oria, if cops pull me over for speeding, you’re walking the rest of the way.”
“Karen, trust me! Go ahead, and let’s see how fast this baby can go. Besides, I know you’re dying to show off your superior driving skills, Miss Pilot!”
Karen and Oria shared a laugh as she pressed hard on the accelerator with the Porsche quickly accelerating to 130MPH. The landscape flew by as Karen occasionally had to switch lanes to get around slower traffic.
Martello’s two agents were tailing Karen’s Porsche in a standard issue government sedan. When Karen accelerated to 130MPH, they attempted to follow her. The driver, Sergeant Dan Smith, attempted to keep up. The sedan shuddered as it hit 90MPH. Dan grumbled as he tried to nurse even more out of his sluggish car in a vain effort to keep up with Karen. He looked at Sergeant Susan Jenkins seated next to him.
“I don’t know what’s got into the Major. She knows we’re following in a slower sedan. She must be going way over 100MPH.”
“I don’t know Dan. I do know that Captain Jerk will have us for lunch if we lose her.”
At that moment, Karen spotted a speed trap. It was too late for her to slow down. She swore softly under her breath as she shot straight through and the cops didn’t even notice her. Sergeants Smith and Jenkins tailing from behind weren’t so lucky. The State Police immediately took off after them.
Smith eased his car over to the shoulder and off the road where he waited for the state trooper to approach his window. The officer barked at him:
“Do you have any idea how fast you were going?”
Smith pulled out his military Police Id and showed it to the officer. “Yes sir, we are following a Porsche that just slipped by here traveling much faster than us.”
“Is that so? We’ve gotten a reading on every car that has passed here in the last hour and did not see any high speed Porsches.”
“You must have!” stammered Dan, “They couldn’t have been more than a minute in front of us.”
“Sorry, you’ll have to come up with a better excuse than that. By the way, those military Id’s; they don’t have any jurisdiction here. I’m going to have to ask you to slow down.”
A military helicopter landing directly behind the two cars interrupted the conversation. Martello jumped out fuming. He had just radioed mission control of their predicament and kept his communication device on. He yelled out to the trooper “What’s going on here? Officer, this is a matter of national emergency. I need to get my people headed back down the road.”
“Is that a fact?” asked the trooper. He walked over to Martello not liking the tone of Martello’s voice. The trooper started to get agitated. He radioed for backup. “Look, I don’t know who you people think you are, but you’re in the State of Maryland and you don’t have jurisdiction here nor permission to drive like morons on our roads.”
Martello locked eyes with the trooper. “Officer, radio your dispatcher and see what they say. Right now, I’m ordering my agents to continue their trip. Don’t even think of getting in their way. Am I clear?”
“Yeah you’re clear.” Give someone a badge and they think they rule the world thought the trooper. He then walked back to his cruiser and picked up the radio. As he got hold of the dispatcher, the sedan with Smith and Jenkins pulled out. He was on the radio only a few minutes when he returned to Martello.
“Captain, as you said, your agents are free to go.” The trooper returned to his car enraged that the military could get away with blatant transgressions of Maryland’s laws.
Karen was getting close to Easton and was beginning to slow down for the trip through the city. Even if she wanted to, it was impossible to maintain a high speed. She looked at Oria as they pulled into town and said, “That was fun. I can’t believe those cops didn’t come after us. It’s as if they didn’t even see us.”
Oria smiled back as he repositioned himself in his seat. “May
be they didn’t see us, but I think our tail had a different experience.”
Karen’s face then went pale. She just remembered that Martello’s people were driving a much slower sedan. There was no way that they would have been able to keep up with her Porsche.
“Oria, you knew they wouldn’t be able to follow. You scum bag. I’ll probably get in trouble for that.”
“Probably, but I think you will survive.”
“Those guys will never catch up with me now. Are they able to track us?”
“Nope, at least not with their GPS system.”
“Oh no! Bronson is going to kill me! Oria, I hope you know what you’re doing, because I’m certainly clueless. Man, I gotta chill out awhile, let’s stop and get some soft ice cream.”
Karen pulled the car in the Easton Dairy Queen. She got out of the car with Oria and headed to the Lady’s room. She knew she had to call and check in. Oria, of course, would know, but then he appeared to be several steps ahead of them anyway.
She called Colonel Johnson at the command center.
“Hello Colonel, I’m checking in.”
“Major, that was quite a show you put on. I hear you’ve been a bit heavy on the gas.”
“Oria was egging me on to go faster and I gave in to him.”
“Come on Major, you’ll need a better story than that. I know Martello is a pain to deal with.”
“Yes he is. I can’t believe he attached all these electronic gizmos to my personal car without my permission.”
“Yes, he should have spoken to you first. It appears that those electronic gizmos aren’t working anyway.”
“What? You mean you can’t track us?” Karen was aghast. She stood in the bathroom threading the fingers of her right hand through her hair. She knew that she was in big trouble.
“That’s right. The two sergeants attempting to tail, well Maryland’s finest pulled them over after running through the speed trap that you managed to dodge. It seems the cops never saw your car. What’s even more interesting, after Martello landed his chopper and talked with the police, all of his sophisticated communications devices stopped working! Do you know anything about this?”
“All I know is Oria did say he was on some sort of mission to help the United States.”
“Some help. He’s compromised our latest secure communications devices and tracking equipment. The Army will not be pleased to hear that a stranger was able to completely neutralize their latest electronics.”
“I guess not. Well, I have to get going. I’ll continue to work on getting more information out of Oria. So far he hasn’t told me anything that we don’t already know.”
Karen caught up with Oria at one of the outside picnic tables. He had already picked up a cone for her and was well into eating his own. Karen smiled and indicated that they should start heading back down the road. They returned to the car and took off. They cleared Easton in minutes and again faced open road. The next big town was Salisbury. Traveling anywhere from 50-130MPH it took less than half an hour to reach it.
On the other side of Salisbury, it was a short stretch to Ocean City. Martello was watching her progress from above in his helicopter. He was still mad at Karen’s reckless speeding and of having to hassle with the State Police. He had hoped to keep their efforts more discreet. As he watched Karen driving below, he clocked her again at almost 130MPH. All of a sudden, the Porsche disappeared. Martello mumbled under his breath “What?”
Martello fumed at having to report to the Colonel that he again lost Karen. He figured she was trying to pull one over on him. Martello had the chopper fly low and made sure Karen was not hiding under any overpasses. He could not locate here anywhere. He just completed his conversation with the Colonel, when Karen’s car mysteriously reappeared traveling close to the speed limit. There had been nothing but empty road, and then all of a sudden, the car reappeared.
Martello began to suspect more than a prank by Karen was happening. It had to be Oria. Martello wondered what technological marvels Oria commanded to evade speed traps, visual contact, and to neutralize some of the most sophisticated electronics in the U.S. arsenal. The most baffling part was Oria’s apparent willingness to share his technological marvels with the world. What was his angle?
Karen finally arrived at the Condo she and her friends had rented on 90th street. It felt good to reach there. She and Oria walked into the building taking the elevator to the 12th floor. They walked a short distance down the hallway to their room. Karen threw open the door hoping to see her friends there. The room was empty. On the kitchen table sat a note. Her friends said to meet her around 9:30PM outside of a popular boardwalk bar. It was now almost 8:30. They didn’t have much time to get down there. Just barely enough time to walk out on the balcony and take in the panoramic view of the ocean.
The condo had only two bedrooms. Her friends had already monopolized one of them. That left only the second bedroom with a queen size bed. She looked at Oria and smiled “Just throw your stuff in here. We can figure out where everyone sleeps later. Let’s get downstairs and take the bus to the boardwalk.”
Karen and Oria headed out of the room, down the elevator, and out to Ocean Highway. They only had to wait several minutes before one of the Ocean City Municipal buses showed up. They were lucky and able to get two seats next to each other on the bus. It took almost half an hour for them to reach 6th Street, close to the designated meeting place.
Oria and Karen walked up to the boardwalk. He took her hand in his as they approached a row of benches facing the ocean. Oria gently squeezed her hand and began speaking “This is really peaceful. I can remember as a boy coming to the Ocean. I could just sit and watch it for hours. Its power still captivates me.”
“I know what you mean. Look, we don’t have much time before meeting up with my friends. Why don’t you wait here while I go find them? They’re supposed to be near that bar over there, the Purple Moose.”
Oria saw that Karen felt too rushed to be able to stop and enjoy the view. He replied “Ok. Feel free to have a drink with them or whatever. I can watch the ocean for hours. I’ll be here or out on the beach.”
“If you want to join me in looking for them, that’s ok too. I didn’t want to sound like I was trying to dump you or something.”
Oria laughed. “It’s perfectly fine. It’ll be faster if you look for them alone and besides, I’m sure you have some catching up to do.”
“Alright, are you sure?”
“Yes go. I’ll be fine.”
Karen took off to find her friends. It didn’t take long. Captain Bob Jackson and Major Jack Peterson were standing outside of the bar as obnoxious as usual. Karen could tell that they had already downed a few beers.
Bob noticed Karen first and yelled out “Hey babe, why don’t you come over here and give me a hug.”
Jack joined in “Yes, how about giving me one too.”
Karen laughed and gave each of them a big hug. She was always happy to be with them. “Wow, I sure miss you hunks. So what’s new with you guys?”
Jack laughed “New? Other than that new flight simulator, not much! I hear you’re the one that’s got something new going on. Henley told us all about your new love.”
“What do you mean new love? He’s a target, that’s all. At any rate, I needed to bring someone else along that would be on my side, someone that could even up the odds in dealing with you two goons.”
Bob laughed as he grabbed Karen’s hand and said, “Come on, let’s check out the new flight simulator. It’s like some sort of starfighter.”
“Sounds fun, let’s get Oria to join us first.”
“You mean that guy over there with a crowd around him.”
Karen glanced back towards Oria, sure enough; there were several men deeply involved in a conversation with him. He did tell her to feel free to take a few minutes to catch up on things with her friends. However, she still felt uncomfortable inviting him to the ocean and then abandoning him. “Ok, sure, only for
a short time though.”
Karen and her friends headed down the boardwalk. Meanwhile, Peter and Hoss managed to catch up with Oria on the boardwalk.
“Peter, Hoss, it’s good to see you guys again.”
Hoss shaking his head replied “Yup. That was some trip you took getting here!”
“Why, were we going too fast for you?”
“Yup. The cops detained the morons following you. It wasn’t until an Air Force chopper landed and some hotshot with a uniform got out and argued with the cops that they let them go.”
Peter added, “Also, we heard from one of our connections that the troopers claim they did not see your car. The military folks were ticked when they heard that.”
Oria laughed, “I thought our little speeding trick would catch their attention.”
As the three men started to sit and face the ocean, a young woman caught Peter’s attention. She made some comment about his armband. Peter started up a short conversation with the young woman. In a very short time, Peter began introducing the woman to Hoss and Oria.
“Hoss, Oria, this is Cindy. Says she’s got some sort of business idea for us.”
Hoss chuckled “Probably one of them pyramid things.”
“I don’t know, she seems like a nice person, we should listen to her. How about you Oria?”
Oria looked a bit puzzled. “I’ll listen until Karen returns, although, I’ll be upfront, this is not a good time for me to start any business venture.”
Peter just barked at both Hoss and Oria “Just park your butts and listen to what she has to say. This ain’t ‘bout no business venture! I said she’s a cute young thing. So just park your butts and listen up!”
Oria and Hoss looked at each other and simultaneously sat down on the bench close to the boardwalk facing the ocean with Peter and Cindy close in tow. They knew an order when they heard one.
Cindy felt nervous as she eyed the three men facing her on the beach. In her job, she had no qualms neither speaking business with men nor directing their actions. This was different. She had only gotten started in this business venture a few weeks ago. The one fellow was good-looking and the other two looked like throwbacks to the “Woodstock” days.
Legend of Oria 1: Initial Contact Page 16