AFatBoyisMissing

by A Fat Boy Is Missing (v1. 0) (lit)

  Yet that was what was outside the community of Clearview. Now the army had not broadcast anything remotely related to nuclear weapons, either regarding storage or handling or any other association, but the rumours in the town covered all possibilities including germ warfare, UFO remains and special weapons. The military base was like many others spread throughout the States. It had miles of fencing. The barbed wire contract alone allowed for healthy year-end bonuses. Brush was cleared and shrubs removed to help expose anyone who wanted to sneak into the site.

  Security included military police (MP) at the gates, sentinel dogs and 24-hour monitoring. There were also barracks and buildings where the cafeteria was housed. Officer's quarters were separate and their choice and quality of food was significantly better than that served in the enlisted men's dining room.

  Other buildings housed maintenance bays where repairs on the motor vehicles were scheduled. There was also another larger single story building that had more MPs guarding it. Inside, the first floor was filled with conventional goods, and boxes of supplies. It seemed rather excessive to have 5-man patrols doing their rounds 24-hours a day to guard quantities of toilet paper.

  It would have been a gross misuse of federal funding if that was the highlight of what was in the main building.

  A truck sounded its horn and the security guard inspected the identification of the driver and the two passengers. The manifest was also examined and compared to the one on the clipboard under daily orders.

  The 10-ton truck engaged its lowest gear and it was waved into an internal section that had its own gate and door. Clearly displayed was the sign 'No Entry Without Proper Permits.'

  The truck again carefully rumbled forward. Whether the driver was just being careful or he had a heavy load could not be determined since everything was hidden within the closed cargo hold. A soldier pushed a button and the sound of gears being engaged was the first sign of the real reason for this building. The floor fell away and a ramp that led down into the bowels of the earth presented itself.

  The driver had seen this operation before, but it always amazed him because it came as a complete surprise. He released his brake and drove down the ramp into an area that few people even knew existed. This area held many of the nuclear weapons of the U.S. military might.

  It was the same as other nuclear storage sites. This one happened to be in New Mexico. Trucks came and went. Bombs from the classified manufacturing sites were being distributed to bases around the world. The U.S. was getting ready for war.

  The state of international affairs between the NATO powers and the Soviet block had not improved. The differences in their ideologies were so vast that it interfered with logic and good reasoning. War was an inevitable fact.

  This threat of war had no timetable. No bombers or fighter crews were scrambling to address the challenge from the Red Bear. But in the plotting rooms and in the minds of military planners everything was falling into place.

  The U.S. and their allies had a distinct advantage over the Soviets. Their bombs were bigger, better, more reliable and could wipe out a city in seconds. Their defence was thought to be able to stop any assault whether from air, land or sea. Keeping this advantage was actually the best way to prevent a war. That's why all the weapons sites were more strictly watched than Fort Knox. No one hiccupped without a form being filled out in triplicate. So everything was kept safe.

  With the influx of new equipment and new personnel it wasn't unusual or unknown for a crate to be put in a place where it hadn't been assigned. That's what Sergeant Thomas thought when he had an order to take Crate 1056AT-69 from this site for transport to Frankfurt, Germany. That type of order was commonplace, a daily event.

  But Crate No 1056AT-69 was not where it was expected to be.

  "Damn it, I wish people would be more careful," Sergeant Thomas said, as he cursed. "Jesus. That's all I need is a missing bomb!"

  He hadn't really meant missing. It was more of a slip of the tongue than an actual declaration. 'Missing' should have been 'Misplaced'.

  For the next two hours he and his crew searched through the crates for that box. But it wasn't there. Now that was

  startling. He had the manifest of what was here and what had been moved over the last month and Crate No. 1056AT-69 was not on it.

  "This is going to cause me headaches. OK. Uncover and verify every box, crate or sack. Check it against the bill of lading and what our official records say. Any box where the numbers have been covered with other notices, or painted over need to be opened. Crate No. 1056AT-69 has to be here somewhere! It hasn't been moved. Or if it has then we have a real problem."

  His team was still at it well past the end of the shift. No longer was there good natured ribbing between the personnel. They were just too tired and too fed up for that. Each minute that ticked by only intensified the worry in the Sergeant's face.

  Later in the evening the duty clerk knocked on Major Steinsen's door.

  "Excuse me, sir. There is a Sergeant Thomas from Weapons Storage who has requested to meet with you."

  "God, it's nearly 8 p.m. I'm due at the officer's mess dinner. Tell him to come back tomorrow."

  The clerk disappeared and from the outside a voice demanded in a loud cry that he had to see the Major.

  The major felt rather than knew something was about to prevent him or at least delay him from sitting down to dinner at the officer's monthly mess dinner.

  "It's alright Corporal, send in Sergeant Thomas."

  "OK soldier, what do you mean by storming in here and demanding to see me without so much as "by your leave?"

  "Sir, I'm sorry if I seem excited, but it's for a good reason. I'm the first sergeant in charge of weapons storage in the classified security zone"

  "Yes, sergeant, I am aware of what you do and what your responsibilities are. Now cut to the chase. I'm late for dinner as it is."

  "Sir, we have lost something!"

  "Jesus son, are you here to tell me you have lost some requisitioned orders! Can't this wait until tomorrow and then be taken through the normal route?"

  "No sir, it can't! You see we have lost an atomic weapon!"

  When the full effect of the sergeant's words dawned on the officer his face went ghostly white. "But this can't be! Surely, you have just screwed up on your records. Tell me."

  The Sergeant shook his head. "No Sir, I already went down that path and I verified and re-verified and did everything to find it except for digging up the whole base. No, we have misplaced our number one atomic weapon. It's gone. It's not on the base. A FAT-BOY is missing"

  Major Steinsen missed his dinner. By nine in the morning he had missed his breakfast as well. Their most powerful and top secret weapon was out there somewhere. Whether it had been taken by accident in a screw up with a requisition form or a dyslexic clerk interchanged the numbers and it was shipped to God knows where, the bottom line was a weapon that kept the Americans superior to the Russians was no longer under their control. It might yet be in a distant warehouse waiting for a supply clerk to open up a crate that was supposed to hold sanitary pads and find it contained a 50-megaton bomb, or something far more damaging and sinister had happened. The realization that this bomb might

  have been spirited away by Soviet operators was still so terrifying he had difficulty in putting words around it. If that had happened then the threat of war had risen one more notch.

  "Corporal, get me the Commanding Officer!" he said, as he looked at the calendar. Soon the geese would be going south from northern Canada. Soon the other escapees from the arctic north would come south to find the warmth and heat to spend the winter away from snow and ice. But he didn't feel warm. He felt so cold that his spine was like an icicle. If he moved he knew that he might be paralyzed for life.

  The crate that was labeled with the correct stencil was found in a used lumberyard, 30 miles away. Crate No. 1056AT-69 was empty. It had been taken apart and piled with other discarded lumber. It was only through luck
that someone noticed it. Now its contents might be anywhere. It might be left to explode in any of the major cities or it could already be in a research establishment in Siberia having its innards removed, studied and copied. This was no longer a secret that could be confined to the military base outside Clearview, New Mexico. Its ramifications were now a part of the daily discussions in the White House and the Joint Chiefs of Staff brainstorming sessions.

  No one had an answer, but something had to be done.

  * * *

  Flight 2075 from Alaska was scheduled to do a bombing run against San Francisco on its way to Dallas, Texas.

  It had taken a great deal of effort to both acquire Crate No. 1056AT-69 and to have the contents shipped to Alaska. Months of planning and choosing the right plane were all part of the equation. But with ingenuity, and careful use of bribes and blackmail it had been done. The clever ploy of removing two crew the night before the fateful flight had accomplished three things. It allowed the mastermind to put two members of the right persuasion on board and it also increased the chances of success. It wouldn't be that hard to persuade the pilot and the co-pilot to divert and fly northwest. Killing a crew member or even one of the pilots could be done to add the necessary element of realism if necessary. But any plan has always a good alternative and that's why a Soviet submarine had carefully entered Canadian waters and held itself ready at the northern tip of Vancouver Island. The contingency plan was to have the plane crash on the water and careen up against a sandy beach that was ideal for an extraction operation. The crew could be forced to hit the silk and if any of the remaining crew had an unfortunate accident and were killed then it would only add to the validation of a crisis in the air. The best part of the plan was the addition of the second bomb. The information inserted in the flight orders included the use of an equivalent weight in sand that was to be placed like a bomb in the other bomb bay. The orders clearly indicated that the crate contained sand. No one thought it was unusual or required further investigation. Orders were orders and having two bomb equivalents on board would approach combat conditions. It was these conditions that the American fliers practiced day in and day out, as the clock ticked down to the time when the operation would go from theoretical to real life.

  * * *

  Arthur Dorchet looked out of his dining room window and saw the snow. He couldn't say he was surprised, but it did worry him. Up there about 40 miles into the interior his son and a lady were probably just starting back. If the snow was a foot deep here is might be worse there.

  It was no use just worrying he'd check with Jim, his other crewman and see if they could raise a response on the radio. That damned radio wasn't very reliable but at least on a good day it worked. But determining good days from bad was the problem. If they couldn't get some sort of response then it wouldn't be that difficult to get the skidoos out. With snow on the ground it shouldn't take much time to buzz into the interior and give those two a welcome respite from the drudgery of hiking back home. A blanket of snow reduced the chance of discovering something about Sarah's father. Even if the land was still bare that chance was remote at best. He couldn't help feeling sorry for the girl. She was a well-respected archaeologist who had made a name for herself, according to his son, in the discovery of a Roman link to North America well before any other European had dreamt of a strange land across the ocean.

  He pulled on his down jacket and headed into town. Jim would be happy to come now that his family crisis had eased from last week. It was strange how things could change in a moment. Life was like the weather; nothing was predictable.

  The backfire and cloud of smoke heralded the ignition of Jim's skidoo. Then with a thermos of scalding coffee in a backpack, they headed up the trail that two days before Jake and Sarah had taken. With luck they might meet the twosome in four or maybe five hours.

  Sarah didn't remember getting undressed and going to bed, but obviously she had. Her PJs kept her warm, but there was something else that was doing that job. Jake lay with his body folded around hers, as they shared the same sleeping bag. She wasn't shocked nor was she disturbed. Last night was like living through a nightmare and all she remembered, as the explosions of anguish and fears cascading around her, yet the soft and gentle caress of Jake as he tried to ally her fears cleared the last tendrils of the nightmare away.

  There he was in an undershirt and jockey shorts sound asleep with his arms still enfolding her, protecting her.

  She stirred and noticed that the tent was partially collapsed. Snow was filling up the crack between the door flap and the tent floor. So the storm had arrived. The world was white, covering everything and making everything pristine. Snow always had that ability of changing one's perspective and making you feel that the world was actually a clean place. From the discovery of her father's parachute harness and the hours between dusk and dawn she had been so troubled that she couldn't appreciate the beauty of this wild land. She looked at Jake, a man who had the ability to make her angry and to make her laugh within seconds. He also had the ability to make her feel protected and safe when she was within his arms. She must have given him a lot of worry last night.

  She grinned and as she thought that she had actually slept with this man. Not in the conventional understanding of sleeping with a member of the oppose sex, but actually sleeping entwined in each other's arms. She realized that the thought didn't trouble her in the least and she found herself reaching up and brushing a curl of Jake's hair out of his slumbering eyes.

  A flicker of the eyelids and then another movement confirmed that he was making the transition from comfortably asleep to being awake.

  "Hello, I hope you are feeling a little better?" were his first words.

  "Yes, thank you. You made me realize that what happened 20 years ago and what it all means is beyond my control. I think you should have gone into medicine. Your bedside manner is exemplary. Did you change me into my PJs?"

  "No, you did that yourself. But you were so worried last night that the only way I could make you relax was to hold you. That wasn't something I found difficult and holding you while you slept gave me a lot to think about. It's funny, but feeling you breathing against me, feeling your breasts touching my chest well if dreams were possible I don't think I would have traded my position with anyone. Having your head on my chest and feeling you relax against me was wonderful."

  As Sarah stretched Jake saw the partly collapsed tent and started to move from the shared sleeping bag.

  "I'm afraid we are in for a miserable day. I hope the snow has stopped!"

  It took him a few minutes to undo the flap of the tent and push the snow back to let him crawl out into the winter wonderland. The snow was close to two feet in depth.

  "Sarah, you had better get dressed. The longer we stay here the greater the danger. I didn't think the snow would be this heavy."

  Sarah came out fully dressed and bundled for the weather.

  "Wow, it's like a fairyland."

  Jake looked at her and then smiled grimly. "Yeah, it is beautiful, but we aren't prepared to handle this heavy snow. It's beautiful, but it is also deadly."

  Sarah turned and looked at Jake then she walked over to him and put her arms around him and kissed him forcefully on the lips.

  When Jake regained his breath and regained his sense of balance he said. "Now what made you do that?"

  Sarah's face started to go crimson. "Oh, I just wanted you to know that I felt safe and protected in your arms last night. I know you might not have had much sleep with your careful efforts to keep me secure. That's why I kissed you. I wanted you to know that I'm not immune to your bedside manner."

  Jake broke trail as best he could and Sarah followed placing her boots in each of Jake's footsteps. The trail was long and straight and was put down with the use of limited energy resources. Breaking trail was hard because each step required careful placement without knowing if you were stepping on rocks, or edges or holes.

  "Jake, you should let me do
that for a while. I didn't really understand why you were so concerned with the storm clouds last night. I'm not use to having this much snow being dumped over such a short time."

  Jake stopped and let Sarah exchange places. They had made nearly 8 miles, but it had taken them three times longer than their hike in. The snow had lessened, but it was still building up and each inch added to their difficulty.

  "I wish I could get the radio to work. Maybe we are in a dead zone because I can't raise my father or anyone else. If we could then they would know that we are alive. Damp, tired and cold, but alive."

  "With all this snow could they send out a snowmobile party and rescue us?" she suggested.

  "Now that's a good idea. I hope my dad thinks of it. He knows where we were heading. But for all we know it hasn't snowed back home. Sometimes the storms are local up here. But from the dark gray colour in the clouds I think it's more than a local storm. If we can get him on the radio then we can ask for rescue. Up ahead the trail starts to rise before sloping towards the coast. That will be our best chance to use the radio. That damned thing can make one curse when it takes into its mind not to work."

  Sarah knew the Jake was tired. He had only had a few hours of sleep because of his concern over her. He was a strange man and she found that she was thinking about the kiss she had initiated. She could feel his surprise again and then the beginning of passion. That showed her that Jake had a storm inside him and she was on the verge of releasing its fury. But with that kiss she had discovered something else too. She had discovered not only that Jake had a hidden side, but that she too had a side that she had been too fearful to explore. That kiss had at least unlocked the door to her heart. Before she had always ensured that it was locked tight and no one had the combination.

  By the time they had reached the top of the hill it was obvious that the depth of snow was increasing.

  "Sarah, this land has a way to take the wind out of anyone's sails. You can never become blasé about the capabilities of Mother Nature. I think we should take a break here while I try and get this GD radio working."