"Yes, I guess I could do that, but you had better drop in and say hello. You owe me that much. Oh, your investment
portfolio is doing very nicely and when the general pushes me out the door I'm be secure in my old age."
"Hell Betty that old buzzard will never push you out the door. He couldn't survive without you!"
A click indicted that she had ignored that remark, but she'd have liked it just the same.
"General Forest here. What can I do for you?"
"General, it's Jake Dorchet. I'd like a few minutes of your time if it's possible. Could I come see you this afternoon?"
"Well, you old beggar, Jake, it's been too long. Sure, I'll get Betty to check my schedule!"
Betty had been listening on the line, "you are free from
3:30 to 5:15 today!" "Where would I be without you, girl? Great! Did you hear that Jake? Be on time. We have things to talk about too!" Jake arrived on time and Betty's face brightened when
he walked into her office.
"Betty, you're getting younger all the time!"
"Jake, you always did have a touch of the blarney.
Thanks for those kind words. I'm not blind and I know a good lie when I hear it, but thanks just the same."
"Is the General free?"
"Yes, he told me to tell you to go right in. You do look younger. Maybe the B.C. air has done you some good!"
He started towards the General's door and then stopped. He hadn't told Betty that he was living in B.C. Then he continued. Betty could find out where anyone was at any time. It was nice to know that she cared enough to check on him.
"Sit down and take a load off your feet. If I remember correctly your poison was a Whiskey Sour!"
"That would be fine. To tell you that truth I've not had one for nearly three years. I can hardly wait."
"Well, what bring you back in town? From what I heard you swore off the Big Apple for life."
"Yes, I did, but I'm only here for a short visit. I have no intention of staying longer than is absolutely necessary. I need a favour. Something happened years ago and it needs some explanation. Right now those answers are probably where no mortal soul has a chance to see them. That's why I need someone more elevated to find the answers."
"Jake, don't try and bullshit me! What are you asking?"
"Well, it seems that there was a plane crash in my part of the woods in 1950 when the cold war was getting a little too hot. I want to have a look at the official and unofficial reports on what was found and what wasn't found."
"Jesus Christ son! That crash was a Broken Arrow and nobody talks about that sort of stuff."
So the General had bitten. He hadn't told him what part of the woods Jake was talking about but the General had missed that, or he knew it didn't matter. He could trust Jake.
"That was more than 20 years ago. Why in God's name do you want to know about that?"
"It's very simple. I happen to be in love with the daughter of a man who was on board that flight and has never been found!"
That evening Jake phoned his other contact. He recognized the husky voice and could visualize Belinda in her robes. Whether she was expecting some one else or not, her voiced changed, as soon as he identified himself.
"Jake, land's sake it's being years! Don't tell me you are in the city and need my services?"
He smiled as her deep voice and ample lung capacity broke into a very satisfying laugh.
"Yes, actually I do need your service. Is there a chance we could meet?"
"Hell boy, you can come over tomorrow after 5 p.m. I'm taking the night off, but for you I'll make an exception."
Mabel this is not that sort of call, although I undoubtedly would be tempted. I need your brain more than anything else."
Jake, now that's about the nicest compliment a good looking man has paid me in years. Sure you can pick my brains and who knows, I might get you to do other things as well!" Her laugh continued as the line went dead.
Between his two contacts maybe some information could be gleaned from the files that were never released to anyone outside the President's circle and military intelligence. He knew by the way the General had reacted that he had already touched a raw nerve. So, he'd wait and see what the next few days would bring.
Belinda was no fool and she had always tried to get him into her bed. Maybe her lack of success enhanced his value in her eyes. She was a very attractive lady and no wonder she had other unofficial ways to find out what was happening on Capitol Hill or in the State Legislature.
He still remembered her attractive laugh and then he turned off the light and tried to sleep.
The next evening he was ushered into Belinda's mansion. For a lady who had been as poor as a church mouse she had done well. Her parents were good Christian people, but were on the wrong side of the tracks that seemed to delight in separating the middle class from the very poor. So he had to hand it to Belinda Morning, she had come a long way. She had many a politician eating out of her hand. But that was an age-old battle between man and woman. Men vied for the right to taste the secret pleasures of a very attractive woman. Women knew that, men knew that and forever it would be the way of the sexes. Society honoured wealth and it honoured beauty. It was just nice to see where wealth usually was in the hands of the men; the other sex achieved wealth and still maintain their beauty.
"Jake, whatever you have been doing since you ran away from here has done you good. Heck, the last time I saw you the lines under your eyes were like railroad tracks. That old flame I understand is now a proud mother of twins. What have you heard from her?"
Jake's face hardened and Belinda understood the message.
"Well, don't listen to the ravings of a nosy woman. Now before I try to seduce you, what can I do for you?"
The way she purred made Jake forget the previous remark. He knew that he was in the presence of an expert who could make any man feel important.
"I want you to look back in your memories and those diaries you keep and see if you can remember anything to do with an incident when a bomber was lost in British Columbia in 1950. I know that suggests that you go back a long way although looking at you anyone would be calling me a liar, but that bomber was one of the first Broken Arrows, one of
the first bombers that was lost in peacetime carrying atomic weapons."
Belinda got to her feet and poured herself a drink and then she poured one for Jake.
"Jake, it's a good thing that we are friends. Yes, I was just experiencing the newness of being someone's mistress and I discovered how much leverage a woman has using her charms and having a sex starved man panting to explore her assets. This request goes back a few years. Why are you asking?"
Belinda was no fool. She could read the minds of most men with ease. Women were more difficult because women were always in competition whether openly or indirectly. And as the wise knew the female was the deadlier of the sexes.
"You asked about Jenny Fortescue. Well, I didn't know she had twins and, well, good for her. I left New York in rather a hurry. Part of it was the realization that being a stockbroker was something that I just couldn't stand anymore. The other reason was that this woman was jus t interested in me for what I could provide, what my image as a successful stock broker with a thick client case book could mean in her society and in bragging rights. But as for the reason for my coming here tonight other than seeing a friend again, well, I've met someone who I am very attracted to. She has a ghost in her history and that ghost needs to be exorcized. Her father was on board that bomber when it went down and no one has told her or her mother the truth. So I promised that I'd find out what the truth was."
Belinda's face opened in a wide smile. "Jake, so you have finally been bitten for real. Forget that Fortescue woman, she wasn't good enough for you. I could have told you that back then! So who is this woman? I may be able to help you, but as you know, I need to know the details. I'm always interested in learning new techniques and if some lady had stolen your hea
rt when I couldn't made a dent in it, then I'd like to learn more about her."
So Jake sipped his drink and told one of the most attractive women in New York about another lady who made a living by digging up ancient garbage.
* * *
Arthur Dorchet sat and looked out his window. The winter had come in earnest and so he watched as the snow fell and blanketed the earth. Jake had now been gone for four days. Why he had to rush off to New York was a mystery. But that mystery he felt had something to do with Sarah Redbourne. He still laughed at some of the things she said. He enjoyed her company.
Anyone who made a point of ordering his breakfast of French toast three times was in his view a fine example of a person with good taste. He had seen how Jake and Sarah looked at each other. Whether something happened to them on their journey back into the interior to look at the remains or partial remains of the old bomber might have had something to do with Jake's decision to fly back east.
Sarah had gone too, just a few hours before Jake. She was heading back to her world of early man and her search for man's history in North America. She was a fine specimen of a woman. She seemed to brighten up a room whenever she entered. If Jake were smart he'd go after her. Why did he have to go to New York? To go back to where his life had been nearly destroyed was an example of poor judgment, Arthur thought. But he couldn't complain really. Jake had made his new business profitable. He had looked at the account books and if this past year was any indication of what the future was to bring, then he'd be able to retire whenever he wanted. It was nice to have a large enough nest egg that the government and all their schemes of extracting the most dollars from the hard working middle class wouldn't do him much damage.
He hoped that Sarah would come back in the spring. He knew that she had a ghost in her past and that ghost was the reason she had come here in the first place. The only thing Jake said was that they had found a parachute harness before the snow forced them to retreat. It seemed that the army and the squad of investigators had missed that. But had that helped or hindered Sarah's need for finding peace of mind? He didn't know and when he tried to get Jake to tell him some of the details of their expedition he clammed up. But then again when Jake was mulling over something he always kept it whirling around inside his head until he was satisfied. Then he'd share what he could. It had always been like that since he was a boy and at nearly 29 he doubted that Jake's modus operandi would change just because his father was interested in the well being of a very attractive woman who spend her time digging holes in the ground.
The more Arthur thought of the worries the young woman had about her father and his ill-fated flight the more something tugged as his memory. Back then he and his wife had moved into this house with their infant boy and had begun a good life here in a pristine environment. Back then he hadn't really paid much attention to world politics. Things that happened here in his own little world were more important. He did remember the story about a missing plane, but even then there was no huge outcry. It was a military plane and it had crashed somewhere. The reports of the survivors indicated that it must have crashed in the sea because no remains were found on land. When they were found it, it was years later. But in all the hullabaloo something about the threat of the Russians had hit home to many on the West Coast. It was here that was closest to those ungrateful allies that had been saved from Hitler by the sweat of the West with all the ships filled with supplies. All those ships that survived the hell of the Murmansk run. It was there that he had learned what fear was really like. Back then he was a radio operator on a Canadian frigate. They called those small ships frigates, but in reality it was a cheaply constructed single screw vessel that was wet and damp and tossed in anything more that a sea the size of a teacup. It was here when only a youth that he had seen ships on his left and right exploded in the night and sink within minutes. But no one stopped. Everyone knew that to stop was inviting a torpedo and a torpedo means certain death. If it wasn't from skulking submarines, U-boats that hunted in wolf packs, it was the German air force with their Stuka long range bombers or the Heinkel bombers that came in waves with their poisoned presents of death. Oh, he had good cause to remember. Anyone who lived the horror of the Murmansk runs bringing supplies to the starving Russians couldn't help but wonder what had become of all their efforts to save a country falling to the might of the Nazi power.
So in the back of his mind another memory was slowly pulled from the deepest recesses and dusted off. There was something about an incident with a Russian submarine that had caused an international hiccup back in 1950. One of the Canadian destroyers had found a submarine within the 12mile territorial waters and a sea tragedy had only just been averted.
The excuse was the Soviet submarine had been damaged in a storm at sea and had lost its way. But anyone wise to the sea knew it was a feeble excuse at best. Why was a Soviet submarine standing off the northern tip of Vancouver Island? He had always wondered if the Soviets visited the coast often. Could this one incident be the one time they had been caught?
The destroyer had cornered the sub without enough sea room to turn around and had threatened to blow it out of the water. Anyone who had lived through a depth charge attack could appreciate that a submarine on the surface without any depth of water to submerge would be easily destroyed.
But the men back in Ottawa had accepted Captain Alexus Kromanskia's excuse and had permitted the submarine to leave. Those men in their ivory towers, folks without any experience in the cauldron of war didn't even permit Canadian sailors to go down to investigate what sort of cargo the sub might have had. For all they knew the Soviets were stealing Western technology. Now when Sarah had told him about the contents of her father's plane, maybe the Soviet sub was not at the northern tip of Vancouver Island without a good purpose. Maybe its purpose was to retrieve the jettisoned atomic bomb.
He suddenly knew he had hit the proverbial nail on the head. What a simple and elegant plan! Someone had planned the destruction of an American bomber. It didn't take a rocket scientist to point a finger at the guilty party. The Soviets were up to their eyeballs in achieving the goal of stealing an atomic bomb. Maybe they had succeeded in spiriting a bomb right out from under the noses of the military brass. Yes, it couldn't have been anything else. He wondered if they had actually pulled it off? This poor girl who was raised without a father had a mystery that had international ramifications.
Hell, nothing could be changed, but at least if the official story was available Sarah Redbourne would know the truth. Maybe then she could finally put the ghost that was still in the family closet to rest for all time.
* * *
Marcus and Scripio listened to the news that Tiberius and Venus brought them. At first they were skeptical, but Tiberius convinced them. They excitedly told everyone about how Venus made a gift of her necklace and how Tiberius's dagger had made a difference in how the natives treated them.
"They feared us because we were strangers. How would you feel if some strange race of people suddenly arrived on your land? Wouldn't you react the same way?"
"Tiberius and Venus, what you have done may be our salvation. It is hard to live with eyes in the back of your head. We are few and they are many and if they just took their time it wouldn't be that difficult to thin our ranks one by one.
"Now the tide has turned. Let's hope it is not a false promise.
Come. We must tell Augusta and Octavia. They too have worries and fears. But this is good news."
The following day a large party of natives came to the place where Venus and Tiberius had first met the family.
Marcus and his small group were waiting. He approached the chief without any weapon and bowed in respect to the leader of the native band.
"Come and take supper with us," he said, as he made signs of eating and drinking and then he pointed back to where their fort was standing.
The chief looked at the stranger and looked back towards his own band. He said something and then shook his hea
d in the negative. He pointed back towards the hill and made the same signs that Marcus had made with respect to eating and drinking.
Now this was the test and Marcus knew that it all depended on that moment and what his decision would be. He had to give the native an indication of trust. Surely, they wouldn't be waiting to wipe them out once and for all.
He bowed and then called his wife's name. She too knew what a chance they were taking. But they had no choice. This decision had to be made. It was time to throw off their fears and their old ways. Here life was different and they had to adapt to this new land and these people.
She came shyly at first and then with more determination.
Marcus greeted her with a smile and a look of understanding in his eyes. Then he turned and introduced her to the native chief. It was apparent to both sides, that this act of faith broke the tension.
A woman in the native group came forward in response to her husband's call. She too was timid and the chief introduced her to them as Marcus had done moments before.
Octavia put her hands out and offered her hand to this woman who was near her own age. Together they walked up the beach and the group of strangers mixed and the fear that was at one stage palpable, was now gone.
Chapter Eleven - The Archaeological Site
Sarah climbed down the ladder and took her place in the hole. Her team had done a fair amount of work. She had looked at the artifacts that had been discovered. Each was carefully documented, measured, photographed and added to the site history.
So far she had discovered that this place was once a small village within a day's walk of the sea. Maybe the village was not as large as some places she had observed, but its history was the earliest she had encountered. The report on the carbon14 dating had just been received from the laboratory back in Baltimore. And with it she had all the proof she needed. Four samples had been sent. Four different artifacts in addition to a series of bone including animal as well as human remains had been sent and tested. The dates discovered all fell within forty years. This site was the earliest found in Mexico and was dated between 300 and 380 AD.
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