by Ed Nelson
Wanting to strike while the iron was hot, I head to the airfield to talk to Mr. McGarry to see if he would help me shop for an airplane. Silly me, of course he would, as a matter of fact we spent the rest of the day going from one aircraft dealer to another.
He knew everyone in the trade, or more accurately they knew and respected him. When he explained what we were looking for, I didn’t get any of those, ‘How can a kid like you do this’’ looks or questions.
The Cessna 310C is what I wanted to buy. Its six seats and 260hp and 155 mph made it the best going. The going rate of sixty thousand dollars seemed a bit much until you considered the alternatives.
The Piper Apache also has six seats and is a lot cheaper at thirty-six thousand. Its drawback is it has only 160hp or 135 mph. I had learned that going across country direct that 20 mph made for a lot less time in the air.
The biggest drawback to the Cessna was its maintenance costs, if earlier models are any indication. The aircraft hadn’t been out long enough to have a good base line. There was no question they would be much higher than the Piper.
The Beechcraft Travel Air was out of the question since it only held four with a fifth fold down jump seat. Its speed and cost were between the other two, but the extra passenger seat was important. I wanted the entire family to be able to fly comfortably; that is if they would let me fly them at all. Well at least Mary would let me drop her off at school.
I decided upon the Cessna. We had been to that dealership first and Beechcraft last so we went back to Cessna. I told them I wanted to order a 310C. I was ready to pull out my checkbook then and there, but Mr. McGarry jumped in. He had a bunch of questions, like how long to delivery, what choices in color schemes, wet or dry, scheduled maintenance cost at this dealership and a few more.
As they were answered I learned that wet or dry was with or without fuel and lubricants.
There were also a whole bunch of extras in the form of navigation aids and communication gear. I settled on British racing green as the base of the color scheme with my coat of arms on the pilot side door. Leather seats were a given.
I could see the dollars rolling up. Then Mr. McGarry rubbed his hands together and said, “Now the fun begins.” He negotiated the price. It would have been a total of sixty seven thousand dollars. He got them down to sixty two thousand and the first two years of normal maintenance. This was really good as anything else would be warranty unless I crashed it. If I did that I doubted the cost would be a worry. The aircraft was to be delivered wet.
I was disappointed to hear that the aircraft wouldn’t be delivered until late August next year. That really was okay because I wouldn’t have my private pilot’s license until after my birthday. I could take lessons on multi-engines but that was it.
Then the talk went to insurance. I thought this would never end.
Well I was right. It wasn’t going to end soon because now the salesman wanted to talk financing. Mr. McGarry told me that I should pay as much down as I could as the cost of financing could turn out as much as the cost of the aircraft.
That was one thing I could handle. Now I did pull out my checkbook, and knowing I could cover the whole amount, asked for the bottom line.
Even Mr. McGarry’s eyebrows went up at that. The salesman looked disappointed as though he was losing out on something. Later I found he was, a commission kickback from the bank.
Mr. McGarry kidded me as I dropped him off at his office.
“If I had known that you could write a check like that, I would have charged you more, and told my daughter to chase you.”
At least I think he was kidding.
I got home just in time for dinner. As we settled in Dad asked me.
“Well Rick, what sort of an airplane did you buy?”
How do parents always know these things?
Rather than get into that I described the Cessna. This got us into a family discussion of where we could fly locally. When Dad used the term locally I gave him a questioning look.
“Oh, Mum and I have an appointment next week at Boeing headquarters.”
That brought on another round of excitement, my own included. They all agreed my choice of colors and my coat of arms were brilliant. They would do the same, but use Mum’s coat of arms. It seemed just plain weird talking about using our own personal coat of arms as if everyone could do that.
The talk changed to everyone listing places they would like to go. When Buenos Aires was brought up I had sudden memories of an irate father. Well I would cross that bridge when I came to it. Thinking about it, I hoped I would never be in the position of some sex starved teenager chasing my daughter. Then it occurred to me that even worse I could have a sex starved teenage daughter. No wonder men wanted a son.
It was perfectly logical that I spent the rest of the evening studying my aircraft manuals. The dealer had some brochures on the Cessna, but not a complete manual. They had agreed to get me one as soon as possible. It would be a while before I received my aircraft as they were built to order and currently on almost a twelve month lead time.
While I wasn’t very physical today, I apparently was mentally tired as I dropped right off without reading anything.
Chapter 34
In the morning my nosey neighbors were waiting for me. Heh, I had to pull that on someone, my nosey NEIGHbors. I had a good run then did my exercises, sure to include the new sets for flexibility.
Tuesday’s tailing lessons were a repeat of yesterdays. There was another person added to the mix as a front tail. I spotted them early on but ignored both my tails until we passed the four picture points. Since downtown LA business district isn’t really that large I don’t think it was noticeable that we were passing the same points since most of the route was different than yesterdays.
The developed pictures told the tale. We decided to try something different on Wednesday. Home schooling was certainly working out well for my project, but I know the boys were ready to attend school again as they missed the social activities. Mum was brought into the discussion about what I wanted to do different and she enthusiastically approved.
After lunch at our favorite café Denny and I dropped off Mum at home, picked up Eddie and we headed to the beach for some surfing. Both boys were really getting into it. I had got them set up with all the gear they needed at Katin’s.
We had to hurry home and get cleaned up and dressed for dinner. Denny really enjoyed the dressing up, Eddie not so much. I think Denny would be what they used to call a Dandy, but now it was a Preppy.
After dinner I hit the school books. Well I spent my time doing the extra writing assignments at the end of my current chapters. I found that by doing these I developed a deeper understanding of what really happened, or what the basis of an experiment really was. I think the hardest thing for me to accept was how hard of men the founding fathers were.
In grade school it was practically St. George Washington, the real George Washington was a hard man in hard times. As I thought about it, under those conditions his choosing not to be a King was even more amazing. I mean he had the ‘off with their heads’ part down pat.
Later I read about the fireman Guy Montag and the Mechanical Hound. I just couldn’t picture people becoming so sensitive about the use of words that some of them would be banned and books burned.
It was getting to be normal for the horses to be watching for me. I still got the same, “Mornin,” from the cowhand. I returned it with, “Yep.” Two could play that game.
No tigers or chipmunks were about though I did see an evil looking squirrel.
Denny, Mum and I headed downtown for my daily lesson.
I deliberately did a poor evasion job so they were able to follow me to the parking garage. What they didn’t know was that Denny was tailing them after they passed the last picture taking point. They had never spotted him so they had no reason to suspect a kid at this point. He had a reversible jacket so he shouldn’t stand out. He carried a two-way radio along with his came
ra on a strap around his neck. It was a kid’s toy but it had enough range for our purpose.
Since they were done for the day by following me to my vehicle they returned to theirs. Denny followed them to where they parked two blocks over. He gave me a running commentary so I was there to pick him up as they exited the garage. I held back as far as I could. I wondered if I should buy a less noticeable car for events like this.
They were staying at a small motel not far from downtown. Denny got shots of them as they opened their adjoining room doors on the outside first floor. There was an outdoor pool in front of the building. They brought out food to prepare hamburgers on a grill next to the pool. It seems like they were on a small vacation. The group consisted of five young people, early twenties I guess and Mr. Robertson. They were all dressed for swimming, so we figured where they would be for most of the afternoon.
Denny and I returned home where he developed the pictures. They came out perfectly, the tailers had been tailed! Denny had a magnifying glass and was examining everyone in every picture.
“Hey Rick, look at this.”
He pointed out the same man in several pictures. He also had a camera. He was taking pictures but it was not of Denny or I, it was of the CIA trainees, at least I assumed they were trainees.
As we were wondering what to do with this information Mum joined us. She wanted to know how our back tailing worked out. She thought we had done a good job. When Denny pointed out the mystery man she got a thoughtful frown.
“Would you boys mind if I joined your party?”
“You are always welcome Mum,” enthused Denny.
I silently added, unless it is on a date.
We were in place at five o’clock and had to wait an hour for the CIA crew to go to dinner. It was a good thing we were in the housekeeper’s car which was a blue Chevy because the mystery man showed up five minutes later. When the CIA people left for dinner we followed the mystery man.
He took pictures of the CIA group and left after they went into the restaurant. We followed him as far back as we could. He drove to a park by the beach. Mum quickly set us up as a rotating tail. One of us would move up as the other dropped back. Denny and I had reversible jackets so we would turn them inside out when we switched.
It was just a walk in the park. He did stop and tie his shoe once, and then sat on a bench for a while. But all in all, it was nothing. Or so I thought.
When he returned to his car I thought we would follow him but Mum had other ideas.
She took us back to where he had tied his shoe. I could’ve kicked myself after Mum pointed out the chalk mark he had made on the base of the light pole that he had stopped at. This was right out of James Bond.
So I was not surprised when she told us the film of the CIA operatives was hidden on a ledge under the park bench he had stopped at. We scouted around and found a vantage point to watch the bench from, but saw nothing. Passersby had dwindled, so we checked for the film, it was still there.
After lunch we spent the afternoon with the horses. We didn’t try to ride them, we walked them around on a leader so they became used to us. I found out that last night Mary had disappeared from her room setting off a mild panic. It was only a mild panic since Mum went directly to the stable and found her sound asleep with Misty.
My evening was spent on homework. There is nothing like the exciting life of a movie star.
Thursday morning started as usual, other than Mary had actually slept in her bed last night.
Denny and Mum spent the next day watching that bench while I led the CIA on a chase around downtown LA. I used every trick I had been taught to identify and lose them. My best time all week was one hour.
In the mean-time we checked the bench later in the evening. The film had disappeared. Denny had been taking pictures of everyone who had stopped at that bench. When we reviewed them he actually had a shot of a man reaching down under the bench. He became our new target.
I redoubled my efforts trying to give the CIA a good workout, and the mystery man photo opportunities. At dinner, we talked about what was going on. Both Mum and Dad agreed that it was probably a foreign agent or freelancer taking pictures of the CIA trainees. Their covers would be blown before they ever went to work!
Eddie wanted to shoot the mystery men. Mary wondered if they could be turned. What was Mum teaching that kid?
I did more homework later in the evening; ho hum.
Friday afternoon the mystery man showed up again. There was no chalk mark indicating film waiting for him, so he walked on by. Mum and Denny tailed him back to the Soviet Consulate. That answered that question.
Now what to do with our information? Mum filled us in on a few realities of life.
The information rightfully should be turned over to the FBI as they were responsible for counter spy operations within the United States borders. They would do a good job, but also use it in their ongoing political war for funding and authority. J. Edgar Hoover hated the CIA with a purple passion according to Dad.
We could turn it over to Mums old; or maybe not so old group. It would be a similar issue they would use it for leverage and favors with the CIA. We decided to avoid the politics and give it to the CIA. It was their operatives that were compromised.
The question then became who in the CIA to turn it over to. I came down in favor of Mr. Droller who had debriefed me on Cuba. He apparently had a high position in the agency and wasn’t directly mixed up in this mess. Mum and Dad agreed but also wanted to back channel Ike that the CIA had a problem. Not all the details but enough that he could keep them honest.
The last thing we wanted was to have young agents known to the enemy before they even went to work. The group that had their pictures taken would never be going into the field. They were deskbound and would never know why.
I never really heard how it all came out, but there was an article in the paper about someone at the Soviet Consulate being declared persona non grata. There was also another story about a spy trade at checkpoint Charlie, one of theirs for one of ours. I had no idea if these were the people we had identified.
What really puzzled me was how Mum gave homeschooling credit to Denny for counter-espionage. Well okay it was for his photography but we all knew what it was really for. When I asked if I would get any credit, she murmured something about standing in the shadows.
Chapter 35
After lunch I drove over to the studio. I was there to view the team presentations that I had been invited to earlier. They were slick, but more important to me, they were really working as teams. There were no radical new proposals on how to structure their business as they had with the ‘extra board’ concept. However everything they presented was cross functional. Finance was sensitive to the needs of production, and production actually considered the costs of what they were proposing and how they could control them.
What I really found strange was that the various team leaders and presenters kept looking to me as if seeking my approval. I had no problem keeping a positive look on my face as they were performing Boy Scout teaming 101. From my business transactions I know that at the boy level it’s pretty elementary, but at the adult level it was burdened by adult gamesmanship as the adults jockeyed for power and position. They had appeared to find a happy medium of cooperation so they all won a little.
Now I’m not that naïve. I know that the boys and adults all did their normal scheming behind the scenes, but they did not let it show on the surface as in the troop they were all being role models for each other. Here the adults were showing they were members of the team, peer pressure is what I think they called it. It was the same for professional athletics, I knew they were normal people, so had their problems, but you never saw them in the newspaper. It was a silent collusion between the players, the teams, and the media to show their best face to the world. You would never see a story about a former player whose picture had been on a Wheaties box being in trouble.
At the end of the presentations I s
tood and started a one man slow clap. The smiles in the room were incredible since they had done all the work. I gave a half bow and said, “My work here is done.” After that I left without getting involved with any follow up conversation. It was their moment in the sun to enjoy. On my way out of the room I passed two writers. One had written down in large letters my statement of ‘My work here is done.’ The other was saying we could use that in… I didn’t hear the rest of his idea of where to use it.
When I left the room there was Mr. Monroe waiting for me. He wanted to know how they were doing and would he be pleased with the results. I assured him that his team was doing very well and that he would be pleased with their presentation. He thanked me profusely.
As I walked away I was bemused with how I was fitting into this world. The man who should be a God in my Universe was thanking me!
I had dinner with my agent Mr. Baxter at the Brown Derby; it was our standard meeting place. There was nothing specific on the horizon after my Hawaiian surfing movie. It was more of a catch up and what type of movies would you like to do in the future. I told him I was open to anything that didn’t have me in a water trough. That brought a deep laugh from him. My adventures with water troughs were gaining international notoriety. He asked if he could share that thought. I told him to discuss it with Susan Wallace of how and when to use it, but I was down with it.
Mr. Baxter’s family was doing well. He made a point of again thanking me for my efforts in seeing he got the money needed for the medical bills. It was a little strange realizing this older man felt like he owed me big time. I had to think about this, along with the group earlier in the day. I was beginning to affect people’s lives and had better keep my head straight. Now how was I to do that, I wouldn’t be sixteen until Sunday!
Mr. Sinatra caught me as we were leaving. He wanted to know if I was open to another duet. I said sure, I would be glad to help his fading career. He looked like he was going to deck me, but I couldn’t keep a straight face so he ended up taking it in good part. I’m glad because if he had taken a swing it would have ended up bad for both of us; me for the publicity and him for his health.
