"No, General, sir. I can assure you that isn't the case. The people who seized control of the resort don't even know who the President of America is, let alone anybody in his family."
"Sally," Dr Mitchell shouted at Sally, demanding her attention. "Ask him where the medicine is? People are dying here. We need more doctors too, medical supplies, and tents to set up a field hospital. We can put them up on the tennis courts..."
"What's he saying?" the General asked, acknowledging that Sally had been talking to the doctor.
"I'm sorry," she replied. "...but Doctor Mitchell is demanding that you drop us medicine, supplies,...we've been expecting them! We also need..."
"The medicine is sitting in a helicopter on the ground, waiting for my instructions to take off." The General interrupted her. "But before we continue, give me an update on the terrorist situation. How many are there, who is the leader, and where are they hiding?"
"General, honestly, they are not terrorists. They are, believe it or not - but preferably just believe it - actual, real pirates from the year 1699 who have somehow been shifted through time and space, from then till now."
"Miss Davis, please do not believe such..."
"Rubbish? It's not rubbish General Kemp. But we can discuss that later, the important thing is that the siege or hostage crisis is almost over. I've talked with the Captain of the pirates and he agreed that he and all his men would lay down their weapons and surrender..."
"And have they?" General Dwight Kelp asked.
"They will, so long as three conditions are met."
"Which are?"
Sally repeated the conditions.
The General thought for a moment.
"As long as their ship is not carrying any weapons or anything illegal, then I believe we can agree to those terms. However, let's not kid ourselves here. They have broken the law and they will be arrested and sent to trial. I suggest though, that you don't mention this to them just now."
Sally was silent for a moment, as if she wanted to say something else, but then thought better of it. Instead she said: "The ship has cannons on board which are aimed at the resort, and they have other forms of weapons that were used by pirates in the year 1699."
"Weapons from the year 1699? Then obviously they will not be allowed to keep them. Go back to the Captain and tell him they must give up their weapons. All of them."
"But they will be allowed to keep the other contents of the ship? They will only have to give up the weapons?"
"Yes."
"Do you need to get the Governor to agree as well, or do you have the authority to agree to these two terms?"
"I will mention it to the Governor, but he will agree with me."
"When?"
"Miss Davis? Whose side are you on? Are you negotiating for us or for them?"
"This is my resort, I am responsible for the lives of my residents and everyone here, and I have been negotiating with the pirates and their leader. I do not want to make a promise now and then have them become angry and kill people later on, because they find out that we lied to them now!"
"Miss Davis, the most important thing for now is to get them to lay down their arms, so that we can start fighting the bigger enemy: the plague. The lives of the pirates are not important in the big scope of things!"
"And our lives? Are they important in the big scope of things?"
The General knew that any hesitation in answering would be dangerous.
"Absolutely. Particularly since the President's nephew is among the captives."
However both of them knew that the truth was very different.
"So, why was the medicine not sent already? People are dying here!"
"Simply because I instructed the helicopter to wait until I gave it permission to fly. My intention was to use the medicine as a bargaining chip with which to force the terrorists to surrender. But it seems that you are one step ahead of the game. If you can get the terrorist leader's word that they will surrender, I will authorize the medicine and the flow of help and support to arrive within minutes."
"Hold on the line, I will talk to the terrorist leader now - incidentally his name is Captain Rob McGregor."
Sally put the phone down on the ground, and walked a few feet back to the Captain.
"The man I am speaking with agrees to your terms, but has one condition of his own. He is the General of the Army and he insists that you lay down your arms, and that includes all the cannons and the weapons on the ship."
"And what are we to do with the cannons? Push them into the water?"
"I don't know. Too much detail. Just agree. And as soon as you do, he will authorize the immediate supply of medicine and doctors. He was holding the medicine back to strengthen his ability to bargain with you."
"Richard Tyler is dying. Mr Roberts is dying. Others are already dead. Many more will die. We need your medicine now. The General has a good strategy. Tell him I agree, AS LONG as he agrees to the rest of my terms."
"He does."
"And the Governor of the Island?"
Sally was afraid he would ask this.
"Not yet. He needs to speak first with the Governor."
"Tell him to do it now. Tell him to arrange for the Governor to speak directly with me. As soon as I hear the Governor himself tell me that he agrees to my terms, then I will order for the remainder of my men to give up their weapons. Miss Sally, I have already trusted you and taken the arms from almost all of my men. I have already allowed you to take back control of your guests, and I have already instructed my men to follow your orders and hide themselves in private cells that you have allocated to them. I have put a lot of faith in you Miss Sally. Please do not disappoint me... I would not wish to discover that you have lied to me. May I remind you that I still have all the cannon on my ships trained on your palace?"
The smile slipped from Sally's face, and she became deadly serious.
"When I give my word, I keep it. I promised you that I will help you. Do not think that I do not understand how much faith you have placed in me by agreeing to do what you have done already. But realistically, we both know that you have little choice. For now you maintain the position of strength because of the men you have left who are still armed and the cannon which are still aimed at the resort. The ship does not pose an ongoing threat to anyone because the flying metal birds can destroy them in a second, as you well know. But that is not the point. I promised to help you and I will not disappoint you Captain McGregor. We have placed mutual trust in each other. Let me now speak with the General..."
Captain Rob watched as Sally had an obviously heated exchange with the voice in the little green box. For a few minutes she did not speak. Then once again she was speaking to someone in the box, and she then she walked over to the Captain.
"Captain Rob, please take. You put this bit to your mouth, and this bit to your ear. You will hear a voice. It is the Governor of this island. He wishes to speak with you. You can say anything you want to him by speaking just as you normally do. The Governor will hear you."
The Captain took the contraption from Sally, putting it gingerly against his ear for a second, before immediately pulling it away and looking at it again, inspecting it more closely. Taking his hat off and tucking it under his arm, he then replaced the strange device against the side of his head, and almost nervously said, "Hello?" into the green box.
Immediately a voice replied. "Hello? Is this Captain Robert McGregor?"
The voice was so loud and so clear, it startled the Captain, who immediately dropped the phone out of his hand and let it fall to the ground, jumping back away from it.
Sally laughed.
She stepped forward, picked up the army-phone, said something quickly into it, and then held it gently against the Captain's head. "Speak again," she said.
"Hello? This is I, Captain Rob McGregor of the Sea Dancer. Am I speaking with 'The Governor', King of this Island?"
"Yes, you are. I am Alberto Rodriguez, the most senior official in Puerto Ri
co. I understand that you will surrender to me, if I agree to your terms, as stated by Miss Davis, and that you also agree to surrendering all your weapons, including those on your pirate Ship?"
"I do. So long as you treat us with your best medicine, save our lives, allow us to keep all our possessions on the ship, and grant us free passage to leave this place when we are all well again and fit enough to sail."
"Then I agree to your terms, and I look forward to meeting you Captain McGregor. Miss Davis has spoken highly of your willingness to resolve this situation as swiftly as possible, and has pointed out in no uncertain terms that it was yourself who took the first steps in reducing the tension in the resort, and took that first step of faith in negotiating a resolution to this siege. She has also stressed that your circumstances are unique, and that in all our responses we must consider that your men are as scared as the residents within the resort, and that we should remember that they have just accidentally traveled three hundred and fifteen years into the future where everything is different and unfamiliar to your men."
"Thank you. Do you give me your word, Mr Governor, that you agree to my terms?"
"I do."
"Then I hereby give you my surrender, Mr Governor. I place my cutlass at your disposal. I shall hand it to Miss Sally in a few moments. Now, will you send the medicine?"
"They are already on their way. Captain Rob, within the next ten minutes an army will arrive by helicopter in the Blue Emerald Bay. Do not be alarmed. They are not there to fight you. They are there to fight the plague."
"I thank you, Sir."
"And you too."
Captain Rob gave the green box back to Sally.
And then he bent down, lifted up his cutlass and held it forward in his two outstretched hands, ceremoniously offering it to her in surrender.
The hostage crisis at the Blue Emerald Bay Resort was over.
Chapter 31
Dunn's Rivers Falls
Jamaica
1:00 p.m.
Colonel Patterson stepped down out of the helicopter and brushed himself down. The back of the helicopter was filthy. It needed a good clean. Standards here were obviously a lot lower than in his unit.
Their guide was waiting for them a few feet away, and as the rotor blades of the helicopter began to slow down, the young police officer rushed forward, came to attention and saluted.
"Colonel Patterson, my name is Winston Jones. I've been asked to help guide you around the island, wherever you may like to go. I was brought up on the island and know it well, sir."
"Good afternoon Corporal Jones," the Colonel replied, noting the two chevrons on the Corporal's right sleeve. Thank you for taking the time out from your duties today to assist me."
"I understand that you wish to see the Dunn's River Falls, particularly the area around the top of the Falls?"
"You are correct. How far is it from here?"
"We are in a field less than a mile away, above the Falls. From here we shall walk down through the forest until we come to the Falls. It will only take us twenty-five minutes. Will you want to swim or climb the Falls today, sir?"
"Not today, Corporal. I'm here on official business. Please lead on."
The Colonel and his assistant, a photographer from his laboratory who held the rank of Sergeant, followed the Corporal along the edge of the field, and then onto a small, windy path that led them quickly deep into the trees.
"Sir, may I ask if you are looking for anything in particular? The Sergeant at the station suggested that you are here to find something that was important in an investigation that you are conducting."
"That is also correct. Although I do not know what it is exactly that I am looking for. You see, I am looking for a message that was left for future generations by a woman who died long ago. I was told that I might find something at the top of the Falls on the right hand side, not far from the water's edge."
"And how long ago did this woman die?"
"I do not know. The clue we are looking for forms part of a mystery that remains unsolved. We are hoping that if we find the message, it will give us the final crucial clue that we are looking for. I am sorry Corporal Jones, but I really cannot be more specific than that. Even what I have told you so far is highly confidential. You must not repeat it to anyone."
The young Corporal agreed, although he felt that the Colonel had said precious little which would be worth telling anyone else anyway.
Ten minutes later they started to hear the unmistakable sound of a waterfall: the rhythmic cascading of water as it tumbled and fell over the edges of the falls and bounced repeatedly off a long ladder of rocks until it eventually ran into a pool of cool water at the base, before carrying on to the sea in the famous Dunn's River.
Sadly the sound of hundreds of tourists climbing up and down the falls destroyed the tranquility of the moment. Embarrassingly most of the screaming and raised voices came with an American accent.
The map that the Colonel was carrying did not give much detail. When Professor Derek Martin had drawn it, he had claimed that it would show quite clearly the place where he had told Kate Schwartz that he loved her for the first time, but now the Colonel was beginning to have second thoughts. Looking at it now, it was rough, ready and most likely very inaccurate. Was this going to turn out to be a wild goose chase?
A few minutes later they emerged at the top of the falls, the tourists lining up on the lip where the river cascaded over the edge, waiting for their turn to enjoy the descent down, climbing in and out of the rocks and sliding down the waterfall wherever possible.
"We're on the wrong side!" he called out to Winston, who was several yards in front. "We need to cross over to the other side."
Winston nodded.
He led them to a point several yards further along from the top of the waterfall. From here it was possible to step across the river, jumping from rock to rock, until you got to the other side.
Once on the other bank, the Colonel looked at his little map, surveyed the area around the top of the waterfall, and set off by himself into the patch of woods immediately to the right of the top of the waterfall.
A few yards in, away from the river, the undergrowth quickly became denser and waist high. There were no tourists here, although he could still hear the sound of their voices, and it looked as if no one ever ventured over to this part of the wood.
Which, the Colonel realised, was why Derek had probably ended up here with Kate. What they got up to here, the Colonel did not want to imagine, but in his mind's eye he could now easily see the attraction of the area: once you lay down on the ground, the fauna quickly swallowed you up and no one around could see you.
"What we are looking for will be somewhere around here," the Colonel announced. "Since it has to be long-lasting, I think that it will have to be made of stone. Large enough to contain a message. Let's split up. Shout if you find anything."
For the next ninety minutes they walked backwards and forwards over the area, pushing the undergrowth aside and probing the ground with their feet, kicking aside dirt, or pushing over accumulations of moss and bark, looking everywhere for a stone or tablet, something...anything...on which a message from the past could have been left.
The Colonel was growing tired and increasingly frustrated. The searches they had initiated in all the other corners of the world had come back negative. There were no messages found at any of the other pre-arranged 'message points.' This was their last hope.
It was looking increasingly likely that either Kate had not been able to make it to a message point, or that she had been transported into the future and not the past, … or that she had simply been killed while trying to land the plane, or parachute out of it with her crew.
Or perhaps there was another possibility. Maybe she had been transported back to the past, but when she arrived wherever she had gone to, perhaps her body was simply no longer capable of supporting life: transporting a jigsaw puzzle made up of molecules of matter through space an
d time was one problem, but transporting them so that when they arrived the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle still made up the same picture, was another matter entirely. The human body is such an intricate machine that if the molecules that made Kate up were even slightly re-arranged during transit, it could easily have killed her.
Perhaps it was just stupidity to assume that it would ever be possible to transport matter through time and space, and reconstruct it in exactly the same way at the other end. Wherever that 'other end' was.
The Colonel looked at his watch.
It had now been two hours.
He was hot, hungry, thirsty, fed up and dirty.
It was just then that Winston shouted out aloud: "Is this what you are looking for, Colonel, sir?"
--------------------
The Colonel and the photographer hurried over to join Corporal Jones, who had wandered off quite far, found something and then started back to fetch the Colonel. He waved at them to follow him, and then walked back through the trees. They caught up with him on the edge of a large clearing in the woods, an old metal fence encircling an overgrown graveyard.
There were about forty headstones in the graveyard, dotted around a small, rundown church. An overgrown path led down from the door of the church to an iron gate, which had a large padlock on it.
They walked around the fence to the gate. The padlock was old and rusted, fused together with age, with no obvious way of opening it.
The fence, although tall, was soon easily scaled with the help of the Sergeant who helped the Colonel jump over it, landing quite clumsily on to the other side.
"I've lived near here all my life, Colonel sir, but I never even knew this was here!"
"You've no idea what it is? Apart from obviously being a graveyard, I mean."
"A family plot, probably. From the colonial days. It's old, and disused. But which family, I have no idea."
"Let's take a look then," the Colonel said. "Sergeant, can you help Corporal Jones over too?"
TIME SHIP (Book Two) - A Time Travel Romantic Adventure Page 8
