Timelines

by Bob Blink

  “She is supposed to leave tomorrow.” I finally got around to answering John’s question. “I talked with her earlier. She thinks about a week uptime. If she doesn’t put in enough of an appearance, it would appear suspicious up then.”

  “We need someone else established up there,” John insisted. This had become clearer to everyone of late. It was an oversight that would be difficult to correct over the near term. But he was correct. The tools Carol brought from that era were too important. She was a single point, and was often stretched too far trying to fill our needs alone.

  “Who?” was all I could ask. That was the problem we had to resolve. With everyone oversubscribed at the moment, it would continue to be neglected until it became a real problem.

  He shrugged, and signaled he was headed back to the lab. Maybe today would be the needed breakthrough.

  Chapter 24

  Thursday, 6 July 2006

  Seattle, Washington

  Carol was due back from uptime tomorrow sometime, but plans called for her to go directly to downtime base rather than return here. Naiya had plans to remain at the base for at least another ten days. That would mean more than three weeks total that she would be gone. She was crucial to the efforts we had on going in setting up the Roman era base, having come from that time. Dave was working with her and had plans to go into the area for an extended stay after this phase of the planning was complete. I missed her and had made the decision of heading down later in the day. Nothing that was happening here really required my constant presence. If something important developed they could contact us easily enough downtime. We would all be at the base, not wandering off away from the time complex tunnel. I still wondered if we shouldn’t move the whole effort to the base anyway. In any event, if I were to get there by tomorrow, it would allow the three of us to coordinate status while we were all in the same place. I suspected it would probably also be wise to check on our captive agent and see how he was doing as well. I didn’t want another situation where I neglected someone for a year. Progress with the language definition continued to be slow and my time had been spent mostly taking care of the necessary tasks to keep things moving in other areas.

  Carol and I had mostly backed out of the day-to-day consulting tasks for now, leaving them in the capable hands of our Vice President Mark, who was actually on a hiring spree. Business continued to grow, and the successful bid by Aero had resulted in a need for a half dozen new people. A couple of other companies we worked with regularly had requested additional help as well. Some of the official hiring was timed well to cover our special support personnel we had working the alien language. I still had a small role on the Aero project even though I had closed up my office last Friday when we got word they had won the contract. I made a note to finish up the questions that had come in and get them back to the president later in the day. I had made him wait too often of late with all the jumping around between time periods, and if I planned to skip out again for a few days I owed it to him to get the answers completed before leaving.

  I made a note to remind John that the new computers and software he had been waiting for should be arriving tomorrow. Carol would leave them in the center, and would arrange for the courier to bring them into the office. He should be prepared for the special delivery approach we used for off time deliveries such as this. Hopefully the new character recognition software and the new computers with special audio processing would help us in the attempted translation of the logbooks. No progress had been made in attempting to power up any of the alien computers, and the audio feedback approach that Carol had suggested, while original, had been just as ineffective.

  “Did you see this?” asked Wilma, our shared secretarial support. She handed me a copy of the latest Newsweek magazine.

  I scanned the cover quickly. “Not this one,” I replied. “I thought they had worked the story to death already.”

  “This one focuses on his life and the contributions to the country. There is a section at the end that asks some of the same questions about where he was the last year. I think they are of the opinion the government is hiding something.”

  Better suspicion directed that way, I thought. After initial surprise and three inch high headlines when Kurt and his daughter had been identified, there had been a period when the various newspapers had tried to run their theories of where he might have been the past year by the public. Those didn’t last very long. The papers just didn’t have any facts, and their guesses were pretty flimsy. The funeral was a well-attended affair, although we couldn’t go. Not only were we not invited, but also the known history between us would result in too many awkward questions if we showed much interest. I felt bad about it, because I felt I owed him. Circumstances won out this time. Unfortunately the funeral led to the national magazines picking up the story that the newspapers had just began to let die.

  I threw the magazine over and onto my desk. I would probably scan it when I had the time. I would be happier once the story died completely away, but the mystery of his yearlong disappearance was too compelling for many to let it go easily. The fascination with the story was amplified by the presence of an active duty federal agent, also killed at the scene. So far, the government had managed to divert away any attention in directions that would have raised suspicions about the agent’s true role in the unfortunate deaths. Agent Williams, whom the papers knew as the lead in the yearlong search for the missing businessman, was thought to have died in a protective role. Nothing had been mentioned in any story I had seen about the missing Jeff Cohen. Somehow the media had missed him completely.

  The NSG hadn’t forgotten him though. Several agents from the organization that Williams had worked for made a surprise visit to us just before Carol left for her uptime home. This time they had a couple of FBI agents in tow. I wondered if the presence of the FBI was their choice, or something that had been forced upon them by someone higher up. Multiple organizations had become involved after the bodies of Kurt and his daughter had been identified. I wondered if the actions of the agent that had caused the deaths were in part responsible for the involvement of outside agencies. Supposedly the visit was motivated by their desire to address any lingering concerns we might have from the previous encounters with Agent Williams. They were very apologetic for the overly zealous actions of their agent. But throughout the entire meeting, I had the feeling that their interest extended beyond their stated objectives. Not that they thought we had any involvement in the unfortunate deaths that had occurred. But we, I in particular, seemed to be linked in some vague manner that left them mildly curious.

  “I suppose you have been keeping up with the unfortunate events surrounding the reappearance of Mr. Morris?” asked the senior NSG agent once we were all seated comfortably in the executive conference room. Although this man and Williams worked for the same organization, his style of dress was considerably more precise. In fact, the dark suit, white shirt, and conservative tie would have allowed him to fit into the ranks of the FBI seamlessly. Maybe he was considering a career change, I thought.

  Carol was taking the lead for our side as the senior official of our organization. Our visitors probably preferred talking with me, as I was the one that seemed to figure more prominently in all of the events surrounding the case, but like good administrators they followed the script. “We were as surprised as anyone to learn that he reappeared,” Carol responded. “And then to die so suddenly, without anyone getting a chance to question him about his mysterious disappearance. That seemed a bit strange to me,” she added frowning. “Almost too convenient. There has been some speculation that he was involved with something secretive for the government. You wouldn’t be able to verify that would you?” That quickly Carol had shifted the conversation from one of our being questioned, to one in which we were reflecting the doubt being expressed by many that the government might somehow be at fault. Even knowing how ridiculous the belief was she managed to pull it off.

  It wasn’t a topic th
ey wanted to pursue. We knew better than anyone that the government hadn’t had Kurt off somewhere on some special project, but they were concerned of the possible consequences if the public learned that their rebel agent had been the direct cause of the deaths. The fallout that would follow in light of the existing speculation was something they didn’t dare risk. Especially after deliberate efforts on their part to keep it quiet for the past several weeks. They had passed the point where admitting the responsibility could be reasonably made public. Now they had to live with their cover-up.

  The two gentlemen from the FBI looked uncomfortable, but the assistant from William’s home agency picked up the ball. “I don’t know how those stories got started,” he stated. “But they are ridiculous. You must understand how foolish it would be for the government to put him to work secretly, then cause all the publicity we have seen by claiming he had disappeared. It’s stupid!”

  I nodded at him, agreeing with his explanation. He was absolutely correct. It made me wonder about the people who made these things up, and the ones who believed them. But the question had served its purpose and had changed the dynamic of the interview. “Then you don’t have any idea where he has been either?” I asked innocently.

  The boss man shook his head. One of the FBI agents spoke up adding, “We checked every type of public transportation. His name is not listed anywhere. We also fielded dozens of agents. No one could provide us any indication that he traveled here under another name. No one saw him.” He hesitated a minute. “Well, he had been seen a couple of times in the days before his death in the little town where the accident occurred.”

  “So you think he might have been just staying out of sight locally all this time? What about the daughter?” Carol asked.

  We played this game for a while. Carol controlled the flow of the conversation, asking most of the questions, frequently the things they probably would have liked to ask us. We had nothing to learn, and our only agenda was to come across as curious bystanders. Competitors in the past, but no different than the rest of the public in watching this particular event play itself out. We even wandered back into the initial meetings I had had with Agent Williams. It was made clear that Kurt’s mysterious items were considered some kind of scheme he had been working on, but they couldn’t decide what it had been. I thought they might offer to return my gun. It would be nice to make that disappear in case some interest developed later. But they didn’t offer, and I wasn’t going to underscore its significance by asking.

  Body language warned me the next question was going to be important. I had a pretty good idea what was coming. The issue hadn’t come up at all, and I couldn’t believe the events wouldn’t have been reported back to them. “You know that Agent Williams had you followed for a while?” asked the senior agent carefully watching my reaction.

  I had already decided how I was going to handle the issue if ever asked. Lie. There wasn’t much choice. I tried to remain relaxed as I looked directly at the agent who had raised the issue. “Yup, I answered. “I knew about him.”

  The FBI agents inadvertently glanced at each other. They hadn’t expected me to admit this.

  “Your agent Williams came to the house one day. He was pissed about something. He even tried to claim that Mr. Morris and I were tied into something together. Had some screwy claims about us faking some encrypted files or some such thing.” I could see I had surprised them this time. They hadn’t known about the visit, or that I knew about the bogus files. The comment about the files also served to validate the claim about his visit. “That’s when he let slip to me had been having me followed.”

  Lie, but following on the truth of the previous admission, made it believable.

  It took them a moment. “What did you do about it?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked trying to look confused.

  “Did you file a complaint? Did you try to lose him? How did you feel having someone watching you?”

  I smiled. “Well, we filed a complaint against your agent Williams. He was getting to be a bit out of control. But this other guy. What did I care. He wasn’t bothering me. I didn’t even see him. Let him follow me around. Figured he would get bored and give it up.”

  “He doesn’t like you very much,” the boss agent said suddenly. “He wouldn’t say much, but I get the feeling that something happened between the two of you.” He looked at me searchingly.

  I’ll be damned. I was certain he would have reported the little trip into the woods I had arranged for him. Either he had kept that to himself for some reason, probably embarrassment or this guy was playing with me. I suddenly realized I didn’t think he was that good of an actor, which meant they didn’t know anything about what had happened between Sam Harmon and myself. Even if he had told them, there was no evidence for the NSG or FBI to work with. The place we had led him to was often used by target shooters, meaning there would be lots of signs of shooting. Our few shots would be lost amongst them. It would have simply been his word against mine. But the story would have heightened their interest.

  “Maybe that has something to do with the fact I slipped away from him and embarrassed him,” I lied. “When your agent visited the house, one of the issues he had raised was my slipping away for a couple of days.” I laughed. “I didn’t even know I was being followed when it happened. He couldn’t have been very good at his job,” I added.

  “He isn’t one of ours,” the assistant uttered defensively. “He was someone hired by Agent Williams. Freelance. Supposed to be very good.”

  I noticed Carol checking her watch. It was simply play acting for the benefit of our guests. We had nothing pressing scheduled today, but she was sending them a subtle hint to move things along. I suppressed a small smile. She seemed to be enjoying this.

  The senior agent took the hint. “What is your involvement with Agent Cohen?” he asked innocently.

  I’m holding him captive instead of Kurt Morris I couldn’t help thinking. How’s that for a switch?

  “Agent Cohen? I asked innocently.

  “Agent Jeff Cohen,” he insisted. “You met him with Agent Williams when they visited you some time ago.”

  “Jeff,” I responded nodding my head. “Williams called the other guy Jeff when they were here. You know your people were a bit lax about names and identification,” I chided them. “That’s the only time I think I ever met him,” I added. “Why?”

  He didn’t really want to tell me. He had been fishing for a reaction, and it hadn’t worked. He struggled with himself for a minute, then admitted, “Agent Cohen appears to be missing. He was supposed to be with Agent Williams, but he wasn’t at the accident scene. Forensics has determined that only one person was burned in the fire that consumed the car. A search of his residence has been inconclusive. It looks as though some personal belongings are missing, but we aren’t sure. He hasn’t been there since the accident though. People are curious about his whereabouts.”

  People, I wondered. I wasn’t sure what he meant, but had a vague feeling he hadn’t meant to mention the last fact.

  “So Morris appears, and now suddenly you lose one of your people,” Carol jumped into the conversation. “”Something appears to be wrong in your organization, but I can’t see why you keep bothering us with these disappearances. First your rogue agent almost accuses us of knowing something about the Morris disappearance, and now here you are doing almost the same thing regarding one of your people.” She shot him a belittling look as if to say, “Are you crazy?”

  In the end, there was nothing for them. Some uncertainty remained, but they couldn’t find a theory to grab a hold of that would involve us in any real way to the events that had transpired over the past year. They left finally, politely enough, and while I didn’t expect any active response on their part, I knew we would remain in the back of their minds against any future odd or unexplained events. It was unlikely they would follow us or continue the surveillance we had seen the past month. The NSG had been served our compla
int and told to back off, and the FBI was not known for sticking their necks out. Why should they get someone else’s crap on their shoes?

  -------------------------

  Talking about Kurt started me wondering about the other materials we had brought back from Southern California, and the notes that had been hidden in the files. I wandered back to the secure area. It meant taking the elevator down to the second floor where the banks of elevators from the different wings all let out and then transferring to the elevator which would provide me access to the secure area on the second level basement. My badge was coded to allow the elevator to go down there. After getting off the elevator I had to pass through our own security system, something significantly more challenging than just getting to this level. This is where we kept anything related to our private project that was allowed out of the complex. Mark Jensen didn’t even know about this area.