Timelines

by Bob Blink

  “It is,” verified the colonel. He was in better humor now and was enjoying showing off his toys. “These three bombs were all built in early 1962. They have been stockpiled most of that time.”

  “That makes them over forty years old,” Mike noted. “Are we sure they will still work?”

  “Most of the nuclear weapons we have in the arsenal are old. The average life of our weapons is twenty years. Most, like these, have key parts replaced periodically, and extensive computer analysis has been run to verify the viability of the devices.”

  “Computer simulation?” I asked. “You have tried any of these in years?” I knew there had been concerns about the aging of the devices from work Carol and I had done years ago, but had forgotten if I had ever known how old the devices were and the fact they didn’t admit to any testing.

  The colonel nodded. “There hasn’t been any weapons testing in almost fifteen years. None of this model has been test fired since the early sixties. None the less, we are confident they will work. Besides, you have three of them. It will only take one.”

  Despite his assurances, Mike looked more than a little uncertain. I had to admit seeing the bomb and hearing its history left me a little unsettled as well. Maybe we should have specified something a bit newer. Although, even a twenty year old bomb seemed old to me.

  His little demonstration over, the colonel suggested we go inside and discuss the plan for the coming day. It would be a long one, and he was going to need to have a number of people inside the facility. Getting the bombs into the complex then up the ramp where we had indicated they should be deployed would require some finesse. We needed to agree on the ground rules and just who would be where.

  Mike begged off. He didn’t need to be in this discussion. Besides, he wanted a chance to learn a bit more about the bomb, how they would be setting up the timing, as well as talk a bit to the colonel’s people about the plan for moving it up the ramp inside the complex. The trucks could now back up the new ramped road into the cave. They were too big to make it through the tunnel, so Mike wanted to see how they planned to offload the devices and then move them through the tunnel. The tunnel was roughly six feet in diameter, a little less at some points because of the oval shape, so the bomb would pass through with a small margin.

  The colonel and I left him to his discussions, and walked back to the front of the house and then inside. It didn’t take much imagination to see what he had meant. Moving, unloading and positioning the bombs inside the complex was going to be a major task. It would also mean many of his people would have to be inside the tunnel room at the same time, as well as a number up in the control areas. We could ensure they were disarmed, but they would out number us.

  Almost an hour into the conversation, I realized my cell phone had been vibrating against my side. I carried it by force of habit, even though there was no service at the tunnel entrance. I was a bit surprised to be receiving a call but excused myself and flipped open the little Samsung phone. I realized I had missed the call and someone had already disconnected. The small symbol told me I had a message. Curious, I worked through the cumbersome menu until I could dial back and get the message.

  I was glad I had stepped away from the table. Facing away from the group a few feet away initially to provide better hearing, they were unable to catch my surprised reaction. The message was from Jeff. It was brief, but to the point.

  “Jim. The bombs are a diversion. The Colonel plans to take the complex. Be careful!”

  I tried to sort it out in my mind. I would have expected him to contact us at the complex. We had a phone at one of the facilities that recorded messages. It was connected to some of our equipment that would allow us access if we were outside the tunnel and made the effort. We hadn’t given him one of the special secure phones that could have reached any of us outside the tunnel wherever we were. Sometimes one can be too cautious. So maybe he had called the complex number and left a message when no one answered. With the recent changes that confined us more inside, the checks weren’t as frequent as before. My guess was he had just learned about the planned double-cross and not knowing how far along things were, he was blanketing all possible contacts trying to get word to us before it was too late. He was well aware it wasn’t a secure line, but felt it necessary to risk it. He knew how poor reception was around the cave. He hadn’t expected to reach me on the cell. He probably took the chance I’d get the message later. I sure hoped Carol was keeping up on the site phone.

  “Important?” asked the colonel still waiting at the table.

  I had time to compose myself as I turned around. “Odd,” I responded. “It was a wrong number. Some woman annoyed about my missing a date somewhere.”

  The colonel looked at me strangely. The colonel resumed our discussion where we had been interrupted as I returned to the table, but was interrupted a few minutes later as an aide walked over to him and handed him a slip of paper.

  The colonel read what was on the paper he had just received. “Unfortunate,” he said, mostly to himself. He set down the paper and looked past me at someone and nodded. I sensed motion behind me, and realized several people in the room had drawn guns. They were pointed at me.

  “Colonel,” I protested.

  “Cell phones,” he said. “They are such simple devices to monitor. We have been monitoring all traffic in this area, with special attention to numbers assigned to your people. Do you want to see what your girl friend really said?” he asked as he passed the piece of paper over to me.

  I read the message that accurately recorded what I had just received. Well, we had worried all along that this kind of thing might happen. It was too bad we couldn’t have found out while we were still at the facility. It would have been a lot simpler. I looked at the men holding the weapons. I didn’t like guns pointed at me. There wasn’t much I could do about it now however.

  “Here’s what we are going to do,” he said. “You are going to wait here quietly while I have someone go and fetch your friend. Then we will discuss how to deal with this new development.”

  It didn’t take them long. In less than five minutes I could hear Mike complaining as they escorted him inside at rifle-point. He grew silent when he saw me sitting at the table with several armed men stationed nearby. Taking direction from his captor, Mike made his way across the room and sat down at the table a couple of chairs down from me. They made certain we weren’t too close together. Whether to keep us from any communication or to make it easier to shoot just one of us if there was trouble I didn’t know.

  “I’m not sure what you have in mind,” I said finally, “but you have a bit of a problem on your hands. I’m sure that Carol and Naiya got the same message I did, so they are going to have shut up the tunnels where you can’t get at them. Even if they don’t have the message yet, they aren’t going to deal with you unless Mike and I are there. How do you expect that to work?”

  “I had hoped my men would be inside before we had to take any action,” the colonel responded. “We would have had a numbers advantage and could have chosen our opportunity carefully.” He looked over at me as he continued. He had no need to be secretive any longer. “One of the bomb cases has a number of weapons inside. We could have armed ourselves and had a good chance of taking your people without a fight. That would have been best. If they had chosen to resist, well, we still would have won I’m certain.”

  “Don’t you realize how stupid this is?” I asked. Whether it was his opinion or just orders from above, he was risking us all by his actions.

  “Who are you to dictate to our country the proper course of action? We have people better trained in this kind of thing than you do. They feel we have a better chance if we can take out the large ship by surprise. You have no guarantee that simply destroying the facility will ensure our safety.”

  He was right on one point. We were gambling on the outcome that would follow if the aliens lost their complex. Maybe he was right. If the alien ship could be taken out, th
at might be better insurance against their return. The problem was, I didn’t believe it. Even if they could take out the ship, which I didn’t believe they had a chance in hell of doing, it took less time to bring more ships from where they came from than it would to build and reconfigure a new time complex. The colonel and his men would lose. That meant we would lose. There was no point arguing with the man. We had different perspectives, and he held a couple of key cards for the moment.

  “So you think you can use us as leverage to get them to let you in?” Mike asked nastily. “Maybe threaten us somehow. Don’t count on it working.”

  “You are a couple of fugitives from justice. There are a number of charges for crimes the FBI is anxious to bring against you. The list now includes murder I believe.” He looked to see how we were reacting. “I guess a couple of Mr. Morris’ men have gone missing and have never been found. They were with him the day he disappeared. With your magic machine, getting rid of bodies is simple. It has been decided to charge you with those crimes as well. So you see, I simply turn you over to our criminal justice system. You will be convicted, spend the rest of your life in prison, or be executed. Or there is the alternative.”

  Here’s where he thought he had some leverage. “You think you can get Carol or Naiya to let you into the complex in exchange for some kind of immunity for all of us. It won’t happen,” I assured him. “They won’t deal with you.”

  “They might, they might not,” he replied. “This is the best chance we have under the circumstances. I have seen how close you and your wife are. Will they stay in the complex until they try to destroy it with your rudimentary explosives? Will they come out to face the same charges afterwards, or slip away to some other era? They would be safe, but leave you two to suffer the consequences. Whatever you say, I think they will be open to discussion.”

  Mike started to say something, but I shook my head. We would play this out according to plan. The colonel might not be so confident if he knew Naiya or Carol a bit better.

  “Oh, one more thing,” said the colonel as he walked across the room to stand next to the chair where I sat. What I just explained is plan B. He pointed at my chest. “I’ll take that item you always carry around you neck.”

  My shoulders slumped. So they had figured it out. I wondered at times if they had been smart enough to piece it together once they learned of the complex. After all, they had Kurt’s notes, and he had pictures somewhere of me wearing the key. There wasn’t much I could say. Arguing wasn’t going to stop him at this point. Looking at Mike, I reached under my collar and fished out the chain, pulling it over my head. When I wasn’t quick enough handing it over, he grabbed it out of my hand.

  “I think your people will definitely be surprised when we enter the complex unexpectedly a little while from now. They won’t expect any action from us until tomorrow I think.” Colonel Sanderson looked at the small alien artifact and then smiled at me. “Oh yes, we are going in now. There is no point in waiting since your friend Major Cohen has violated security. The sooner we go, the better the chance of surprising those inside. They will be thinking we are still meeting if they didn’t get Major Cohen’s message. If they did, then we will go back to plan B.” He was finally in a position to proceed on his own terms. It was easy to see he was eager to get started.

  Chapter 55

  Outside Seattle

  Wednesday, 11 October 2006

  We were locked up in a couple of the spare rooms on the second floor. One of us per room. These were small rooms, which weren’t used often as they didn’t even have their own bathroom. Guards were posted in the hallway as well as outside the single small window to the back yard. Shortly after being locked in the room, men came with sheets of plywood and screwed them over the windows from the outside. Someone had found our supply of building materials in the sub-basement and made good use of them to make sure we would stay put. Now the only light came from the ceiling fixture. Looking around the room I could see nothing that would be of any use in trying to get away. The room had the bed, a dresser, reading chair and a couple of lamps. Very little to work with had I been considering an escape attempt. Not that I would have been able to get very far even if I somehow managed to find a way out of the room. The house was occupied by a number of the colonel’s people, and the word had been spread regarding us. We had been present when he ordered his sergeant to inform everyone that we were prisoners and to be detained if seen unescorted. He wanted us to know it wouldn’t be possible to fool anyone.

  Were the rooms bugged? Could Mike and I try and talk through the walls? I didn’t know, but I suspected there hadn’t been the opportunity. Things had moved pretty quickly once their plan had been exposed. Unless they had pre-planned against the possibility of detaining us there hadn’t been much opportunity to place monitoring gear. I tended to doubt they had planned that far ahead.

  I wondered if Carol had gotten a message from Jeff. Being uncertain about the colonel and his orders, we had known that the possibility existed one or more of us might be grabbed. That was one reason we had been a bit uncomfortable with Mike coming along today and why Naiya had remained behind. Up to now we had been limiting the number of people exposed at any one time.

  Before we had been locked in the room, we had been allowed to over hear some of the colonel’s plans. I think he wanted to gloat a bit in front of us. He and a dozen men, all armed, would make their way to the tunnel in a little over an hour. It would take them fifteen minutes to drive there, and another ten or so to get into position. Then they would make their unannounced entry into the complex. From the way we had been handling access to the facility, he was convinced we were not aware they knew about the secret of the keys. Thus, their unexpected presence inside would almost certainly give them the edge to take control. Hopefully without a fight, but if we chose to resist so be it. After all, from what he had seen we only had four or five men on watch at any time. He was counting on the fact the men had been standing watch for days now without any action. That tended to dull the senses and response time. His men were sharp, and better trained for this kind of thing. I had to believe that. The man that had taken instructions from the colonel was not Air Force. There was no doubt he was special forces of some sort. Our questions about there being another group somewhere nearby seemed to have been answered.

  Other than a search for weapons, nothing had been taken from us. We still had everything we had come with, less the cell phone and my necklace with the alien key, of course. All we could do for now was wait and see.

  ----------------------

  We had been here more than two hours. The colonel must have attempted his assault on the complex by now. I remembered with a small grin how pleased he was to have my key in his possession. I wondered if he was as pleased now. We had taken a number of precautions when leaving the complex since the arrival of the colonel and his people. One of them was never allow access of one of the keys to an outsider. My key had been left inside the complex each time I had left. The man the colonel had seen guarding the tunnel whenever he was escorted inside was the man that actually was holding the gate open for us. He had a key. All those times I didn’t.

  The key the colonel had been so happy to take from me a bit earlier was going to be a real disappointment to him. It was one of the alien keys, but it was the key we found some time ago that we concluded is for another system. One of the systems the aliens are now visiting maybe. He wasn’t slipping into the complex unannounced tonight. Instead, he was going to find himself sitting in a dark cave with nowhere to go. He might even doubt that he had the right device at all. That wouldn’t be at all bad either. But it also meant he would be headed back to the residence to have a talk with Mike and me. I expected he would be here soon, and not in a very good mood. I wondered whether he would place a large guard around the cave when he left. That could mean a lot of people would get hurt. Maybe he would opt for a less confrontational approach, hoping for better results during his negotiations that had s
uddenly become his only option. I feared he had more surprises.

  It took them longer than I expected. Maybe he thought there was a control or something associated with the key and tried to figure it out. Almost two and half hours after being left in the room, I heard footsteps clumping down the hall. A key turned in the lock, and the door swung inward. After a check to see I was sitting quietly across the room in the only chair, the guard stepped aside and the colonel entered.

  “You knew it wouldn’t work!” he exclaimed.

  “Excuse me?” I asked.

  “The alien artifact. You knew I thought it would allow me access but said nothing. This isn’t the means to open up the tunnels at all.”

  “Would you have believed me if I had said so?” I asked smugly. “You would have just thought I was trying to deceive you.”

  He had to acknowledge the truth of what I was saying. He also knew I wasn’t about to tell him how the system worked. “Enjoy your little deception,” he said finally, his eyes hard and mean. “Tomorrow we will see what your wife has to say.”

  I wanted to question him about whether he had guarded the cave, but that might suggest things better kept from his thoughts. I could only hope he hadn’t set us up for a confrontation that would have meant too many casualties.

  He left without another word. The door was closed and locked behind him, and I could hear him talking with the men, but couldn’t make out the words. After he walked away, the house became quiet. All I could do now was wait.

  I had been lying on the bed, dozing off and on. I glanced at my watch and noted it was now a little after 11:00 PM. Things started happening less than five minutes later. I heard the guards outside the room as they collapsed to the floor. Listening from my side of the door I couldn’t hear anything. No sound from the guards and no warning cries indicating someone had discovered them. I tried the door, but it was locked. I waited some more. I could have probably kicked it down, but noise might be a concern. I decided I would give it five minutes, then break out if nothing else happened.