Timelines

by Bob Blink

  “The mission’s blown,” said General Ramat. He had been leading the activities in the absence of Mr. Weissman who wasn’t available at the moment.

  “What do you mean?” I asked. “They can’t have gotten anywhere near their drop-off point yet?”

  “Major Cohen received a message from his people in country. They weren’t able to explain how, but they had been contacted and ordered to stand down by people in their own organization. The people who contacted them knew they were to meet Major Cohen and knew they were bringing the bombs.”

  “How?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “No idea. Major Cohen might have some ideas. He suspects his men were contacted rather than being apprehended with the bombs to prevent an incident with Spain.”

  “Do they know how the bombs are coming in?” Naiya asked. I knew she was wondering if the Israeli connection had been blown as well.

  “Apparently not. They seemed to be operating under the impression that the general and more of his people are involved in the delivery. They don’t know about us.” He paused, then added. “Yet.”

  ---------------

  Mike and Jeff arrived a couple of hours later. The helicopter which still carried the bombs was quickly slipped out of sight, in one of the hangers scattered around the field while they were escorted back into the meeting room where we waited with three of the Israelis. Jeff couldn’t add any insight into what we already knew. He wasn’t able to contact his organization any longer without risk of giving us away.

  “I guess that ends it,” said the Israeli general after Jeff’s brief summary of what he knew. “There’s no way now to get the bombs into Spain and to the place you were going to take them. We have lost time even if there was another way. The question is, do we hide the bombs, or make arrangements to turn them over to the United States?”

  I could tell Jeff and Mike had something else on their minds. I suspected they were hoping for a chance to talk privately, but I couldn’t see how it mattered now.

  “There’s something else?” I prompted.

  “Carol might have another way,” Mike answered reluctantly. He glanced at our hosts, but then his eyes found me again as he continued. “Al discovered something interesting. It seemed a bit risky, and it would have meant a last minute change of plans, so they hadn’t brought it up. But now, . . . .”

  Jeff reached into his pocket and pulled out the communicator that he passed over to me. “By now they should have completed their test.”

  “What kind of test?” Naiya asked the question that had come into my mind as well.

  “They think they can move the tunnel entrance,” Mike blurted out.

  “What the hell!” I exclaimed. “What do you meant ‘move the entrance?”

  “Not very far,” Mike was quick to reply. “But Al was searching through some of the stuff Dave had forwarded trying to find a way to get video through the tunnel when he found some procedures for operating some of the gate equipment. He and John have been going through it, and had even run a simulation on one of the off-line computers. Al says it appears to be a very simple procedure.”

  This was going too fast. “I thought the tunnels were fixed once established.”

  “I think we just assumed,” Mike suggested. “But Al claims once the aliens get the gate established, this tool is to fine tune exactly where the gate entrance is positioned. You can rotate the direction and move it a couple of hundred yards in any direction.”

  I remembered the strangeness of the newer tunnels the one time some of us had gone through. They had positioned themselves ‘oddly’ for lack of a better description. One was outside a cave that was situated nearby. In another case the entrance was fully ten feet extended from the wall. None had the ‘finished’ appearance of the existing tunnels we had used for years. Remarks had been made, but we figured the problem was related to our interrupted their efforts and hadn’t thought too much about how they would have corrected the situation had we not taken the complex from them.

  “It sounds dangerous,” Naiya added. “They could lose the entrance completely.”

  “They said as much,” Mike confirmed, “but they feel there isn’t a choice anymore. They were going to try it with one of the other tunnels and see if they can make it work. That’s the test I was talking about.”

  I punched the communicator and waited for Carol to respond. It took longer than I had become used to; long enough I started to worry. Then she connected. Carol smiled when she saw me.

  The strain was clear in her face. She hadn’t been getting much rest. I could tell something good had happened. “It works,” she said right off, assuming correctly that Mike and Jeff had told us about the new developments. “We were able to move the opening of the 1350 AD tunnel without incident. Once you know how, it’s trivial.”

  “Explain to me what you want to do,” I requested.

  “Our tunnel in Seattle opens into the cave where the colonel probably has a small army waiting,” she said. “The mountain which holds the cave isn’t that big, and while the back side has a steep slope near the top, around the base its more moderate and opens into the small meadow. Al calculates we could rotate the opening and push it out about a hundred and fifty yards from where it is now which would put the opening on the backside base of the hill. The new opening location would probably be fifteen or twenty meters up the hill, but that would be okay. No cave. It would open into the meadow. There is no reason for them to be watching back there. We could use it a couple of times before it was noticed. That would be enough.”

  This was a lot to take in. “So you want us to bring the bombs there now,” I concluded.

  Carol agreed. “If you can get them into the country, Kevin can meet you and fly them back to the dirt airfield you know about. Ed and his people will help you get them loaded onto the Sky-Bike. It will be able to carry the load of the two bombs and you twenty miles or so to the new entrance. It’s something they won’t be looking for. It can fly so low and quietly you can sneak in.”

  “What about Jim and myself, plus the bombs?” Naiya asked, indicating she wasn’t being left behind.

  “It can carry the weight, but the more load, the less distance you can go. Unfortunately it has very little charge left, and sitting all these years hasn’t helped. You would want to get as close as possible.”

  But we need to get the bombs into the country first. That was something we hadn’t planned on. Carol had been thinking about this as well. “Your friends there can help with that,” she claimed. “All it takes is a little abuse of their diplomatic privileges.”

  “We cannot smuggle bombs into the United States,” insisted the Israeli leader.

  Carol was not to be dissuaded. “The bombs could be put into your ‘diplomatic cargo’. That passes through customs without inspection. Another thing. These new bombs are well shielded. They don’t give off much radiation. You could even shield them a bit more if you wanted. I learned you have already cleared a large shipment of new computers for the DC Consulate that are scheduled to arrive soon. You could speed up that shipment and simply add our items.”

  “This discussion is pointless,” the man blurted. “I have already told you we cannot do this.”

  Carol turned serious. “You may not want to, but you can. How will the United States react when they learn of all you have done in this situation? We can tell them, you know. Or your secret can remain a secret when we pull this off.” She paused and then added the carrot. “What is it worth in lives of your citizens to help us?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?” he asked suspicious and annoyed.

  “You know we have a time machine. We know much of what is going to happen. That includes your country. For example, we know of a biological attack that will be released in your capital three months from now. Half of the citizens of your city will be affected. What would it be worth to you to prevent that from happening?”

  He studied her small image on the communicator. “How do I know this i
s true? You say it’s three month’s from now. That is long after your needs are over. We would have to help you assuming this is real. Besides, I thought you wouldn’t do anything to change history?”

  “Times have forced our hand. Besides, this would be less of a chance than letting the aliens win. You won’t have to wait three months. We can tell you where they are manufacturing the agent. You can stop them well in advance.”

  The Israeli group had to convene separately. After they walked away Jeff said quietly, “She does that well.”

  “Does what?” I asked innocently.

  “Lie,” he replied. “Carol I mean.”

  “You knew?”

  He nodded.

  It was true. Carol admitted there was a plot, and it would go forward. In truth, it would have been thwarted anyway by their security forces, although at the last minute. So we really didn’t change history significantly, but got the credit. I knew we owed them something if we pulled this off.

  While they were talking we hashed out details for our side. In the end, we decided that Jeff and Mike would take one of the U.S. planes here and head back to Germany with some of the bomb parts. Jeff was convinced they could fake being one of the frequent cargo flights from Iraq. Once landed, they could move the boxes into another of the small jets his group had stashed there. With luck, no one would have thought about it yet, and they could slip away. They would be detected before too long, of course, but with the plane auto pilot holding a course, they could jump from the plane and disappear. With luck, the self-piloting plane would be the focus of attention while Naiya and I were slipping into the U.S. The worst that would happen would be for them to be caught and detained. That fate waited for all of us once we exited the tunnel. We would deal with that later.

  They wasted half of another day of our critical schedule deciding, but in the end reluctantly agreed to do it.

  Chapter 61

  Texas

  1877

  Thomas looked over his saddle at the group of men he led. The patrol approached after their latest pass through the desert. Two weeks now, he thought. For two weeks he had escorted this mini-army around the southwestern desert of Texas. At first he had thought the added manpower, especially with the special heat sensitive tracking equipment, would bring about an encounter with the elusive alien in just a couple of days. Of course they had to find its trail again.

  When he had returned to the tunnel entrance to pick up the soldiers, he had left the two men assigned to him by the local office to follow the trail of the alien. He had warned them to watch and track, but under no circumstances to challenge the creature if they found it. Without the special weapon, they wouldn’t have a chance against it. They understood, having seen the multiple deaths the past weeks that could be attributed directly to the alien. It had no compunction about killing anyone who saw it. It’s only chance was remaining hidden, until. . . Until, what? He had wondered. Now he thought he knew.

  When he returned from the complex with the soldiers they picked up where the smaller team had left off a few days earlier. The pattern hadn’t changed in his absence. That allowed them to get closer than ever before. A few days later Thomas knew he was taking a chance, guessing where the alien would most likely strike based on the map showing his past ‘sightings’. Just about the time he thought they might actually be ahead of the creature, the pattern suddenly changed.

  Why? For a day or two Thomas and Curtis discussed the possibility the alien had discovered their pursuit. Instead of fleeing or attacking, the two approaches that seemed to make the most sense if the alien had become aware of them, the alien continued to attack locals, but now in a different pattern. No longer was the creature gradually making its way back toward the tunnel entrance, but now it seemed to make random attacks, all within a ten-mile circle. The situation couldn’t last. Already some of the deaths had become known which meant the local law would be out and investigating. That would make their job even harder. Who knows, they might even come under suspicion. Thomas knew he wouldn’t want to explain the odd weapon he carried.

  On a communications check back to the complex he explained to Carol what he was observing. The next day she had a theory. They had recently discovered how one of the alien communication devices worked. It allowed them to communicate from inside the complex, and surprisingly even between different eras. They had started using the device for regular communication just a couple days before. Carol expected the communicator was standard equipment for the aliens who passed through the tunnels and it seemed likely that the alien they sought had one of the devices as well. She hadn’t seen anything to indicate the alien was on their network, but there was still too much about the device they didn’t know. Perhaps the alien could listen in to their conversations without making itself known. If the creature knew about their use of the devices, then it would know they still controlled the complex. There would be no point of it making its way back just now. Her guess was the alien was waiting until it got indication his friends had returned and retaken the facility. Until then it would do everything possible to stay hidden.

  Carol’s explanation was the best fit to the observed facts. Still, if the alien wanted to stay hidden, why was it making its presence known by all the killings? Food was the only answer he could think of. The alien had slipped down the tunnel to this time without any real supplies. It needed food to survive.

  “Lieutenant?” he asked as the leader of the group drew near. “Any luck?”

  They had been making a patterned search across the desert, looking systematically through the countryside in the area that seemed to bound the latest killings. For days they had no luck. Now time was running out. Carol had told him last night that the aliens were due soon. Given the ride back to the entrance, she wanted him to bring the men back. They had to start back no later than tomorrow morning if the men were to be assured of getting home. He knew he would be staying here in 1877, and would continue to search even if he had to do it alone.

  The leader drew near and took off his hat, wiping the sweat from his eyes. At first he had doubts when his team was told they would be traveling into the past and would be chasing an alien. Now he knew better.

  “We may have found something,” he replied encouragingly. “There is a large abandoned mine about a mile and a half southeast of here. It looks like a huge open pit mine of some kind, but there are also a number of tunnels bored into the hillside. I wanted to check, but after what we have seen if your alien were in there I would just be getting men killed and alerting the thing to our discovery. Without a doubt it is the best looking hideout we have seen in all our searching.”

  Thomas felt his hopes rise. It was still early in the day. They could get back there, scout it out, and get men in position against the chance that the alien would come out this evening. With luck, if that was where he had been hiding, they might finally get a chance to kill it.

  “Show me,” he commanded.

  After alerting Curtis to what had been found, the team started back in the direction of the old mine. Impatient, it took them longer than Thomas had thought to get back, but once they arrived he had to agree with the lieutenant. This looked promising.

  How had the miners done this much damage to the mountainside?

  A mile long gulch had been blasted out of the side of a mountain. Rocks, many of them the size of a house, lay where they had fallen at the hands of the miners who had stripped the ground to a depth of several hundred feet. How many tons of rock and dirt had been taken from here?

  “Water cannons,” suggested Curtis, who knew something of mining from back home. “They cut away the hillside by using huge water hoses.”

  Thomas couldn’t believe they had the technology in 1870, but somehow they had managed it. Criss-crossing the floor of the canyon were broken narrow wooden walkways that spanned the deeper canyons and gullies that remained. Broken and rusted equipment remained scattered across the floor of the open mine, along with the remains of a large wheeled
structure, the purpose of which he didn’t understand. What a project, he thought.

  “Over here,” the Lieutenant beckoned him. “The first of the openings is here.”

  Thomas followed the man and soon saw a large opening penetrating back into the rocky hillside. There was no way to know how far back it went, but it must go a reasonable distance because care had been taken to shore up the inside against collapse. Everyone was trying to be as quiet as possible against the chance the alien was actually nearby.

  “There are two more on the other side of this rise,” the man informed him.

  “Looks like they were tracing the vein,” Curtis suggested. The ore must have been yielding less and less and they started looking to see what remained. Why strip away the whole hill if there is nothing there. These were probably seek holes, to see if anything remained worth going after. Must not have been, which is why they deserted it.”

  They walked over to the other two shafts that penetrated the hill close together, but headed into the mountain in slightly different directions. He liked it. This was a place the alien could hide during the day. His position was defensible, being able to shoot anything that came down the shaft after it. And this mine was located within the area where they had been seeing the recent attacks.

  Thomas and the Lieutenant directed the distribution of the men. There were only the three openings, so if the creature were here he would have to come out that way. They set up on the top of the ridge between the two locations, with the rest of the men scattered further out where they could watch where the creature went if it tried to escape. Thomas and Curtis would be in position at the top of the ridge, with the two men that acted as backup with them. Two other men, each with a night vision scope would be there as well, one watching each of the possible exits.

  Now it was a matter of waiting. As evening approached, the tension started to increase. Thomas felt the anticipation growing within him. This time they were in the right place. He felt sure of it. It was around seven-thirty when they became aware of sounds. Not yet dark, but with the light starting to fade, they heard the occasional rock being dislodged. Noises carried in the shaft very well.