Timelines

by Bob Blink

  Both he and Curtis positioned themselves for a shot at the entrance. They slipped down behind the cover that was provided by the ridge as best they could. They knew what the alien’s rifle could do, and they weren’t sure if a single shot from their own rifles would put it down quickly given the shields it had.

  The creature knew they were waiting. Fortunately, it didn’t know exactly where they had hidden. It fired a pattern of shots in an arc around the shaft opening just as it appeared at the entrance, one close enough that Thomas and Curtis both were forced to slide down for protection. By the time they looked up, the creature was moving away across the rock. He was already a goodly distance away. Thomas was afraid it might already be too far. I hope he doesn’t get out of range, Thomas thought, trying to get positioned for a shot. Damn, the things were nimble. He had heard about their reflexes from men who had fought them inside the complex.

  Then the alien made a mistake. Maybe it had gotten turned around somehow. It was in a bit of a box that would require it to back track or climb up a small section of cliff. Not that high really, but both hands, appendages, would be required. It wouldn’t be able to shoot while it was climbing. Without hesitation, the alien started up the cliff.

  “Now,” Thomas directed Curtis, and they both started firing at the alien. The first shot was off to the side. He could see the pattern of the blast shake loose small rocks from the hill. Still it must have had some effect as the alien’s shield flared briefly. The rest of the men opened fire with their M16s and Thomas even heard the heavy thump of one of the old lever actions. Waste of time, he thought. He fired again, almost at the same time as Curtis, and he thought he saw the alien jerk. Then the alien was up and over, hidden from sight as well as their weapons. They didn’t kill it. A combination of the range and whatever protection the shield provided had allowed the creature to escape.

  Regrouping, they tried to follow. Care had to be taken to prevent ambush. It was getting dark. The night vision equipment would help locate the creature, but it wasn’t good in a running battle. Not in these rocks. Thirty minutes later a blast came from cover to their left. Two of the Lieutenant’s men were caught in the shot and killed instantly. Return fire was ineffective as shown by the lack of a body when they finally reached the location fifteen minutes later.

  They tried to follow, but by the time they reached the edge of the rocky deposits that surrounded the mines they had seen nothing more of the creature. Surprise had been the key, and they had muffed it. Now the creature had the advantage. It might have circled back into the rocks waiting its chance, or it might have fled into the countryside. They weren’t going to find it tonight. Not without getting more men killed. Besides, they had to start back in the morning. Thomas swore in disgust. He knew they had hit it, but had no idea if the shots had any effect. Next time, he promised. He would be back. As soon as he returned the team to the tunnel he would come back. Alone if need be. He was starting learn the creature’s habits. He turned back to see to his men.

  Chapter 62

  Site 27, Israel

  Tuesday, 24 October 2006

  Arrival: T-30 Hours

  Once again, our hosts did what they promised. I wished our government were half as helpful. Unfortunately it took time, something we didn’t have very much of anymore. It also required coordination with not only the local government, but that of the United States as well. After all, the Israeli delegation was going to meet with them.

  “These are diplomatic passports,” explained Mr. Weissman’s aide when she gave Naiya and me the new documents. “These were a bit more difficult to prepare properly, especially with appropriate stamps and clearances.”

  “How is this supposed to work?” I asked, curious how they would explain away the missing people later.

  “You will be joining the diplomatic mission with the ambassador and his team who will be returning to the United States to meet with his counterparts after the unfortunate misunderstanding surrounding the recent action in Iraq,” she explained. “Both of you will pose as a pair of low lever staffers supporting the delegation. Once you clear customs and are taken to the embassy, you will be replaced by two members of our staff who are already in the country. No one would notice. Who cared about low level staff support?”

  “And then what happens?” Naiya asked.

  “You and Mr. Crampton will be taken to the other airport as planned. The people who have taken on the identities you used to enter the country will support the meetings. When the meetings are concluded, your replacements will leave the country in your place with the delegation, using the names you used to enter, thus correctly closing the records of individuals coming in and going out of the country.

  I knew the two people who would assume our identities would be slipped back into the country to resume their true identities covertly in the next few weeks. There were lots of ways to do it if time, and a box filled with nukes wasn’t involved.

  A last minute change of plans by the U.S. Government didn’t help either. We had been scheduled to depart Israel on the twenty-third. Given the time zone changes and the twelve hour flight time to Washington, D.C., we would have arrived roughly six PM on the twenty-third. Since the special cargo would travel on an earlier flight, it would have already been delivered to the embassy. That meant with luck, we would have been delivered with the bombs, to the nearby Baltimore airport by our Israeli friends sometime before midnight. Kevin would be waiting with the Lear jet, which could make the trip to Seattle in seven hours. We would have been home with more than a day to get the bombs inside the time complex with the timing circuits configured.

  Would have been is the operative phrase. The U.S. asked to postpone the meetings for a day. How could our hosts argue? It didn’t help that the U.S. suggested they fly the following day and bring the U.S. Ambassador to Israel with them. Our flight was therefore moved to the twenty-fourth. We still could make it. Arrival in D.C. at 6 PM, and meeting with Kevin at say, 10 PM. Wheels up by 11PM, would put us in Seattle around 5 AM. That gave us maybe five hours. That was within the tolerance of our guess for the alien’s arrival. Carol and the team were looking at anything that could be done to shorten the time on their end.

  So with the clock counting down, we departed early on Tuesday afternoon, no margin left to us before the aliens were scheduled to arrive. Jeff and Mike took off a few hours ahead of us on their decoy flight. I wondered when we would see them again. We landed on schedule. No one gave us or our documentation more than a quick glance when we entered the country. Naiya and I were taken to the embassy along with the rest of the delegation, where the bombs already waited in an Embassy van. Within minutes we were on our way to the airport where Kevin waited with the plane.

  The hours passed slowly as we made our way across the country. At long last we began our descent into the small airfield Kevin had selected. It wasn’t rated for this plane, but it was unattended so who would complain. I knew Kevin expected to do some serious damage to the plane on landing, but who cared at this point. By the time someone came to check, we would be on the way to the complex.

  The landing went smoothly, doing less damage than we anticipated. Ed drove his van out from behind the trees at the far end as we taxied to a stop. Transfer of the bombs went smoothly as well and we were on our way within a half hour.

  It took another half hour to get to the cabin where they had the Skybike. It was set up in the shed out back. Working quickly we transferred the bombs to the quick disconnect supports that had been installed the last couple of days by Ed’s team. It was going to be an ungainly and difficult vehicle to control. By the time we were ready to go, it was getting late. We had to get moving. Besides, while a last minute check with Carol indicated the aliens were still a few hours away, we needed every minute we could get inside with the bombs.

  I had forgotten how much finesse it required to control the tiny Skybike in the dozen or more years since I had last tried to fly it. Having two people and the ungainly bomb canis
ters attached to the outside had not helped the situation at all. Flying the ten miles from the cabin to the back of the complex mountain at altitudes that ranged from fifty to a couple of hundred feet was terrifying. More than once I thought I might lose control and bury us in the countryside. As we approached the entrance, we called Carol on the communicator to get ready for us.

  We got very close, but the heavy load was too much for the poor machine. I could feel the loss of power as we neared the entrance, altitude starting to slip away no matter how hard I tried to work the controls. I tried to coax a little more out of the little flyer, but to no avail. In the end, it was either put it down under control, or take the chance of a crash within sight of our goal. Naiya called Carol to send help. We made it to a point two hundreds yards short of the new entrance location. Mike’s men were waiting at the entrance as we landed.

  “Here’s the manual,” I said handing the details on the bomb operation to Naiya. “Al is going to need a few minutes to review this so he can arm the bombs. We will get them inside while he’s studying the manual.”

  As she headed off, I started releasing the heavy bombs from their restraints. The men from the complex had made it to where we had put down, and while two helped me retrieve the bomb I was working on, others started releasing the bomb from the other side. It took three men per bomb, but in a matter of minutes we were on our way to the tunnel, bombs and all. I carried the now useless little bike because I didn’t want to leave a piece of uptime technology lying around.

  One of the men in front of me stopped and pointed. “They’ve seen us,” he said, his arm pointed in the direction of one of the guards. We were almost to the cave when we were seen. It was pure bad luck. Had we been able to fly to the entrance we would have been inside without being observed.

  “Keep going,” I encouraged him. “There’s nothing we can do about it, and they can’t get here in time to stop us. It just means they will be waiting when we come out.”

  The colonel had concentrated the patrols on the other side of the hill where he knew the opening was, but must have the men making periodic circuits to check the surrounding countryside. I suspected our sneaking in and out the back way a couple of weeks ago had something to do with that.

  Carol greeted me inside. She and Naiya had already had a minute to talk. She quickly directed the second team where she wanted them to place the second bomb. The first had already been sent upstairs. Then the two of us went in search of Naiya and Al. I found him in the lab room upstairs with his assistant going over the steps in the book. Naiya was watching over his shoulder. They looked up as I walked in.

  “For such a sophisticated device, the controls are child’s play,” he beamed. “I was afraid this was going to be something very difficult.”

  “Think about it,” I replied. “The military has had years of experience with these things, and they must have decided that since they would have to be operated in the field, it was important that all instructions be easy to perform and simple to understand. If they shipped them with the kind of instructions that comes with your VCR they could expect some nasty surprises along the way.”

  Nodding, he showed me the page in the manual they had been discussing. “Open this one panel, push these two switches to activate the timer and place device in manual mode. Then enter the desired delay here, and once you push this larger red button, the count-down begins.” I nodded and took a picture of Al and the device with the camera I had picked up a minute before.

  Seeing things were under control, Naiya and I got an update from Carol. I told her about the fact the tunnel had been spotted as we came in. It really didn’t matter that much anymore. The bombs were here. We hadn’t expected to get very far when we left anyway.

  While Al continued examining the bombs upstairs, I made my way back down the ramp and over to the tunnel to the 1870’s where Thomas waited with the team lent to us by the colonel. Carol had had them camp outside until we were ready to send them home. It was just about time now. I walked through where they waited. Two of Mike’s men came with me.

  They were all surprised when we had them leave their weapons. They didn’t have much choice. They had seen what the alien rifle could do, and we had several of them pointed in their direction.

  I explained to their lieutenant. “You will be going through in a minute. We have had a few issues with your leadership, and you should know this as you pass through. We have two nuclear bombs being armed inside the complex. You will see one of them when you go through. Take a look so you can verify this.”

  I handed him the camera. “I just took a picture. Show this to your command on the other side so they know for certain what we have. I don’t want any misunderstandings.”

  He nodded his understanding, but before he could ask anything I explained the rest of it.

  “We are going to let your people go out so you can warn them. Tell them we will be coming out right behind you. We will be guarding the tunnel with the alien rifles all the time. Anyone that tries to come into the cave will be dead. That’s important. When we come through they should allow us to get far enough away to make sure the tunnel closes. If they don’t the nuclear blast will kill everyone outside the entrance and they will have a nuclear incident a few miles away from Seattle. Understand?”

  He swallowed but agreed to carry the message.

  It was time to go. We herded them inside and had them wait near the tunnel to home, which we hadn’t opened yet. Four of the men were tasked with carrying the bodies of the two men that had been killed during the encounter with the alien a few days before. Thomas had his men bring the discarded weapons and equipment inside the tunnel. We didn’t want to leave that back in the last century either.

  Inside and back up in the control room I found Naiya helping Al hobble his way over to the device, his right leg wrapped and being held off the floor as he made his way over to the device.

  “What the hell happened?” I asked.

  “Stupid, carelessness,” he answered. “Got my leg jammed up trying to help push it into place. Should have let them handle it.”

  He had made his way over the where his assistant Clint had already removed the access cover and made an initial survey of the controls. Balancing on one foot he peered down into the exposed cavity and smiled. “Just like the book,” he confirmed happily. He reached down inside and flipped one of the switches. “Might as well see if it works. We haven’t time to take this too slowly.”

  By now I had made my way next to Naiya and could see into the opening as well. In response to his actions I could see a number of colored indicator lights come alive. “Ah,” he sighed with satisfaction.

  Al continued to adjust settings inside the device. Finally he sat back satisfied. “All set, he explained. “I’ve set it for two minutes delay. All we need to do is press this button and the count down starts.”

  “Can it be stopped once it’s started?” I asked. “You have to enter a code,” he explained. The same code as it takes to be able to activate it.” He knew what I was thinking. “The general supplied the codes for these weapons. I don’t know how he got them, but it works.”

  “What if someone pulls the power supply?” I asked. I wanted to make sure the device could not be deactivated that easily.

  “The internal capacitors have been charged now. Once the count-down is initiated, pulling the battery is the equivalent to a fire command. The bomb would go off at that point.”

  The device had suddenly become a dangerous weapon. It was a single button push away from starting its march to oblivion. Al taped a piece of paper to the side of the device. “The stop code,” he explained. “Just in case. When we trigger the device, take the piece of paper with you,” he explained to us all.

  Carol had come in just as he finished his explanation. “The other one’s ready, she explained.”

  We helped Al make his way downstairs to repeat the steps on the second device. Fifteen minutes later it too was ready to go.

 
; Suddenly we were ready. The bombs were armed and only required the push of a button to start their countdown. Our own backup explosives had a timer that could be triggered as the last man left the tunnel. The timer had been adjusted to five minutes as well. Once the timers on the bombs were started, and the last man made it to the exit, the five-minute delay would ensure our explosives would trigger after the nuclear timers had run out. If the nuclear bombs worked it didn’t matter. If they didn’t, our backup would do what damage it could.

  I heard the odd sound that indicated the alien communicator wanted attention. I pulled it from my pocket. None of the four buttons were flashing indicating someone was trying to open a communication. I saw Carol was looking at hers as well with a puzzled frown. I remembered something I had tried in the car when we I first had access to the device, and pressed the button which switched to the other set of contacts. This time one was glowing. I looked at Carol and Naiya. Carol nodded, and I pushed the button to see who was trying to contact us. While I half expected the result, the sight of the alien face on the screen made me catch my breath. An immediate string of grunts and growls came through the speaker. I quickly disconnected.

  “Shit!” I exclaimed

  “Cutting it close, aren’t we?” Al said.

  “What do you mean,” Carol asked. “We should have a hour or more yet.”

  “I don’t think so,” Al replied. “From the looks of the monitor they have been making better time than I expected. If they can contact us on the communicator I bet they are closer than we think. They will be here very soon. We should start getting everyone out.”