by Clark Graham
A bored voice came back. “One-nine-zero, you are cleared for takeoff.”
Felix had read about Project Black Hole and how the pilots were heroes, greeted by cheers at each successful point in their operation. This time he would be leaving like a thief in the night.
He throttled the plane up and taxied to the end of the runway. Setting the brakes, he powered to full. When the brakes were released, the plane rolled forward. Unlike most planes, this one was clumsy. It took the entire length of the airstrip to take off. He was under orders not to use the vertical takeoff so as not to alert the tower of the plane’s capabilities. Felix doubted they would care.
Once airborne he steered the plane towards the operation area, that’s was what they called it anyway. It was a wide spot in the forest. He hovered over it, making sure the system worked before trying to land. Then he began his slow descent to the ground.
Jarvin was there to greet them. He was all smiles as they climbed out of the plane.
“Gentlemen, we did it. Congratulations. Did the plane work perfectly?”
Three men in blue coveralls stood behind Jarvin. They weren’t smiling. They were the guys who would be servicing the airplane and they had an unenviable task, given the primitive conditions of the base. Barrels labeled oil and gas were piled up under a shed. A long hose attached to a hand pump delivered the vital liquids to the plane.
Boxes of spare parts occupied the other end of the shed. One building next to the shed looked more like a house than an operations center.
Jarvin and the two pilots retired to the building while the mechanics pulled camouflage netting over the plane.
Once inside, Jarvin turned to Felix. “From now on, you will come in lower and faster when you land here. We don’t want to draw any more attention to our location.” His words had a bite to them.
Felix was about to explain why he had done it that way, but Ethan cut him off. “How long will we be staying here sir? I need to go shopping.”
Felix rolled his eyes, but Jarvin was more patient. “You are assigned here for the duration of the project. You cannot leave. It was all in the briefing we gave you. If you need anything, it will be brought to you.”
Ethan’s eyes widened. “But I need flowers for my girlfriend.”
Even Jarvin shook his head at that. “No,” was his simple answer. “Now, gentlemen, get a good night’s sleep. We will fly the plane thirty more times before we become operational.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Seattle, Washington
2046
It was another sleepless night for Felix. He could hear Ethan’s snoring even through the walls. Having to sleep at the base was only insult to injury. It was because of Ethan’s big mouth Jarvin didn’t trust them off the base.
The whole mission had been put in jeopardy over him bragging in a bar. No one believed him when he told them he was about to change history. Who knows what he had told that girlfriend of his, the one he wasn’t supposed to have. He was selected for the job because he didn’t have any attachments. Come to find out, three weeks into training, he had a girlfriend he had kept secret. Jarvin had hit the roof when he found out. The men had been isolated ever since.
Standing it no more, Felix stood up and pounded on the wall.
A muffled, “What? What?” came from the next room.
“Oh, just a hornet on the wall. I got him.” Felix smiled. He knew it would take Ethan longer to fall asleep than he would. He hopped back in bed and pulled the covers up over his head.
“Another one? That’s the third one tonight.”
Felix ignored him and was out cold in a couple of minutes.
Two men in black coats made their way to the front door of the duplex. It was 2 a.m. but they knocked quietly anyway. Both men had guns drawn. A woman in a blue bathrobe answered.
“Well?” the taller of the two asked.
“Not yet. He hasn’t sent me flowers. It will be his signal that he has possession of the plane.”
“Are you still in contact with him?”
She shook her head. “He’s being isolated, but told me he would be able to still send me flowers when the time comes.”
“Okay, we’ll wait a few more days, but not too many.” Both men walked away. The blonde lady shut and locked the door.
The last test flight, Felix brought the plane in just over tree-top level, and dropped it to the ground. It bounced a few feet off the ground and then settled down.
“I hate it when you do that,” Ethen complained. “It kills my back.” Felix ignored him like he had the more than two dozen other times he had heard the same complaint.
When they climbed out of the plane, Jarvin was all smiles. “That was it, gentlemen, we are now operational. Tomorrow is the real thing. We are going out to celebrate. We’ll be going to the finest restaurant in town.”
Ethan piped up. “Can I bring my girlfriend?”
“No.” Jarvin didn’t turn his head to address him. “Go get ready. No suits, but nice resort casual attire.”
Both men nodded, then went to their rooms to get dressed.
Jarvin, the two officers and three mechanics all headed into town. It was a chandeliered restaurant with tablecloths and cloth napkins. Something Ethan hated. He was a burger and fries kind of guy. If he wanted to eat fancy, it’d be a chili-cheese dog.
When the first plate came out, he looked down at it. “I don’t see the tarter sauce.”
Felix ignored him, but Jarvin asked. “What did you order?”
“Tuna in tarter sauce.”
Felix snickered to himself. “Tuna tartare, it’s raw tuna.”
Ethan scowled, “Why couldn’t they just put that on the menu instead of writing it in Egyptian.”
Felix thought better of continuing the conversation, but Jarvin piped up, “It’s French.”
“Whatever.” Ethan looked down at his plate and gently tasted it, after poking it around for a few minutes. He shrugged his shoulders and ate the rest. “When can I send flowers to my girlfriend?”
“I can’t let you leave unattended at this moment, but Sargent Call here can send the flowers for you. Just jot down her name and address and he’ll get to the florist in the morning.”
Ethan sighed, but found a scrap of paper and wrote down the information. He handed it to the mechanic, who nodded and stuffed it into his pocket.
After dinner, Felix made it his goal for the night to avoid Ethan at all costs. When they arrived back at the base, he went straight to his room. Laying there a couple of hours, not sleeping, he suddenly realized something was different. No snoring.
He tiptoed into Ethan's room. The door was open so he peeked in. Ethan wasn’t there. He searched the rest of the house for him. Running outside, he scoured the grounds, but couldn’t find Ethan anywhere. Running down the road, he noticed the gate was wide open.
Approaching the bus stop on a nearby road, he saw Ethan sitting there. He walked up and sat next to him. Ethen nearly jumped out of his skin.
“The bus doesn’t start running till six in the morning.”
Ethan, hand still over his thundering heart, said, “Oh.”
“Where are you going?”
“I wanted to see my girlfriend just one more time before I left.”
Felix shook his head. “Not a possibility. If you come back with me right now, I won’t report you to Jarvin. If not, I will raise the alarm, and get you kicked off the program. Either way, you ain’t seeing your girlfriend tonight.”
Ethan hung his head. “Fine, I’ll come back.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Seattle, Washington
2046
Felix scowled at Ethan as they left the command center and headed toward the airplane. After chasing Ethan down the night before, Felix couldn’t sleep the next night for all the snoring. He would be leaving Ethan in the 1970s then start the internal debate about picking him back up afterward.
He’s a 70s person. He would fit right in. He shook the thou
ghts out of his mind. He had a mission to do. He didn’t need his own thoughts distracting him. The flight suit was clumsy and he was sweating under it.
Jarvin was all smiles as the two approached. He stood next to the plane. “This is it, gentlemen. The day we’ve all been waiting for.” He handed them a manila envelope. “These are your orders. If history changes and I don’t remember you, this is what you’ll show me so I’ll know you’re telling me the truth. Good luck.”
Felix grunted, took the envelope, and scowled at Ethan again. Not waiting, he climbed the ladder into the plane.
Ethan smiled like a schoolboy at recess. “Thank you Jarvin. It is an exciting moment. The very thought of reshaping time is momentous. I am thankful to be a part of this amazing experiment. Again…”
Felix cut him off. “We need to get going.”
“Yes, of course.” He shook Jarvin’s hand, “Thank you for this opportunity.” Then he climbed into the plane.
The plane hummed to life after the canopies were closed. Their makeshift control tower, a small two-story shed packed full of state-of-the-art equipment, radioed the all-clear. The engines vibrated as they lifted the plane higher in the sky.
Felix cringed. Surely someone would hear them. He didn’t like early morning flights. People would be asleep or too tired to look if they heard a sound at night, but during the daylight, all they had to do was turn their head that direction.
The scattered farmland lay below them. Jarvin had told them not to worry. “Farmers are too busy to worry about planes.” It didn’t help. He still felt very exposed.
He quickly brought the plane to a higher altitude than normal, pointed it forward, and accelerated.
“Slow down there, jet jockey,” Ethan complained from the back seat.
“Set the Vmax drive and get us out of this century,” Felix barked back.
Ethan mumbled a, “Yes, Sir,” as he worked the controls. Then in a cheerier tone, he said, “1970, here we come.”
The two men were back at her door. She opened reluctantly. “No flowers.”
The taller one shook his head. “Flowers or no flowers, we can’t wait. We’re going in.”
“But he said he would send flowers.”
Both men turned and walked away without answering.
Jarvin Musktel slept soundly that night, a thing he did rarely, but he could finally relax. The mission had gone off without a hitch, despite knowing there was a mole somewhere. The barrel of a pistol against his temple woke him with a start. “What?”
“Don’t move,” said the gruff voice.
Jarvin glanced sideways at his wife. Another man stood by her bedside but hadn’t woken her. He hissed, “What do you want?”
“Get up. We need to talk.”
His wife opened her eyes, but before she could move, she had a gloved hand clapped over her mouth and a pistol pointed at her face. “Not one sound, or you die right here and now, do you understand?”
Wide-eyed, she nodded at the man standing over her. He slowly moved his hand.
“The other man motioned Jarvin into the next room. “You, come with me. She stays here.”
They walked over to the kitchen, where two more men were waiting for them.
The taller one smiled as he entered the room. “Jarvin Musktel, I’m Special Agent Gardner of the FBI. Please sit down.” He pulled out one of the kitchen chairs, but Jarvin shook his head.
The man with a gun pushed him down into it anyway. “That was not a request. That was an order.”
“What do you want? This is an illegal kidnapping. You can’t do this,” Jarvin blurted out.
“It seems that the rules have changed.” Gardner’s smile disappeared. “When the CIA starts killing FBI agents, then all bets are off the table. According to our director, we now have an open season on you and your men. Tell me, sir, where is the Vmax3 plane?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Gardner called out to the man in the other room, “John.”
A shot rang out. His wife screamed.
Jarvin stood up and lunged for Gardner. The other man intercepted him. They sprawled across the floor. Jarvin trying to get up, but the third man in the room helped hold him down.
After a few minutes, Jarvin was handcuffed and thrown back onto the chair, his legs panduited to the chair legs.
“Let’s try this again. Where is the Vamx3 plane?” Gardner had stood there calmly even when the fight was taking place.
Jarvin could hear his wife’s whimpers from the other room. “It’s at the Gilman property. A CIA base of operations. You’re too late. The mission has started already. The plane took off yesterday morning.”
Gardner’s eyes widened. “Let’s go,” he yelled, and two men followed him out the door.
The other one shot Jarvin, then fled.
Gardner sat in the forest, close enough to see the gate but still not be spotted by those inside the fence. A drone hovered overhead. Its silent motors on gray paint made it particularly difficult to spot on this cloudy day.
The armored vehicle idled beside the road. It sat next to the command post. Gardner walked back down the road and to the command post. Two men watched the monitors intently. “What do we have?”
The one monitoring the drone looked up. “Low security. Four armed guards and a half a dozen technicians. It looks as though they haven’t been alerted.”
“Go in.”
The armored vehicle revved its engine and accelerated rapidly, crashing through the gate. Bullets flew from all directions, pinging off the truck.
“It’s a trap. They were waiting for us. Call in more men and drones,” Gardner screamed through his microphone.
Five military drones appeared overhead. The armored truck tried to back out, but it was hit with an RPG and blew up. Men dashed out of the back, only to be cut down.
The drones let loose their missiles. Explosions erupted all through the base almost simultaneously. The control room burst into flame. Men on fire ran out, desperate to get away. Two more armored vehicles rushed through the gate and disgorged more men.
A few minutes later, an agent climbed inside the command post. “Sir, they’re all dead. The base is ours.”
“How many were there?”
“Twenty.”
Garner shook his head. “And how many did we lose?”
“The eight in the first truck are all dead, four others wounded. It doesn’t matter. When we get the plane, we’ll change the timeline. They’ll all be alive again soon.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Issaquah, Washington
1970
The plane set down in a clearing next to where the second Vmax3 airplane was discovered. Felix and Ethan didn’t know the timeline as to when it had originally crashed but knew an approximate. They both had machine pistols.
Crawling over the hill, the two men spied out the clearing where Vmax number two was supposed to be. It wasn’t there.
“Well, I guess you’re waiting here for it,” Felix smiled.
“It could be years,” Ethan protested. He knew Felix was relishing the thought of leaving him.
“Nonsense, they find the plane in six months. It sat here for a few months before being discovered. It should be any day now.”
“But,” was all Ethan could get out.
Felix marched back up to the plane, handed Ethen the mission bag, and with a wave, he took off.
Sitting down in a dejected heap, Ethan looked through his package. He had the explosives to blow up the plane, the gun, the information to give back to Jarvin, and enough 70s era cash to last him months. All he needed was a plane to blow up. How does he know when to pick me up? The thought brought shivers down his spine.
After sitting there for hours, he decided to walk into the nearest town. He checked into a cheap motel, stowed his bag under the bed, and walked over to grab some food. All he could find was a restaurant bar, combination on the edge of town. Walking in, he was met with a cloud of
smoke. Everyone in the place seemed to have a lit cigarette.
Coughing a little as he made his way to a table, he sat down. The waitress, without a word, dropped off a menu. He perused it, but didn’t even know what some of this stuff was. Chicken a la King? It didn’t sound edible, so he ordered a hamburger instead.
A woman sat herself down at his table. “I thought I knew every patron in this bar, but I ain’t never seen you before.” She had dirty blonde hair with a nice complexion and smile.
“I’m only passing through.” He took another bite of his hamburger.
She motioned to the nearest waitress, “Emma, we’ll have two beers here.”
“Sure, Annie.”
“I’m Annie Harris. What’s your name, Honey?”
“Ethan.”
“Ethan, that’s a funny sounded name. I ain’t never met an Ethan before. You got a last name, Ethan?”
“Fields.”
“You one of the Fields from Sammamish Plateau?”
“No, never heard of the place. I’m from Seattle.” He leaned back in his seat when the beers came and took a sip. “You?”
“Oh, big city folk. You got a girl?”
“Not in this…” He caught himself and let out an embarrassed laugh.
She folded her arms, “Were you going to say, not in this town?”
He laughed louder. “No. I was going to say, not in this century.”
She giggled. “You are a strange one. What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, I’m not from around here, time-wise.” He took a long draw from his beer. “I’m from the future. I’ve come to destroy a time machine.”
She stared at him for a minute. “Now I’ve heard everything.” Her forehead creased. “You’re here to destroy a time machine? That don’t make any sense. Didn’t you have to come in a time machine? Now you’re going to destroy it? I’m confused.”
“I have a motel room next door. Perhaps I can explain it to you. Might take all night.”
