"How are things in Washington, Jack?"
"All I know is that the Chairman wants you up here to take a briefing. I have no idea from who or what it's about."
Ted thought that the exec seemed a little put out that he was excluded from something.
"What was the weather like when you walked into the Pentagon this morning?" Ted asked. At the same time he touched an icon on his computer screen and pulled up a weather map for the pre-entered route from Homestead to Andrews. His question was really a delaying tactic while he got a good picture of the weather. The words he heard on the phone confirmed what he saw on the screen. "Severe clear." the Chairman's exec said.
"Okay, I should be walking into your five-sided building in about four hours. Can you setup this mysterious briefing for about 1400 or 1500?"
"Consider it done."
"Thanks, Jack." Ted said and ended the call. Ted knew that if he hadn't had one more star than Peterson, the Executive Officer to the Chairman would have simply hung up on him. The Chairman had once told Ted that they had given him two stars so he could at least get through on the phone. Ted often suspected it was true.
Ted raised his voice, "Missus Marsh?".
"Yes, General?" she replied from the outer office.
"Please call base operations and have them pull out my jet. Ask maintenance control to have a crew chief check it out for a departure in forty five minutes. Do you know where Sally is?"
"If you touch that special icon on your screen you'll see that she is in her office." was the reply. Ted knew that he could see the location of every person in the building right on his screen, but it made him uncomfortable. It was like snooping. He picked up the phone and dialed two digits.
When she answered, he said, "Hey, Sal. I need to get changed into a flight suite and run up to DC. I know that you can't resist me in my flight suite.Want to come over to the office?" He heard Sally chuckle and say, "Fighter pilots." Then, she hung up the phone.
Instead of getting changed right away, he clicked through a program that filed a flight plan with the FAA. He asked for direct routing and the program computed his route, time, and fuel burn. The direct route was a little over 900 miles, so he should have time and fuel to spare. The longest part of the trip might be driving in the car getting from Andrews to the Pentagon. As he finished the flight plan request, Sally entered his office.
"Hey," he said. "The Puzzle Palace called. Somebody has something they want to talk about and they want to do it face-to-face."
"Something that they don't trust to the best encryption equipment that money can buy?" she replied.
"Is that spoken as an electrical engineer or an Air Force wife?" he asked as he took off his low quarter shoes. .
"You're flying yourself, of course?" she asked while ignoring his question.
"That's why it's there." he replied. He pulled his desert camouflage pattern ABU wheeled deployment bag out of the closet, pulled his flight boots out of the bag, and threw in his low quarter shoes.
Sally enjoyed flying in light private aviation airplanes with Ted, but she wasn't thrilled about him flying that white jet alone. He tried to convince her that because of its power and two closely spaced engines it was actually safer than a private aircraft, but to her it was a motorcycle that flew and was every bit as dangerous as the motorcycle she had gotten him to sell more than a dozen years ago.
"Do you have everything you need in there?" she asked. "Well," he replied, "not everything."
"When you get back safely flyboy, then you'll get everything you need."
"Now, that's a promise I'll make you keep." he said. "Drive me to the hangar?" He raised his voice again, "Oh, Missus Marsh, can you get me a car at Andrews?"
"Already done. Just let Andrews approach control know that you aren't some second lieutenant lost on a training flight and they should park you by the car." Sally grinned at him. He had known that his secretary and his wife would be in collusion. In fact, he counted on it.
INTELLIGENCE WARNING
Wednesday, June 15, 201 1
1400 Eastern
The Pentagon
Washington, DC
Excerpt from the Personal Narrative
of Major General Ted Arthurs (USAF Ret)
Recorded July 2015
CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET /TA
". . . . .
the intelligence community did good work for us, even if they didn't know why. We kept them out beyond arm's reach because we didn't want them getting curious. Honestly, I think the not-knowing kept them more engaged than if they had been fully briefed on the activities of The Project."
His flight into Andrews from Homestead was fast and beautiful. Because Andrews approach control took him on a straight in approach on runway 01 left, he practically never had to even change the airplane's heading more than a few degrees after he made his left turn out of Homestead. He taxied to the west ramp, left the jet outside a hangar, completed some paperwork for the transient aircraft handling crew, and pulled out his bag. In the hangar bathroom he changed into a civilian shirt, tie, jacket, and slacks from his bag. He was in a government car on the way to the Pentagon just a few minutes after landing.
At the Pentagon he knew the drill. He asked the driver to drop him at the bus entrance. There, he was able to check his bag without the hassle of having it inspected. He walked through security with practically nothing but his billfold in his pocket and his access badge around his neck. Experience had proven that it was the easiest way to get into the building.
When he entered the JCS area he found Brigadier General Peterson sitting at his desk, guarding the entrance to the Chairman's office space. "They'll be here in a few minutes." Peterson said. "Do you mind waiting in conference room C?"
The conference room was small and the chairs were comfortable, so Arthurs was just on the edge of a snooze when the door opened. He rose to his feet. Peterson escorted two men. They were dressed in off-the-rack suits with no pattern in the fabric favored by mid-level bureaucrats. "Gentlemen, this man is authorized to take your briefing." was all Peterson said. He turned and closed the door on the way out.
Ted stood and smiled, but he didn't offer his hand. "The last time we did this it was with Mathew, Mark, and Luke. So I guess this time I'm John. Does that make you Cain and Able?"
Both men smiled. "Actually", the older one said, "our names really are Jan and Michael. " Michael was about forty-five and somehow looked like a used car salesman. Jan looked like, and probably was, a PhD in a non-scientific area
who opted for government service instead of working his way through the treadmill of a university career.
"A pleasure." Ted said. He wasn't about to give them any lead into who he was or why he was interested in their information. He wasn't going to shake hands and give them some skin cells for a DNA sample either. "Thank you for coming over." he said.
The older one started, "The intelligence tasking from the President is to report any indications we find of experimentation with the Bose-Einstein Condensate outside of traditional academia or any experimentation anywhere at high levels of power."
Arthurs nodded. He had received this kind of briefing twice before. Both times they involved companies looking for new semiconductor materials and manufacturing techniques using the Condensate at zero degrees Kelvin. This time, he was a bit concerned that they had somehow tripped on the Project's new backup facility in Nevada.
"Under this protocol we are to report what we find, but without revealing sources."
Arthurs nodded again. This was a new twist. The intelligence sources before had been pretty much open, this one must be sensitive. The older visitor mirrored the nod Arthurs gave him and sat back. He gestured at the younger man to proceed. The kid, he must have been 25, opened a book and slid it across the table. Arthurs saw what looked to him like a Google Earth map. Arthurs kept his hands in his lap and tried to not even breathe on the book.
"This is the island of Hokkaido in Northern Japan." The kid took a pen from his pocket and used it as a pointer and turned a page. On this road, outside of the town of Tobetsu, there is a mountain top radar site that was built by the US Army right after World War II." He turned the page to pictures of the radar site. These new photos had excellent quality.
"Within the last six months, crews from the regional power company have installed new power feeders directly from the nuclear power plant in the north of the Island. These are big feeders. They are much larger than are needed by the radar site. They terminate in a new power substation that was built on the site."
Ted never before knew what it meant to say that the hair stood up on the back of his neck. He felt it now. This was exactly what they had done at Homestead. The picture he was looking at of the feeders and substation could have been taken at Homestead. He rose out of his chair. The two men looked at him curiously, but he motioned them to continue.
"Four weeks ago, three physicists were added to the staff at Hokkaido University. This is a good university, but not a prestigious university in Japan. It's best known for its veterinary school, not its physics department." Ted nodded again.
"Overall, Hokkaido has a negative population growth that outpaces the rest of Japan. Therefore, it seemed unusual that these gentlemen would leave their prestigious universities to come to Hokkaido. It seems even more
unusual because all three appear to be making their homes in Tobetsu. This is a nice little town, but it's a farming town. Sapporo city is where the university is and it's where the action is."
"But Tobetsu is near the site with the new power feeders?" Arthurs asked.
The younger man nodded. "Yes. The town is at the bottom of a winding road that goes up to the site. The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force officers assigned to the site traditionally live in the town." Arthurs nodded and the briefer continued.
"Finally, all three of these gentlemen have authored or co-authored papers, which have been openly published, on the Bose-Einstein Condensate. All of these things hit our correlation center, bells rang, and here we are."
Arthurs sat back in the chair and involuntarily hugged himself. "Let's go back." he said and then repeated. "Let's go back to the power feeders. Do it all again."
An hour later, Ted was alone in the conference room. He found himself staring at the wall. He wished Sally was there. But, he figured he would do what she would do, leave a note for the boss.
He went to the outer office and begged two envelopes and a couple of pieces of paper. Writing with a pen, in about four bullet points he sketched out the proposition that someone in Japan was going to engage in time shift actions. On the second sheet he wrote out four tasks for the intelligence fusion group. These would have to go as taskings
from the JCS Chairman to the DIA and the CIA. The tasks included conducting surveillance of the three professors, attempting to get information on any facility being built or modified at the radar site on the mountain, finding who else had moved to Tobetsu from outside in the past year, and creating an analysis of the power players in the Japanese government and their goals. He was sure there were more things he should have them work on, but these seemed the most important.
He classified the two hand written notes, sealed the pages in an envelope with the proper Top Secret / TA markings, and then sealed that into a new envelope marked "Chairman's Eyes Only". "That ought to keep out prying eyes." he said to himself.
He asked for the use of a secure phone, called his office, and asked Mrs. March to get Sally to the secure instrument. After she came on the line, he said, "Hey girl. I think I need to go to Nevada tomorrow."
Sally was a little surprised. "Something you can't do electronically?" she asked.
"There are some things that aren't as good as face-to-face." he replied. His tone was playful.
She blew out air in a rude noise. "Are you going to see Bill, Fred, or Jose?" Obviously, she was trying to get some idea of the problem area.
"Bill and Fred, absolutely. Probably not Jose." he replied.
"Okay." she said. "Should I tell Jose you're coming?"
"Yes, please do. But, tell him I'm just coming in to see Bill and Fred regarding something that has nothing to do with the backup site. I don't want him to think I'm already stomping on his turf."
"I'll call him right away and ask him to have Bill and Fred pick you up at Nellis. How long do you think you'll stay out there?
"I'd like to get back tomorrow. But, out to Nevada and then down to Florida is probably too much flying for the day. So, day after tomorrow."
"Ah, a night in Vegas, eh?"
"You know what they say about Vegas."
"Yeah, and you know what I say, just don't bring home anything I can't wear!"
He promised to call the kids when he was settled in the transient quarters at Andrews.
DO WE CARE?
Thursday, June 16, 201 1
0800 Pacific
Airborne Across the USA
Excerpt from the Personal Narrative
of Major General Ted Arthurs (USAF Ret)
Recorded July 2015
CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET /TA
". . . . . Bill
and Fred were my advisors and brain trust. Mainly, I was trying to figure out how excited to get about the Japanese developing a time displacement capability. I needed perspective."
Ted's flight computer told him that it was 2100 miles from Andrews AFB in Maryland to Nellis AFB in Nevada. With prevailing headwinds, he would have empty fuel tanks and an over-full bladder if he tried to do it in one hop. Whiteman AFB in Missouri was right in his line of flight, but they had B-2s out of there and probably had augmented security and restrictions that he didn't want to work through. Besides, they might not have the "huffer", the supply of compressed air he would need to get his jet started again.
McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas was one place he wanted to visit. He knew they had plenty of