Freddy Anderson’s Home: Book 1 (14 page)

Chapter 23
General Troubles

P
hase two took four weeks, and I was now almost ready for phase three. I had ordered some things via the Internet several weeks before, and I called the lieutenant to check if my order had arrived. She advised me that I had eight very large generators and several trucks full of cable and other equipment; it had arrived a week ago. I let her know I was coming out the next day and that I would come to the base first.

I next called the inn and asked Mrs. Crain if they had two rooms for a couple of nights. I needed to rest and could think of no better place to do it.

She said, “Of course we have room for you, and we’re all glad to have you stay with us again.” I also asked if I could do my laundry there, as I didn’t have the facilities for that yet. I didn’t want to admit that I had forgotten to allow for this in my plans. “The best laid plans of mice and men,” as my father used to say. I did reserve one set of clothes, and I planned to wear them tomorrow. She said she would be glad to take care of it for me. I also called the stores and made some purchases, including some furniture. I loaded everything on the extra skid and went to bed.

The next morning, I ate some cereal—dry, as I’d drunk all the milk in the first week. Then I climbed on my skid and headed for the base. I called into the quarterdeck to let them know that I was coming out and would land at the barracks. When I started my descent on the base side of the mountain, I could see the lieutenant in a small helicopter, heading my way. When she was close, she motioned for me to slow down and get on the phone, so I came to a stop and called her cell number.

“Hi, Susan. What’s up? Why the escort?”

“Freddy, you made a big splash with the general. He knows you were the one who placed those bars on his front lawn.”

“I figured I was spotted. I’m not the expert at this like you are. They shot at me! Did you know that?”

“Yes, I did, and so does the admiral. He’s looking at replacing our team if we can’t keep a better watch on you.”

“Oops, sorry.”

“Not a problem, but the general found out you’re coming, and he’s here now. He wants to have a talk with you.”

“What if I don’t want to see him?”

“That’s your right; he has no proof that you were the one who placed those bars on the lawn. And he’s not upset about what you did. He’s ecstatic about it.”

“He should be, but … why is he?”

“Those bars can be burned for fuel. He had his people analyze them, and they discovered that the bars are no longer hazardous waste; they’re solid materials. They tried several ways to get rid of them, but when they set them on fire, the energy output was remarkable.”

“Of course it was, and I’ll bet that the bars lasted a long time too.”

“Each bar burned for days. Freddy, they gave off enough heat to run a generator at full output—six thousand kilowatts for two days—before having to add another.”

“Really? My estimates were somewhat better than that. If he can’t use them right, do you think he’d give them back?”

She laughed. “I take it that you knew.”

“Yes, but I need to patent the process and the unit’s ability. So why did you come out here to warn me if the general isn’t angry at me?”

“After hearing that they shot at you, the admiral did not want you to see the general’s car and staff and decide to skip this visit. He sent me out here to pave the way, so to speak. Both of them are interested in the use of the antigravity disks and the scanner. Besides, calling me once a week is not enough to help my reports. You are supposed to show up when we do maintenance on the radar. Where were you?”

“Very busy, that’s where. The admiral and I can talk about my equipment later. I fully intend to ask him to permit me to place a scanning system in his radar tower, and of course, I will supply him with the necessary equipment to use it, but I’m not ready for that. He still has a leak, doesn’t he?”

“No, the leak was locked down. I’m confident that there is no more leak.”

“How did the general find out that I was coming? Only your group knew. What’s going on?”

“Freddy, let’s talk about it later.”

“Very well, but we definitely need to talk about this. Last one to the base is a rotten egg.”

“You’re on.” She started heading that way, so I dropped down to fifty feet and flew well below her before I left her behind. I was at the barracks three minutes before she landed and eight minutes before she got there. In fact, I already had the car loaded with my dirty laundry before she showed up.

Smiling and with a little laugh in my voice, I said, “Hi, Lieutenant, nice to see you.”

“I’m glad you were tied down, Freddy. I saw you almost fall out. You must be more careful—that’s an order!” She was smiling, so I took it in the fun way it was meant.

I snapped to attention and saluted, saying, “Yes, ma’am.”

The girls on the team were all laughing. I saw that the general’s spy, Sgt. Davies, was still with the team. The lieutenant and I had a lot to talk about. I was getting hugs from everyone, and that was nice, but they all stopped when the watch pointed out that the admiral’s car, the general’s limo, and two jeeps of army personnel had appeared in the distance. It was just like them to ruin a good reunion. I looked at the lieutenant and said, “Just in case, I would like it made very clear that I’m being protected and that the general won’t be touching me.”

“Got it.” She made a tiny hand signal and everyone scrambled. “Master Chief, you’re with me.” The master chief loaded and cocked her sidearm, and then she took two knives out from somewhere under her clothing and placed them in full view. Before the cars pulled up, there were SEALs on both flanks, some in the barracks, and some across the street in what had to be a position designed to place the army in a crossfire. The rest of the team I could not see, although I knew they were there. I knew where they were, but I didn’t think it was right to give their position away by turning my head to look.

When the admiral’s car drove up, the lieutenant went over to it and opened the door. She whispered to the admiral, and he smiled. “Thanks for the warning, Lieutenant. Your orders stand. Your team is to watch and protect. Those orders come from the president of the United States directly to you. The general and I could not revoke them, even if we wanted to, and I don’t. If the general pulls something, shoot him. Do us a favor, though, and try for a leg or something fixable, will you? It would look bad if we killed the SOB on navy property. Now, let’s go see the boy.” They walked toward me.

“Hello, Dr. Anderson.”

“Hello, Admiral, sir.”

“You’ve been out in the canyon for some time. How’s the preparation coming along?”

“Fairly well, actually. I’m almost ready to pick up the house I’m having built. It’s not ready yet, but I’ll need to do an inspection on it soon, probably next week.”

By that time, the general was getting out of his big black limousine. I went telepathic instantly, all shields up and ready. The general walked up to us and put his hand out, saying, “So this is Freddy.” He pulled his hand back very quickly when the master chief was suddenly between us, and her facial expression said,
D
on’t!

He backed up a little and looked around. He noticed the SEALs and saw that they were armed. Even though they looked like they were lounging, he knew better. His mind sized up the situation quickly, and he wondered where the other SEALs were. He saw Sgt. Nettie Davies but kept his mind off her, as he did not want to give her away. The army personnel in the jeeps were getting fidgety and started fingering their weapons, so the lieutenant told the general, “Sir, call off those men. I would hate to have to report to the president that we had a massacre here.”

He motioned for them to stand down. “Why the tight security, Lieutenant?”

I was impressed with her acting. She actually blushed when she said, “We have a leak, sir, and I don’t have it locked down yet. The orders are to protect Dr. Anderson at all costs.”

“And you interpret those orders to mean killing my men if they start something?” he said with a sneer.

“No, sir, I interpret them to mean taking them and you out, if necessary, to maintain security. They don’t need to start anything.” She said this with such a flat, matter-of-fact tone that the general stopped thinking about his men and started worrying about himself. He started sweating.

“Lieutenant, this is a peaceful visit. The kid did something that I would like to talk to him about, that’s all.”

“Then let’s move inside out of the sun and talk, if that’s all right with you, Dr. Anderson.”

“Fine, Lieutenant, ma’am.” I took her hand and let her lead me inside. We went right past the quarterdeck. The general and the admiral were stopped, and their ID cards were checked. The two men with the general were not allowed to pass. The master chief purposely picked the smallest SEAL, Petty Officer Donet, and instructed her to watch them.

“Orders, Master Chief?”

“If they start anything, take them out. We need an example for the others, so make it especially bloody.” She smiled a wicked smile and stood only three feet from them. They left quickly, abandoning their general.

The lieutenant, the admiral, the general, and the master chief were the only ones in the lounge with me. The master chief stood right behind the general. The lieutenant sat to my left and the admiral to my right, around a small table.

I started the conversation. “General, you wanted to talk with me. I am sorry for the inconvenience of this security, but I don’t trust you.” His thoughts were, “
And well you shoul
dn’t.”

“Well, Freddy, thanks to you I seem to be the proud owner of several hundred bars of hazardous waste.”

“First of all, General, I have not given you permission to call me by my first name, so please address me more appropriately. Second, you already owned the material; I just put it into a more useful form and placed it at your disposal. I thought I was doing you a favor, yet you fired a weapon at me. If you want me to take the bars back, I would be more than happy to do so. Bars like that are very expensive, and I can think of several applications for their use. I initially thought about keeping the material, but that would be stealing because it belonged to the army when it was dumped, and I’m not a thief.”

His quickly made up a plausible story. “First, you were piloting an unregistered aircraft over an army base at night, which is certainly provocation enough to warrant gunfire. Second, you did not file a flight plan. Third, it was the middle of the night.

The lieutenant interjected, “Dr. Anderson does not look at time like we do, sir. It was simply the most convenient time for him. In fact, he called me at midnight to let me know that he was going to pay you a visit.”

“Why didn’t you contact us and let us know, Dr. Anderson?”

“I did call you, General, but I got your answering machine. I also waved at the man who yelled hello to me, but I was too far away to hear what he was saying, although I’m sure he saw me. I would have talked to someone earlier, but no one was around. Your security is very lax, you know. Why did your men shoot at me?”

The general took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. “Now I understand why the lieutenant has such tight security while I’m around, Dr. Anderson. We had no idea who it was that got past our security, onto our base, dropped off what could have been a bomb, and then flew off without making any sound. The guards shot into the air to give warning, not to shoot you. At least, that’s what they told me.”

“Really? Then please explain the hole in my skid. I doubt your people are such bad shots.” I took out my little antigravity device and turned it on.

The general looked at it and asked, “What’s that supposed to be?”

The lieutenant answered. “General, sir. That is a lie detector.”

“It works?”

“Yes, sir, it does. I tried to fool it and could not. Lie, and see what happens.”

“I don’t want the bars.” The needle nearly jumped off the scale.

“I would think you would want them, General. They’re a great fuel resource.”

“I found that out, Dr. Anderson. Please, the next time you want to give me a present, give us some warning. We only found out by accident.”

“You didn’t toss any in a standard burner, did you?”

“Yes, we did.”

“Did the burner melt down?”

“Exactly.”

“That’s my fault. Next time, I’ll make a little more effort to contact you. It’s just that I get carried away when I’m working, and I don’t think about all the little possibilities, like your not wanting unannounced visitors.”

“Good. I’m glad we have that all straight. We saw you using your antigravity disks … very impressive. It took a heavy-duty forklift just to pick up one bar. It has also come to my attention that you have something called a ‘scanner,’ and now this ‘lie detector’ also?”

I shot the admiral a dirty look. “I do, but they are not ready for use at this time. The admiral and I have an agreement that I can test them on his base, with his prior approval, of course.”

The general thought,
Lucky man. Too bad one of my plants was discov
ered.

I asked, “General, are you responsible for the leak on this base?” The lieutenant smiled, and so did the master chief. The general was not smiling.

“I am. The lieutenant caught my plant just two weeks ago.”

He was so happy that he was able to scurry around the subject that I got upset and wanted to ask if he had any others. I touched the lieutenant’s mind and knew she hoped I would not expose the sergeant, so I let it drop.

“Dr. Anderson, I would like to extend an invitation for you to test anything you want on my base. Just ask.”

I perked up and smiled, acting really happy, “Lieutenant, can I please? Oh, can I?”

The lieutenant was surprised and asked, “What do you need to test?”

“I invented this small thermonuclear device, and if I can get the parts, I was planning to test it over the ocean, but that would start a major tidal wave. There will be no radiation. It would be much better if I tried it on land first. His base is just about the right size. We could move everyone away for about fifty miles, and I could see if my theory works. Or we could just leave them there and make it a big surprise.”