“Of course, all good Air Force officers drive Porches. Now get in the car and let’s get going.”
“Alright, alright, I’m getting in.” The two of them broke out laughing together. Oria was just as excited about the trip as was Karen. He knew it was important that he kept focused on the mission, but being around Karen, created a new type of energy inside of him. Somehow, he felt more alive when Karen was around. Oria was not accustomed to the feeling of love.
It was 5:30PM when they finally hit the road in the middle of Friday night Washington rush hour. Karen headed towards I-395 and New York Ave. As usual for that time of evening, New York Ave. was essentially a long narrow parking lot. It took almost an hour and a half just to get to Route 50. Once through the city, they had a short spurt of near highway speeds until they got close to Annapolis and the typical Bay Bridge traffic jam.
It was close to 7:30PM when Karen drove over the Bay Bridge and hit some open road just before reaching Cambridge. Karen pushed down on the accelerator as the power surged through her Carrera and the car approached 80MPH in a 50MPH speed zone. Karen kept a sharp lookout for cops while continuously monitoring her radar detector. Oria was amused as he saw Karen’s focus drift towards driving and evading speed traps.
“Karen, I didn’t realize driving fast was such a challenge.”
“Oh shut up. I’m trying to make up for lost time and not get a ticket.”
“What is it they use to measure your speed?”
“Geez, for someone who is so up on high-tech, you sure are ignorant of some basic things.”
“I’ve been gone for a while.”
“You must have been gone for a long while. They’ve used radar devices
for years to catch speeders. Now they have a new device that uses a laser and measures the Doppler Effect to determine speed.”
“The Doppler Effect? What’s that?”
“You know, measuring distance and speed by measuring the wave length of the light bounced off the target car.”
“Oh. That would be a little harder to defeat than radar.”
“You can say that again. This little detector gives you at most a few seconds warning of a speed trap. Sometimes it doesn’t even pick up the signal.”
“Why don’t you use some of your stealth technology?”
“That’s classified stuff. Even if it would work, there is no way DOD would let people use it for personal use, like breaking the law.”
“I guess not. That looks like the Choptank we’re coming up on.” On seeing the Choptank, Oria felt nostalgic as he thought of his early childhood home.
“On the other side are some fast food joints where we can grab a bite to eat.”
“Do you mind if we stop at that visitor’s center just on the other side.”
“No, if you must. However, I bet it’s closed.”
“That’s all right. I’d just like to stop there and look out over the water. I have many good memories of this river.”
“That’s right. You said you were from somewhere near the Choptank.”
Karen turned right into the visitor center immediately after crossing the Choptank River. It had several walkways leading out to the river,
all with closed signs as Karen predicted. Oria proceeded undeterred.
“Thanks Karen, I’ll just be a moment. All I want is to look out over the river.”
“No problem. I’ll wait for you here.”
Oria got out of the car and headed towards the river. Martello, flying above in a helicopter, saw Oria temporarily leave the car. He used the moment to beep Karen’s communicator.
Karen picked up the small device and said, “Yes Captain, what do you want?”
“Just checking in, I see your guest has taken leave.”
“Very observant, he just wants a short moment to look out over the river. He said he has good memories of this river.”
“By the way, our listening devices haven’t picked up any of your conversation.”
“Captain, you never said that you planted listening devices in my car.” Once again, Karen fumed at Martello’s sneakiness.
“Oh, I thought you knew. That’s right, I just told you of the tracking devices. At any rate, the listening device is not working. Do you know anything about that?”
“No, seeing as I never knew that you bugged my car in the first place!”
“It’s located just under your seat on the right.”
Karen reached under her seat and located the bug. It appeared to be in good working order.
“Captain, I see nothing wrong with this device. Are you sure the problem isn’t on your end?”
“I’ve checked out the equipment several times already. It worked on your ride home. It only stopped working moments after Oria joined you.”
“That’s interesting, anything else?” Karen thought Martello sure was a total pain in the neck.
“No. Just keep in touch.”
“Captain, I am in charge of this mission. I will keep you posted as I determine is needed.”
“Very well Major.”
While Karen was busy with the Captain, Oria walked to the end of the last walkway near the river. He stood for a moment absorbing the view. He looked towards the bridge and the other side of Rt. 50. Sure enough, Peter and Hoss were standing near a small building just on the other side of 50. Oria gave them the all’s well signal and then signaled them to meet him in Ocean City.
Next Oria called Captain Borella on board the Hercules.
“Good evening Borella. So far everything is going according to plan.”
“Yes and a good evening to you Oria. You know they’re using equipment to tail you. They’re using a GPS system to keep tabs on where everyone is located as well as some communication devices. Everything connects to a mission computer where they are running this campaign like a battle. It’s the most advanced technology that they have available on Earth. It uses a simple encryption routine, at least from our perspective, that can’t be broken or jammed by any known Earth technology.”
“Excellent. This is good news. I suspected they would set up a big operation to tail me. However, I wasn’t expecting them to use their best stuff, at least not yet.”
“They have some hot-shot junior officer running the tail and investigation. He has some interesting connections in various parts of the Pentagon. By the way, this hotshot has it out for Karen. His name is Martello and he’s a real piece of work.”
“Ah. We can use his enthusiasm and vendetta with Karen against him.”
“Alright Oria, I can tell you’re developing a strategy. Do you care to share it with me?”
“Sure. Let’s disable their tracking and COM systems. Also, let’s create a small stealth shield around Karen’s car. I’ll get her to drive faster and slip through any speed traps. Just make sure no matter what devices they use to measure speed that they don’t work. Our tail will have fun trying to keep
up with us. When we get through Salisbury, have the stealth shield also block visible light for about 5 minutes. That should catch the hot-shot Captain’s attention.”
“Aye, you sure have a devious mind Oria. Anything else I can do for you?”
“No, I think that will do for now.”
Oria returned to the car ready for dinner and an interesting remainder of the trip. When he climbed back into the car, Karen drove them to the McDonald’s just down the road on the right. They drove through the drive-thru and continued back out to 50 East.
Once the Porsche left Cambridge, the traffic cleared enough for Karen to get up to 80MPH again. Oria watched Karen as she again focused intensely on her driving.
“Karen, how fast can this car go?”
“It’s pretty fast. I’m told it can get up to 160MPH but I’ve only taken to about 120MPH.”
“What’s that feel like?”
“What, you want me to go faster?”
“Sure, you have that detector.”
“Yes, but they have laser detectors and helicopters. There’s no way that I can stop in time to avoid detection.”
“What if I told you that I have a device in my bag which will foil their stuff?”
“Yeah right and my car has stealth technology. What kind of a device? Are you sure?”
“Really, this device will work. Take it up to 120 or 130, unless you can’t handle that speed on this road?”
“I can handle the speed. Look, I could lose my job if I am caught speeding that fast. That would be the final blow on this crappy day that I’ve had so far.”
“You won’t get caught. Besides, I’m sure Bronson is more interested in me than firing you from your job for speeding.”
“You know General Bronson?” Oria’s last comment surprised Karen. She wasn’t sure what he knew about her official involvement. Then she had a sinking feeling in her stomach, what if Oria was just playing her and not really interested in her. How could she have allowed herself to get so emotionally involved? Question after question rolled through her head.
“I don’t know him. Look, I didn’t mean to cause you distress. If circumstances were different, I’d tell you more.”
“Oria, who are you and what do you want? This is not fair. You have to be able to tell me something!” Karen’s knuckles turned white as she gripped the steering wheel while arguing with Oria. She tried to concentrate on her driving.
“Karen, I really want to, the stakes are too high and I don’t want to compromise your position in the Air Force.”
“What do you mean ‘compromise me’?” Karen felt a surge of anger. Was Oria manipulating her? Was she not already too involved and in over her head?
“The timing’s not right. My intention is to help the United States; you’ll have to trust me.”
“Trust you?” asked Karen as she let off the accelerator a bit. “So your interest in me is purely professional?”
“Karen, my interest in you started out as a personal interest.
It’s just coincidence our professional lives overlap. I am falling in love with you. As it is, I probably have unwisely told you too much.”
The car was slowing down as Karen was processing what Oria told her. “Oria, I have to confess too, I’ve fallen in love with you too! “Ohmigosh, the car is bugged.”
Oria chuckled “Yes, I know. Don’t worry about it though. I’ve blocked all outbound transmissions.”
“You what? So, that’s why they told me they
couldn’t hear anything. What else have you done, Oria?”
Oria laughed at Karen’s outburst. “Don’t worry Karen, you won’t get into trouble. Go ahead and accelerate to 120 or 130MPH.”
“What? You still want me to speed? Oria, if cops pull me over for speeding, you’re walking the rest of the way.”
“Karen, trust me! Go ahead, and let’s see how fast this baby can go. Besides, I know you’re dying to show off your superior driving skills, Miss Pilot!”
Karen and Oria shared a laugh as she pressed hard on the accelerator with the Porsche quickly accelerating to 130MPH. The landscape flew by as Karen occasionally had to switch lanes to get around slower traffic.
Martello’s two agents were tailing Karen’s Porsche in a standard issue government sedan. When Karen accelerated to 130MPH
, they attempted to follow her. The driver, Sergeant Dan Smith, attempted to keep up. The sedan shuddered as it hit 90MPH. Dan grumbled as he tried to nurse even more out of his sluggish car in a vain effort to keep up with Karen. He looked at Sergeant Susan Jenkins seated next to him.
“I don’t know what’s got into the Major. She knows we’re following in a slower sedan. She must be going way over 100MPH.”
“I don’t know Dan. I do know that Captain Jerk will have us for lunch if we lose her.”
At that moment, Karen spotted a speed trap. It was too late for her to slow down. She swore softly under her breath as she shot straight through and the cops didn’t even notice her. Sergeants Smith and Jenkins tailing from behind weren’t so lucky. The State Police immediately took off after
them.
Smith eased his car over to the shoulder and off the road where he waited for the state trooper to approach his window. The officer barked at him:
“Do you have any idea how fast you were going?”
Smith pulled out his military Police Id and showed it to the officer. “Yes sir, we are following a Porsche that just slipped by here traveling much faster than us.”
“Is that so? We’ve gotten a reading on every car that has passed here in the last hour and did not see any high speed Porsches.”
“You must have!” stammered Dan, “
They couldn’t have been more than a minute in front of us.”
“Sorry, you’ll have to come up with a better excuse than that. By the way, those military Id’s
; they don’t have any jurisdiction here. I’m going to have to ask you to slow down.”
A military helicopter landing directly behind the two cars interrupted the conversation. Martello jumped out fuming. He had just radioed mission control of their predicament and kept his communication device on. He yelled out to the trooper “What’s going on here? Officer, this is a matter of national emergency. I need to get my people headed back down the road.”
“Is that a fact?” asked the trooper. He walked over to Martello not liking the tone of Martello’s voice. The trooper started to get agitated. He radioed for backup. “Look, I don’t know who you people think you are, but you’re in the State of Maryland and you don’t have jurisdiction here nor permission to drive like morons on our roads.”