A Twist in Time (14 page)

Chapter  13:  "Look Back"  

Friday, November 6, 2009  0630  Eastern 

The Quarters of  Major Gen and Mrs. Ted Arthurs, Homestead, FL

Excerpt from the Personal Narrative of Mr. Ted Arthurs, PhD

Recorded May 2014

CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET/TA 

"Sometimes you do something even when you know you haven’t.  That is the really scary part.  You would think you’d get used to it, but you don’t.  That’s probably a good thing.”

When Ted’s alarm went off, he wasn’t asleep.  Both he and Sally had tossed and turned all night.  Sally returned to the Project the previous afternoon after signing both of their kids out of school.  The kids waited in his office until the Force Protection level dropped and Sally took them home.  The evening was quiet and now neither of them was sleeping well knowing the details of the Ft. Hood shootings.  They both wondered why The Project wasn’t allowed to save the lives of the servicemen in the Ft. Hood Soldier Readiness Center. 

After a quick shave and shower, Ted briefly debated going to the gym or heading right to the office.  With a sigh, he put on his workout clothes and gathered a uniform on a hangar.  He threw low quarter shoes, socks, and underwear into his gym bag, grabbed his computer bag, and headed down to see how he could help get the kids out the door. 

During breakfast they heard the latest radio reports of the Ft. Hood shooting.  A single shooter had killed thirteen and wounded thirty.  No one was sure why he had exited the facility and run into the guns of the responding civilian police officers.  It was almost as if something had frightened him into leaving the building.    

Ted frowned, went back to the bedroom, took off his gym clothes, exchanged them for his shoes, socks, and underwear in his bag, and put on his uniform. 

When he went back out to the kitchen, Sally said, “No gym?” 

“I’ll run this afternoon.  I want to go in and check on something.”

Sally shot him a glance and he nodded briefly.  They didn’t discuss mission business in front of the kids, but she sensed he had an idea. 

“Did Fred Landry say if he was coming in today?” Ted asked.

“He didn’t say when he called in, but it’s evening on his body clock.  I doubt that he’s been asleep much.” 

“I’ll call him on the way in.  Maybe I can keep him awake for a few hours.”

“Okay,” she said, “I’ll be in shortly. Maybe there’s some good news.” 

Ted punched up Fred Landry’s cell phone number from his list of favorites, but the call immediately went to voice mail.  Playing a hunch, he called the Duty Controller, “Is General Landry in the building by any chance?”

“Yes Sir, he was here when I came in.  The midnight crew said he came in about two AM. “ 

“Thanks, would you tell him I’ll be in shortly?  Is the coffee any good?”

“It will be by the time you get here, Sir.” 

Fred Landry had on a blue button down collar shirt, khaki pants, and boat shoes with no socks.  His face was tired, but he looked upbeat.  He was sitting on Ted’s couch when Ted walked in.  He had a cup of coffee in each hand.  “Here you go,” he said, waving a cup.  

Ted didn’t say anything except “thanks” as he took the coffee.  It was obviously Fred’s show. 

“As you know, it takes weeks of data collection and a full day of processing to be able to tell if a time displacement event took place anywhere on the globe.” 

Ted nodded and sipped his coffee.  Fred was as much a PhD college professor as he was an Air Force general and fighter pilot.  He wasn’t going to be hurried. 

“But,” Fred continued, “If you know what you’re looking for, it doesn’t take as much collection or processing.  After I heard about the Fort Hood attack, I was curious, so I came in and started some analysis.  I don’t know if this is good news or horrible news.  I’m certain that yesterday afternoon our alternate site sent eight items to a location on Fort Hood and back in time about twenty-four hours.” 

“So,” Ted said, “the problem is that we don’t know if they did it on their own or if they were authorized?”

“Exactly,” Fred replied.  “Have the Warrant Officers gone on their own rampage or were they under orders?” 

“Obviously, we have no way of proving anything ever, right?”

“No, no evidence, only logic.”

“Okay,” Ted said, “can you keep this close hold until we can get the rest of the team in here?” 

“I’ve already erased files and covered up as best I can.” Fred said. 

The team Ted had referenced was Sally, Fred Landry, Bill Wirtz and his new wife Janet.  Within an hour they were all gathered in Ted’s office. Landry was in an armchair, Ted moved his desk chair out from behind the desk, and the other three sat crowded on the small couch. 

“Thinking it over,” Bill was saying, “I’m virtually certain they were ordered to do it.”  Bill took the silence as a sign to go on. “They let Hasan live.  He’s the one they would take out if they were out for revenge.  I’m betting that the two “unknown civilians” in the back of the room were shooters too.  We have no way of knowing how many people the three of them could kill working together.”

“Okay,” Landry said, “I’ll be the devil’s advocate, why let Major Hasan live and allow thirteen soldiers to die?”

Bill Wirtz replied directly to Landry, “First, thirteen deaths might be a fraction of what happened before we acted.  But primarily, you can see the big problem that exists.  The Army and arguably the whole government has a problem with political correctness.  The SecDef and everyone else can say this wasn’t a terrorist attack and that Hasan is just deranged, but that’s tissue-thin BS.  It would be just like the Chairman to leave Hasan alive as a stinking kettle of fish for the services to clean up.” 

“And,” Janet added, “it would be just like this Justice Department to push the presence of any other shooters under the rug, to lose it in the huge pile of forensic evidence, in order to keep alive the story of no terrorism.” 

Their analysis was greeted with grim nods around the room.  “I agree with you,” Ted said.   But, I still think we need to go out to the Detachment and check into the atmosphere in Jose’s command.  I think we can tell pretty quickly if the troops are out of control and might do something like this on their own.  They are smart enough to know that we can’t prove anything either way.  Fred, are you up to flying tomorrow?”

“Sure,” Landry replied. 

“I also want you to talk to that NASA astronaut about Japan.  According to Jose she’s got contacts in the Japanese scientific community at pretty high levels and maybe, just maybe she can help.” 

“What time do you want to take off?” Fred Landry asked. 

Chapter  14:  "Ready, Aim, Shoot"

Saturday, November 7, 2009  1200 Pacific  

Nellis AFB, NV

And

TDA Detachment 1,  Boulder City,  Nevada

Excerpt from the Personal Narrative of Dr. Rae Dunnan PhD 

Recorded May 2014

UNCLASSIFIED 

"I hadn’t met Fred Landry until that day in late 2009.  We hit it off immediately.  He is a very impressive man.  I’m very happy about everything that happened after that meeting.”

Major Jose Valenzuela was in a golf cart in the Nellis Air Force Base transient aircraft parking area when his boss pulled in his white jet.  “Damn,” he thought to himself not for the first time.  “They pay us to fly those things.  I’d do this job for free!”

After the ground crew secured the ejection seat, Fred Landry climbed down from the front seat.  He was wearing a green Air Force issue Nomex flight suit, without rank or squadron patches.  Ted Arthurs climbed down from the back seat wearing a brown Iraqi-Freedom-era flight suit with his two stars.  Balancing his helmet on his left hip, Ted returned Jose’s salute.

“Welcome, Gentlemen!  To what do we owe the honor of your visit?”  Jose asked. 

“Management by flying around,” Ted replied.  After he completed the paper work for the transient aircraft ground crew and they climbed into the golf cart, Ted continued.  “I want Fred to talk with Doctor Dunnan about Japan.  And, I wanted to make sure your folks see a friendly face and maybe even spout off if they want to talk about Fort Hood.” 

“As we discussed, I set you up with hotel rooms in town on the Strip.  We got super rates.  The local economy around in Vegas is really bad and getting worse.” 

“Always happy to help the economy of Vegas,” Fred Landry observed.

“I’ve suddenly find myself throwing a unit party at my house tonight.  That would be a time to talk informally.  Although, we will have wives, boy friends, girl friends, and Doctor Dunnan there.”

“We’re just a couple of friendly faces who stopped by to say hello” Ted replied.  “We’ll leave either Sunday or Monday.  No firm schedule.” 

“Okay,” Jose said, “I’ll take you to the car rental counter and turn you lose until tonight.” 

***

Wearing nearly matching khaki Dockers and blue Izod shirts, Ted Arthurs and Fred Landry walked around the side of Jose’s house to the pool area and followed the party sounds.  Ted was impressed by the fact that the noise didn’t seem to abate when the two generals, one their boss and one kind of a mystery, appeared on the pool deck.  Of the two dozen people already enjoying themselves, more than half came over to say hello or to introduce a spouse or friend within the first half an hour. 

The background noise and conversation did waver for a moment when Rae Dunnan walked out from the house.  She normally wore slacks and went “business casual” when she was at The Project.  Tonight she had on a dress that matched the color of her eyes and did nothing to hide her figure. Her short hair was pulled back away from her face, putting emphasis on her features.  Sandals replaced her typically sensible shoes or flight boots.  Ted heard one warrant officer behind him sigh for effect and say, “Looks like Angelina Jolie and really is a rocket scientist.”

Jose intercepted Rae and steered her toward the two generals.  After the introductions, Rae said to Ted, “I enjoyed meeting your wife, General.  She isn’t with you?”    

“No, we flew the F-5.  Well, actually Fred flew the F-5.  He claimed seniority.” 

Fred Landry picked up on his cue, “I understand, Dr. Dunnan, that you have some contacts in the Japanese scientific community?” 

Rae blinked once and replied, “Yes, yes I do.  Why do you ask?” 

“I just got back from Japan and I want to talk to you about a few things.” Fred took Rae’s elbow and gently steered her toward a less noisy corner of the yard.

Ted turned to Jose, “How are your people?”  he asked. 

“Pretty much as you see them, Sir.  Overall, this is the best assignment most of them have ever had.  Good for family life, good for social life, affordable, not much travel, and a steady schedule.”

“And Fort Hood?”  Ted asked.

“That upset them.  They’d like to be able to do something about it.” 

Ted had been watching the ebb and flow of the people from the barbeque cooker to the bar and the lounge chairs.  No one was near them at the moment.  “Actually, Jose, Fred thinks something did happen.  He thinks several shots were taken from here.” 

Jose was about to open his mouth in denial when his brain kicked in.  “We have no way to know.”

“Exactly,” Ted replied.  “Tomorrow I want to go over your two-man control procedures, your crew knowledge procedures, and discuss crew discipline.  My sense if that everything is fine, but let’s review.”