Chapter 5
"No More School Buses!"
The plane made a smooth landing, at a strangely silent air base. Only a few planes gathered about the hangar. The Leer taxied up and a couple of officers approached. As the door opened and the General descended one of them spoke.
"I'm Major Hancock, General. This is my Security Chief, Captain Hawkings. I'm afraid there's a problem, sir. The transmission in your helicopter just gave out. We can't understand it. It was just serviced. We're pulling in another ship but it will be half an hour getting here."
"Men and mice, Major, men and mice," the General commented.
"Pardon, sir?" the Major asked.
"The best laid plans, Major, of men and mice?"
"Oh, sir!" The Major laughed. "Yes, sir. thank you for your understanding, sir."
"My aids, Major," the General continued, "Captain Eldridge and Lieutenant Lockheart. Seeing we have to wait, what would be the chances of a hot meal?"
"We can't offer much, General," the Captain announced. "The snack bar's the only thing running. Just microwave steak sandwiches, burgers and hot dogs."
"They'll do fine, Captain," the General remarked. "Why don't we all pile in this pick up truck and head over there?"
The Officers looked startled, but followed the General as he climbed into the truck's bed, and sped off.
The few men gathered at the snack bar came to attention as the officers approached. But The General put them at ease. The Lieutenant and the Captain quickly gathered up their seniors' food then joined them to eat.
"I beg your pardon, General," the Major asked, "are you recently promoted? I pride myself on knowing the name and career of most General ranked officers in The Air Force. But I don't recollect hearing yours."
"And once this mission is completed," the General interrupted, "you will have no memory of ever meeting me, or, of ever hearing anything about me. Do I make myself clear, Major? And should we ever meet when I am NOT wearing this uniform we will be perfect strangers. That goes for anyone on this base that sees me or hears of me. Understood, Major?"
"Yes, sir!" the Major snapped. "But would that perfect stranger mind ANOTHER perfect stranger buying him a drink if that meeting should occur?"
"As long as it's a SOFT drink!" the General added.
Everyone at the table began to laugh but the General's attention was suddenly drawn to something outside the window; two security men coming towards the building, their weapons at the ready.
The General glanced at a security man near him. "Son, is that rifle loaded?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," the young man answered.
"Cock it, son. Click off the safety and when I say now, toss it to me and hit the deck. Everybody else hit the deck at the same time."
The young man readied his weapon, and the other officers tensed.
"NOW!" the General cried, jumping up. The rifle flew through the air, came into his hands, and was to his shoulder in an instant. As the rest of the officers dived for the floor the weapon repeated three times.
The sounds of shattering glass and bullets thudding into flesh filled the air. Then all was silence except for the sound of running feet.
"On your feet, gentlemen!" the General snapped.
He cleared some broken glass with the rifle butt and stepped outside. The two men who had been approaching lay sprawled on the ground, their weapons beside them.
"Two of your men are dead, Captain," the General announced, "behind that building somewhere. Send someone to retrieve the bodies."
The Captain snapped, "Go!" to two of his men. As they rushed off the Captain knelt and examined the bodies. "Damn!" he cursed. "You're right, sir! These are the I.D. tags of two of my best men but they're NOT THEM! How did you know?"
"Your man told me," the General answered. "He knew I could still see him and was pointing to them. That one is Abdu Shada, that one's Muhammed Ka. They're with the Islamic Front. What have we got in the air, Major?"
"A B-1, sir! Another on standby on the ground. Everything else is on alert."
"I want eight fighters in the air, mister, at all times. How long's the bomber been up?"
"Eight hours, sir," the Major answered. "They're flying twelve hour shifts."
"That's too much, mister!" the General snapped. "Get the reserve ship up. From now on change planes, or at least, crews, every four hours. I want fresh, alert men up there."
"Yes, sir!" the Captain answered. "Immediately, sir!"
He ran to a phone and began calling.
Donald walked over. "How in the hell did they find you, sir? How did they know you'd be here?"
"They didn't," the General told him, "Just some incredibly bad luck. They must've been planning something else here, and when they spotted me, they couldn't pass up the opportunity. They had to make a try. Well, they won't machine gun any more school buses, but if THEY'RE here, there could be others, and our problems have doubled. They're just crazy enough to try to punch a hole in that ship out there, and release whatever's inside."
"Why would they want to kill you, sir?" Donald asked in bewilderment.
"Because he's a peace maker," the Lieutenant answered. "Because he believes all religions should live in peace with one another. That no one has the right in the name of religion, to conquer others, to steal their land and murder their children. That makes him very unpopular with men like that, who use religion to fulfill their own greed."
"Someone wondered why I remain obscure," the General remarked, "There's a couple of good reasons over there."
The General handed the young man back his weapon, walked back to the snack bar, and began to finish his supper. Slowly the rest of the officers joined him.