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.