Chapter Seven
It took the Captain a few hours, but by careful research he came up with a plan that would get them the parts they needed and put an end to the threat of the space mission being sabotaged.
“Alright everyone, this is going to have to be well coordinated in order to work. Private, you are going to have to know the day that the parts could be delivered and loaded into the troop carrier. The Sargent and I will drive in a few miles from here and transport back to the ship. Sargent, you will need to monitor the channel the Russians are using, so as to be able to impersonate the one giving the spies their orders.”
The Captain paused and took a deep breath.
“So here how this is all going to come about. After I and the Sargent transport back to the ship, the parts will be delivered to the truck. I am sure the F.B.I. will not only have those parts tagged they will be hovering about, ready to grab whoever comes to pick them up. We will be sure that the spies are to;d to go get the truck. As soon as they get to the truck, Private will transport the parts here, using a G.G.1 filter. We will have what we need, and the spies will have a lot of explaining to do to both the F.B.I and their commander.” The Captain said with a smile.
It took a little extra bargaining for Private to be able to get the parts companies to guarantee a day and time to delivery to such an obscure delivery site, but he, with Sara’s knowledge of what would be proper motivation, managed to get the deal done. The Captain was aware that as soon as the order was placed the F.B.I. would swing into action, so he and the Sargent had the truck in place and were back in the ship before the order was finalized.
The Sargent once again used his abilities to imitate voices and made sure that the two spies were clear on there orders of where and when they were to pick up what they were told was necessary equipment to complete their mission.
“Captain, I want to thank you for including the capture of those two spies in your plan,” Sara said softly.
“Don’t thank me yet. No offence, but in my dealings with humans, nothing ever goes exactly according to plan. So, everyone needs to have a back-up plan ready. Is that clear?”
“Yes Sir!” All said in unison.
Sure enough, several things went wrong. First, one of the parts that Private and Sara ordered was on back order. So, they had to scramble to get what they hoped would be a suitable substitute, and still get it put in with the rest of the parts all to be delivered at the same time.
Sargent had enough transmissions, that he could now impersonate the one giving the spies orders. The problem was that the time that the communications happened was varied, and the next communique was not due to happen until two days after the parts were due to be delivered. It would take the spies two more days to travel from where they were presently located to reach the parts.
“You need to come up with something. We can not let those parts sit in that dessert for four days!” The Captain shouted.
“Why can’t we just transport them as soon as they arrive?” The Sargent suggested.
“Because, as soon as we bring those parts through our filter, the tracker will deactivate. The F.B.I. will want to know why and may go investigate and discover the parts gone before the spies arrive. No, find a way to move the next contact date up.” The Captain ordered.
The Sargent was obviously not happy with the order but did find in one of the communications a code they used in an emergency. He had no choice but to try to use it. When all those bugs had been worked out, the four of them waited for the day the parts were due to be delivered. As suspected, as the parts truck approached so did other means of transportation. All of those were out of sight, but were full of long range surveillance equipment.
“Well, phase one is complete.” The Captain stated as the Delivery truck headed back to town.
Two hours later a car approached the truck.
“That should be our guys. Zoom in to make sure,” the Captain ordered.
“That is them alright,” the Sargent replied.
“Okay I do not expect the F.B.I. will wait long before they close in, so as soon as they reach the truck, transport the parts.”
“Yes sir,” Private replied and readied the transport.
“Wait for my order…Now!”
The Captain was right about the F.B.I. swooping in. If the four of them were not so interested in inspecting the newly arrived parts, they would have been hard pressed to tell the difference in the expressions on all assembled at the troop carrier. The spies were shocked at being surrounded by F.B.I. agents, and the F.B.I. was shocked that all the parts were gone.
The Captain, well satisfied his plan had worked, went back to his Station as Private, and the Sargent, started to sort out he parts. Sara, felling a little lost, went over and sat down at the Sargent’s station. For a while she just sat and watched as the Private and the Sargent worked. Slowly she started looking at all the lights on the Sargent’s communication board. They continued to flash in a pattern. She bounced back in forth between watching the two of them work, and the lights on his board. At onr point the lights changed patterns, and a lot more lights lit up.
“Sargent is this normal?” She asked.
“What? What are you doing over there, did you touch anything?” The Sargent said in a scolding tone.
“NO!” Sara shouted back in an insulted tone.
That got the Captain attention and he went over to investigate.
“It is a responder signal!” The Captain said excitedly.
The Sargent rushed over to his station and franticly flipped several switches.
“Our receiver is to weak. I can only get bits and pieces.”
“Is it one of our ships?” The Captain asked.
“It appears to be, but I can’t tell for sure. Until we get this equipment installed, I can’t be certain.”
The Captain thought for a moment.
“Send this message. ‘crop ten spades lets dance.’”
The other three gave the Captain a look of disbelief.
“It is an old military code. If it is one of our ships, they will under stand that we are alive and need help,” the Captain explained.
“And if it is not?” The Sargent asked.
“I imagine who ever receives the message, will be as confused as you were,” the Captain said with a chuckle.
“Now get busy adapting that equipment, they will be, as humans say, looking for a needle in a hay stack, if we can’t boost our signal.”
Commander Ratmire was impressed with all the suggestions his officers had made.
“I consider it an honor to serve with such a talented group. Start implementing your plans immediately, dismissed.”
Commander Ratmire walked back with Adaria to her station.
“How close are those ships now?” The Commander asked.
“Close enough to activate phase one,” she responded.
“Very good, activate!” He ordered.
He the watched her screens very carefully. At first there appeared to be no change. They continued to watch, and they noticed that one of the ships came to a stop, then reversed course. Soon another ship reduced speed and eventually reversed it’s course.
“Well two things are now sure. One, I like the odds of one on one as compared to three on one.” The Commander said slowly.
“And the second?” Adaria asked.
“Whoever they are they are paid.”
“Bounty hunters sir? How do you know?”
“Both ours and our enemies’ ships are equipped with Lux detectors. When we fired the enriched silk ray, It would have confused those Lux filters and caused them to make a course correction, but not to give up. Those two ships reacted as if we were in self-destruct mode. I am sure they were paid to bring us back alive.”
“Commander, what about the one ship still in pursuit?”
The Commander looked intently at the ship still in pursuit.
“Martox.” He mumbled.
Comments (0)
See all