Honor Thy Mother & Thy Father Ch. 26

As she checked everyone's seatbelt, Harold handed her the check. Max's eyes opened wide and asked, "What the hell is this for?"

"I was told by these six perverts that you would give us the tour of a lifetime for one of these. I am going to hold you to their promise."

"Hell, thank you Mister Chase, now I don't have to screw anybody on this continent unless I want to."

Everyone in the aircraft broke out into laughter.

Cliff yelled, "No man can come near you, without fearing for his life."

Max smiled. "You did once."

"Yes I did, and I was black and blue for a week."

"How the hell could you tell?"

"The blue parts shown through my black skin. Can we get out of here before the sun goes down?"

"Cliff, do I have to remind you that the sun does not go down until April."

"Max, the way you're talking, we won't take off until June."

"I was just waiting for the oil to heat up, you asshole. The engines don't fly well if the oil is thick like molasses."

The Twin Otter took-off into the 30 mile an hour wind in less than 1500 feet, and headed towards Scott's Hut. It is the only permanent relic of the bygone exploration era of man's attempt to reach the South Pole. The Hut is made of wood, and it never deteriorates, because of the lack of humidity, and subfreezing temperatures. Callie wanted pictures of the hut, but was smart enough to tell Harold to take them.

"Why me; I don't want to take my gloves of either."

Max said, "Why don't you just buy postcards at the commissary. They are much better than what you will take on your cell phones, and your fingers will not get frost bitten?"

Harold said to Max, "Now you know why I gave you that check. You are our pilot, our guide, and our medical advisor. You are a triple threat."

"Shouldn't I get three checks then?"

"Would you like me to put a stop on that one?"

"No, I'll keep this one; it will keep me off my back, when times get lean."

Cliff said, "Maxine, you are so full of shit."

"Clifford, you call me that name one more time, I will nail your balls to walls of this shack, and let them freeze-dry."

"It would take a month to freeze-dry my balls because of their size."

Pete, a member of Cliff's flight crew, said, "Max, he's not lying. I saw them while we were in the shower. Compared to some of the bulls on my father's ranch, he's bigger."

Maxine laughed. "Are you sure you weren't looking at a cow?"

Callie said, "Ummm, guys, she's the pilot, she could leave us in some godforsaken place, where we would freeze to death."

Max grabbed Callie by the arm and started walking her back to the aircraft. "Don't worry about a thing Callie; I would never leave you behind. I would leave the men, but I would never leave a woman behind with them. They would fuck her to death, before a rescue party arrived."

"What would they use as an excuse?"

"They were just trying to keep her warm, and got a little overzealous."

"Yes, I could see where that would work."

Max turned, and looked at the men, who were still standing by the shack, "Are you staying here, or are you coming with us?"

As fast as they could run in their survival gear, the men moved towards the aircraft, got back into their seats, and strapped themselves in.

Callie asked Max if she could sit up front with her. She said, "As long as you don't touch anything, why not."

"Goodbye Harold, it's been fun."

As she turned to walk up towards the flight deck Harold swung his hand as hard as he could and connected with her ass.

Callie laughed, turned, and said, "That didn't hurt at all, Harold."

"Thank you for telling me that, baby. It means I owe you one when we get back to our room."

Callie shook her head, "Me and my big mouth; when will I ever learn to keep it closed."

She entered the flight deck and found Max sitting in the right seat. She asked, "Aren't you supposed to be on the other side?"

"Callie, since we departed the sun has moved, and it is easier for me to see my ground clues from this side of the aircraft. I can use the navigational aids from Mac town, but the magnetic interference can throw them off by 10°. If I can see a mountain pass or a ground reference I know, I can navigate to a point more easily. It's called, "Dead Reckoning," but there's nothing 'Dead' about it. It's just remembering all your visual cues and flying point to point over them. Things on the ground don't move. I'll show you as we go along. Our next stop is Mount Erebus; you can see it from here. It's the black mountain with the white top. It's only 35 miles away by air. It would take you a week to 10 days to walk there from here, depending on the weather."

"Why would it take so long?"

"We can fly over the mountain. They would have to climb over the 3000-foot pass, and down the other side. It tends to slow you down."

"I guess that was a stupid question."

"The only stupid question is the question unasked."

Max took off but did not head directly towards Mount Erebus. She could feel the question growing in Callie's mind, and waited for her to ask it rather than answering it for her.

"Callie, what are you waiting for, ask me your question."

"Max, you didn't tell me you read minds also. Why are you heading away from the mountain?"

"The sun is on the left side of the aircraft, and I don't want to land into the sun. So I'm flying on an angle to take me away from the mountain, and I will turn my tail to the sun and land with it at my back. I can use the mountain for depth perception and land on the smoothest ice available."

"How long have you been flying down here?"

"I have flown down here every summer for the past nine years."

"That's not possible, you can't be 30 yet."

"You're right, I'm only 27. I've been flying aircraft since I've been 13. I've been jet rated since I've been 16 years old. I graduated Caltech at 19. I wanted to join the Air Force as a pilot. They wanted me to go through their qualification shit all over again. I told them to go fuck themselves."

"What do you do the other part of you your year?"

"I go back to the states and bum around."

"If you had your choice of private jet aircraft, what would you like to fly?"

"It all depends; are we talking national or international?"

"National, I guess."

"There's a midsize jet called, "Hawker 4000" that is really a joy to fly. It would be better with more powerful engines, like the new Rolls-Royce or GE turbofans than the Pratt & Whitney that they currently have on them, but it is still fun. It can go from the East Coast to London or Paris, but doesn't have the legs to go from the West Coast to Japan. I'm going to land now. We will talk about this more later."

Callie could see what Max had been talking about. The sun was shining on the mountain, rather than in their eyes. She could see fractures in the ice from 500 feet, she could not see from 1000 feet above the surface. As Max got closer to the ground, she altered her course and slowed the aircraft down until the skis touched the surface. It was almost as smooth as landing on a paved runway. She turned the aircraft towards the base of the mountain, and into a sheltered cove, out of the wind.

As everyone deplaned, Callie kissed Harold and said, "When we get home, you are buying an airplane."

He looked at her and said, "I am?"

Callie gave him a mean look, and stepped on his foot hard.

He shouted, "I am. What type of airplane am I buying?"

"Tell him what type of airplane he's buying, Max."

"Callie we were just talking."

"As my newest employee, Maxine, do what I'm telling you to do, and do it now."

"Since when am I working for you?"

"Since you took your interview on the flight deck, and passed."

"How many employees do you have?"

"Just one, unless you have a copilot in mind. Now stop arguing with me, and tell him what type aircraft he's buying."

"Harold, I had nothing to do with this."

"Max tell me what she wants, or she will beat the shit out of both of us."

"Okay, you are buying a Hawker- Beechcraft 4000."

Callie said, "Tell him about the engines."

"Is she like this all the time?"

"No, she got worse since she became pregnant. What about the engines?"

"Do you just want to talk about the engines, or should we do the whole 9 yards, before she grows horns?"

"How much money am I talking about with the upgrades?"

"A SWAG guess would be less than $30 million."

"Okay, I'll bite, what does that mean?"

"It's a 'Sweetheart of a Wild Ass Guess."

"Great, the next time I put something out for bid, I'll make sure to put that in writing. When we get back to base, call the company; tell them everything you want on the aircraft, except the colors on the inside and out. We will leave that to the wicked witch herself."

Callie looked at him with the meanest eyes he had ever seen on her face. "Harold my love, do you want to make it to our first months' anniversary? I have your heir in my belly. I could bury you under the ice if you are not nice to me."

"I am being nice to you. I am buying you your aircraft. I fuck you senseless in bed. And I love you more than I love anything in this world. What else can I do to show you what you mean to me?"

Callie's face changed, and she started crying.

Harold took her into his arms, looked at Max, and said, "Do you see what I mean? One minute she is a witch, and the next minute she is a lamb. This pregnancy is going to drive me insane."

"I've never seen anything like it, Harold. What was she like before you married her?"

"She was absolutely the most wonderful person in the world to everyone, except Alan. When those two got together you knew there was going to be an explosion, and Alan was going to wind up in the hospital."

"He must've been a wimp."

"Alan anything but a wimp. He was an undercover FBI agent, and was personally responsible for taking down major mob operations in Chicago, Miami, and New York."

"Holy shit, she must be a terror when she gets her horns twisted."

"You have no idea what she turns into. When you get to Cottonwood, you will hear all the stories about those two. When do you leave here?"

"April 15th is my arrival date in Seattle."

"Why are you going to Seattle? Do you live there?"

"No, I'm from San Antonio, Texas. The Air National Guard takes us from Christchurch to Seattle, and from there we are on our own."

"Do you want to go to San Antonio?"

"No, my folks are gone, and my siblings are all over the place. I guess we are clan of wanderers."

"You get yourself to Christchurch. I'll get you to Cottonwood, and your new employer. Lady, are you in deep shit."

"Is there an airport in Cottonwood?"

"No, but there is one in Sedona, and in Prescott; both of them are less than 40 minutes away."

"I can run to my airplane and escape?"

Callie pulled her head away from Harold's shoulder, and grinned. "You cannot run away if I have the keys to the ignition."

Max was about to say something, when Harold intervened. "Don't say anything, give her keys to the jet, and make her happy. She does not have to know the details of flying an airplane. She has enough trouble driving a stick shift."

"I do not. If you want me to prove it to you, stand in front of my new Chevy."

******

108. Trouble on Two Continents

They took the identification from the bodies of the two NASA scientists, wrapped them in plastic sheeting, and put them in body bags. One at a time, the bodies were moved to the back of an SUV and covered with blankets. They drove to the shore, and put the bodies into a speedboat. They piloted the boat several miles offshore, just beyond the reef, and inserted weights into the body bags. Unceremoniously, they dumped they dumped them over the side, and watch them sink to the bottom. They piloted the boat quickly back to the marina. Phase 1 of this operation was completed.

Colonel Lucius C. Canyon and Sergeant Paul Zachary had been together for 18 years. Wherever the Colonel went, he took the Sergeant with him. Today they were in Christchurch, New Zealand, taking the place of the two scientists scheduled to go to the South Pole. Their mission was the elimination of two people, whose names they were not given, only their pictures. They got the pictures just before they left the terminal to get on the aircraft heading to the one area of the world, where everything was due north. The intermediaries told him they were not given this information earlier for security reasons. If he felt that it was outside his safety parameters, they would hire someone else to do the job.

Due to the complexity of this mission, the Colonel was paid $20 million in advance. It would do him no good if Paul and he were caught on their way out of the southern-most continent on the planet.

The Colonel was a graduate of West Point. He received his Masters' Degree in Engineering, from the University of Virginia, and his PhD. in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania, both at the expense of the United States Government.

Sergeant Zachary had a High School Diploma and a PhD in long-range weapons. He could hit a target 1300 meters away, 9 out of 10 times. He never missed anything closer.

Their departure from Christchurch, and arrival at McMurdo went easily enough. Their credentials were checked, rooms assigned, and departure date for the South Pole assigned.

Once they were settled in, they split up to look for their targets. They thought it would be easy enough, because everyone stationed here was walking around like it was summer. Any newcomers, especially a man and woman walking together, would be wearing heavy clothing, as they were.

They met at the commissary three hours later to have dinner. The Colonel put a picture of Harold on the table in front of him, and perused the room.

A few people sat down across from him, including the teller from the bank. He noticed the picture and asked, "Colonel is you looking for Mister Chase?"

Nonplussed, the Colonel replied, "Yes I am, I want to speak to him before I head out."

"I don't know what their itinerary is, but they left on a Twin Otter for a trip around the continent. It could be 3 to 5 days before they return."

"That's a real shame; I'll be at the Pole by then. I'll leave him a message, and tell him I'm sorry we missed each other. Do you know when the next satellite pass is by, so we can send a message out?"

"You're in luck Colonel, by the time you walk over to the communications area, the satellite will be in range. There may be a line ahead of you, but it is in range for 2 ½ hours, and you should be able to get your message out in time."

"Thank you my friend, I owe you one."

They walked out the front door like nothing was wrong. Once they were alone the Colonel said, "We've been greased and fucked. They pulled us out of position, and I will bet you $20 million that they hired the rest of the team to take out 'The Privates' daughter."

"Colonel, I have never bet against you in my entire career; why would I start now. Let's set up the satellite transceiver, and get a message out to our team, and tell them to stand down."

"As usual Paul, you have read my mind."

They took the suitcase sized object and walked to a deserted area outside the compound. They set up the homing antenna, and in 30 seconds it was locked on to the northbound satellite. The Colonel put on the headset and said, "Hotel 2, this is Hotel, acknowledge." There was no response.

"Hotel 2, this is Hotel, acknowledge." Again, there was no response.

"Paul, what time is it there."

The Sergeant looked at his chronometer and said, "It's 11 AM, sir."

"They are probably sleeping, preparing for a night attack. They will be ambushed by the last nine-member team from our last mission. We have to contact them, or everyone will all be dead by tomorrow morning."

"What options do we have Colonel?"

"We have two options, Paul. I like the first one, I hate the second one."

"Colonel, let's go with the first one, and pray that it works."

******

Jemma picked up the phone and said, "Zabo residence, how may I help you."

"Hello Jemma, may I speak to William Junior please; I understand he has taken over the household."

Jemma laughed. "Yes he has, but he is not mastered the English language yet."

"In that case may I speak to his father please, tell him Lucius is calling."

Jemma called out, "William, a very funny man wanted to speak to your son. He settled for you instead. His name is Lucius, will you pick up the phone please."

He picked up the phone and said, "Lucius my old friend; how are you? What do I owe the honor of this phone call?"

"Is it safe to talk?"

"Yes, it is."

"Patricia is in play, again. The group from St. Louis pulled me out of position, and sent me to Antarctica to take out Harold Chase. I didn't know it was him. They did not give me a name, just a picture, when I was ready to board the aircraft. I found out his name, by accident, when I got here. It is my opinion they hired the rest of my team to take out Patricia. I believe they will take out my team after they complete their mission. They will probably use the nine member assault team from our last mission."

"What can I do Lucius; how can I stop this?"

"Write this down: Buy the highest quality Omni directional antenna you can find. Get to the highest building with a clear view of the southern sky. I only have 2 ½ hours of transmitting time every 12 hours. During my blackout time, you have to transmit this exactly, 'Hotel 2 this is Hotel acknowledge.' When they acknowledge say this 'Verification 6 Lima Echo Uniform Charlie Foxtrot 417.'

They will acknowledge and say go ahead with your message.

Do not use your name; they know you as 'The Private.' Tell them to protect, not to eliminate the asset. The Eagle is out of position. A trap has been set by the nine-member assault team from our last mission. William, do this immediately. This is option one. If you do not contact my people by 7 PM tonight, call out the National Guard to protect your daughter. If she tries to escape, they will take her down on her way out."

Calmly, William said, "Thank you my friend, I will talk to you again very soon."

He walked into his bedroom, put on his bulletproof vest, white linen shirt, red tie, and black pinstripe suit. He walked up to Jemma, kissed her on the cheek, and said, "Agent Abrams and I are going out. We will see you later. Do you need anything from the store?"

Jemma laughed. "Do you know where the store is?"

"No, but I'm sure Jack does."

Jemma smacked him on the shoulder. "William, you are terrible."

"Yes, but I am adorable."

Abrams was not amused. "That must have been some phone call, William. I haven't seen you move that fast in a long time."

As they walked to his car William said, she "Jack, you make $106,400 a year. You have $147,000 in your IRA account, and you have six years until you reach 20 years with the Bureau. How would you like to make 'a legal' $5 million, for keeping your mouth shut, until tomorrow afternoon?"

"How legal, William?"

"All I need you to do is not listen to two conversations and that is all. My daughter is in trouble, and all the FBI agents in the world could not stop what is going to happen in the next 18 hours. Please do this for me, let my people protect my daughter."

"William, if I called the director he could have two dozen people in Glens Falls in the matter of a few hours."

"Yes he could, and they would all be dead by morning. They will be outmanned, and outgunned. The people who are going after my daughter are not amateurs. They are former military, the best this country ever trained. The FBI is good at what they do. They are not equipped to take on these people. My people are people who can. Jack, you do not want to lose friends and fellow agents. Do as I ask. Just tell them you went to the head, and didn't hear a thing."