Young Again
Copyright© 2018 by Edward Douglass Patterson
Chapter 14: Rescue The Pilot
David Gitler was attending the meeting. The five genetic researchers had decided one of their number should be there in case knowledge of human genetics would be helpful. A more important reason was that they felt they might not really learn what was happening unless one of them was present.
Captain Sheila McRae sat at the head of the table with Mark on her left. Ashley and Sarah were next on that side. Len Smith, Drs. Teresa and Leonard Shultz, Cindy Wong, Jim and Sally Pierce, Dr. May Flowers, and David Gitler completed that side of the table. Commander Nathan Whitner and three other members of Seal Team 5 were on the right side. Next was a Navy Chief Petty Officer, with Lt. Commander Barnaby Stanley to his right. Barnaby was the only military person not dressed ready to go into the mountains. Marsha Poe and John McHale were the two FBI representatives.
After Sheila completed the introductions, she nodded to Nathan. “Nathan has been promoted and is taking command of SEAL Team 5. Nathan, tell us where you people are with respect to rescuing Lieutenant Reecs.”
“1st troop has three squads proceeding towards the crash location which was identified by satellite. They will radio when they have reached the site.”
Mark interrupted him. “Commander, I would like to suggest that all of your people who approach the location divest themselves of all electronics they have. We cannot be sure the defenses there haven’t been stepped up, so any electronics detected wouldn’t be targeted. I think it would be a typical human response to an action seen as hostile.”
Nathan looked to Sheila, who nodded. He turned and addressed the Lieutenant beside him. “Chuck, get such an order out to them. Also, I want them to keep all electronic usage to a minimum and offset the communication equipment from the cabin by at least a quarter of a mile. See if they can get some wired communication equipment to connect between the two. Tell them the reason. Have them take any additional precautionary measures they feel necessary. We know nothing about the capabilities of those who brought the plane down.”
“We can assume a few things.” Sarah mentioned after the Lieutenant hurried out to send the message. “It is extremely unlikely we face a living opponent. If we did, it would probably be to our advantage, but I don’t think suspended animation is one of their capabilities. Also, I don’t believe we will see any mobile defenses or intelligence gathering units. Both should be from fixed locations. We will be able to take advantage of the terrain and any changes which have occurred in the last few thousand years.”
Nathan shook his head. “Ernie, tell Chuck to have the search parties stop in place and await further orders. Tell them we need the time to decide about what they may possibly face and how they should take advantage of that information.”
“Yes, sir.” Senior Chief Petty Officer Ernesto Alvarez hurried from the room.
It was over thirty minutes until they finished the discussion of what the SEALs might be facing. Nathan and the other SEALs discussed the orders which should be given, after which Nathan personally went to communicate them.
When he returned, he had more news. “The emergency medical team has arrived. Ranger Colson has indicated an area down the mountain from the cabin which we could use for medical evacuation if we needed to evacuate the Army pilot.”
Ashley looked up from her computer. She and Sarah had been searching the web. “Sheila, I have found some pictures of a rock climb up that cliff face. Do you think Ranger Colson would have too many problems if we contacted the climbers and asked if they could help with a rescue in that area? The climb was two years ago and they were up on the face.”
Sheila grinned. “First check if they would have any reason against helping a downed Army pilot.” She stopped when she saw the sudden smile on Ashley’s face.
“We know one of the climbers. Marine Sergeant Brian Jones.” She rapidly tapped a number into her phone and handed it to Cindy. “Cindy, ask Brian if he could come over here right away. Tell him it’s an emergency and we need any pictures he or the others with him took on their climb in October, two years ago. Tell him he and any of the others who can help will be paid for their time and five thousand for their pictures.”
Cindy hurried out of the room.
“I think I need to get something set up so we don’t have to run out of the room to make all these phone calls.” Mark was thinking of running some lines in.
“We have VOIP on our computers, but I didn’t think we wanted to interrupt the meeting with the phone calls. Oh! Sheila, you have a call from Al Simpson. I can take it here and see if he wants to go on speaker or have you step out and talk to him.” Sarah looked at the Navy Captain.
“Please take the call and ask him.” Sheila saw she wasn’t the only one who was having a hard time with how the two girls were dominating the meeting. She had expected it but she suspected the seriousness of the situation was making them work harder.
“Secretary Simpson, this is Sarah Pierce. Captain McRae is leading our meeting looking into how to respond to the downed plane. Would you like to talk to her privately or on speaker phone at the meeting? OK, one moment.” Ashley had hooked a box to the audio and microphone connection of Sarah’s computer. Sarah took a few seconds to make the connection. Then she nodded to Sheila.
“Mr. Secretary, we have additional people you didn’t meet on your visit here in the meeting. We have three more members of SEAL...” She stopped as she saw Sarah raise her hand.
“Secretary Simpson, I sent you a list of those at the meeting. Also, there is a list of additional people with knowledge of the crash area we are right now inviting to the meeting.”
Al Simpson laughed. “Thank you, Sarah. Captain, proceed.”
Sheila explained all of those present knew the basics of what they were looking into in the mountains near Mark’s cabin. They had halted the search for the downed pilot while they considered possible problems they may encounter, but the SEALs were again proceeding with the search. They had found some rock climbers who had scaled the cliff face in which they were interested and they were being invited to join in the search. The climbers also had pictures of their climb.
After Al told Sheila to pay them and buy the pictures, she informed him Ashley had already covered it. When he started to say the Defense Department would cover those costs, Ashley had interrupted and said she knew one of them and had been already planning to hire him. She still planned to talk to him about a job, but she didn’t have any problem with Al paying for the pictures.
Mark explained the meeting that afternoon and their plans to research the changes which had made him younger. Dr. Leonard Shultz would be assisting in determining if any of the plants in the area may have contributed to those changes. After he said the academics were coming up with proposals for conducting the research, Al had said he would check with the government on how they would be funding their research.
Cindy had come back into the room during the phone conversation.
“Mr. Secretary, Cindy Wong is back from contacting the climbers. Cindy, tell us and Secretary Simpson about the help we may be getting.” Sheila could see from Cindy’s expression that she had been successful and for some reason she appeared happy.
“Brian Jones is the only one who is available locally. The others are still in the Marines. Two of them are at Camp Pendleton in the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion.”
“Cindy, give me their names and I will have them up there as soon as possible. Captain McRae, I will have the battalion commander contact you as to where to have them report.”
“Sir, Commander Whitner here. There may be more members of their unit experienced in rock climbing. I suspect this may be something in which they were trained. My SEALS can climb the cliffs but a group who has members who enjoy it enough to go on their own time and climb cliffs will have an advantage.”
“Commander, I appreciate the suggestion. Thank you. Sheila, I will see if we can get you some rock climbers. Cindy, continue.”
“I didn’t have to explain too much about what was going on to Brian. I only told him there was a downed Army pilot in the area of the cliffs near Ashley’s grandfather’s cabin and we needed someone who had firsthand knowledge of the cliffs and the area. He volunteered immediately. The only question he asked was how we knew about the climb. I told him Ashley had seen the pictures on the internet. We will have to brief him on the situation.”
“Sounds like the type of man we need in the service. Why did he leave?” Al asked.
“He joined the Marines to have money for college. He has a scholarship to Stanford, but he is from South LA.” Ashley answered.
“I see why you want him.” Al realized he would need to have a check made for other individuals like Brian Jones. They needed to try to keep that type of individual in the service. If he had been offered a commission after they assisted him with college, he would probably have stayed in the service.
Cindy met Brian at the security office where he was given a security badge.
When they left the office, Brian put a hand on Cindy’s arm. “How did they know I had had a secret clearance? It was over a year ago since I left the service, so my clearance is no longer good.”