Young Again
Copyright© 2018 by Edward Douglass Patterson
Chapter 4: What Ashley Knows
Kay and Fred arrived promptly at eight. Fred looked tired. He had been up coordinating the search effort. He had barely had time to shower and shave before Kay picked him up.
Mark opened the door promptly when they knocked. He held a finger to his lips to indicate they should be quiet. The sign in his other hand said ‘Please turn off your cell phones’. “Commander, I’m sorry to ask you over so early after the long night I see you had. I hope the breakfast we have will make up for having to come directly here.”
When they had turned off their phones, Sarah stepped forward and checked them with the monitor. “They’re clean.”
“Someone is trying to bug us. There were two more audio bugs with the breakfast. I believe both of you will understand a little more once we explain.”
“May I turn on my phone so I can record our conversation?” Kay asked.
“Turn off the Wi-Fi connection. Cellular access is okay. We need to monitor again when our later guests arrive and when the hotel staff brings more food.”
“Who is trying to bug you and where did you get this equipment?” Fred looked at the computers spread out on the table, which was the only area in the room, which was lighted. The curtains were drawn across the windows.
“There are some advantages to owning a high-tech company which does business with the government. I had the equipment flown out on a private jet last night. The girls are in seventh heaven. Using their phones really constrained them. The other is the more important question. The flight Ashley was on was brought down by a barometric-triggered bomb, which exploded after the cabin wall was breached. The missile fragment didn’t bring the plane down. It just caused the bomb to explode early.”
They had walked over to the table where Ashley was working on one of the computers.
“Ashley saw the bomb go off after the plane lost air pressure.” Fred was easily following what they had been told, but he saw Kay wasn’t. “The bomb was set to explode by a change of air pressure. Shouldn’t it have been set to explode either when it reached altitude or when the plane started to land? Why was it set to explode at a loss of cabin pressure?”
“I don’t know. The man jumped up and started delivering a long speech when he knew we were losing cabin pressure. Parts of it sounded like Arabic, but there was so much noise I could only hear parts of it. The man who had taken my seat wrestled with him just before the bomb went off.” Ashley had continued to work on the computer as she spoke. “I have the video ready. Turn off the lights.”
Mark motioned them to take seats, as Sarah turned off the lights.
“I recorded this after the pressure started to leak. The hit had made a loud ping when the piece of missile hit. The pressure loss was slow. The video is a little jerky where I put my oxygen mask on.”
The projector started to show the video on the wall. Everyone was quiet until the bomb exploded. Kay gasped at the small hole that was blown in the side of the plane. The video only lasted a few seconds after that.
“I turned off my phone and put it away and prepared for the crash. The plane had already started to descend as the pilots reacted to the hit from the debris. I think that is what gave me a chance to escape. I could hear my mother and others screaming up front. People got up to help them, which may be why no one else escaped.”
“Two others escaped. I had a call when I was in the lobby. A helicopter from the Stennis is being sent to pick them up.” Fred informed them.
Ashley saw the hope in her grandfather’s eyes. “The two of them would have to have been in the back of the plane. I was the only one of the family away from the bomb. We sunk nose down.” She went over and hugged her grandfather.
“Commander, we will need to make sure they get protection at least until the FBI is ready to release the information we have here about the bombing. After that, they will have less reason to come after Ashley or the other two.”
Fred made a call to have the survivors guarded.
“You couldn’t have known about this yesterday at the interview when you invited us here?” Kay was trying to understand why she and Fred were there.
“Ashley had let me know she was in danger. Which is why we rushed here. I was surprised when she told me about the bomb at the hospital.”
“And I didn’t find out about it until later.” Mark told them.
“Who are your later guests?” Fred had finished the call.
“The FBI, the National Transportation Safety Board, and Naval Intelligence will be here at ten. I don’t think they have been talking to each other. Commander, I believe we will need your help for the same reason you needed Sarah’s yesterday. We need everyone working together. Ms. Mitchell, you are here because this needs to go public. It probably won’t be today. We may need to allow some time for the FBI to round up the people they know about, but I don’t see any reason you won’t be able to report it within a week. Since you are here, you will also be able to report on how everyone is working together to stop the terrorists. We don’t need the attitude of no one is talking to anyone at another agency which led to 9-11.”
“Can I get a copy of the video?”
“Do you have someone to whom we can send it who would keep it secure until you ask for it? It should be someone whom the FBI wouldn’t think to check with for it.”
She thought about it but couldn’t think of anyone. “No. They would check my family and the rest would be reporters who would want to look at it and then they would do the story.”
“I have someone. He’s in Alaska and out on patrol for another week. Send it to him under the name I give you and he will know it came from me. I assume you can send it so there is no trace that it came from here.”
Sarah laughed. “With this equipment Mark gave us, I could route it so that it looked like it came from the White House. That would be too fancy. Someone may notice an unknown email came from the White House. Do you have another friend we can send it from?”
“Can I turn on my phone so I can give you the email addresses? Or did you copy my address book yesterday?”
“No, I just looked at it.”
“You looked at his address book on his phone?”
“I also have answers to the questions you put on yours to ask me. I answered them while I was standing guard last night. They are probably out of date now that you know about the bombing. We can do the interview after I get the email off.”
“You hacked my phone.”
“I told you to bring paper and pencil to ask the questions.” Fred was smiling at Kay.
“You knew and didn’t tell me.”
“I told you she was extremely smart and had gotten into the hospital records system. You knew she had figured out we knew each other. I promised Sarah not to tell you. I figured you would get the hint when I mentioned the paper and pencil.”
“I was upset about how she took over the interview. Yes, I should have figured it out. I’m not that dumb.” Kay leaned over and gave Fred a kiss. “Let’s eat, and I’ll ask some background questions I hadn’t expected to have time to ask.”
Fred turned on his phone and handed it to Sarah.
As they ate, Kay asked about the Sawyer family and about the relationship between Ashley and Sarah. She was planning to write a very long article. Maybe she would even write a book. She suspected it would be a bestseller and would even have a large interest among young girls.
As she continued to ask questions, the two girls started texting. When she went to ask the next question, Sarah asked her own question. “Are you planning a book? We would be willing to help with that if we got some control over what you wrote.”
Kay was shocked they had figured out she was thinking about a book. She had not even made up her mind yet. “I thought a book about the two of you would be of interest to a lot of people. Young girls would especially find your story interesting.”
“There are things we may want to keep private.” Sarah didn’t look at Mark.
“Or I may want to have Kay do a second book.” Mark had also been wondering about the questions Kay had been asking. He knew what they were worrying about keeping private.
“We were going to talk with you later. Ashley noticed when she saw you.”
“No, I won’t try to hide or wear makeup to make myself look old.” He turned to Kay and Fred. “I was seventy last week. Which is why we planned the trip to Hawaii. Do I look seventy? I don’t feel it.”
“You look in good shape. You got a good night’s sleep, so you look better than you did yesterday. You had looked a little tired.” Fred was surprised at Mark’s age.
“This is a picture of Grandpa taken at Grandma’s birthday party last month.” Ashley had downloaded the picture from her phone and projected it on the wall. The lights made it hard to see until Sarah turned them off.
The picture was of a couple who definitely looked seventy. Mark looked much older in the picture than he did now.
“How?” Kay was staring at Mark.
“Since I recovered from the virus I had, I have been feeling better than I have in years. When I was in the hospital, they told me I was in very good shape for someone my age. The only exercise I have done for the past couple of years was walking. I had had to give up tennis and golf. The hospital also couldn’t find any sign of my Alzheimer’s disease. The virus has changed me.”
“Mark is planning to set up a project to look into it. Ashley and I are going to help him. It is better that he goes public, though it may be years before we have anything which would help others. It is a place to start, though.” Sarah paused and looked at Mark. “Mark should be in charge of any research which is done on him. Yes, it is important to mankind, but a person shouldn’t have to have others controlling his life.”
“That’s a bigger story than the bombing. Are you trying to bribe me to write it how you want it told? You shut me out at the airport.”
“Mark did that when you didn’t go along with the rules he set. He thought he had lost all of his family until Ashley called. I think he was more considerate of the reporters in giving them any time for questions than they were of delaying him seeing Ashley. You wouldn’t accept any compromise and kept yelling questions. Later, I chose you because you were close, were still chasing the story, and I had the most information on you. I had recognized you at the airport. I knew about the series you did on corruption in Honolulu. You are the type of journalist we need working with us. No, with us is not the way to put it. You would have similar goals besides reporting on what was happening, but you would not let us or any of those we will be working with get away with anything.” Sarah’s tone had changed from accusatory to almost laudatory.
“Do you know how rare that is for a reporter nowadays? Last year, I decided to write a report on how the fourth estate could help keep the government honest. I thought there were many journalists who didn’t let their beliefs influence their reporting. You were the only one working for a major news organization I could find who was close to that ideal.” Ashley had stood up and put her hands on the table and leaned across as she spoke to Kay.
“I also picked you because she would have been mad if she didn’t get to meet you.” Sarah was smiling. “I also wanted to meet you.”
Ashley sat down and started to blush.
Kay looked from Ashley to Sarah. She hadn’t expected the girls would know anything about her, let alone that they thought she was the embodiment of what a journalist should be.
She looked at Fred, who was smiling at her. When she looked at Mark, she could tell he was considering something.
“I’m not sure how to do this, but I think it is very important. I had planned to pursue two projects. One was to find out why my health has changed and how to duplicate it. The other was to support an investigation into how we failed to know the North Koreans were planning to do what they did. I don’t just mean the US. The Chinese, Russians, Japanese, Koreans, and those who were not hit also had no clues as to what was going to happen. I’m not sure if the bombing was a coincidence, connected, or if the terrorists got wind of what the North Koreans planned. The important thing is to ensure something like this can’t happen again.” Mark was looking intensely at Kay and Fred.
“The one thing which is needed for both projects is something like an inspector general similar to what the government uses but private. This would be someone or group who would monitor what is happening and report if there is anything wrong. Kay, you as a reporter, would do this when you found out something was wrong. But if you were working on another story, you would have to finish it first and also need management to assign you to the story if they hadn’t assigned it to someone else.”
“Now, Fred knew the search groups weren’t working together. More importantly, he understands the need to go and seek help to get them working together. He also has the skill to co-ordinate with those groups to get them to work together.”
“Both of you separately have skills I need to help my projects to succeed. What I also see is that the two of you working together would be able to contribute more.”
“What I cannot see is how to do that.”
He looked at the girls. He hadn’t fully surprised either of them with what he said. He raised an eyebrow.
They glanced at each other and reached some agreement.
Sarah was the one to speak. “We agree with Mark. Each of you has something we need for the two projects. We hadn’t thought about the two of you working together. Now that Mark has mentioned it, we agree you two as a team could do more. How we don’t know, but you together would be a more capable team. We also don’t know how to implement this.”
“You hardly know us. I’m up for promotion, and the new assignment wouldn’t be in Hawaii. We have been trying to figure out what to do, but you have a lot of naval officers looking for work in Hawaii. Why would you offer us jobs?”
“Finding the people he needs for a job is something for which Mark is known. Most of his senior employees have been with him for over twenty-five years. He did hire two new ones this week. Jim Pierce, Sarah’s father, is the new Vice President for Quality. The rumor is the other one seemed a little strange, but she proved herself yesterday even before she got to Hawaii. Sarah, have you Googled your name and found out what is being said about you?” Kay smiled at the startled expression on Sarah’s face. It made up somewhat for what had happened at the ‘interview’ yesterday. She had also seen what was being said about that. She had wondered if she might be looking for a job when she read some of the comments, but she expected Sarah would be just as in control the next time she had a live interview.
Ashley goggled Sarah’s name. She smiled at the first few things she read but then realized what this would mean when they started high school in a couple of weeks.
Sarah had been reading over Ashley’s shoulder and hadn’t smiled at what she read. She turned to the computer she had been using and opened her Facebook page. There she saw post after post. They all had numerous comments. The post she liked the most was from Mr. Caldwell, the drama teacher at Woodside High. He had seen the interview with Kay and had reminded her the tryouts for the fall play were the first Wednesday after school started. He also told her to tell Ashley that he and his wife were so happy when they heard she had been rescued. They wished her a speedy recovery and were sorry for her losses.
“Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell sent their best wishes. He reminded me of the fall play tryout. I think I have a better chance for a lead role. He saw the interview yesterday. They wished you a speedy recovery.”
“You mean you won’t be my understudy?” Mrs. Caldwell had been their eighth-grade English teacher. She had also put on the plays. Ashley had starred in the spring production.
“How will you have time for that with school, cheerleaders, and being on the board at MSI?”
“I have an understanding boss. He wants both of us to enjoy high school. We discussed this last night. Later, Ashley and I talked more about our plans. We will test out in courses so we can get into Stanford sooner.” Sarah looked at Kay then Fred. “The offer is still on the table though we haven’t defined the jobs. Think about it and let us know later. Our next guests have met each other getting into the elevator. They will be here in a couple of minutes. It’s too bad we only have the surveillance cameras. I would love to hear what they are saying.”
Ashley picked up the telephone and dialed. “Would you send up the first order we requested? Yes, that should be fine.”
“Kay and Fred, take seats over there.” Mark pointed to the bar on one side of the room. “That should show you aren’t part of the questioning but that you still will be listening. Girls, remember to keep their attention on us until they are all in the room. Then we will do the check for bugs.”
The three of them went over to the door. Soon they could hear talking even through the heavy door. Mark opened the door before they knocked. “I see you all have met one another. Come in. We will talk when you all are inside. We don’t want someone passing by to hear.” He waved them into the room. He postponed greeting until they were all in the room and the door was shut.
“I had you all come at the same time because I figured everyone would gain by hearing the others’ concerns and what we have to say at one time. You might find you have further questions based on what questions others asked. We have been talking with Commander Kolneski and Ms. Mitchell. I expect that very little you have to say will come as a surprise after what we just discussed.” The senior of the two who he figured were the FBI agents started to say something. “Let us hold off saying anything more of significance for a few minutes. We have had problems with someone trying to monitor us since we got in the room last night. Thankfully, Ashley was a little paranoid after what she had experienced so we picked up some equipment before we got here. Please turn off any cell phones or other equipment you have, while we check for monitoring devices.”
The girls used the two instruments to check for monitoring devices. None was found. As they finished there was a knock at the door. The girls handed the equipment to the two surprised FBI agents.
“We thought you would want to check what room service brought us and then you can make a check of the suite to see if we missed anything.” Sarah told them.
“We can do that.” The older agent said. “I would also like to see what you found.”
Sarah smiled. Mark’s idea of turning security over to the FBI was to cancel some of the anger they had from how the meeting was not developing as the FBI had planned.
Mark opened the door. The man pushing the cart was surprised at all the people watching him. He started to sweat.
The younger agent had drawn his gun. “Don’t take your hands off of the cart. Back both yourself and the cart back into the hall.” He motioned Mark away from the door. He followed the man into the hall.
The other FBI agent had her gun out also and her phone in the other hand. “Tommy, get yourself and Sam over to the Royal Hawaiian. We probably need a bomb squad.” She heard Fred talking to the 911 dispatcher. “The police will be here when you arrive. Take charge of the situation. John appears to have it under control. We are up at the suite.”
The Navy Captain had also produced a gun. She was covering the man, who was down on the floor as the FBI agent searched the cart.
“There’s a bomb. Captain McRae, keep him covered. Everyone else go back in the room. I need to remove the trigger mechanism.” As soon as the others were out of the hall, he bent down and examined the bomb. He smiled as he pulled the detonator out of the explosive. He pulled out a knife and cut the tape holding the bundle together. He tossed the timer and the detonator down the hall. Next, he did a quick check that there was not anything else amiss. Finding nothing, he stood and walked over to the prisoner. “All clear. We will have a little bang out here in a few minutes but not what they intended.” He took out handcuffs and secured the man’s hands behind his back. “Thank you, Captain. I didn’t have to shoot him so I could work on the bomb.”
“Well done, Agent McHale. Why did you suspect a bomb?”
McHale pointed at the man on the floor. “We have information on him. That he was the one bringing the cart to the room told me it was more than just a bug, which they could have slipped into the delivery. He probably has been bribing a member of the hotel staff to do the bugging. After the earlier efforts failed, he decided the Sawyers knew too much. When he found they were having a meeting in the room, he probably figured it had to deal with the plane crash. The bomb would set back any investigation that was underway.”
“You will all die. You are infidels. Allah...” Agent McHale turned. His foot appeared to accidentally hit the back of the man’s head, but the force had been too strong. “Sorry about that. You should be quiet until someone reads you your Miranda rights.”
The Captain smiled. She liked this guy. He was just about the right age for either of her girls. He was not wearing a ring, so he was probably not married. Though she didn’t think they would appreciate Mom trying to set them up.
The agent was also considering the Captain. She’s carrying and knew how to back me up without interfering or offering suggestions. She had just smiled when I quieted him.
Senior Special Agent Marsha Poe had come out the door just as Special Agent John McHale had mentioned Miranda rights. She didn’t do more than glance at the prisoner. She noted John had done something to keep him quiet. It shouldn’t mess up the investigation or putting the guy away. It looks like he did no more than surprise the guy. She noticed how John and the Navy Captain had sized each other up. John needed to get a girlfriend.
“John, HPD is on the way. Tommy and Sam are on their way to take over this part of the investigation. I assume the bomb squad will have nothing to do when they get here.” Just then, there was an explosion down the hall, which wasn’t much more than fireworks. “Any reason you didn’t leave that so we could check for fingerprints?”
“Sealed timing unit. I didn’t want to take the chance it was booby-trapped. I was careful with the tape on the explosive. There should be fingerprints on it.”
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