Chapter 10

A knock on my door, “Your ride to work is here.” It was mother ... wasn’t it Saturday?

“Be right out,” my wife said.

Both of us saw Joseph, who had told us that things had ramped up, and we could come in to work if we wanted with “Code Yellow” available.

Of course, we did. Mother insisted he wait for us inside the house. She seemed almost charmed by him.

We came out dressed and all packed. I gave my mother a big hug and kiss saying, “I will contact you as soon as we know something.”

Joseph put our suitcases in the trunk, and we were on our way. We still had to wear our eye cover, and our drive was still about thirty minutes long. It’s funny; Fort Bragg was about that far away?

When we got there, things looked different.

Anticipating, Joseph said, “Mr. Evans thought it inappropriate for you to be sleeping in your actual laboratory, so here is your ‘after hours’ home.”

He, with my help, put our things in a rather nice room, as big as my entire home, with a double bed, closets for our things plus a kitchen, fully stocked, with a checkoff list as we needed for the things we ate and used.

Elizabeth couldn’t keep from giving him a kiss on the cheek, as he said; “Follow me to your ‘second home, ‘ where we walked down a short hallway into an elevator. We must be trusted now. He pointed to and pushed the button labeled LAB, making a special point of saying we didn’t have access to get off at any other of the levels designated on the panel.

I had my new chemistry book, and we walked into an entrance to our work lab neither of us had noticed before. Joseph gave us our code to access the elevator at lunchtime and the end of our day.

From inside the Chemistry Book, I removed the samples my wife gathered from me when I ejaculated. She put it in the cooler we had available to us.

“What was that?” Code Yellow asked.

“Male Ejaculate,” Mrs. Williams said. “My husbands to be specific. Is there a problem?”

“No, there is not, Elizabeth. It is my job to question. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“No, not at the moment.”

“How long will that last in there?” I asked my wife.

“Less than a week, probably. We’ll wait until we are motivated, so in the meantime, let’s find something else to do?”

She went to the ticker to see if anything interesting had happened since we left the previous day.

Before I had focused on anything she read aloud:

“1939 JUNE TWENTY-FOUR ... SIAM CHANGES ITS NAME TO THAILAND UNDER THE FASCIST MILITARY DICTATORSHIP OF FIELD MARSHAL LUANG PHIBUNSONGKHRAM!”

“Is that significant?” I asked her.

“It could be, he has to stay in power to make it happen, and he may not. He was one of the leaders of the military that staged a coup d’état and overthrew the Monarchy back in 1932. He and fellow officers crushed the Boworadet Rebellion the following year. Last year, he replaced Phraya Phahol ending up as the Prime Minister of Thailand. If he can stay in power, he is a formidable man. Plus, a fascist!”

“If he can get along with the Japs, this could be very significant.”

“Do we need to get that Lieutenant Colonel back in here?” I asked.

“No, it’s too soon for that. But, besides that happening it says here:

“1939 JUNE TWENTY-THREE ... FRANCE RETURNS SANJAK OF ALEXANDRETTA TO TURKEY.”

“That means Syria gave up some property for reasons unknown. It could mean France is getting ready to be involved and maybe made the deal with Turkey for defensive purposes. Only time can tell.”