Chapter 9

There was more planning that evening, but mostly just details of what we had worked out. We split into two groups and basically worked out what we each needed to do. Bubba had to return home to get the things he needed to provide and Earl and myself plotted out what we needed.

Earl and I were going to put lights in the cave and construct a walkway out of plywood so the gurney could be rolled without much problem. We also needed to disguise the part of the basement he would be kept in so he couldn't give an accurate description about anything upon his release. We needed it to look like a hospital room or a room in a sanitarium. We were going to put up a series of partitions and paint them to resemble something medical. Bubba knew where he could put his hands on a door that would look like a door that would normally be seen in a hospital. We would also put in some fake outlets for emergency power. Plus oxygen and nitrous oxide valves, with the proper color-coding.

Bubba said he would have some IV stands and shelves for the various monitors to set on. He was also supplying the hospital bed we would need. He could get anything it seemed. And if he couldn't get it, then nobody needed it.

"Bubba, not that I'm paranoid or anything, but if we give them tapes out, won't we need to disguise our voices on them to prevent any voice prints bein' done?" I asked.

"Good thinkin'. I can do that when we edit the tapes. They won't be able to reverse edit it out when they try to do a print either."

"Good, that way we won't have to disguise our voices when we're questionin' him," Earl said.

"Earl, you and me need to put in some electrical circuits around the runway too. We'll need them to plug the lights into."

"You'll probably need at least three separate circuits," Bubba said. "Them things draw a lot of juice. Probably 6 or 7 is all you can put on a 20 amp circuit."

"I figure we can load the gurney in the back of the Hummer to drive to the cave. It's better than a pickup with a shell on it," I brought out.

"Ya, that'd work," Earl said. "He don't need any comfort. We just need to get him in the cave and then we've got everything covered."

"As long as ya'all are puttin' down plywood to roll the gurney on, why don't you put up walls too? That way he won't know it's a cave," Bubba put on the table.

"Ya, then we could just install the lights in the ceiling and it'd look like a regular hallway in a hospital," I came back with.

"If we're gonna be a hospital, what about havin' a loudspeaker pagin' doctors?" Earl brought up.

"Good thinkin', Earl. I can put that in the tapes and it'll just play automatically," Bubba replied.

It was getting close to lunch and our group was pretty well wrapped up with our planning. I fired up the grill and slapped some burgers on. I figured two a piece would hold us until supper. Everyone except Earl would be pulling out tonight and I had some really thick steaks for that meal.

Since Gary was the only one that was piloting a plane, I got the rest of us a beer to go with our burgers. Gary had to settle for a coke. A good pilot never drinks within 24 hours of flying. It fucks up the senses too bad. We ate and traded insults during the whole meal. There was always a rivalry between the services, but it was good-natured with us. We had all depended on each other at one time or another.

After lunch we came back into one group and tried to finalize some of our plans. I told the other group what we had planned for the cave and basement. They seemed to agree and liked the subtle touches of making it look like a hospital, along with the inclusion of the paging in the tapes.