Chapter 7

(Over the Bering Sea almost to Siberia)

"Lord" Robert Pitts, former Lt. USAF medical discharge, was flying with his two "Priestesses" and a body guard in the black and red Piper Cherokee at 200 feet above the Bering Sea headed 260 degrees west toward Providenya Bay Airport where a former Soviet KGB Agent awaited him. "Lord" Pitts' bodyguard with him in the plane was in reality Nikolai Bitschenko a former Russian Agent. Along with three of the so-called Elders and his High Priestess "Sasha" Svetlana Nuryevski were all former Soviet agents that had fled the former Soviet Union following the failed coup against Boris Yeltsen.

They had come to the US by way of a small fishing boat across the Bering Strait and worked their way down to near Moses Point on the Seward Peninsula east of Nome and White Mountain. There they were picked up by a "sleeper agent" that went by the code name of 'The Lord." Lt. Robert Pitts, a specialist in telecommunications would monitor the traffic between the NORAD (North American Air Defense) Headquarters and the various forward fighter bases like King Salmon, Shemya and Galena. Then he would send copies of the communications in short microburst to his contact in Siberia.

Pitts was delusional and saw himself as a "god" in his mind. When the former Soviet Agents came to Alaska, with millions in counterfeit US dollars, he capitalized on a way to both "become a god", and to get revenge on the Air Force for giving him a "mentally unfit for duty" discharge. The discharge was a result of his almost being caught sending the transmissions to Russian agents code name "Boris and Natasha" then masking it by acting "spastic" and punching buttons and resetting dials at random.

In that respect the discharge was preferable to being charged with espionage and treason. The AFCIS team had discovered notes to "Boris and Natasha" and also to "Bullwinkle" and that is what led to his "Section 8" instead of a Court-Martial. If they only knew that the "Bullwinkle" he referred to, was the 6 foot 6 Nikolai Bitschenko and not the moose that talked to Rocky the Flying Squirrel! It was more a bid for a "not guilty by reason of insanity" defense, and they discharged Pitts rather than prosecute him.

When his Soviet cohorts fled in the 90's Pitts gave them a hideout inside of the abandoned White Alice complex near Unalakleet. Here they also reconstructed the apparatus with more technologically advanced equipment that would be otherwise unavailable if not for some carefully concealed campaign contributions that were also leveraged by taped telephone conversations that originated in the Oval Office.

In return, they used their KGB tactics to abduct women to be used as sex slaves and laborers in the commune Pitts set up as a "religion" with himself as "the incarnation of the living god"! They grew their own food in the summer, and subsistence hunted and fished. When they needed to go to the city, they usually went to Anchorage or Fairbanks or one of the surrounding boroughs. It was on these trips that they usually spotted their next "inductees" to the Ministry of the Living God on Earth, as Pitts called the commune.

Single women walking dogs in quiet areas were usually targeted. With the "unfortunate demise" of Denise Norberg from Seward they were hunting a replacement and the "Elders" went out to "visit people" in remote areas, where they could easily be kidnapped. Sometimes, the very lonely or easily persuaded went willingly. Most often, the women that lived alone had a dog, and were taken while out walking the dog by the use of the tranquilizer darts.

Of course they also immobilized the dog with one, so they could snatch the owner unhampered by a defensive loyal canine. More women were taken than reported, since sometimes the dogcatcher found the dog before anyone reported them missing. Denise Norberg had tried to run the day Mike flew over, and was darted and carried back inside and beheaded with a machete, as an example of what happened to anyone trying to escape.

The women who came willingly were told they had to be blindfolded to maintain the sanctity of the site. The darted ones were bound and hooded, especially on long return flights. While talking to the "prospective inductees" the "Elders" photographed them for approval of the "Lord" and his Priestesses. These tiny button sized cameras also transmitted them back to the big dish. Thus "Lord Pitts" knew the troopers were coming before they arrived.

Part of his bargain with the former KGB Agents was the acquisition of three so-called "Suitcase Nukes" with a hypothetical 1-kiloton yield that can be carried by a person, albeit very heavy. The original plan was to thwart any cooperation between the US and Russia and to start a World War. In reality, the KGB Agents figured Pitts was indeed unstable, and while they played his "I am the Lord" game the bombs consisted of some plastic explosive and some x-ray material stolen from the "Radioactive" waste bin at a hospital one night when it was left unattended.

Thus a Geiger Counter did register radiation levels high enough that Pitts did not wish to get close enough to inspect them. The three were indeed "dirty bombs" One was on the twin-engine Piper Chieftain, another on a remote part of the Alaska Pipeline and The third was in the lower chamber of the compound in the room housing the receivers where the remote cameras transmitted to. They had seen the capture of the six "Elders" and Nikolai had set a "timer" on the "suitcase bomb" in the observation center.

The one in the plane at Aurora View was "triggered" by a phone call, as was the one on the Pipeline.

"OW!" Sgt. Miller said, as he undid a wire he knew didn't belong in the instrument panel. "Darn thing shocked me!" he clipped the other two wires and followed them to an aluminum briefcase.

"Houston, we have a problem." Miller said. "Tell the Commandant we have a bomb on the premises, but I think I disarmed it. Tell him I think one of them may have a deadman switch in them."

"You mean on them?" Cadet Cole asked.

"No," Miller said. "I mean IN them. We strip-searched them, not including body cavities."

"We did that," Trooper Danby said. "That woman with the red star on her left cheek has got a serious hygiene problem too. I looked once and that was some nasty aroma. I actually wondered if those three that died foaming at the mouth got a whiff of that! She had some funny writing tattooed on her as well."

"What red star?" Miller asked. "Like Russian?"

"Now that you mention it," Danby said, "Yeah. I think that was probably Russian for biohazard."

"Knock it off, Danby," Miller commented." We know you don't like to have to check women for weapons and such. It had to be done."

"Trust me Sarge, if you had done it you'd never go near another female again!" She insisted.

"If you say so, Danby." Miller said. "Someone tried to set that off while I was disconnecting the wires."

"What have we got, Miller?" Comdr. Sellers asked. "What is this about a bomb?"

Sgt. Miller showed him the wires and the aluminum case. "They have one at the White Alice too." Sellers informed him "It went off in a closed vault. It didn't even blow the door off but they said they do have detectable radiation up another floor from it."

"Anyone hurt?" Miller asked.

"Only the people from there." Sellers replied. "It seems they did a cult suicide on us, but about half were shot. We got a 737 to take about 15 to Anchorage. There were 4 unhurt hiding in a big locker though. We are interviewing them now. How about giving me a lift over? And bring that darn case with us because we have EOD from Elmendorf (Air Force Base) on the ground there."

As the three surviving cult members were taken to Nome, and their plane to Anchorage to be completely disassembled and gone over by the CIB and Forensics Teams the rest of the Troopers began to filter back to their Duty Posts. The F-15's returned to Eilson after refueling, failing to find the low flying Cherokee. The plane carrying "Lord Pitts" had come within 14 miles of the Siberian coastline, when they ran into three Russian helicopter gunships.

"How nice of Boris to send out an escort to meet us," Lord Pitts said.

"I think you are only half right," Nikolai said. "That is not Providenya Bay."

Outside two helicopters were on each wing, with the door gunners pointing their weapons on the plane. Suddenly the third big Mi-24 flew over them and flashed his lights to follow him. Pitts complied. A newly built Air Defense Base appeared ahead, and the lead chopper led them to a remote area of the base.

"I told you we shouldn't have come back." Sasha said, disgustedly. "This base was not here when we left. It is new."

On the tarmac were four advanced SU-37 interceptors and two none of them knew what they were.

"We are screwed now," the bodyguard said. "There will be a welcoming committee ahead, only the only music they will be playing is gunfire."

"Maybe they won't recognize us," Natasha said.

"You are kidding right?" Nikolai said, "Too much time in USA and your brain gets soft."

He pulled his pistol from his shoulder holster, and put a round each in the back of the two "Priestesses" heads, then turned it on himself. Pitts brought the plane to a halt and jumped out and ran as the Hind turned it into flaming scrap metal! Pitts leapt to the ground and was suddenly surrounded by boots, and had two AK-47's stuck in his face.

People in the Liberal Press whine about how the US treats our POW's or detainees at Guantanamo but nary a whisper was ever said to criticize other countries for their treatment. Perhaps it was poetic Justice that former Lt. Robert Pitts was taken prisoner, and had to go before a commander that had been in Uzbekistan and displeased his Commander. Now he was assigned to the new remote fighter base in Siberia.

The prisoner was interrogated, tortured and given Sodium Pentathol to loosen his tongue up. The Russian Colonel decided he was a spy, just like the three in the plane. Pitts was on his way to a labor camp above the Arctic Circle before midnight. His lone protest, "You can't do this to me, for I am the Lord!" was met with a rifle butt across his face. Pitts would die of pneumonia that winter and cremated in a pile with the bodies of other political prisoners. That included "Boris" whom he gave up while under the truth serum.

The EOD from Elmendorf decided that the silver case was a collection of machined parts and some plastic explosive packed with about 30 pounds of Radiology waste. The third case was found 120 miles from the start of the pipeline at Prudhoe Bay and had not detonated due to a receiver malfunction. It was identical to the other one in the plane.

"Lord Pitts" was never seen nor heard from again. The two women from Nome were among the four found alive and unharmed. Of the other two, one was from Wasilla, north of Anchorage and the other was taken from a tour group from Germany in Denali Park when she strayed from the group to use the restroom. They never missed her. Among the wounded and dead were several abductees and several runaways. Also several were identified as former KGB and Chinese Agents, but that information was on a "need to know" basis. The red and white Super Cub was confiscated for sale at the next government auction.