Chapter 18

I pondered what I should do, as I ran my morning three miles. While running might be good for your heart and circulatory system, it doesn't really take a lot of concentration. That left me with a lot of time for thinking.

For the last couple of years, I had watched the US taking a large and active roll in world events, mostly concerning the Middle East. I shook my head over the terrorist situation. It was now 2005, and I was trying to decide if I should take a more active roll in intelligence gathering for the US.

I was doing pretty well with my business of finding and restoring cars, having gotten it down to a fine art. I did cheat a bit, sometimes. Why not use my abilities to bring back these beauties, for those who would appreciate them? I did take care not to get too well known. I also made sure I had a clear paper trail, courtesy of my computer.

As I ran, I noticed something that was a little out of place. Did I mention before that I was out in the middle of nowhere? My closest neighbor was a goodly distance from my house. I was also set back from the road far enough to give me even more privacy.

So what was a gas truck doing out here? The place they were set up at, had no gas lines at all. The reason I knew this, was because the distance from my home to the actual main gas line, had been expensive. This gas truck was not following the trunk line to my place, at all.

Come to think of it, there had been a lot of utility trucks parked out in this area, lately. Mostly electric, and now here was a gas truck where there was no gas line. On the other hand, how many people knew the actual route their line ran? I did because I had been curious about why mine had cost so much.

My paranoia kicked into high gear, but I continued my jog with no pause or interruption. If I was being watched, there was no need to change my routine. That would make me stand out, more than continuing on as normal would. I did note the license plate number of the truck as I ran by, though.

Had I tipped my hand, somehow? Was I being watched by the government? There was an old saying: "Just because your paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you!" A healthily paranoid attitude was mandatory in my life.

After I got back from my run I confronted my computer.

"I think I am being watched, and I think it is by a governmental agency," I told it.

"Checking for surveillance by local police... negative. Checking with State police... negative. Checking with FBI... negative. Checking with CIA... Negative. Checking with Homeland security... negative. Checking with NSA... negative. Checking with military intelligence branches... working... negative.

"There is no active surveillance ordered by any of the active agencies of the US government. Going to foreign governments. This will take a while longer... working, working... working. Negative on any intelligence branch, nor are you being looked at by any terrorist organization, which is computerized at this time,"

"Well, call me paranoid, but we have had the phone company, the electric company, and now the gas company out here in the past couple weeks, and the gas company truck is at a location that has no lines whatsoever, but it is in a good position to monitor this house, visually," I told it a bit grumpily.

"I am unable to check with private sources such as offline private investigation companies, or other companies that do not keep standard operations such as governments do, unless they are on line. I can check those I am able too, if you wish. Also, if you give me the license plates numbers, I might be able to track down registration on the vehicles in question," the computer responded.

That made sense, and I gave him the plate number for the gas company truck. It was not the biggest utility in the area, and the truck was in fact registered to a gas company. But, when we queried the company acting as a police computer, the company in question stated that a private detective agency had requested a vehicle from them. An exorbitant amount of rent had been paid for the vehicle, for the next three days.

That answered my question. Total elapsed time to find this out was a little over twenty minutes. Now who would be curious enough to go to these lengths, to rent vehicles from utility companies, or private companies?

I set the computer to back tracking, and it said this could take hours, days, or even weeks. Not a good sign.

I decided it was time for a trip into the past. I thought about the distance in time I could now go. If I so desired, I could go to ancient times. The problem was, I did not have the power to jump back, unless I was in a city. Most likely, I would need to make the return back in a series of jumps. The furthest back I had been was a visit to Rome, around 135 A.D.

I had also practiced putting a large amounts of weight into the 'between' and transporting it. So far, I was up to twenty-five tons at one lift. I could then transport it back one thousand years. Which meant I could transport that much weight to the future in return! I had been thinking gold and such, but there were other items I could transfer as well.

For example, I now had an entire Soviet missile launcher and some fairly sophisticated intermediate range missiles stored in the 'between'. By intermediate, I meant something in the 700 to 1200 mile range. I had twenty of these missiles. The world's intelligence community assumed they had been sold by the Russian General in charge, but I was actually the thief.

There was nothing nuclear. Each had high explosive warheads, except for four. Four were fitted with a fast acting nerve agent, which dissipated fairly quickly. I felt the need for some fire power, although I didn't know what I would use them for, as of yet. The strangest part, was that it had been my computer that had suggested I gather a bit of an arsenal.

I also had some French made anti-ship missiles, with launchers. I also had a number of Stinger missiles, which I had 'liberated' from the fighters in Afghanistan who were fighting the Soviet Union. It had been a short 'time dive' to the 80's to retrieve them. As far as the US government was concerned, these were either expended or in storage by the now defunct Taliban government.

I finally decided on teleporting to Europe, but first, I would need a passport to get to a few of the places I wanted to go. That turned out to be no trouble for my computer. It had an attachment that turned out documents from a simple fishing permit, to almost any type of document from any government in the world.

My computer issued me an international driver's license, which was good for a whole host of countries. My future self had really set this computer up with some very sophisticated capabilities.

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