Chapter 15

Shirley's training was completed the next day, so now she was a full fledged member of the GPD. All she needed was some experience in the field. That didn't take long to arrange.

Seven showed up that evening with a mission proposal. "Folks, the fifteens have been tweaking their time travel device, and our software experts have been working on some simulations of historical alternatives. The upshot is that we would like to do some experiments with changing history to see if the simulation is valid. There was a situation on the planet Timsno that is perfect for our first trial. We would like for you to prevent an assassination of a religious leader 120 years ago. This person's death caused a religious war to break out that is still going on, and the whole civilization is in a terrible mess. We hope that preventing the assassination will prevent the war, and the people of Timsno can live without so much pain and turmoil. Will you take the assignment?"

Jase answered for the group, "That sounds like something we would like to do. But you know Judy and Jo's reservations about seeing the ETs before committing to an assignment."

"I sure do remember. Here's a picture of the locals." Seven pointed a small device at a bare place on the room, and a hologram was displayed. It showed a being that looked like porcupine, but its quills were flexible and writhing continuously. Seven said, "As you can see, this might be a being from Earth. It's about 8 inches tall at the shoulder and approximately 2 feet long, including the tail. The quills are its primary sensory device, and function like a sense of smell. I would say that you will have no problem getting around in their oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere and .59 g gravity field."

Judy said, "I would have no trouble with that ET; how about you, Jo?"

"Same here. I'm willing, if everybody else is."

Jase looked around and got affirmative nods all around. "OK, Seven, we're ready." They put on their armor and picked up their gear. Seven transferred them to GPD for briefing, and they were ready to go.

There were still a few minor glitches in the transporter when it came to this kind of operation, so the team was set down on Timsno on the morning of the day of the assassination. They were dropped on the flat roof of a building near the center of the city where the deed took place. The murder weapon had been a large car-bomb and a number of people had been killed or injured. Many of the injured had later died, and this made it difficult to pin down all of the effects of canceling out the assassination.

A number of people had been involved in assembling the bomb, and it had been done over a period of 11 days, so just eliminating one or two people would not have stopped the assassination attempt. They were going to have to act on very nearly a real-time situation, where they stopped the car on its way to the killing. This was a suicide mission for the driver; he was rigged with a "dead man" control, so that if anything happened to him, the bomb would detonate. Somehow, they would have to disable the car without setting off the bomb before it reached a position near the target.

The intended victim was to give a speech at 2:00 PM to a crowd in front of a religious school. The driver of the car bomb intended to drive through the crowd, pushing people aside with his car, until he got close enough to set off the bomb. At least, this was the way it had happened.

The team had their invisibility turned on, so there was no chance that they would be spotted by any of the locals. They hoped to make it look like divine intervention when they stopped the car, but that was a secondary goal. The main goal was to save all the lives they could.

A significant part of their problem was that they did not know exactly what the vehicle looked like. All they knew was that the vehicle was shaped much like the original VW Bug, and I was less than 6 feet long. Unfortunately, this was a good description of the personal transportation used by most of the locals. There was no identifying color they could use, since the locals were totally color blind. The planet was a riot of color, but it looked uniformly gray to the ETs.

On the other hand, their sense of smell was so sensitive that the humans wondered how the assassin could sneak his bomb past a crowd of people. It was like trying to sneak explosives past a bomb sniffing dog. The only answer was that the bomb must be contained inside some sort of airtight container. Even this would be only marginally effective in limiting the escape of fumes. The car must also be sealed, but that was going to make it somewhat conspicuous on this very warm day. All the team needed to do was look for a car driving around with tightly closed windows and no air conditioning; air conditioning would blow the fumes outside the car.

They looked around the vicinity of the speaker's podium, but could not find any parked cars which fit all of the requirements. Therefore, the killer must not have arrived, yet. They split up and took posts on each of the streets radiating from the plaza, keeping a sharp eye out for the approaching vehicle they were searching for.

While the other members of the team were searching for the car-bomb, Jase was trying to figure out a way to accomplish both of their goals. Finally, an idea came to him. He used his internal radio to discuss his idea with the rest of the team. <Listen up, people! I need your input. I've given the problem a lot of thought, and I have an idea of a way to save the intended victim and make the rescue look like an act of divine providence. Here's what I have in mind... >

He described his idea in minute detail and listened to comments. With some very minor modifications, his original plan stood, and they waited for the car to show up. Now, it looked like the car would not arrive until the speech was underway, so they settled into watchful waiting.

Jase's plan depended in part on the fact that the humans towered over the locals, so he planned for a little "shock and awe" effect by turning off their invisibility as they ran from their various observation points to converge on the car. Surely, these very tall, two-legged monsters suddenly appearing in the crowds midst would suggest angels to some and demons to others, but they would certainly look some kind of supernatural.

The speech was well underway, when Jeff signaled, <Here he comes. It's the only vehicle I have seen that is completely closed up and sealed.>

Jase thought, <Good work, Jeff. Everybody, use your HUD to follow Jeff as he tags along with the car. When I signal, turn off your invisibility and run to the car, if you're not already there. I'll start the countdown as soon as we all reach the car.>

The car pulled into the crowd and started pushing people aside as it moved toward the podium. The driver completely ignored the fact that he was injuring people as he ran into them. As soon as the driver was committed and had no chance of changing his mind, Jase ordered, <INVISIBILITY OFF! CONVERGE NOW!>

Suddenly, 6 ghostly monsters appeared among the crowd and rushed toward the car. As each person reached the car, he or she grabbed hold and lifted enough to break the car's contact with the ground. The driver was so intent on completing his mission that he gunned the car, but, of course, it didn't move, since none of its wheels were touching the ground by now.

As soon as everybody was there, Jase ordered, <One, two, three, HEAVE!> The team's combined strength, coupled with the low gravity, sent the car flying into the air. The driver was so startled that he couldn't trigger the bomb while he was still close enough to the ground to do any real damage. All 6 team members readied their guns and fired XP rounds at the car when it seemed to reach the peak of its trajectory. None of the team got off more than a couple of shots before the car exploded into such small pieces that no one was badly injured when the pieces fell back to the ground.

Immediately, each team member triggered the recall code, and they were snatched back to headquarters before anyone in the crowd had time to do more than dodge the flying shards of the car. Seven rushed to them and exclaimed, "I am so proud of you! You did a nearly perfect job! This time there was no war and civilization on Timsno has progressed admirably. The simulation was almost 100% correct; the deviations were insignificant. Now we have the opportunity to do a lot of good throughout the galaxy!"