Chapter 13

THE JUNCTION

STEVE –Day Ten part #1

Somebody was shaking me, but my body knew it was far too early to wake up.

"Husband, wake up, Husband."

It was Mercy, what could she want?

"Wake up," she insisted, "Chuck is about to call you."

And he did...

"Yes?" I couldn't stop a massive yawn.

"Sorry to call so early," he began, "But I've just received a second call from my other employer; the first was about midnight our time and he says I need to pass the news on as you apparently were never informed. Where he gets his information from, I don't know.

"He says there was a security scare out at The Junction yesterday evening. Some bikers and others just drove in and set up a racing track on the long runway. They had to be chased off by a Metro Police SWAT team.

"This has initiated a whole series of moves orchestrated by DC. A Nevada National Guard Military Police company has been activated, and will be arriving early this morning to take over security at the Junction until our people can get organized.

"As cover, the Pentagon will be issuing an Operational Order for an exercise they are calling 'Black Mongoose'. The location was to have been Edwards AFB in California, but that's now been changed to The Junction."

"You can expect the first recon parties to arrive today, any time after about 1030 your time. I also understand that the commander of the 82^nd Airborne, General Haskins, is likely to be with them. My contact says he's notorious for going in first to see where his men are going to land. After that, expect up to fifty-five C-17A Globemasters of the 437^th Airlift Wing tomorrow and about 4,000 soldiers of the General's 4^th Brigade Combat Team the following day, if not sooner. As the duration of the exercise is labeled 'indefinite', they will be bringing a lot of their support units with them.

"I think you need to tell Terrell to replace the whole perimeter fence with the kind that has the coiled razor wire at the top. I know this will not be cheap because there must be 8-10 miles to be done, but please tell him to get enough crews working so the job is completed in the next seven days. We really need this security.

"Before you go, I forgot to mention that your main gate was smashed in last night, but the MPs are probably already on site."

"Have fun."

I had Mercy get everyone up and moving, and we pulled up outside the airpark an hour later. Instead of the usual barrier, there was a Police vehicle blocking the way, with a SWAT Sergeant and an MP Major standing beside it.

Just as I pulled up, Mercy screamed 'Jamie', leaped out of the car and ran over to hug the Major.

I pulled over to the side, and got out of the car. Mercy pulled the MP Officer over towards me.

"This is my husband, Steve Sharp," she introduced us. "Darling, this is Capt. Jamie Wilson who led the MP platoon up in Montana when Chuck went to rescue his cousins."

As we shook hands, Mercy smiled at the Police Sergeant and shook hands with him too.

"My husband is one of the owners of CS&S which now owns the airpark," she explained.

I got both a salute and a handshake.

"I'm afraid we arrived a little late, Sir, because we got diverted by a false alarm up in North Las Vegas," the sergeant apologized. "The only damage appears to be your gate barrier here. It looks as if they just drove straight through it. I don't think they had time to do anything else before we chased them out through a big hole in your fence over there."

He gestured over to the far side of the runway.

"We only heard about it when a Highway Patrol trooper spotted them and radioed in to their graveyard shift commander. I don't know who your security people are, but they never did anything about it, and the entrance here was deserted when we arrived. I was told to remain until the Major and her men got here, but I'm three hours past the end of my shift, so I'm leaving now if that's OK with you."

He touched a button on his radio.

"Zebra Five..." He quickly reported our arrival, and said he was going off duty. After giving us a smart salute, he climbed into his vehicle and drove off.

After he pulled away, I got a shock when I saw Major Wilson's three vehicles in a line beside the airfield entrance. I didn't know that the State of Nevada had bought any of our composite military vehicles – but here were three of them.

While I was looking, I heard the Major start explaining to Mercy how she came to be here.

"They decided to de-activate my MP platoon soon after your visit," she told Mercy. "I had the right seniority, so I applied for this job and got it. There are very few civilian jobs up in Montana, so 42 of my unit, mostly the girls, came down here with me and re-enlisted. We should have a TO&E of 180 effective people, but we're still 50 under strength at the moment.

"We're stationed out at Henderson, southeast of the City, but my Readiness NCO seems to be having real trouble collecting the men. Luckily, Sgt. Sheehan here and her men were with me in the workshops when we got the call out. We were going over our new vehicles and familiarizing ourselves with them."

Mercy found this really funny.

"These are made by S&S - Steve's company," she giggled.

They were distracted by the arrival of another seven of the Major's MPs, so leaving Sgt. Sheehan in charge of the gate, with instructions to start perimeter patrols as soon as she had the men and vehicles, Major Wilson accompanied us over to the main buildings.

I asked Mercy to show her friend around this part of the airpark, and for them both to join us in the conference room when they had finished – I wasn't using Mr. Jackson's office for anything, and told Kurt it was his.

My first priority was to talk to Baker Security about their missing security guards. When I was connected to the manager, I said.

"This is Steve Sharp of CS&S out at Mojave Airpark. We are employing your company to supply gate guards and mobile patrols to protect our property here.

"However, when I arrived this morning, I found the entrance deserted except for a Police Sergeant. Can you explain this, please?"

"What do you mean?" A grumpy voice replied. "I know nothing about this; all is quiet at your property and our men are in position."

"I'm afraid you are mistaken," I told the man. "I'm informed by the police that our airfield here was invaded by a group of bikers and hot-rod drivers last night. They also informed me that all your men had deserted their posts by the time the SWAT team arrived. I am very surprised that I was not told about this by you, which was clearly your duty. Your contract with us is hereby terminated as of right now, and you will be hearing from our attorney, Mr. Mawson."

I cut the call before the sputtering manager at the other end could reply.

The women's quick tour only took 10 minutes, so I asked for coffee and told Major Jamie about my conversation with Baker Security, and the expected arrival of the paratroopers and their aircraft. She hadn't heard about this and looked downright shocked.

Next, I explained about the Guard Force that Chuck was organizing at that very minute, and that he wanted the whole perimeter fence here replaced within the next week. I added that I would see about getting some of my own security men out here to guard the gate. Maybe some of the men who went up to Montana would like to come. She said that she could probably get men from the one of the 508^th Infantry Battalions to do perimeter patrols until the fence was complete.

Terrell then came in.

"I've found a contractor who can start on the fence immediately," he told us. "He's quite confident that he can get it all done in the week. There apparently are two other fencing specialists who he can use to help, since they evidently need the work as well. He's assured me that installing coiled razor-wire at the top of the fence won't delay things either.

"Can we talk about the other work that's needed here?

"I've got my men started on the motel renovations. Not a lot of work is needed to get many of the rooms ready for occupation; five or six should be ready today, so Cindy can start buying the beds and linen.

"We covered just about all aspects of the passenger handling facilities yesterday, but don't we need more hangars?"

I started making a list.

"We currently have two hangars occupied by the flight school, plus another five really good big ones that Gordon Jackson built in anticipation of the freight company moving in," I remarked.

"If Jimmy's new maintenance outfit gets off the ground, goodness knows how many more we'll need and what size they'll have to be. We'd better reserve enough land over on the other side of the airfield for a really big complex, but surely five hangars over there would be enough for a start? I don't think this is an immediate concern; but you should probably prepare some contingency plans for this, please, Terrell.

"One hangar should be enough to house the helicopters we're bringing in for the time being, even if our plans do work out to get rotary maintenance contracts and the flying school starts offering rotary lessons. The Golf Tours will need another one, and the Air Charter business we're looking into will probably require as many as three more quite soon, given our past experience..."

"So we will need at least another three hangars over this side, and I should plan on building five more on the other," Terrell remarked. "You never have any spare hangars, so let's get enough built this time."

I turned to Kurt.

"Are you planning on basing any of your 700s here?" I asked him.

"Yes; three initially," he told us. "I cleared this with Chuck last night. We've got one fully booked Golf Tour flying out from LAWest tomorrow. DeDe arranged it, and the aircraft will be based here when it returns. The other two will be arriving as soon as they've completed their current charters. I have to remember to brief Star too; she's also getting three 700s to add to her two 737-300 freighters.

"Following Chuck's instructions, I've been talking to Crystal in Hawaii, and to Dewey about the growing problem of a lack of nearby hotel space for the package tours we're selling to the Californian public. I think we have a communication problem here, as neither of them was aware of this lack of rooms. Dewey said he was going to Hawaii next week and that he would look at adding wings with extra rooms at each resort."

"I think we've got a similar problem here. In my opinion, Mr. Jackson underestimated the fuel storage requirements," was Terrell's next issue. "We ought to double the number of tanks in the fuel farm."

"Right, do it," I told him.

As Terrell was leaving looking rather satisfied, Pete walked in, followed by Cindy.

She spoke first.

"Mr. Terrell said that we need to furnish the rooms at the motel that his men will have ready for occupancy today. I can take Jodie over to a good furniture store, but how do I pay for things?"

"Ben made arrangements for a line of credit with the Farmer's Bank before he left," I told her. "Call there before going to the furniture store; they should have all our new banking arrangements in place by now. I think you met the Director, Mr. Fowler, on Monday. Ask for him."

Cindy went off to find Jodie.

"I think I'd better go and keep an eye on things from the tower," remarked Kurt, and he followed her out.

Pete had been quietly standing there while this was happening.

"I've got about two days to kill while the medics get my son stabilized for his operation," he explained. "What do you have to keep me occupied? I've already arranged for a moving company to start packing every thing up in LA, and I've briefed all my employees about what's happening. Can they be signed up as CS&S employees today?"

"That's good," I told him. "We'll do it. Why don't you sit in on my meetings today? You need to know how we operate, and when you have time, you should go over to Spring Field and explore the possibility of starting a shuttle service between Frisco and Reno similar to the one you run here."

"I'd like that," Pete exclaimed, looking a lot more cheerful. "I've got a lot of contacts in Sacramento and other parts of California, so something along these lines is a real possibility. The owners of the Vegas resort I'm currently working with also own another big resort in Reno, so I'll start there."

"Fine, with all your contacts, Pete, you might like to see about getting the Halcyon feeder operations extended as well?"

Kurt now stuck his head around the door.

"We've got an F-22 in the pattern," he reported, "And I recognize the pilot's voice. It's Jerry Hegarty who is the new Vice-Commander of the 437^th Airlift Wing. He just requested permission to do a slow fly-by and then land."

At that moment, we saw a fighter fly low past the window. It was flying over the far side of the runway while the pilot inspected it for problems.

When Kurt brought Colonel Hegarty in to meet us, it was obvious that the two were old friends. After introducing him, Kurt explained.

"It's Jerry's job as Commander of the Wing's advance party to ensure that the move goes smoothly," he told us. "The first C-17 is on the way, and it's carrying a control tower party with all their equipment, although I don't think they'll need much of that here. Jimmy tells me ours is absolutely state-of-the-art.

"There is plenty of room on the airfield both for his men and their aircraft, as well as for all the troops. Do you have any preference as to where they go?"

I went over to the window in time to see the two vehicles of Sgt. Sheehan's first perimeter patrol drive past with pennants flying bravely from their radio aerials. I was proud to see them. Standing beside me, Jerry watched them too.

"We had a small problem with an incursion on the runway here last night," I told the Colonel. "We're taking immediate steps to replace the perimeter fence, but in the meantime, the Governor has sent Major Wilson's National Guard Military Police Company to provide security until we can get our own people in place. We only took possession of this place a couple of days ago, so there's a lot to do.

"I suggest that you put your people and aircraft down over to the east there. We can have the soldiers on the left where there's more room, and your people over on the right."

"That'll work," the Colonel looked happy, "But if I could borrow a vehicle, I'd like to go over and check the area out? I'm sure it'll be fine, but we were assigned some ground to park the aircraft some years ago and they all got bogged and couldn't be moved. My boss, Colonel Foreman, who you'll meet tomorrow, never forgave my predecessor for that one."

He turned to Kurt.

"I'm going to bring the whole move forward," he decided. "There's hardly any population around here, so we should have no problem if we fly most of our equipment in overnight and begin flying the troops in tomorrow. Thunder-guts Haskins will love that. I bet he's already on his way here."

Jamie Wilson had been quietly listening in the background.

"I think I'd better warn the Governor and my Adjutant-General," she said, reaching for a phone. "We're likely to have half the city coming out to watch, so the Police and Highway Patrol need to get organized."

After Kurt took Jerry Hegarty out to get him a vehicle, Juanita came in. She was helping by taking calls, like Mercy had done yesterday.

"Can you please speak to this man," she asked. "He says he has a contract to park some aircraft here."

She transferred the call, and I picked up the handset.

"Are you the new owner," the caller inquired? "I'm with Bravo Leasing; you've probably heard of us. We lease a lot of aircraft to the larger airlines.

"We signed a contract with Mr. Jackson a couple of years ago allowing us to store up to twenty-five 747 aircraft at Mojave until we're able to get them transferred to our permanent storage location in the desert.

"One of our customers has just informed us that they must return 24 Airbuses, so I'm phoning to tell you that we'll be moving them in to your airfield, starting next Monday."

"You have to forgive me," I interrupted him, "I was not made aware of this, so I'll need to check it out. By Monday, we'll have the Air Force here in force, but I think there'll still be room for your aircraft too. They are what, old A-300s?"

"Oh, no," he replied, "They are all the very latest models. I'm told you're CS&S? My Prez told me to say that all the aircraft will be kept in top working condition, and we'll have no objection if you want to use any of them on day-leases to do charter work. Nine of them are big freighters, and the rest have full passenger seating."

"Fine," I replied, rather bemused. "Let me pass you over to my assistant so she can take down the details."

Juanita was standing beside me listening, so I gave her the handset and a pad of paper and told her to go to it.

As she was sitting down, there was a roar as the first Globemaster was waved into position to park in front of the tower, beside the Colonel's smaller F-22. The pilot must have touched down almost at the start of the runway, as he judged his landing run perfectly.

The aircraft's tail soon opened, and men and vehicles were streaming out and down the ramp. They stood in a group while Jerry Hegarty issued his orders, before scattering in all directions.