Justification For Killing (50 page)

“
Well,
tell me something! Has something happened to
Pegasus
?”

Hurriedly, trying to
put on his clothes, he answered, “Happened! Happened! By-ned,
someone has
Pegasus
.”

“
Gracious Robert, I know someone has
Pegasus
. You all have it in your
basement laboratory at SCAR headquarters.”

“
No, no!
Not SCAR, someone ELSE has
Pegasus
. HAS like in someone has
STOLEN
Pegasus
!!

“
Robert
are you still asleep? No one can steal your precious
Pegasus
thing-a-ma-jig.
How could they get your big machine up that narrow elevator
shaft?”

“
They
FLEW it out!! Do you hear me woman, FLEW it out, someone STOLE
my
Pegasus
!!” As
the Captain finished dressing, he explained to Baba how the lab’s
security system emits a blaring, ear splitting, siren sound
throughout the entire building when the time-traveling machine is
moved the tiniest bit without authority. Obviously, it has been
moved more than a tiny bit he emphasized, it was GONE. The guard on
duty at the entrance door was calling Captain Scarburg per SCAR’s
Security Procedures. In fact, the Captain could still hear the
alarms blaring in the background as he spoke to the guard on the
phone.

Grabbing his keys he
ran out the door to his car. Over and over he played different
scenarios through his mind driving back to SCAR headquarters. His
first thought was Ryan Rousseau. It had to be an inside job – entry
to the lab level was by authorized personnel only, and no one but
personnel in the laboratory would have enough expertise to energize
and program the craft’s computer for flight.
Number one priority was to find the whereabouts of Rousseau,
and, oh yeah,
he thought,
don’t forget Mike Watkins.
What was he thinking? No, not Mike, if he wanted to sabotage
his Dallas flight, he would not have gone to all the trouble to
design the on board communication system using the Tachyons. He
knew it was not Mike; he had always done a superb job and the
Captain considered him a trustworthy friend.

Now, Ryan Rousseau,
there’s another story,
the Captain
thought.
After the screw-up on my flight,
I just do not trust that s.o.b. If it had not been for Clem Ruby, I
would still be sitting in 1963 Texas, or some other God-forsaken
place in the world, and in who knows what century! I just hope it
is Rousseau. I’d like to see him get what’s coming to him! But
where did he send Pegasus? And why? Was he trying to keep us from
finding out something in Dallas?

Arriving at the front
door, the Captain jumped from his car and bolted through the
unlocked, glass doors into the SCAR lobby. A group of engineers,
scientist and technicians along with Lou, Bud, Spook and Tinker,
were standing around buzzing like bees to each other. Seeing the
Captain come through the front doors, the group became graveyard
quite.

“
Okay, someone talk to me.
What’s going on?” Were the first words out of Grandpa’s mouth, “and
why aren’t you downstairs trying to figure this thing
out?”

Spook hurried to meet
Captain Scarburg halfway across the lobby, “Captain, we did not
want to disturb anything until you arrived. There might be
evidence. Evidence we didn’t want compromised until you had a
chance to review it.”

“
Good! Good thinking
Spook. Give me a run-down.”

“
Captain, I’m afraid you
know about as much as we do. I got the call from security about the
same time as you. We all hurried in, but were waiting on you before
going downstairs. All we know is the movement detection alarm
sounded at exactly 4:35 a.m. You were notified a minute or so
later. The whole staff had the disturbing word within five minutes.
As you can see, we all hastened to get down here to find out what
the heck is going on.”

“
So, your saying no one
has gone down to the basement lab?”

“
Yes, that is correct
Captain, no one has gone down to the basement. The guard locked the
elevator at the first sound of the alarm per Security Protocol. No
one has gone down, and certainly no one has come up on the elevator
or the stairs. If a thief were in the laboratory, he is still
there.”

“
Excellent work Spook. I
want the security guard, you, Tinker, Lou, Bud and myself to go
downstairs first. Once we have scoped out the situation the others
may come down. You know there might be a slim chance this could be
a false alarm. Where are Forrest, Ryan Watkins and Mike
Rousseau?

“
I hope ‘false alarm’ is
the case Captain, but as far as the location of Forrest - the
security people said they could not reach him on his emergency
phone number. They couldn’t contact Olive Marie either, but Mike
and Ryan are over there next to the elevator waiting on
you.”

“
Right!”
The Captain said softly. “Darn, I just knew he would not be here.”
He had all but guaranteed to himself Ryan Rousseau had been
the
Pegasus
thief, now he was not so sure.

“
What was that Captain? I
didn’t understand, is something the matter?”

“
No, sorry Spook, just
thinking out loud. Come on let’s get downstairs.”

As he finished
keying in the elevator security code, Spook turned and questioned,
“Captain, how could someone steal
Pegasus
? That would be impossible.
The only two men capable of energizing the time machine are
standing by the elevator, Ryan Rousseau and Mike Watkins, and I
talked to them both. Unless they are better liars than I am an
interrogator, and I was trained by the best the CIA had, I believe
they are telling the truth. They know nothing about the
disappearance of
Pegasus
.”

The elevator descended to
the basement laboratory in a matter of seconds. The bell sounded to
indicate the door was opening. The group hesitated for a moment and
allowed the guard with his drawn pistol to step out into the main
hallway leading to the launch facility. The few steps he took to
reach the two swinging doors were covered quickly. Pushing open the
doors the large circular room was ablaze with lights. It appeared
every source of illumination, from the bulbs in the machinery to
the overhead spotlights, was aglow. The guard turned and motioned
for the group still lingering in the elevator to follow. At first
glimpse, it appeared no intruder was inside the
laboratory.

It became quite
obvious, the alarm had been activated due to the tightness of the
security system – the spot in the center of the room where the
machine usually rested was empty –
the
scent of ozone was still apparent in the air. Another thing was
quite apparent, their worse fears were realized -
Pegasus
was
gone!

“
Come in here Captain
Scarburg!” Spook yelled from Mike Watkins’s control room. Hurrying
into Mike’s office, he saw Spook holding a garment of clothes in
his outstretched hand.

“
What are you holding
Spook?”

“
A coat Captain –
Forrest’s coat. I know it is his because Tinker and I gave it to
him for Christmas!”

“
What in the world would
Forrest’s coat be doing down here? He hasn’t worked with Mike for a
couple of weeks. Spook call back upstairs and have Mike and the
rest of the staff come down. Maybe they can see something we are
missing.”

Mike entered the launch
facility and immediately went to his office. “Mike when was the
last time Forrest worked with you?”

“
It has been a few weeks,
at least. Why do you ask Captain?”

“
His jacket was lying on
your desk... do you know any reason why his coat would be
here?”

“
All I can say for certain
Captain, at five p.m. last night when we shut the lab down and went
home, Forrest’s coat was not on my desk. I have no idea where it
came from, but if you want you can follow me back to the Security
room, and we can take a look at the security tapes. As you know,
there are cameras covering every inch of this facility. A fly
cannot travel across the launch room without being recorded on
tape. Also, the banks of computers at the side of the room record
every gauge, every instrument, every knob turned, and every switch
activated. Nothing in this lab goes unnoticed or
unrecorded.”

“
Mike, I
am going back upstairs to my office to prepare a strong pot of
black coffee. If it wern’t so early, I might have to include
something a touch stronger than coffee. Mike, who in the world
could have stolen my
Pegasus
?”

A voice from the
back of the room interjected, “I can assure you Captain Scarburg it
was none of my personnel here in the lab. Only Mike and I had
sufficient knowledge to launch
Pegasus
.”

What?
Thought the Captain.
That’s Ryan Rousseau…! He couldn’t be the thief!
Directing his question to Rousseau, “Obviously it
was not you two, but then who?” Agitated, the Captain flung his
arms into the air and announced, “I want the guilty party. Mike get
on those tapes, let’s see who the culprits were.”

“
I want you and your team
to scrutinize those computer tapes. Go over the video frame by
frame. I will be in my office, bring the results to me as soon as
possible. Before I go, may I have a word with you in private
Mike?”

“
Mike, I did not want to
speak to you in the presence of the others. What I have to say
needs to remain between the two of us. I do not want Ryan Rousseau
involved in this search.”

“
Captain? He is the Chief of Experimental Design and the
Flight Director. He would know more about
Pegasus
than any of us. He would be
the perfect person to solve this problem!”

“
Yes, you’re correct, but…
I should have told you earlier, my last mission was sabotaged. I
believe Rousseau manipulated my flight control computer. The wrong
dates and times had been input into the onboard master controller.
If it had not been for an industrious individual I found in Celina,
Texas in 1963 I would still be marooned or somewhere in another
Parallel Universe, in God knows what century.”

“
Wait a minute Captain, if
you suspected Rousseau you must have also suspected me. I was the
person responsible for inputting the computer data.”

“
No, you
were not a suspect in the sabotage attempt Mike. I knew, after you
told me about your genius inspired
Pegasus
communication system you
were not involved. If you wanted me lost in the unknowns of the
Universe, why go to the trouble to develop a way for us to
communicate across time and space?”

“
Thanks for the vote of
confidence Captain. Go have your coffee, and I will get on these
computer readouts, and have a look at the security footage from
around 4 a.m. this morning. I’ll find out who our thief is, I
guarantee it.”

The time was 5:05 a.m.,
Thursday, December 6, 2012.

Chapter
Thirty-Nine

DOWN AN ICY ROAD

Leaving the Ponderosa on
their way down Clem and Penelope’s long, snow covered road, which
led to the main highway, Olive Marie remarked, “Forrest, I’m
scared. This snow is getting pretty deep. I think we should turn
around and go back to the safety of the Ponderosa. I don’t know if
I can do this.”

“
You’re doing fine Sis,
just keep’er between the ditches. With this snow and the speed
we’re making, it’s going to take quite a while to get to Clint
Murdock’s place. That’s assuming we don’t get lost or stuck. I
figure it will be in the middle of the afternoon before we get
there, and it’s imperative we be at his place tonight. We have only
one chance and tonight’s the night.”

Slipping, sliding and
churning on through the snow they finally reached the Celina to
Dallas highway. “Turn right Sis, Dallas is that way,” he said
pointing south with his finger. “We will follow this road until we
reach Highway 279. That Texas state highway should take us directly
into Dallas. The Murdock place is on the north side of Dallas, to
the left of 279. You keep this thing on the road, when we get close
to Dallas I will look for the Addison Airport turn-off. It should
be on our right. If I remember the map correctly, the Cedar Springs
Road should be right across the highway.

“
Okay, sounds good
Forrest. Now what is the ‘Plan’ once we get to the Murdock
place?”

“
Well Sis, The
thirteen-acre estate comes complete with seven bedrooms, eight
baths and a mere 19,600 square feet of floor space. The antebellum
styled home is located at the end of a long, water oak lined
driveway. The drive ends in a circle, in front of the main
residence.”

“
Thanks Forrest for the
tour, I don’t want to buy it... just explain ‘The
Plan’.”