Justification For Killing (53 page)

“
I figure, he is going to
change the master control computer’s flight data. I know he is
intent on killing me. Here’s what I want you to do is sneak around,
so he doesn’t know what you are up to, and change my arrival time
to 12:30 p.m., Thursday, November 21, 1963 use the same GPS
coordinates we originally used.”

“
Wait a minute, Captain,
you want to go back to the cow pasture?” Exclaimed Mike.

“
Correct, if Forrest and Olive arrived on Wednesday at 12:30
and
Pegasus
returned home on Thursday at 12:30, one fact is known for
sure: Forrest and Olive were not in the cow pasture. I want to
begin my search for them at their last known position, in the
pasture northwest of Celina, Texas. I want you to send me back Mike
- I have to find them! And Mike, the key, make sure the Parallel
Universe settings are set to the same Universe as the same one in
which the kids arrived. I need to work in the same Parallel
Universe only a couple of hours behind them.”

“
Sure, Captain, but what
do you have in mind?”

“
Since I
will be trying to find our two lost ‘children’, Mike I want you to
work on the
Pegasus
computers and have it return immediately after I arrive in
Texas. Give me a few minutes to get out and onto the ground, and
then bring
Pegasus
back home.”

“
Okay,
no problem Captain, but I don’t understand. What do I do
with
Pegasus
then?”

“
Mike program the master
control computer’s arrival date for 9:00 a.m., Thursday, 21
November, 1963. Its coordinates will be the Texas School Book
Depository building on the corner of Elm and Houston in
Dallas.

“
Listen
up LJ, Rocky, Lou and Bud this will be your flight. You four should
depart just as soon as
Pegasus
has returned from my journey, and Mike has her up
and ready to go. When I was on the roof of the School Book
building, I saw the Dallas city vehicle impound lot directly behind
the Book building. Those vehicles are held in the impound yard for,
sometimes, months; therefore, no one would miss them if you were to
‘borrow’ a couple for a few hours. There are no guards, and no one
observes any vehicles leaving or entering. Remember, 1963 is long
before security cameras and sophisticated security surveillances
were used.

“
LJ and Rocky, after you
‘requisition’ a car from the impound facility head over to Jack
Ruby’s place on the corner of Field and Commerce Street. I know the
big boys from the Mafia will have a meeting with Jack Ruby around
lunch. We need to find out what they are talking about. Do you
think you can take care of that? Here are the snapshots I took of
the men sittings around the table you might want to use them for
identification purposes. Also, I have a list of their names Miss
Kandy Barr provided take it along too. Another bit of information -
the Carousel opens at 10:00 in the morning. If you arrive on the
roof at 9:00, you have plenty of time to procure a car and get to
the club a few minutes after they open, and well before the Mafia
group arrives.

“
Bud,
you and Lou haven’t been forgotten either. You will be joining LJ
and Rocky on
Pegasus’
s return trip. Your job will be to ‘borrow’ a car also and
get over to Lee Harvey Oswald’s rooming house and follow his every
move. We need to know whom he sees and to whom he
talks.”

The events now taken as
fact were: around one to two p.m., right after the Kennedy
shooting, Tippit was driving his police patrol car on East 10th
Street in Oak Cliff. Oak Cliff is just a few blocks from downtown
Dallas. He had gone about 100 feet past the intersection of 10th
Street and Patton Avenue and saw Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was
reported to be walking in the same direction. Tippit, reportedly,
pulled up beside Oswald because he matched the description of the
man the police were looking for in the Kennedy shooting. Oswald
walked over to the car and talked with Tippit through the open
window. Tippit stepped out of the patrol car on the left side and
started to walk around the front of his car. As Officer Tippit
approached the front fender on the driver's side, Lee Harvey Oswald
pulled a .38 revolver and fired off four shots in rapid succession.
Three bullets hit Tippit in the chest. Oswald, then walked up to
where Tippit lay mortally wounded and shot him directly in the
head, killing him. “LJ and Rocky see if you can verify this. Prove
or disprove whether Oswald actually shot J. D. Tippit. Follow him
to the Texas Theatre; see if he tries to meet someone there. You
will be given a briefing package before you leave. This package
will detail all this information and anything else considered
relevant.”

“
Mike, I believe Forrest
and Olive Marie will head to Clinton Murdock’s estate at 45 Ash
Hill Lane in north Dallas. Johnson’s so called ‘girlfriend’
reported Vice President Johnson and a number of high-ranking
government officials attended a party at the Murdock house the
night before John Kennedy’s assassination. The girlfriend said they
talked about the assassination, which was to take place the next
day. That begs two questions: how did the ‘special’ guests know an
assassination of the president was to take place the next day, and
who, exactly, were those guests?

If Forrest and Olive
Marie made it to Texas, I believe they, somehow, figured a way to
get into the Murdock party, so the Murdock estate is where I am
going to begin looking. Second, in case they are not at Murdock’s
place, or if something happened on the trip from Celina to his
place. I want you to program
Pegasus
to leave the Texas School
Book building at 11:45 Saturday morning, November 23, 1963. Sent it
to my cow pasture close to Celina.”

“
Okay,
sounds crazy Captain, but you know what you are doing. When do you
want me to return
Pegasus
from the cow pasture back to the launch facility
here in the laboratory?”

“
How about noon Saturday,
November 23, 1963. That should give us all plenty of time to
accomplish our objectives and assemble at the cow
pasture.

“
I
forgot to mention to the rest of you – Mike has installed a
receiver/transmitter in
Pegasus
. This device will allow you
to use your cellphones, but you have to stay within five miles of
the time machine to talk to each other. Be discreet, remember it is
1963, please do not let anyone see you talking on the cellphones!
If you want to communicate back to Mike here at SCAR you will need
to use the transmitter within
Pegasus
itself. Anyone got a
question?”

“
Only one,” asked LJ.
“What about weapons? Are we allowed to carry any?”

“
No, not normally, it is
too dangerous to take a chance on our modern weaponry design to
accidentally stumble into 1963. It easily could fall into the wrong
hands; however, I violated my own rule. I carried a semi-automatic
.45 caliber and three full clips of ammo with me on my first trip.
Since the weapon was built during World War II there was no danger
of technology transfer if this gun were discovered. The gun was
already twenty years old in 1963. I hid the weapon in a hole in a
tree close to the old barn in the cow pasture. The tree had a
squirrel hole about chest high, the pistol and ammo was in a
waterproof bag inside the hole; however, since I am returning to a
different Parallel Universe this pistol will not be there when I
arrive. I am going to take two more 1911s with me – one I will keep
with me and the other I will hide in the same squirrel hole in the
same tree in the cow pasture – just remember, only use it if you
deem it absolutely necessary.

“
If need be, I will use
all force necessary to find and return Forrest and Olive Marie –
and that means the use of firearms if it comes to that.

“
Each of
you will have a map to the cow pasture. You must be there before
noon Saturday. I stress, do not be late or you will left behind!!
As you well know, if you get stranded I cannot guarantee I will be
able to send
Pegasus
back to get you.

“
Roger, we copy
that.”

“
Anything else? Speak up, anyone have a question? Okay, let’s
get ready to go. Oh, almost forgot one pertinent fact – guys we
will be going back to a different Parallel Universe. We will remain
in that Universe unless we do something monumental to change it to
another Universe. In this Universe, President Kennedy, we believe
will get murdered. The Universe we are leaving is not the one to
whom
Pegasus
will
return, I just hope we get through all the events so the scenario
will play itself out through the assassination without our
interference. If we don’t mess up, we should return to a world that
is exactly like this one.

“
Everyone going to Dallas
listen up... go down to our Historical Artifacts office and draw
appropriate clothing for the time period, and most of all get some
1963 cash!! I found out the hard way 2012 currency will not spend
very well in 1963.” At this remark, they all had a good
chuckle.

“
Okay,
everyone set? Mike, go downstairs and prepare
Pegasus
... I blast off at 1500 hours
today.” Smiling, the Captain turned to the group, “Mickey has one
hand pointing to the 12 and the other to the 3.” Spook laughing
gave him a thumbs up sign. “Mike will fill you in on your departure
time when you all get to the lab.

“
Safe journey to all, and
Godspeed.”

As the meeting broke up,
Lonnie Joe and Rocky had their heads together planning their
strategy in Dallas. Lou and Bud were doing likewise on the other
side of the room.

STRATEGY

“
What do you think Rocky?
How do you want to handle it when we get to Dallas?” Lonnie Joe
said to Rocky as the others were leaving the room.

“
Haven’t had time to give
it much thought but just on the surface I think the easiest would
be to get in Ruby’s place before the thugs arrive and place a ‘bug’
somewhere around the table. We can then record every word they say
down in the parking garage. If you have anything better, I’m all
ears.”

“
No Rocky, sounds like
Occam's Razor to me.”

“
Oakkum’s what? What does
a razor have to do with this?”

“
No Rocky, Occam’s Razor
states: ‘simpler explanations are, other things being equal,
generally better than more complex ones’.

“
LJ, what in the heck are
you talking about?”

“
It is a principle
suggesting a person should select among competing hypotheses the
one which makes the least assumptions and thereby offers the
simplest explanation of the effect.”

“
What?”

“
Oh, forget it...your idea
is the simplest and in Mr. Occam’s and my opinion the best idea. I
suggest we go with it.”

“
Ooookay...,” Rocky said,
not understanding a word, but frowning, he cocked his head, and
replied, “ I guess that means my idea sounds good – then we’ll go
downstairs to central supply and get the necessary bugging
devices.”

Captain Scarburg earlier
mentioned the Mafia guys were sitting at the Carousel Club talking
with Jack Ruby at a table with a single incandescent light fixture
hanging over it. Rocky explained how he was thinking they could get
into the club, replace the light bulb with SCAR’s own AU115
microphone and transmitter concealed in an ordinary looking light
bulb. He and Lonnie Joe could put a RE230 receiver in their car and
record every word spoken. Looking at Lonnie Joe, “Think those will
do the trick?”

“
Yeah, sounds good, what
about getting some pictures? Got any ideas for video?”

“
How about using one of
the miniature video cameras that look like a wall hook for a
hanging picture? Once we get inside Ruby’s meeting room we can
quickly remove a painting and replace its hanger with our camera.
They will never notice the microphone or the camera, and meantime
we will be recording every word and picture. The RE230 will capture
all the audio and video.”

BUD AND LOU

“
I’ve been running some
plans through my head Lou. We need to leave the rooftop,
‘requisition’ a car and drive over to Oswald’s place. One thing
bothers me tho’, we will be arriving on Thursday, and Oswald
doesn’t get really involved until Friday. What are we going to do
in the meantime?”

“
I don’t know Bud... for
now let’s just plan on ‘getting’ our car, drive out to his rooming
house, at 1026 North Beckley Avenue, over in Oak Cliff and check
out the situation.”

“
Say Lou, I’ve got an
idea. What about seeing if Mrs. Earlene Roberts has an empty room
she might rent us. That way we would be right there in the same
rooming house as Oswald.”

“
Darn you Bud, you can
come up with some wild-eyed ideas, but you know, I like this one.
We’ll give it a try.”

The time was 10:30 a.m.,
Friday, December 7, 2012.