Justification For Killing (77 page)

Baba greeted the Captain
with a big kiss, but she was puzzled... where was Lonnie Joe? He
did not come down the steps. She was especially worried after
seeing the wounded Rocky coming down the steps. Was Lonnie Joe
dead? Was he left behind wounded? Looking to the Captain, without
explanation, he just replied, “He did not make it back.”

The time was 2:57:30 p.m.,
Wednesday, December 7, 2012.

EVERYONE TO THE CONFERENCE
ROOM...AGAIN

The excitement in Captain
Scarburg’s conference room could be hardly contained. It seemed as
if all were talking at the same time. Each had his or her own story
to tell, and it seemed, surely, there would not be enough time to
allow everyone to explain, in detail, his or her part in the Dallas
mission.

The Captain walked to the
podium and rapped his hand down on the top with enough force the
room suddenly became quiet as a church mouse walking on cotton.
“Okay, listen up everyone. There will be sufficient opportunity for
all to speak, and I know everyone will have an exciting story to
tell. Rest assured, you will all get your opportunity to talk. Our
escapade back to Dallas was an enormous success as far as I can
see. That is why we all are assembled this afternoon. We must find
out what our next step will be with the information we found
concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Krissy
is recording our entire meeting so everyone will get a chance to
brief the group, but before we begin I see we have someone
missing.”

Glancing around the room
everyone wanted to see whom the Captain was talking
about.

“
Mike,
why didn’t Mr. Rousseau come upstairs for this meeting? I thought
he would understand the outcome of this meeting could concern him
and the future flights of
Pegasus.
I especially want to question him about the wrong
setting on the main flight computer and his involvement with
MK-ULTRA and the CIA, and last, but not least I want to introduce
you all to Lady.”

Motioning with his hand
the Captain continued, “Lady is this beautiful, little dog. She
didn’t have a ticket, but obviously she wanted to stow away with us
on our return trip.”

Lady was lying at Captain
Scarburg’s feet and wasn’t much interested in the meeting, or her
part in it, but at the mention of her name she raised her head and
her two ears popped up as tho’ she was expecting the Captain to
involve her further. Seeing she was not going to receive any more
of the Captain’s attention she dropped her head back down to the
floor and resumed her nap.

Someone in the group made
the remark that she sure was a perky little beauty to be forty-nine
years old, and in dog years, she would be roughly over two hundred
years old!! “Gosh,” they said, “that’s got to be a world’s
record.”

“
Yes, no doubt... but a
record Guinness will never hear about nor get to publish in their
book. Only those of us in this room will ever know how we came to
get Lady. Now Mike what about Rousseau?”

“
Captain, you keep
speaking of this man you call Rousseau - who are you referring to?
We don’t have anyone by that name working in the laboratory. In
fact, there is no one working for SCAR with the name
Rousseau.”

“
Oh,
come on Mike, I’m talking about Ryan. Mr. Ryan Rousseau, SCAR’s
Chief of Experimental Design and the Flight Director for
Pegasus
. What’s the joke
Mike?”

“
Joke?
Joke Captain? There isn’t any joke. Captain you of all people
should know I have been the Chief of Experimental Design since SCAR
was founded, and the Flight Director from the day we first
developed the
Lightning Bolt
or
Pegasus
as we now call her now. I don’t know what to tell
you Captain, but there is no Ryan Rousseau in the lab. Do you
suppose the time jump, somehow, has affected your
memory?”

“
Wait a minute... by-ned
wait a minute. Sam Lin, Si Lei I know you remember him! I sent you
to Bangkok to do background research on Ryan Rousseau. You brought
back detailed information on his involvement with the MK-ULTRA
mind-control experiments and his work with Lee Harvey Oswald.
Surely you both remember this? You don’t deny this do
you?”

Sam Lin answered, “No
Captain, you are correct we did investigate Mr. Rousseau – we never
really understood why, but we found out he left the CIA at the end
of the Vietnam War and went to work for the Secret Service guarding
the President here in Washington. Our report further stated he had
always wanted to be a Secret Service agent ever since his brother
was killed in Dallas at the time of the Kennedy assassination in
November 1963. He was ashamed of his conduct while working for the
CIA and wanted to do something worth while for his country to honor
the memory of his slain brother.”

Captain Scarburg quickly
answered, “You must be mistaken! There were only two people killed
in Dallas in November 1963 – President Kennedy and Officer J. D.
Tippit. There were no Secret Service agents killed!”

“
Ryan Rousseau was
assigned as one of the Agents guarding President Ronald Regan on
Monday, March 30, 1981 when John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to shoot
President Regan after a speaking engagement at the Washington
Hilton Hotel right here in D. C. Mr. Rousseau threw himself between
John Hinckley’s bullet and President Regan – he was killed
instantly. The country declared him a national hero and buried him
with honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Captain, he has never
worked a day for SCAR.”

“
This can’t be... this
can’t be...” the Captain bowed over the podium and placed his head
within his hands... saying... “How can this be?” Looking up from
the podium he spoke to the group but to no one in particular. “Am I
going crazy? Does anyone else remember Rousseau? Or is Mike right,
did my time-leaps erase part of my memory.”

Forrest was the
first to speak. “Grandpa, you are not nuts, well maybe a bit,” he
said smiling, “but you’re right there was a Ryan Rousseau in charge
of the
Pegasus
launch facility when we left. Those of us on the
Dallas
Pegasus
flight knew him; however, it’s obvious we returned to a
different Universe, a Universe in which Mr. Rousseau led an
entirely different life. Remember when we were sitting around
talking at Clem and Penelope’s house back in 1963, uh... well
actually, a couple of nights ago... and we were all explaining how
you and Anhur rescued Sis and me from the basement of the Clint
Murdock mansion? You talked about how saddened you were over the
Secret Service agent you had just killed,
remember?”

“
Yeah, never will forget
that man’s death... his name was... uh... uh... oh no!! It was…
was… Rousseau!! Don’t tell me... that was Ryan Rousseau’s
brother?”

“
I’m afraid you are
probably right Captain. Have you forgotten your constant warning to
us before we jumped back to 1963 - ‘small changes in the past may
affect large changes in the future?’ I think this is exactly what
happened, you killed Ryan Rousseau’s brother!”

“
Well that means we did
not jump back to the Universe in which we left. We arrived in
another Universe in which President Kennedy was killed also. A
Universe in which those of you who remained behind did not know Mr.
Rousseau, but we really do not know what caused this time shift,
nor which Universe we were in, do we?”

Before anyone could
answer, his mind drifted back to that dark, snowy night in the
basement of the Murdock mansion - the flash of blue light that had
occurred when the Secret Service agent fell down the steps to the
concrete floor.
Yes,
he thought,
Anhur saw it too, the
flash of blue light – at that moment the Universe switched courses.
Yes, of course - that was it! But wait, there was another Universe
change at the time we left from the camp of Two
Buffalo.

“
Oh,” said Captain
Scarburg. “That last Universe shift – is President Kennedy alive or
dead?”

Someone answered,
“Dead”.

“
Well
by-ned, thank goodness, I really do not know which Universe we
ended up it, do any of you?”

“
No,” answered Spook. “It
really does not matter Captain - someday we may know what caused
the space-time-continuum to shift but for our purposes, we can
satisfactorily live with the Universe we are presently in. Lets
continue I would love to hear more about you and the teams Dallas
exploits and your discoveries.”

Chapter
Fifty-Six

THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE
TUNNEL

This story had a
beginning, middle and an end. The conclusion, the final act of this
intriguing tale is close at hand – close enough to begin to see the
light at the end of the tunnel.

They were all sitting in
the conference room gleeful over their safe return from Dallas -
Forrest, Olive Marie, Bud, Lou and Jacque ‘Rocky’ Jollett. Krista,
Trey, Spook, Tinker, Spook, Sam Lin, Si Lei, Mike Watkins and Baba
Scarburg were there too. Last but not least Captain Robert
Scarburg, Jr.; however, it was a happy occasion, but sadness was
not totally absent; Dr. Lonnie Joe Wheeler was not present but on a
brighter note, Lady the little Shetland sheepdog was
there.

Captain Scarburg suggested
since it was getting late, they should conclude today’s activities,
go home, and prepare formal written reports complete with briefing
sheets for presentation tomorrow. He requested they all get a
decent night’s rest, and reassemble in the conference room tomorrow
at 0900 hours. He further stated once all the data was collected
and summarized they might be able to come to a decision as to what
actually happened in Dallas.

The time was 5:05:30 p.m.,
Wednesday, December 7, 2012, Parallel Universe: The Present
time.

THE END OF THE
TUNNEL

The round calendar clock
in the right front corner of the conference room was straight up
and down nine o’clock. Looking around the table, Captain Scarburg
could see that every one that had been present yesterday was once
again at the table. Not much conversation was occurring, everyone
knew how serious the events of today were to become.

The Captain took the floor
and announced how today’s conference was going to proceed. He said
each of them would come to the podium and give a complete rundown
of their part in the time-jump back to Dallas for the President
John F. Kennedy assassination. Everyone was instructed to take as
much time as they needed and to leave nothing out. He wanted as
complete a report from them as possible.

“
Excuse me Grandpa,” said
Bud, “but before we get started I have something to say, would you
mind?”

“
The floor is all yours
Bud. What do you have on your mind?”

“
After we left last night
I went back to my apartment and did some research on the Internet.
I found something concerning Olive Marie that is pretty
startling.”

At Bud’s announcement
everyone’s attention in the room was transfixed on his every word,
especially Olive Marie. “Me? What is it Bud?” she said.

He passed a photograph
around the table he had downloaded the previous night. “What? This
is nothing but a picture of an old Indian. What is its meaning Bud?
What does this picture have to do with me?” Olive asked.

Bud answered, “This is a
photograph of Geronimo – Chief of the Chiricahua Apache. The
picture was taken sometime around 1890.”

“
Okay,” said Olive, “but –
”

“
Remember the Indians
living with the Comanches were captured Chiricahua Apaches when
they were camped by the Double Pond Lake in Texas.”

“
Right. I’ll ask again,
but – ”

“
Look closely at
Geronimo’s picture. Notice he is holding a Winchester Model 76
repeating rifle in his left hand, and check out his right hand. It
is touching something he is wearing around his neck.”

Looking again, Olive Marie
exclaimed, “Why! Why it’s my amulet! Geronimo is wearing my amulet
that I gave back to Red Wolf! What...? How...?”

“
Just guessing,” said Bud,
“this picture of Geronimo was taken approximately ninety years
after we left – he must be the grand-son or great-grand son of
Ekapitu Tseena – your Red Wolf.

Remember,
‘for as long as the grass grows and the rivers
flow.’
I believe Geronimo is sending a
message to you across time saying: Olive Marie
‘you have not been forgotten.’

A second picture and an
article were circulated to the group around the table. The article
reported that during the digging of an oil well on a ranch on the
outskirts of Celina, Texas in the 1960s, an old Indian graveyard
was discovered. Archeologists from the University of Texas
preformed a dig at the site and discovered the objects shown in the
second picture.

“
Bud, what are these two
old rusty looking things?” Olive Marie asked as she turned the
photograph first to the right and then to the left. “I can’t make
heads or tails of it – what are they supposed to be?”