Chapter Thirty-Eight
“THEY FLEW IT OUT”
“Bob...! Bob...! Wake up, the phone’s ringing,” Baba sleepily moaned pulling the pillow over her head, “it will be for you, so you might as well answer it.”
“What,” he groggily answered. “What time is it?” Looking as his alarm clock on the bedside table, “Four-forty, who could be calling at this ungodly hour?” Picking up the phone, “Yeah, Scarburg here... What...? Say again...? When...? I’ll be right in,” the Captain answered, jumping out of bed and switching on the bedside lamp.
Removing her head from underneath the pillow Baba questioned, “What in the world is the matter Robert?”
“It’s Pegasus – Pegasus!”
“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 secur
ity 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.