“Do you think Mrs. Howard’s story was true?”
“I don’t know,” Trace said.
“Her mind wasn’t in the best shape. A lonely old lady reliving the past is not exactly an accurate source. But you know, ever since I started writing this, what she told me has really made me think twice.
I think I’ve been getting slightly paranoid.”
Boomer laughed. “We. have a saying in Special Forces:
“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.”
“Trace didn’t smile.
“There’s been so much strange stuff going on in this country in the last fifty years that it makes you wonder sometimes.”
“Stuff like what?” Boomer asked picking up his mug.
Trace pulled a newspaper out of her shoulder bag. “Lots of things look different if you simply assume a different perspective. Take today’s paper for example.” She ran her hand over some of the headlines of the late edition of the Honolulu paper.
“The MRA and the conflict between the Joint Chiefs and the President.
Hell, the Army Chief of Staff came within a hair of uttering statements about the President at that AUSA convention on Tuesday that he could have been courtmartialed for. Like that Air Force general last year who was forced to retire.
“Then there’s everyone in the defense industry and the Pentagon screaming about the President cutting out funding for development of the Hard Glass anti-ballistic missile defense system. The nuclear blast over Turkey last week certainly made that move seem unwise.
“Or these NATO inspectors that were ambushed the other day and killed in the Ukraine. It’s causing the President’s foreign policy regarding the START II treaty with the former Warsaw Block to be questioned even further. Congress is passing a special resolution to freeze the disarmament funding for the Ukraine after this latest incident.”
Boomer’s hand halted in midair, a small bead of condensation dropping off the bottom of the mug and splashing unnoticed.
“Let me see that.”
He grabbed the paper and scanned the story.
AT LEAST THREE U.S. SOLDIERS KILLED IN UKRAINE
President offers condolences.
Reaffirms disarmament funding.
MOSCOW (AP)
3 U.S. servicemen were among the 10 NATO weapons inspectors killed in an ambush on a road outside the town of Senzhary in the Ukraine. A representative of the Ukrainian government blames the attack on dissident forces trying to derail the START (Strategic Armns Treaty) II agreement worked out between the President’s administration and the Ukraine.
These same forces were also believed responsible for the attempted shipment of a nuclear weapon to Iraq two days ago that cost the lives of two U.S. pilots and the first non-test detonation of a nuclear weapon in over fifty years.
“The situation is somewhat confusing because we are working from reports relayed to us by Ukrainian authorities,” an anonymous Pentagon spokesperson said.
“We should have some of our own people at the site shortly. All we know is that a ten-man NATO team, which was comprised of three Americans, three Germans, two Dutch, and two Norwegians, was involved.
The report we have received is that there were no survivors.
Some Ukrainian military personnel were also killed in the attack.”
The Administration’s commitment to this mission comes amid increasing resistance from the Pentagon and calls from Congress for a pullout of American forces from the mission until the political situation in the Ukraine has been resolved.
“I offer my deepest sympathy to the families and friends of the American soldiers who were killed in the Ukraine last night,” the President said in a statement.
“These brave Americans were engaged in a mission vital to continued world peace and security.”
An anonymous source at the Pentagon reemphasized the position General Martin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made public during testimony last week in front of Congress: “There’s no way a handful of inspectors can ensure that these weapons are being accounted for and destroyed. We’re talking about over 1,700 warheads.
Piecemealing it like we are doing presently allows them to play a ‘shell game,” switching warheads around. The only adequate response to this situation is a pullout of NATO forces until the political situation stabilizes in the Ukraine and increased emphasis on the Hard Glass ballistic missile defense system that the President has withheld funding for. The explosion over Turkey two days ago shows that other nuclear weapons might already have been sold and be in the hands of unstable forces. without immediate, absolute positive control over those warheads, we cannot be sure where they will end up, or how they will be used.. There are 32 other Americans among the peacekeepers.
Boomer was confused.
“What connection do you see between this and your story?” he asked.
Trace shrugged. The Backfire incident, these inspector deaths, both were the worst possible thing that could have happened. The Pentagon didn’t want to send those people in, but the President overrode that at the urging of the State Department. Now there’s a big whiplash effect, just like the Somalia peacekeeping operation a few years ago, and we all saw what happened there. And this is happening just prior to the President coming here and making his MRA speech. You could certainly make a case that these incidents are not good for the MRA.”
“But what does that have to do with your novel?”
Boomer asked, his mind still on the article. | Trace smiled.
“Not much, really. I guess I’m just getting so used to writing fiction that I start playing’what-if with everything that goes on.”
Boomer put the beer down on the table.
“Do you think this Line is real?”
“I don’t know. I’m making the story up,” Trace said.
“But you didn’t make up the original idea,” Boomer noted.
“No, but like I said, this lady’s mind wandered quite a bit when I talked to her two months ago. She was pretty bitter. Her husband had been killed in the war when he was in Patton’s 3rd Army.”
“But you must have checked her facts. Was she a nurse on the staff that worked on Patton after he had his accident?”
Trace nodded.
“Yeah, that checked out.”
“So, I’m asking you again, do you think it’s possible that an outfit like this Line exists?”
Trace spoke slowly, as if considering her words carefully, picking up Boomer’s serious mood.
“I suppose it is possible. But I find it hard to believe that such an organization could be kept secret for so long.”
“How much have you written?”
“I’ve done some research and outlining, but I’ve only worked on two chapters.”
“And you’ve made it all up, based upon one interview with this woman?”
Trace nodded.
“I’m writing it with the fictional premise:
“What if it were true?” I’m going back over the past fifty years and looking at various events that West Point graduates were involved in and making some speculations using what she gave me. There are a lot of areas I’d really like to research in depth. Lots of intriguing premises, if you accept my initial one and believe even half of what she told me, but I don’t exactly have the time to do that. The stuff I did find scared me plenty.”
Boomer pulled out his wallet, laying a twenty on the bar to cover the beers.
“I’d like to go someplace quieter if that’s all right with you.”