Willa sat back in her chair, looking at the ceiling. “A picnic as a reward?” She sat up and looked directly into Jason’s eyes. “You should be in politics.”
Jason laughed. “It’s my dad,” he replied. “You don’t get to be the biggest architectural firm in L.A. without being political and knowing people inside and out. I grew up with all of the motivational events my dad’s company put together. It’s just how you get things done.”
“Okay,” Willa said. “This can work. I’m going to need Chief Dolan and the pastor of the local church on board, plus the ladies from the quilting bee circle and the ceramics club. We can do this. I’ll need about two weeks to get it all set up. Will that work for you?”
“Sure,” Jason said. “That’ll give me time to get the next two towns analyzed and their presentations made. Just as here, I make my presentations on a Saturday, so can we have the practice run on a Sunday afternoon?”
“A practice run, a walk up the hill and a picnic?” she said. “Perfect plan for a Sunday afternoon.” She shook hands with Jason to seal the deal. The only remaining problem was what she was going to do about Frank.
CHAPTER 18
Billingsly watched the daily reports for the new facility in China with trepidation. The heavy rain had to be slowing them down, but the cloud cover also meant that clear visuals of what was being built couldn’t be seen. It cut both ways. What did work were the Infra-red scans of the area. They weren’t focused like a true visual image was, but it did show hundreds of heat producing machines and equipment in use around the clock.
After ten days of clouds and rain, Billingsly sent an order to the Alaska A4 facility to change the weather pattern over the Chinese facility and let the clouds clear out. He needed to see exactly what the Chinese were accomplishing. The original HAARP facility in Gakona, Alaska consisted of 180 phased array antennas spread out over 35 acres of gravel covered land. The new A4 facility was in the wilderness area southwest of Fort Yukon, Alaska, and covered 3500 acres with 18,000 antennas. The antenna field measured 2 and 3/16 miles by 2 and 1/2 miles. It was the largest, most powerful facility of its kind in the world. Twenty-four hours later, Billingsly got his first visual of the Chinese facility.
His hands shook and his heart pounded in his chest. It was a good thing he had been sitting; otherwise Rod Schneider from the NRO might have had to pick him up off the floor. What appeared to be laid out as the antenna field was four miles by five miles, nearly four times the size of the A4 facility in Alaska. The entire perimeter was being cleared and foundations were being dug for two rows of what were probably power generating plants. A third area was being blasted out of the side of a mountain, with 80 rock-crushing machines in full operation to produce the gravel for the antenna field.
“The area that is being blasted out is considerably deeper than anything else,” Rod Schneider said. “At first we thought they just needed that amount of gravel, but it would be easier to take down more of the mountain than to go deeper. We think they are building an underground tank farm to store fuel oil for the generators.”
“Yeah,” Billingsly replied. “It makes them a lot more secure against attacks, or just plain accidents.”
“They’re also building a railroad,” Schneider noted. “Probably for tank cars transporting fuel.”
“Of course they are,” Billingsly replied dryly. “What’s your estimate for completion of the facility?”
“Well, they’ve gotten this far in thirteen days. Best guess is they will be operational in another two months.”
Billingsly shook his head. “It took us two years to build our new facility, and that was a priority project. You’re saying the Chinese will build something four times the size in less than three months?”
“They’re pouring every resource they have into this. My personal assessment is that they have north of 30,000,000 people involved in this project. I don’t know what happened, but I can tell you the Chinese are extremely motivated. Frankly, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“The two month time frame: How much longer will it take them with the heavy rain they have been getting?”
“The two months is with the rain. Six weeks with dry weather.”
Billingsly was lost in his own thoughts when Schneider left. He hated to be the bearer of bad news, but some things just had to be done, no matter what. He pressed the button on his intercom. “Judy, get me a face-to-face with SecDef, ASAP.”
“Yes, Sir,” she responded.
There was never a good day for a high level ass chewing, and today wasn’t going to be an exception.
CHAPTER 19
Willa didn’t know exactly why she came into the office today; it was Saturday. She fussed with some papers on her desk and went over the plans for the practice evacuation one more time. Mostly she was nervous. Several of her friends had informed her that Frank Gillis was planning a huge demonstration tomorrow during the evacuation practice. Why he couldn’t just leave well enough alone she didn’t know. The thought of another emotional confrontation with Frank was just too upsetting. The frustration she was experiencing in having to battle Frank in addition to running the administration of Dolphin Beach was getting to be too much to handle. She looked out the glass window in her office across the main room in City Hall and saw Chief Dolan in the Police Office looking back at her. He looked concerned. Feeling self-conscious, she left.
She turned to her right as she left City Hall and headed north through the Village Center. She stopped at Saundra’s Bakery and picked up a Cherry Pie. She continued north and a little east to the corner of Conifer Street where her bungalow was located on the southeast corner. Her home was a small, two bedroom structure built just after World War II with a single bath, small kitchen and moderately-sized living room.
She unlocked the door, went in, closed the door and walked straight to the kitchen. She took the pie out of the box and popped it into the oven, setting the timer and the heat to warm it. She checked the freezer and pulled the half gallon of French Vanilla ice cream out to soften up. It should be just right about the time the pie was warmed through. She started a pot of coffee, went into the living room and turned on the TV. She watched for thirty seconds and turned the TV off. She went back into the kitchen to check on the pie and the ice cream. Still not ready.
Willa was startled by the knock on her front door. She took a peek out her front window. It was Chief Dolan. She opened the door and welcomed him in.
“I decided to come by and check on you,” he said. “You’re a lot like my mom. She would be a nervous wreck right now, so I thought you could use someone to talk to.”
“I don’t know what to do,” she replied. “I just get so upset with Frank that I can’t think straight.”
Chief Dolan nodded. “He does that intentionally. He baits people to get them angry, and then he uses their anger to manipulate them. Frank understands anger; it’s his primary emotion. What you have to do is remain calm in the face of his anger.”
“I don’t think I can do that,” she replied. “He’s just… just so frustrating that I can’t help myself.”
“I understand,” Chief Dolan said. “Both my parents were the same way. It’s just that my police training and experience gives me a different view of situations like this.”