Bush Whispers (Chapter 34)
Chapter 34
Our target or should I say ‘targets’ were two US Army intelligence analyst officers that had gone missing while taking a week long break from duty in Germany. One was Lieutenant Jeff Brogan and the other was Lieutenant Barbara Wells both 27 years old and skiing fanatics. They had gone to the small village of Tarviso on the North West border of Italy to do some skiing in the surrounding mountains which they had heard had good snowfalls. These mountains were on borders of four countries, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Yugoslavia, the last two of which had Communist regimes in power. The US military did what they could in the first two days of their disappearance but were hamstrung on how to proceed further without causing an international incident. The news had got through to Ed via his media station in Germany and he had approached them with an offer – to send in an RRI unit to help.
Ed had initially been turned down, until he had told them to read the reports of his escapades and the part that the whispers had in the outcome. They had come back to him within seven hours and asked if they could meet with him. He had agreed, flown into Frankfurt airport and been picked up by a US military helicopter and flown to the Lindsey Airforce base at Weisbaden. There he had met with some of the top intelligence brass and found out what their specific problem was. It had all boiled down to politics and who could do what and where. They were over a barrel and said they had to get the two back and quickly and safely, due to the kind of work they were doing. Needless to say what they had been working on was not discussed, just that it was not in the interests of the NATO forces in Europe to have these two individuals fall into the hands of any of the Communist countries.
Ed had told them what was needed from our side and was asked to sign certain paperwork that stopped him from disclosing anything at any time. He also realised that they had been doing their homework on him and brought in a file which the brass had gone over before getting him to sign. It had taken the pen pushers about an hour to get the required information and then was given a file with about forty pages to it. He was then taken to another building where he met with some tactical response unit heads and given an update. Their two charges had gone skiing and had simply disappeared. They had looked until they had got close to the border with Yugoslavia where they had been met by a Yugoslavian army unit dressed for war. They had turned away and had been watched from some of the surrounding peaks. This had not happened before so they were almost positive they had either been snatched or had maybe gone too far into Yugoslavia and had been arrested. Nobody knew, period.
The rest of the files were about the missing two and I went over them a second time in detail trying to get who they were. Once done, had a short discussion with the gang and explained that this was going to be a tester for us to keep the information we had under wraps. Because it was a military ‘thing’ that we were dealing with, we could not afford to make any slip ups and in fact might not actually get to go. All they wanted first up was an insight if possible, to where they were, only then there was a possibility of further action. As we broke, Brinn put all the documents into a wall safe and locked it. He and Briggs had gone for some late lunch while Margy and I had grabbed some sandwiches and two beers and gone to the stump chairs and table.
We slowly ate and did not say much until Margy suddenly sat upright.
“You do know of coarse that this damn thing could get out of hand and you could get hurt?” she was already simmering on medium heat.
“Yup I do” then smiled at her “That is why I am going to be taking you with, you know, my Lion chaser.”
“Not bloody funny Doggs” and now she was cooking on high heat “You think that you are always going to get away with it, don’t you?”
I was quick to quell the fight in her.
“Hey, hey woah girl, only pulling your leg, why so upset with me, huh? You do realise we are not going into any combat situation unless there is, one, a damn good reason, two, that we know we will have success, three, that there is sufficient backup from all parties and the most of all, I would not put you into anything that might hurt you or for that matter me. OK?”
I said this quietly with no anger and watched her face soften.
“I just have a lousy feeling about this. We are supposed to find lost people not get pulled into some West fights East situation and something sounds off.”
I laughed and told her she need not worry as I had also got that feeling. I finished off my beer then got up and walked towards the stump. Margy watched me go without following, she knew I was going to try and get my whispers going and needed some peace and quiet. I just sat at the stump for about fifteen minutes and nothing had happened. I could not focus my mind on what I needed to, so walked back.
“Think we need to take a ride down to Matlapaneng I’m distracted here for some reason. I think I’m taking the boat this time.”
Margy got up and walked with me back to the hotel. It took about half an hour to quickly pack what we needed onto our long boat. I had also asked Hezi to put the two big Evinrude motors on so that we could move it. Those motors made the long boat pretty quick and we needed a dash of speed to get us up to Matlapaneng before total darkness. We took our new field radio so as to send the needed info back to Morgan.
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