The phone was ringing. I slid from bed to answer it, but all I heard was a dial tone. I punched the button for the second line and said "Hello."
"Morning, Sunshine."
"Uh, I think the appropriate phrase would be, 'Fuck you, John.' "What do you have in mind at, let's see, five forty-five on Thursday morning."
"Get up, get dressed, and fly, drive, or run to Savannah and save their asses. They got into a gun battle with some people from a ship that was suspected of bringing in and taking out contraband. The ship is being held in port so the other side is at a disadvantage. The ship's captain is off the ship and won't go back on until the crew that is shooting is off his ship or pacified."
"How am I supposed to resolve this?"
"How should I know? They called me and I told them to call you but they asked if I would call you for them."
"How fast to I really need to be up there?"
"Yesterday! Get that ship out of the port, preferably with the bad guys in custody, and the cargo loaded. The ship owners will love you forever."
"I'm on my way, John, thanks for the wake up. You know I have to finish this today as I have my flight exam tomorrow."
"I didn't know that, Chuck, but this will get you up there and back faster."
I hung up to see four faces looking at me, wanting to know what was up. As soon as I explained, Wanda was on the phone with the charter people. They told me to get to the airport and they would quickly get me to Savannah.
I did the triple S, and dressed in just casual pants and a knit shirt. I stuffed my vest in a gym bag, grabbed three additional magazines for my Glock, and headed for the car without even taking a cup of coffee.
Thank goodness Burger King has a couple of stores between home and the air park. I bought four sandwiches and two cups of coffee and beat feet to the air park.
At six forty-five, I was getting out of the car when sexy Lisa, the crazy lady pilot, hollered at me to help push the 206 out of the hangar. "This is what's left today. Do you think the economy is really bad, considering we've been a G-5 short all week, and could have used another Lear a couple of times, as well."
I put the sandwiches and coffee in the cockpit and began the preflight inspection card. Lisa came around and said, "Hey, that's mine, I should do that."
"Sorry, Lisa, I've been doing it so much I just thought I was supposed to be doing it."
"Shit, Chuck, I'm not an IP (Instructor Pilot) yet, so I can't sign off your time. You can fly this thing if you want though. You'll just have to do it from the right seat. Let's finish this and get in the air."
We lifted off at seven fifteen, heading north northeast. It isn't that far to Savannah, especially by air. Lisa thanked me for breakfast and coffee, saying she didn't even get a chance to get a thermos for us.
When we got to Savannah, we flew over the port to see if we could identify the ship. It was easy, as there were police cars and military trucks all over the place. I switched to our general service frequency and made contact with the Station Chief. I told him to have someone pick me up at the airport, which he readily agreed to.
I landed us smoothly enough to get congratulated by my pilot. As we were taxiing up to the private aircraft terminal, I told her to tie down nearby and tell everyone you were a Marshal's Service charter.
A deputy came out of the terminal, flashing his badge and waving for me to follow him. I grabbed my bag and went with him to his car. While he was driving to the port, I took my shirt off and put the vest on and slipped my shirt on back over the vest.
He described the troublemakers as possibly being some smugglers that were caught while trying to bring contraband off the boat. No one knew how it happened, but the smugglers must have been surprised and thought they were being attacked.
At the port, I heard the same story several times. I asked the Captain, "What nationality are the crew members in question?"
Captain: "Indian, and maybe one Pakistani."
Me: "Do they speak English?"
Captain: "Most do, they practice all the time."
Me: "What do you think they were trying to get off the boat?"
Captain: "Probably hashish. I know they smoke a lot of it, and it isn't illegal where they come from."
Me: "Are guns legal on board?"
Captain: "We don't encourage them, but many have guns."
I had an idea, so I asked the Station Chief, "How much gun fire was there from the ship?"
"Just one shot from the ship, but the local police and customs probably shot off a couple hundred rounds."
I had to ask, "Why so many?"
The Chief said, "Cowboys. These guys never get involved in anything and they had a chance, so they began shooting."
"Tell them to put their guns down and not to shoot. I'm going aboard to see if we can resolve this."
The Chief exclaimed, "You can't do that, you'll get shot. Those guys will shoot you and then what will we do?"
"Let me try. I'll holler up and tell them I'm coming aboard to talk to them. If they shoot at me, I'll get off and try something else."
I took a bullhorn and walked up to near the gangway and turned on the bullhorn. "My name is Johnson, I'm coming aboard to talk to you. It would be better to let me talk to you than for me to be mad at you. Hold your fire and let's talk."
I put down the bullhorn and began climbing the gangway. A head appeared around the railing and disappeared quickly. The gangway was high and steep as the ship had been unloaded and was riding high in the water ready to be loaded with freight. I finally made it to the top and saw a man hiding around a corner. He was waving for me to come to him.
When I got there, a door was open so I entered and was immediately confronted by five men with guns. They were not pointing them at me though. One said, "If you don't pull out your gun, we will be fine. What do you want to talk about?"
"Look, those guys down there don't know what you were trying to take off the ship, but they think it is probably hashish. The government men get mad if you try to sell that stuff here in the U.S. This is not a good place to do that, and if you get caught you will stay in prison for many years."
One man said, "But it is not illegal for me to have at my home. Many want it here, why can't I sell it?"
"The law here is against using that type of drug or to smoke it. Just like you don't have liquor in many areas, but we do. You can't drink or won't drink, but you will smoke that funny stuff."
"We hear that before, but no believe. What can we do, we shoot in the air to scare off man with badge. How can we leave, the Captain will be mad."
"If I let you guys take your stuff with you, will you promise to put your guns away?"
"We will do that. Can you help us like that?"
"I'm sure the Captain needs you and no one out there really wants to hurt anyone without a gun. Go put your guns away and hide your stuff where you always hide it when you're in port. Promise me you won't try sell it in the U.S., okay?"
The obvious leader said, "We promise." He then began telling the men in his language to do something. "I tell men to put away everything and to get other men so we can load freight. You go fix us with the men with badges and the Captain."
I went down the gangway and used the bullhorn. "All non-federal personnel please depart from the port area. All federal personnel meet me right here, without weapons."
I should have said with weapons stowed, as I saw a bunch of men putting their guns on the ground, probably for the better.
The Captain came with the Homeland group and the Marshal Service people. I addressed all of them at once, "Look, there was only one shot fired into the air by the crew. They don't want to do anything, but were scared. They are not going to take anything off the ship, I was guaranteed that."
I looked at the Homeland Security leader and asked, "Can you forget about all the rounds you fired at the ship and get on with business?"
He looked confused, but thought about it, "Yeah, I guess nothing's been harmed really. We already did the INS thing on board and customs has cleared the freight that came off and the freight going back on. I guess we could let it go."
I turned to the Captain, "I'm sure you need the men in question, and you probably don't really know which of the crew it really is do you?"
"No, I don't really know which ones they are, who do anything."
I smiled, "You need all of them though, right?"
"Of course, I need everyone to run the ship."
"See the men up there; they're waiting to load the freight. Go load up and sail with the next tide. You Homeland guys, stay right here and make sure no one gets off the ship."
The Homeland Security Customs lead man asked me, "Are you really just going to let them go, even after shooting at us?"
"They didn't shoot at you. The only infraction so far is they fired a round inside the city limits. Since they fired it into the air, they could have been shooting at big sea gulls that crap on them constantly. Did any of them show their weapons to anyone on the dock?"
The agent started to speak, but stood there thinking about it a minute, then began going from man to man among the group waiting and watching what was going on.
Two huge cranes began picking up the first containers to be loaded onto the boat. Several stevedores on the dock were preparing more large containers to be picked up while customs inspectors were checking bonding tags.
The DEA station chief came up to me with a bag of donuts and a cup of coffee. "How are you doing, Chuck, haven't seen you since you came through a while ago with that hot rod Mustang."
"I'm sorry; I don't remember seeing you then. What was the situation?"
He chuckled, "You wouldn't have. I was with one of my men when you blew by us in North Florida. I recognized you from your picture on the inter-service site. You were with what looked like a big woman heading south. We stayed up with you, but I figured you to be undercover so we didn't stay with you. The Boss you were driving sure looked pristine, do you still have it?"
"I do and I do remember an Expedition running with us for a few miles when we were on the way home. We had been under, but were finished when you saw us."
The agent further explained, "We were in Panama City because we had a tip a boat charter service there was picking up stuff out in the gulf. It turned out to be sour grapes from a competitor. The suspect let us roam his four boats with dogs and check his passenger lists for the past year. If he was running drugs, he wasn't doing it on those boats."
The agent asked, "Do you think those guys have any dope on board?"
"Probably lots of it, mostly for personal use. A lot of the Indian and Pakistani crewmen use some hashish. It's not against the law over there and they are allowed to have it on board. I think a couple of them thought they might pick up some greenbacks selling some of their extra. Since they didn't do any dealing and we don't have any strangers running around down here, they didn't have a meet set up. I would rather chalk this one up to a misunderstanding than to screw up shipping and dock schedules any worse than they already are."
"You're probably right; we've caught a few crewmen on shore leave with hashish on them before, but never with a whole lot. It usually becomes more trouble than it's worth, as the ship's agents get all out of shape and the Captain only wants to get his ship loaded and out of here. He's wasting money with his engines idling while he's waiting to leave."
Almost all of the local sheriff's deputies and the local city police force had left the area. The Bureau had a couple of people there, but was not really involved other than as backup. It took four hours to get the cargo loaded into the holds and on the deck of the ship.
Tugs were idling in the channel, waiting for a harbor pilot, to assist the ship out to sea. When the pilot showed up, he was interviewed to make sure he wasn't a contact for the crewmen on board with the dope. When I watched the lines being loosened and pulled back onto the boat, I relaxed. The situation was effectively over. Now all of the extra people were departing. The local ACE said to me, "Sure glad you came up. This was becoming a pissing contest over who had jurisdiction. The sheriff's department thought it would be cute to start firing on the ship. I don't know what they thought they would accomplish by shooting at six inches of steel. They might have dented it. We were called in by the Homeland Customs guy because he thought he was being fired on. From there, it was a cluster fuck. How did you know those guys weren't going to shoot you when you went on board, you didn't even leave your weapon?"
"Since the ship was flying the Indian flag, I sort of figured out what might be happening. Men from that part of the world carry guns. It's part of their manhood. You're fine as long as you don't try to pull yours on them. They even respect you a little more for showing your weapon. I didn't feel like a stupid siege on a solid steel merchant ship, so a quick compromise seemed the way to go. I'm just happy that it worked out without a scratch."
The Station Chief once again thanked Chuck and offered him a ride. "Take me to the airport and so I can get back home. Now we'll have to do the creative writing for a non-incident incident report."
"I'll take you; the office is the same way."
At the airport, Lisa was standing with three men working on the nose gear of the airplane. "You back already? I thought you would be all day."
"Turned out not to be that big of a deal, Lisa. What's up with the nose gear?"
She said, "I noticed some hydraulic fluid on the tarmac and discovered the hose for the front brake was cracked and leaking. We had to drain the rest of the fluid, take the old hose off and go get one made at a local supplier. Not a big problem but it could have become a problem and the leaking fluid will ruin a tire. They should be done in a few minutes. If you want a sandwich, the terminal café has some pretty good subs ready made. If you go in, bring me back a Coke, please?"
I did want something to eat and went into the terminal to find the café. I bought a sub and a couple bottles of Coke, plus a couple bottles of water. I took time to take a leak and wash my hands, then went out to the plane to stow the goodies. Lisa was going through her preflight checklist while the workers were recharging the hydraulic fluid.
As soon as they finished and had Lisa sign for the work, she motioned for me to get into the aircraft. After removing the wheel chocks, she slid into her seat, buckled up, pulled the next checklist, and began reading to me. I automatically began going through the steps to prepare to start the engine and started it.
In very little time, I was requesting taxi instructions and runway access to take off.
"Lisa, did you file a flight plan, or do I need to do that while we're holding here?"
"I already filed, all you have to do is call in to initiate it. We'll do that after we get the wheels off the runway."
We were soon off the ground on the way home. Lisa took the controls while I ate my sandwich, but began quizzing me about the same stuff John always did. She said she was prepping me for tomorrow. She asked how I felt about the test, and all I could say is, "John's taught me pretty well. I know all the right things to do, and I know what would be bad to do. So far I've flown this 206 more than student planes, but I'll fly a 172 tomorrow. I've only flown that plane twice. It's about the same just an in between size of this one and the 150 series. I like this airplane as it's pretty fast and handles very nice."
When I took back control, Lisa pulled out a notebook and continued to quiz me all the way to the air park. We set down at three thirty and parked in front of the maintenance hangar. Lisa said, "The guys will want to look over what was done to make sure everything is good. It's always better to get a second opinion after having work done somewhere else."
"Thanks for being my jockey today, Lisa. See you later."
Lisa said, "Don't forget that Steve wanted you to come out tomorrow evening. He probably wants to celebrate you passing your exam."
I called in to Wanda to see what was up. She said that she's fielded a few dozen calls congratulating me for taking care of Savannah without any problems. She suggested, "Come in and write your report. You probably won't be in all day tomorrow, so get it done now while it's fresh in your mind."
It took me longer to get to the office than it did to write the report. I tried to be as wordy as possible, but the incident really was a non-incident. While I was finishing the report, Wanda said John was on the line.
"Hey, John."
"Hey yourself, you did a good job up in Savannah. All the divisions are calling in their reports to say it was handled without any real problems because you went on board, against no one knows how many gun wielding crewmen, and pacified them. So what really happened?"
I quickly explained the whole incident, telling him the crew really wasn't threatening, but were a little scared they weren't going to be able to sail with the ship. Once they were comfortable, they put away their guns and probably fired up a pipe full of their favorite hash and went back to work.
"Good job, Chuck. Oh, and good luck tomorrow on your exam. I always wanted to learn how to fly. I might try it soon now that you've given me the fever. Learn how to fly the jets so you can jockey me around. That would be neat to team up with you."
"I've got a long way to go before I fly any jets. I have to learn instruments and get a lot of flying time in. If everything goes right, I'll try to fly myself to close stations when I need to go. The cost should be about what a commercial flight is. That will really help the budget."
John said, "Well remember that you still need to get to some of these places fast and you will need to work on board the airplane fairly often unless you have Wanda with you. Anyway, good luck and as soon as you can, begin the next part of your training."
It was almost five, but I checked my e-mail on my laptop, and then used my desk PC to check the government auction site. The last bid was still mine at twelve thousand five hundred and one dollar. I wondered if this was like EBay where people hung on to the last second to place that last bid. I was surprised that whoever put the bid in on the plane didn't put in a lot more to go up if someone bid against him.
My desk was clean and my laptop was back in its case. Wanda poked her head in the door and asked, "Want to go to The Office? Frank is coming with Conish, and Angie has some things with her to come home with us tonight. She's planning on staying through the weekend so we can see if we are compatible."
"Sounds good, Wanda, let's get out of here."
The four of us left the office and stopped in at the station where Bobby, Sarah, Marie, and Dave were all getting ready to walk out the door. Just like it was planned, the elevator stopped at the second floor to let Jan on and we went down.
Bobby, Wanda, and I put our stuff into our cars out back and went across the back lot to the back door of The Office. Thursday night should be a little slower than normal, but it wasn't. The bar was enjoying a brisk business, selling buckets of six bottles of domestic beer for the price of five. If you bought two buckets, you got an extra two bottles of beer per bucket.
We were enjoying each other's company when Tom and Zena came up and joined the party. Tom was offering his place to come out Friday and or Saturday night. Zena kept assuring us that they had the extra room in their house, even with the other girls there. I told Tom that Lisa had been my pilot again today and he was smiling. Zena said, "I'm surprised she can fly you anywhere. She loves military guys and cops. She goes nuts over anyone that carries a gun."
"She really is a good pilot and pays attention to what she's doing. She does flirt, but so do most people."
"Perhaps she won't be flying this weekend and will be around for a change if you guys come out. You should come, there's going to be the big fishing contest this weekend that my sister will probably win again, but you never know. The whole thing becomes a big cookout party."
Bobby said, "I'm not going out in one of those canoes, no way. I might try one of the pontoon boats, but no little boats for me."
Zena said, "While the crazies are all out fishing, you and I can hang out at the house or go down to the pool to get some sun."
"I suppose we could go out there without inviting the rest of the family to come along," Bobby said.
I mentioned, "I thought we were going to see Michelle Saturday or Sunday. Tomorrow night we're supposed to go to Steve's and Sue's."
Zena said to Tommy, "Tommy, we're supposed to go over there tomorrow evening as well. You know who Steve is; he's the guy who owns all those businesses connected to S&S. Sue owns all those clothing factories like the one that you sold the property for."
Zena turned to Bobby and said, "Isn't it strange, a couple that well off living out in a trailer park? I understand they live in a pretty fancy trailer though."
Bobby said, "It isn't a trailer, but a very big manufactured home. They also have a huge screened in air conditioned patio with a bar and TVs, and inside they have a pool table. You won't believe the kids out there, they are everywhere, having a great time."
Tom said, "Okay, we'll go out there but that still leaves the question of you two about coming out to stay with us this weekend."
Bobby said, "Tell you what, we'll come after going to Steve's and Sue's and stay through Sunday morning but we need to get going early so we can fly up to see my sister in Panama City."
Zena shivered, "Oh, you're so lucky. I wish we would learn how to fly. I think that would be so cool to fly yourself around to some of the places we go. We could even fly down to the keys on weekends sometimes. We're just so comfortable out here that we don't hardly ever go anywhere except for business."
I said, "I always wanted to learn to fly, so this is fun for me and I might be able to fly myself to some of the places that I go. It could help my office budget."
We left to go home with Wanda, Angie, and Marie riding with Bobby, while I had Jan with me. At home, we quickly changed clothes to work out. Bobby had purchased another bike, so there was less waiting for either a treadmill or a bike. When we were real sweaty, the girls headed toward the pool shedding clothes, while I went into the bedroom to take off my regular leg and slip on my new peg leg.
We swam hard, leaving poor Angie in our wake. She said she would have to practice to get to be a better swimmer. She didn't seem self-conscious to be nude with us. When we were done swimming, Bobby and Wanda did their usual of picking me up and carrying me to a chair. Angie commented, "You have two helpers that are really strong. That is something the way they can carry you like that."
"You should see them throw me out into the pool. That's really a sight."
We were going to have grilled chicken, but without the Marsala sauce, until Bobby asked, "Can you do the chicken with your special sauce? You know, the Marsala, and cut the chicken breasts in half so they're thinner."
"Not a problem, let me put on some shorts and a T-shirt and I'll get started." Bobby came near me and said, "Don't put on any clothes, I think Angie likes to look at you."
"She can look at me some other time. I prefer to have clothes on when I cook."
Bobby, Marie, and Angie looked disappointed, but too bad. I prefer to be dressed when I'm cooking.
It wasn't long before I served chicken Marsala over rice, with some wilted spinach, garnished with egg, bacon bits, garlic, and wine vinegar to go with it. Wanda found some sauterne that complimented the chicken and sauce nicely. Angie said, "I've never had chicken like that. It is delicious. Can you cook all kinds of food like that?"
I smiled and told her, "Angie, I'm the world's greatest chef in deputy's clothing. I'll fix you some special meals that your counterparts in different parts of the country eat. I make some of the best turnip greens known to man and can fix all the country foods your mom and dad may have told you about. Some are really good, others I don't care for, but it's neat to taste different types of food."
Bobby said, "Wait till we take you out to Park Place. They have some of the best pizza and calzones in the world."
Angie asked, bewildered, "What's a calzone?"
"That's it," Bobby said, "We're on the way to Park Place to pick up some calzones. We'll get a bunch for tomorrow's lunch."
I said, "I'll stay home so I can go over my exam notes one more time, but please pick up about a half dozen for my examiner and myself. That will make a neat lunch."
Bobby, Marie, Jan, and Angie took off to go out to Park Place. Wanda said she would clean up the kitchen so I could begin studying right away.
It seemed I had only begun studying when the girls were back. I looked at the clock, realizing they had been gone for over two hours. I put away my books, stretched, and went out to join everyone as they had a drink. I didn't drink anything since I wanted to make sure I was perfect for tomorrow.
Angie loved the suite she was going to possibly live in, and said goodnight to us as she prepared for bed. We all headed for bed with only my big bed mate with me. We spent a little while satisfying each other's craving for each other's body, then fell asleep snuggled together.
Primary editing by Pepere
Proofing by Sagacious