Chapter 17
I walked into my house outside of Boston, and checked it out. It had been a long time trip for me. It represented the farthest I had gone back, to date. It showed me I needed to rethink logistical support for myself.
I had watched a man die from an infected wound, that modern medicine could have healed quickly and easily. Hell, the wound had not been that serious to begin with, but it got infected, and that had spelled this man's death. It was one of the Avery-Smythe's soldiers, whom I had helped in battle when I had first arrived in 1687 England.
All in all, it had been an interesting and informative trip. The Avery-Smythe clan, in the time I chose to visit them, was in a small disagreement with another lord. Oh, nothing as big as the War of the Roses; but it was this sniping at one another that had killed off the "Avery", of the combined Avery-Smythe name.
The other minor house of nobility that they were fighting with lost the battle. The Avery-Smythes came out the winners, but the Averys were killed off to the last man woman, and child. I had arrived at the last gasps of that little dispute.
So not only were the Avery's no longer in existence as a viable house of nobles, but so too, was the enemy's house. There is no record of the Birkwicks, whom they had been fighting, having survived past 1687. One thing this little dispute did for me, was make me realize that while the US justice system was in need of some serious overhauling, it was still better than a lot of what was considered 'justice' in the rest of the world! Well, as opposed to 'past practices', anyway.
The Averys and the Smythes had long been friends and partners in everything, including marrying into each other's houses. The combining of the names had been done about a hundred years before my arrival to 1697 England.
Both the Avery and Smythe houses had been longtime supporters of the royals. It was unfortunate that one branch of the Avery-Smythe house had died with the last of the Avery lords, but it gave me insight into the make up of the Avery-Smythes, at any rate.
I spent a couple days relaxing from my long 'time-dive' trip, and considered some options. First, I was going to take more into the past than I had been taking. I needed to put together a survival kit that covered most contingencies.
I wanted modern medications and weapons. I wanted emergency financial resources so that I could buy my way out of trouble or spread cash around if it came to that. I had learned that a gold piece went a long way back in the 1600's.
I had watched a person who passed for a doctor, treat the wounded from the skirmish I had helped with, and it was truly sad. Yet that doctor had been the personal physician of the current Lord Avery-Smythe in that time, and was supposedly an experienced doctor.
In my present, I found a doctor who (for a little money) was happy to teach me suturing, diagnosing, and injecting medications. Not a lot. I was going to bring a kit with me on my next time-dive, and I wanted to be sure of myself and what I did. I would hate to do something that caused a worse problems to the person I was helping.
I also wanted to find a good place to store my rising collection of memorabilia. I stumbled across it, totally by accident. Since the fall of the Berlin wall, the US government had been downsizing its military hardware, as well as the number of its soldiers. One of the things it was doing, was decommissioning old ICBM missile silos.
I was amazed at how much room was in a silo. Besides the missile silo itself, there were other rooms. Support and operations, launch control, a small mess hall, and sleeping quarters for the crew manning the silo were a few of them.
I bought one such installation. It was perfect for my needs, and was safe and secure. Plus, it was rated to survive a 1-megaton airburst! Damn!!! I then searched for and found a contractor, who could restore a lot of what was taken out of the silo. Oh, I don't mean the missile! I mean the generators, air filtration systems, water storage, etc.
The huge blast doors remained. I could open and close any of them as I wished. I wanted the contractor to make it very comfortable inside, as well as converting several rooms into my storage vaults. It would take six to eight months for the conversion, but it would be perfect! It would also be a 'home away from home' if I needed it as such.
I was surfing the web, and writing down possible places and times to go visit, when one attracted my attention. The 1904 Worlds Fair, in St. Louis! Now that would be something to see! As it was not too far distant in the past, the clothing and money for that time period would be easy to come by.
Before getting ready for my short time-dive, I had to look into my operation in Boston. While no time at all had passed in the present world during my trip, two months had passed for me in the past. I had forgotten a couple of small things, and had to be reminded.
If this kept up, I was going to get the reputation of being the 'absent-minded philanthropist'! That was not good. Officials at local, state, or the federal level could use the excuse of 'mental deficiency', to seize my assets. For 'my own protection', you understand. Call me paranoid; but the founder of U-Haul was committed by his 'loving family'. The control of his business taken away from him, under similar circumstances. I had no family, except for Debra, and the government would 'reluctantly' have to move 'for my protection', I am sure.
After being investigated by the feds because a foreign agency had put together a small dossier on me, I believed in a bit of healthy paranoia. I had to face reality. If the feds found out I could do what I did, my life would be over, and I would become a federal slave/prisoner.
Oh, they would tell me it was for my and my countries own good, but I would be totally controlled by them. One thing they would experiment with, would be if I could CHANGE history. I had refused to even try up till now.
Hell, just the ability to view events and conversations in specific areas, would have me working for intelligence agencies the rest of my life, let alone them knowing of my ability to go into the past in body! Plus, I had taken two mules back to the past with me, and returned with them to the present. It was not beyond the realms of possibility that they would force me to take teams of people and equipment back in time, for the government's own purposes.
No, I had to keep the list of people who knew of my ability down to as close to zero, as possible. Three people knew positively I could view the past. A reporter for the Clayton City Bugle, and my two college buddies, Levy and John. I was thankful I had not told any of them about my ability to go psychically into the past, as well.
Then there was the current Lord Avery-Smythe. He had convinced himself, with just a few coincidences, that I could go back into the past. That was one scary man. His ability to put a few facts together and come out with my ability, scared the crap out of me!
He was also an enigma. He basically said he knew, but was keeping quiet about my ability. He had to have an ulterior motive. I am sure that some way, sometime, he was going to demand his pound of flesh for maintaining his silence. It was human nature, and it was the way governments worked. Sure, he said he would not even tell his government, but then, he had enough clout to get his own government's foreign intelligence service to put something together on me. So he was pretty powerful in his government, himself.
That summer I spent taking trips to areas of interest and seeing the sights of the past! Dodge city as a cattle town was an exciting time! I traveled to places, and back-timed to when I knew famous lawmen of old would be. I saw them in person!
I saw all sorts of people from that time. Bat Masterson, Doc Holiday, Wyatt Earp, Jesse James. The list of people I wanted to see was almost endless! I traveled to Washington, and saw President Lincoln.
I didn't spend the summer just 'joy riding', though. I made use of my ability with computers. If I do say so myself, I am very good with programming. Plus, with the little 'hacker's disk' I'd made with the help of Levy and John while in college, there was no computer I could not gain access too, if I wanted it.
One of the problems with modernizing a newspaper, is that humans are taken out of the loop. I am not talking about the small city papers. I am mostly referring to the tabloid press, and the huge papers. The New York Times, for example, is printed in cities across the world each morning. This is done via a network of computers. It was easy to hack into their computers and make a back door for me to insert whatever I wanted to, into their papers.
Oh, I didn't do much except test it one time. They thought it was a glitch. But the print people follow instructions faithfully. When they print our what they have to set for their presses from their computer, they take the computerized instructions as a Command from God. I now had a means of mass communications if I wanted it. Millions of people's minds were at my fingertips.
I also managed to get into a couple of federal office buildings, and putter with two different computer systems. The federal government believes in having information at their fingertips. They also believed in a huge net of computers, just for governmental use. The computers all talked to each other sooner or later, though.
By the end of the summer, I had back doors into the FBI's, the commerce department's, and the IRS's, statistical databases. I could look up whomever I wanted, thanks to governmental paranoia. Still, there were holes in my coverage. I had no links to the NSA, or to the CIA computers at Langley Virginia. I was hesitant even to try, as they had very sophisticated software and might detect my program.
I suppose I could cause a huge amount of damage and embarrassment for the government if I had wanted too, but that was not my purpose. I believe in America, and it's right to defend itself, but I also believe in my constitutional guaranties.
I performed a search, after I'd breached the FBI's computer. I discovered that despite a court order from a federal judge, I was still listed as a person of interest, and they occasionally still tracked me electronically.
I had been told that this would not happen after I had hired my attorney, and had taken them to court. I had even requested everything the feds had on me, through the Freedom of Information Act. They had not provided me with what I had just discovered, which meant the government was actively in violation of a federal judge. They had not disclosed this, which was in direct violation of said act.
Well, well. The feds were not above breaking the law for their own purposes. Imagine that? Who would have thought that employees sworn to uphold the law would break it so willingly?
Well, I would!
At least, this confirmed my opinion of what the government was capable of, and reaffirmed my decision not to let 'big brother' in on my abilities. They played fast and loose with an individuals rights when it suited them.
I was not the only person the government was not forthcoming with, when compelled to comply with the Freedom Of information Act. There seemed to be a whole list of people in a separately held file system, which was not accessed by the normal employees, whose job it was to comply with the law. They just didn't have all the info to release.
I researched Federal Law attorneys, and decided that it would probably pay to hire the best. Boston had several good ones, but New York City probably had one of the best Federal Law firms in the country. Los Angles also had one, which was just as good. Well, I was on the east coast, so I contacted the firm in New York. I made an appointment with one of their junior partners. I was soon on a plane, with a briefcase full of incriminating evidence. Well, for them. As to how I got it, I had already worked that out.
"Mr. Wilshire? Mark Flemming will see you now," said the secretary.
I thanked her and was shown into a very nice office indeed. The floor was carpeted a nice neutral color, and the walls were in earth tones. All in all, it was meant to relax a person.
"Mr. Wilshire? I'm Mark Flemming. I understand you have a problem you wish to discuss that involves federal law?" said a somewhat thin and tall man, holding out his hand for me to shake.
I studied him as I shook his hand. His black hair was just starting to gray at the temples. He wore a mustache and goatee, of all things. He wore a casual suit that fit his thin frame perfectly, so it had to be tailored. He had sharp blue eyes that seemed to see into my very soul.
We finished shaking hands and he motioned me to sit. We seated ourselves in two comfortable chairs facing each other across a glass coffee table. He did not sit behind his desk, which I found to be significant. It meant that he had no need for 'superiority props', and that he was comfortable with his own competence.
I outlined my trip to England a while back, and told of my returning the personal effects of a revolutionary British officer, to his current day descendants. I explained I had come across them at a flea market. I had decided to return them, after I was able to track down who they belonged to by the family's crest.
He was interested in my having been investigated by the British MI-6, which in turn got our own government interested in me, when they saw the British interest. I explained my 'show cause' and the 'cease and desist' orders I had gotten signed by a federal judge, after I discovered I was being investigated and followed by my government.
He nodded but remained quiet. I opened my briefcase and showed him the documents pertaining to this. He looked them over carefully, and commented that this was pretty straightforward stuff. So what was my problem?
I then reached into my briefcase, and showed him the copy of my Federal File, which I had obtained via the Freedom Of Information Act. It detailed what I had already told Mr. Flemming. He read it and said he was still puzzled as this contained the cease and desist and the judge's termination order to the government, and the final resolution of my case at that time.
I nodded and reached into my briefcase yet again, and produced yet another file, and an audio cassette tape.
"This arrived in the mail a couple weeks ago. I have been pondering what to do with it. I think you will find reading this file, and comparing it to the other two files, to be interesting. Also interesting, is the tape that came with the file," I said.
He played the tape first, and his eyes opened wide as he listened to it. He then read the five-page file that came with the tape. When he looked up, his eyes seemed to burn into me.
"You have just presented me with evidence of malfeasance and illegal activities on the part of the government. It could get a lot of people fired, and bring criminal charges down on still others, if this is an accurate representation," he said grimly.
Edited by TeNderLoin