Jack’s Castle
Paul said, “I have actually heard of chocolate before. I read about it in a trade journal sometime ago. Apparently, it was a sweet concoction designed to drive millions of people to sugar addiction.”
Jack said “Once again, I am constantly amazed at the distorted view of things that you have been taught. For the record, chocolate was merely a snack food that happened to have sugar in it. And if you think beef is good, you should try chocolate!”
“Any chocolate we find here will be hundreds of years old, Jack.”
“Paul, sometimes, you just don’t get it” Jack said with a smile, thinking of fond memories regarding chocolate bars. “But, what I don’t get is why the government would put an access point to their secret underground lair in a factory that makes candy. I would be crushed to discover you are actually right about this.”
Unsure of which way to go to get the convoy of vehicles out of the massive building, they set out on foot to explore. Since Jack was the only one of the group with any experience handling a gun, at least for the moment, they stuck together.
They walked down the widest passages, knowing the vehicles would have to pass through as well. After a short exploration, they found two things. One, the warehouse had its own ramp to the street level, and two, and far more important in Jack’s view was a cache of chocolate bars designed for long term storage.
“Hey Paul, check this out. Candy bars! Try one.”
“I don’t know, Jack. That candy is hundreds of years old.”
“I know, but it was designed for long term storage” he said while biting into one.
“Mmmmmmm! I’d forgotten how delicious it was. Ten years in exile does things to you.”
Paul took a nibble and decided it was not the worst thing he ever tasted, but refused to eat any more. “Okay, it doesn’t completely gross me out. And, I don’t know how you can call the modern world ‘exile.’ Anything else would certainly be less advanced.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Jack said “All the more for me. And I’ll let that comment pass about the modern world we’re in. To comment would take way too long and I’m getting tired.” Jack loaded his box of chocolate into the camper and they made their way to the road, stopping just inside the warehouse.
“Let’s camp here and see what, if anything is out here before we head out in this illegal vehicle” said Jack.
Paul said “Maybe we can hook the trailer to the hovercraft and just use it. We can’t be that far now, can we?”
“With the trailer attached, we’ll have to stick to the surface and it’ll take a day or two. If we were able to fly a bit higher, we could be there in a few hours. But, you’re right. It’s probably safer on the ground.”
They set up camp and Jack fixed a few steaks for an early dinner. After dinner, they settled down for a well needed rest. They had been running on almost no sleep since the day before and desperately needed some time to 'recharge.' They both slept great while Suzie stood watch since she required no sleep.
~***~
In the morning, when they determined there was no one around for miles, Jack took the opportunity to teach Paul how to shoot. A few days ago, Paul would have protested and refused to learn, but after these past few days, his outlook had changed.
Paul said “I’ve seen a few guns in a museum, but have never seen one in working condition. In fact, I don’t even know of anyone who has ever seen one work. They’ve been illegal for a few hundred years, you know.”
“I know, and it is one of many foolish laws you have now. The founding fathers of the United States laid down a list of rules to live by. They called it the Bill of Rights. One of them, the second, said the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. They knew that if you took away the guns, you also took away the freedom. You people in this time have so many laws that the government literally controls every aspect of your lives, and you are not even aware of it. If you ever decided that you didn't like the way things were, without any weapons you would have no chance of changing anything.”
Paul said “Wow! That's intense! And it certainly gives me something to think about.”
“It most certainly is, Paul” said Jack. “Now, let’s do a bit of target practice.”
Jack went over the basics of how the weapon worked, how to disassemble it and put it back together, how to clean it and why and how the ammunition worked before letting Paul take his first shot.
Jack fired a few rounds to show Paul what to expect and then handed the gun to him.
Paul took aim and fired, and was nearly knocked down by the kick. More ready for it the next time, he took aim again and this time did well. Jack had set up some cans he found on a board and Paul managed to knock one down on his second try. Not too bad.
After only a few shots, Paul was hitting the can every time. Jack was truly impressed. “Paul, you could’ve been a sharpshooter in my day” Jack said with pride.
Suzie walked over and said “If you two mighty hunters are finished here, we should get going.”
“She’s right” said Jack. “Let’s pack up and hit the road.”
~***~
Meanwhile, back in Harmony, Janet was in a quandary. She didn’t know what to do. She had tracked Paul again and now he was a considerable distance north of here. He simply must be in trouble again, to be that far away without her knowing about it. Should she follow him?
If she followed him as far away as he now was, she would have to organize a team to be within compliance of the law. But, she needed more information first. She needed to know what he was up to. Sadly, she would just have to wait.
~***~
Jack discovered that driving the hovercraft with the trailer attached was certainly a challenge. It simply was not designed to allow a wheeled vehicle to be attached to it. “What we need is another hovercraft to haul the trailer” he said.
“Yeah, well, we don’t have one, so quit complaining” said Paul.
They had traveled quite a distance, but far short of their hopes. However, even at this snails pace, they would be there by the next evening, assuming nothing went wrong. In fact, in another few hours, they should be on the ice and could attach the skis to the trailer and that may actually make it easier.
And, as it turned out, it was much easier on the ice. They had continued moving in a northward direction until they encountered the ice in Canada. Once there, they attached the skis and turned to the east.
Both happy that their journey was nearly complete, they began chatting again in lieu of the absolute silence they had been traveling in for some time now. Out of the blue, Paul said “Dinosaurs.” He looked over at his friend and smiled. “Jack, if this time machine of yours really exists, I would love to see real live dinosaurs.”
Jack burst out laughing. After hours of silence, Paul wanted to talk about dinosaurs. Well, he was, after all, an archaeologist. “I have never traveled that far into the past, Paul, but I don’t see why it would be a problem, although traveling a mere thousand years in the future certainly has been.” He thought a moment and said “We may need bigger guns, though.”
Laughing as well, Paul said “You’re probably right. Although this little mystery adventure we’ve found ourselves on is certainly fascinating, and I want to pursue it to the end, I don’t see where a little side-trip will hurt as a diversion. Like you said, Jack, with a time machine we can take our time and still get things done in a hurry.”
With the dreamy gaze of a young girl, Suzie said “I just want to see Jack’s castle in the Bahamas. It sounds very interesting.”
Paul said “You never told me about the castle, Jack.”
“Well, we seem to have plenty of time at the moment” said Jack. He paused while composing his thoughts before beginning. Eventually, he said “After I hit the lottery, it occurred to me that a base of operations, of sorts would be in order. Although I could live indefinitely on the boat, an actual home would be nice. I decided to give this some real thought, not just some off the wall idea that happened to pop into my head.
“All of my life I had been fascinated with pirates as well as castles. Now that I was the captain of a ship, which would make a great pirate ship by the way, perhaps a castle was in order…but where? Obviously, somewhere at the shore would be ideal. Then the thought finally came to me. I would buy an island somewhere in the Caribbean. I had, after all just won the lottery, remember?
“The ideal place would be somewhere I could build a stone castle that also had a protected harbor. A natural source of fresh water as well as fruit trees would be perfect. After a few days of searching, I discovered that The Bahamas had many private islands throughout its chain of more than 700 islands. The island I found was a private island with no one currently occupying it as a home.
“It took a bit longer to finally narrow down the list of owners to a corporation based in Chicago that actually owned the island. A quick internet search of the corporation that stood, at the moment, between me and what I was sure would be MY island, turned up some good news. It seems that this particular corporation was not doing well financially. I decided a trip to Chicago was in order.
“After further sleuthing, I made the best discovery thus far. The corporation I was about to visit had acquired this island after taking over another company and had not visited it or inquired of it, as far as I could tell.
“As the recent lottery winner of a payoff as large as mine, it was rather easy to get a meeting arranged as a potential investor. It also didn’t take long to find out they were clueless about the island’s very existence. I figured to just go for it and if I happened to make a massive financial blunder, I could always utilize my time machine to go back and do it over.
“I made them a modest offer that was slightly higher than what was originally paid. After what seemed like a short time for an amount of money this large, I had a deed in hand for my island. As I was flying back to West Palm Beach to retrieve the Time Awaits, I came up with a name for my island. I would call it Destiny. I had always heard that you create your own destiny and in my case, I had the tools to do that and then some!”
Paul interrupted, saying “Destiny? Do you mean like the city named Destiny on the south eastern part of North America? I think you would know it as Atlanta, Georgia.”
“Well, to be honest, I hadn’t heard of the city by the same name, but I do know where Atlanta is.” He composed himself again and continued his story. “I made my way to Nassau, the capital city of the Bahamas, and managed to register a name change for my new island. Mission accomplished, I set sail for Destiny.
“Once there, I set out to explore. My new island was very small, but actually large for a privately owned island. It was about one mile by perhaps two and a half and rather square in shape. There was a natural harbor near one end that backed up to a mountain. Okay, mountain is obviously the wrong word, but it was a hill that rose several hundred feet above sea level.
“I climbed the hill and found a parcel of land at the top that was about five or six acres, flat and more or less cleared. I could think of no more perfect place for a large, stone, medieval castle to be built.
“I spent the rest of the day exploring the island and found nothing more to note, except for a few broken ship pieces scattered on the west side of the island. I did, however, locate a fresh water spring near my desired location for my home.
“I spent the night on board the Time Awaits pondering the events of the past few weeks. It occurred to me that night that I had neglected my job. Granted, I didn’t need it any longer, but I should do them the courtesy of actually resigning. Also, they still had all my worldly possessions, except for the boat and what was in my suitcase. I know it wasn’t much, but there were a few things I had that held some sentimental value.
“The next morning, it seemed the most natural thing in the world for me to back up a few weeks so I could report back to base on time. I submitted my resignation, effective immediately, and packed my few meager belongings. In less than an hour, I was back out to sea and up to date, so to speak.
“My next order of business was locating a stone mason willing to build in such a remote location. Although, even properly motivated by the big pile of cash I was paying, it still took a bit of time to find a contractor. I located a company in Tennessee that specialized in large custom buildings. I called them and explained what I wanted. After several hang ups, I finally convinced them I was legitimate. They agreed to meet with me in Miami and I would transport them to the island, which I could get to in a day.
“They spent the better part of three days surveying and measuring and taking soil samples and doing stuff I honestly had no idea about. The evening of the third day, they came to me with a proposal. Quietly thinking to myself that money was no problem, I still didn’t want to make them suspicious so I had to go through the hassle of negotiating for a better deal. Once we agreed on a price, they said they could start in six weeks.
“I had my castle built to what my idea of a castle should be. It had massive stone walls, medieval battlements, a drawbridge that worked and a moat. Now, the moat was frivolous, since I was located on a tropical island, so I made the moat into a lazy river of sorts and constructed as a circular swimming pool. Actually, I got the idea for the moat from an amusement park attraction I visited once as a child.
“Inside, I had every imaginable convenience and electronic advancement I could think of. It even had secret passages! All in all, it was the perfect home for someone that fancies himself a pirate capable of traveling through time.”
Paul said “I’ll bet you have some great stories to tell about your adventures, Jack.”
“Yes, I suppose I have had more than my fair share of adventures.” The two of them rode in silence for a few minutes. Eventually, Jack said “It also occurs to me that I still didn’t get a good look at the lighting back in those caves we traveled through. I was hoping to figure out what it was. You never know when something like that will come in handy.”
Noticing something other than ice in front of them, Paul said “Jack, check out the horizon, I think we may be in trouble. That certainly looks to me to be a government welcoming committee. It looks like Janet has been tracking me again and these cards that allow us to roam about the countryside have a restriction about ‘official government areas.’ What do you suggest we do?”
Suzie spoke up instead saying “Guys, I have an idea that just might work. I can assume the role of a Government Protocol Officer and we can try to bluff our way past her. It is quite possible, based on her previous actions when she came after Paul before, that she has not done all of her research. She most likely is not alone and if we can instill enough doubt into everyone else, she may just leave.”
Jack said “That might work, and I can think of no other options, short of shooting her, which I would rather not do. But, it occurs to me that she may know of every Protocol Officer in Harmony. Who will you be?”
Paul said “She could be herself, using that Australian accent of hers and be someone that just transferred to Harmony from say, Alice Springs.”
Jack said “Okay, we can try that, but if it falls through, we should have a back up plan.”
Paul said, “Jack, the only problem I can see is with Janet’s legal sense. Since she officially closed this dig, there is no way she would let us come back in. She would never buy it. What we should do is tell her we are heading for another dig, your boat. That way, she can’t say anything.”
“Okay, I don’t like it, but it does get me much closer to my boat. But, I have to warn you Paul, if something threatens to close us down, I will do whatever I have to in order to keep my boat out of their hands.”
“I can live with that” said Paul.