Legend of Oria 1: Initial Contact (20 page)

Martello locked eyes with the trooper.  “Officer, radio your dispatcher and see what they say.  Right now, I’m ordering my agents to continue their trip.  Don’t even think of getting in their way.  Am I clear?”

“Yeah you’re clear.” Give someone a badge and they think they rule the world thought the trooper.  He then walked back to his cruiser and picked up the radio.  As he got hold of the dispatcher, the sedan with Smith and Jenkins pulled out.  He was on the radio only a few minutes when he returned to Martello.

“Captain, as you said, your agents are free to go.”  The trooper returned to his car enraged that the military could get away with blatant transgressions of Maryland’s laws.

Karen was getting close to Easton and was beginning to slow down for the trip through the city.  Even if she wanted to, it was impossible to maintain a high speed.  She looked at Oria as they pulled into town and said, “That was fun.  I can’t believe those cops didn’t come after us.  It’s as if they didn’t even see us.”

Oria smiled back as he repositioned himself in his seat.  “Maybe they didn’t see us, but I think our tail had a different experience.”

Karen’s face then went pale.  She just remembered that Martello’s people were driving a much slower sedan.  There was no way that they would have been able to keep up with her Porsche.

“Oria, you knew they wouldn’t be able to follow.  You scum bag.  I’ll probably get in trouble for that.”

“Probably, but I think you will survive.”

“Those guys will never catch up with me now.  Are they able to track us?”

“Nope, at least not with their GPS system.”

“Oh no!  Bronson is going to kill me! Oria, I hope you know what you’re doing, because I’m certainly clueless.  Man, I gotta chill out awhile, let’s stop and get some soft ice cream.”

Karen pulled the car in the Easton Dairy Queen.  She got out of the car with Oria and headed to the Lady’s room.  She knew she had to call and check in.  Oria, of course, would know, but then he appeared to be several steps ahead of them anyway.

She called Colonel Johnson at the command center.

“Hello Colonel, I’m checking in.”

“Major, that was quite a show you put on.  I hear you’ve been a bit heavy on the gas.”

“Oria was egging me on to go faster and I gave in to him.”

“Come on Major, you’ll need a better story than that.  I know Martello is a pain to deal with.”

“Yes he is.  I can’t believe he attached all these electronic gizmos to my personal car without my permission.”

“Yes, he should have spoken to you first.  It appears that those electronic gizmos aren’t working anyway.”

“What? You mean you can’t track us?”  Karen was aghast.  She stood in the bathroom threading the fingers of her right hand through her hair.  She knew that she was in big trouble.

“That’s right.  The two sergeants attempting to tail, well Maryland’s finest pulled them over after running through the speed trap that you managed to dodge.  It seems the cops never saw your car.  What’s even more interesting, after Martello landed his chopper and talked with the police, all of his sophisticated communications devices stopped working!  Do you know anything about this?”

“All I know is Oria did say he was on some sort of mission to help the United States.”

“Some help.  He’s compromised our latest secure communications devices and tracking equipment.  The Army will not be pleased to hear that a stranger was able to completely neutralize their latest electronics.”

“I guess not.  Well, I have to get going.  I’ll continue to work on getting more information out of Oria.  So far he hasn’t told me anything that we don’t already know.”

Karen caught up with Oria at one of the outside picnic tables.  He had already picked up a cone for her and was well into eating his own.  Karen smiled and indicated that they should start heading back down the road.  They returned to the car and took off.  They cleared Easton in minutes and again faced open road.  The next big town was Salisbury.  Traveling anywhere from 50-130MPH it took less than half an hour to reach it.

On the other side of Salisbury, it was a short stretch to Ocean City.  Martello was watching her progress from above in his helicopter.  He was still mad at Karen’s reckless speeding and of having to hassle with the State Police.  He had hoped to keep their efforts more discreet.  As he watched Karen driving below, he clocked her again at almost 130MPH.  All of a sudden, the Porsche disappeared.  Martello mumbled under his breath “What?”

Martello fumed at having to report to the Colonel that he again lost Karen.  He figured she was trying to pull one over on him.  Martello had the chopper fly low and made sure Karen was not hiding under any overpasses.  He could not locate here anywhere.  He just completed his conversation with the Colonel, when Karen’s car mysteriously reappeared traveling close to the speed limit.  There had been nothing but empty road, and then all of a sudden, the car reappeared.

Martello began to suspect more than a prank by Karen was happening.  It had to be Oria.  Martello wondered what technological marvels Oria commanded to evade speed traps, visual contact, and to neutralize some of the most sophisticated electronics in the U.S. arsenal.  The most baffling part was Oria’s apparent willingness to share his technological marvels with the world.  What was his angle?

Karen finally arrived at the Condo she and her friends had rented on 90
th
street.  It felt good to reach there.  She and Oria walked into the building taking the elevator to the 12
th
floor.   They walked a short distance down the hallway to their room.  Karen threw open the door hoping to see her friends there.  The room was empty.  On the kitchen table sat a note.  Her friends said to meet her around 9:30PM outside of a popular boardwalk bar.  It was now almost 8:30.  They didn’t have much time to get down there.  Just barely enough time to walk out on the balcony and take in the panoramic view of the ocean.

The condo had only two bedrooms.  Her friends had already monopolized one of them.  That left only the second bedroom with a queen size bed.  She looked at Oria and smiled “Just throw your stuff in here.  We can figure out where everyone sleeps later.  Let’s get downstairs and take the bus to the boardwalk.”

Karen and Oria headed out of the room, down the elevator, and out to Ocean Highway.  They only had to wait several minutes before one of the Ocean City Municipal buses showed up.  They were lucky and able to get two seats next to each other on the bus.  It took almost half an hour for them to reach 6
th
Street, close to the designated meeting place. 

Oria and Karen walked up to the boardwalk.  He took her hand in his as they approached a row of benches facing the ocean.  Oria gently squeezed her hand and began speaking “This is really peaceful.  I can remember as a boy coming to the Ocean.  I could just sit and watch it for hours.  Its power still captivates me.”

“I know what you mean.  Look, we don’t have much time before meeting up with my friends.  Why don’t you wait here while I go find them?  They’re supposed to be near that bar over there, the Purple Moose.”

Oria saw that Karen felt too rushed to be able to stop and enjoy the view.  He replied “Ok.  Feel free to have a drink with them or whatever.  I can watch the ocean for hours.  I’ll be here or out on the beach.”

“If you want to join me in looking for them, that’s ok too.  I didn’t want to sound like I was trying to dump you or something.”

Oria laughed.  “It’s perfectly fine.  It’ll be faster if you look for them alone and besides, I’m sure you have some catching up to do.”

“Alright, are you sure?”

“Yes go.  I’ll be fine.”

Karen took off to find her friends.  It didn’t take long.  Captain Bob Jackson and Major Jack Peterson were standing outside of the bar as obnoxious as usual.  Karen could tell that they had already downed a few beers.

Bob noticed Karen first and yelled out “Hey babe, why don’t you come over here and give me a hug.”

Jack joined in “Yes, how about giving me one too.”

Karen laughed and gave each of them a big hug.  She was always happy to be with them.  “Wow, I sure miss you hunks.  So what’s new with you guys?”

Jack laughed “New? Other than that new flight simulator, not much!  I hear you’re the one that’s got something new going on.  Henley told us all about your new love.”

“What do you mean new love?  He’s a target, that’s all.  At any rate, I needed to bring someone else along that would be on my side, someone that could even up the odds in dealing with you two goons.”

Bob laughed as he grabbed Karen’s hand and said, “Come on, let’s check out the new flight simulator.  It’s like some sort of starfighter.”

“Sounds fun, let’s get Oria to join us first.”

“You mean that guy over there with a crowd around him.”

Karen glanced back towards Oria, sure enough; there were several men deeply involved in a conversation with him.  He did tell her to feel free to take a few minutes to catch up on things with her friends.  However, she
still felt uncomfortable inviting him to the ocean and then abandoning him.  “Ok, sure, only for a short time though.” 

Karen and her friends headed down the boardwalk.  Meanwhile, Peter and Hoss managed to catch up with Oria on the boardwalk.

“Peter, Hoss, it’s good to see you guys again.”

Hoss shaking his head replied “Yup. That was some trip you took getting here!”

“Why, were we going too fast for you?”

“Yup.  The cops detained the morons following you.  It wasn’t until an Air Force chopper landed and some hot
shot with a uniform got out and argued with the cops that they let them go.”

Peter added, “Also, we heard from one of our connections that the troopers claim they did not see your car.  The military folks were ticked when they heard that.”

Oria laughed, “I thought our little speeding trick would catch their attention.”

As the three men started to sit and face the ocean, a young woman caught Peter’s attention.  She made some comment about his armband.  Peter started up a short conversation with the young woman.  In a very short time, Peter began introducing the woman to Hoss and Oria. 

“Hoss, Oria, this is Cindy.  Says she’s got some sort of business idea for us.”

Hoss chuckled “Probably one of them pyramid things.”

“I don’t know, she seems like a nice person, we should listen to her.  How about you Oria?”

Oria looked a bit puzzled.  “I’ll listen until Karen returns, although, I’ll be upfront, this is not a good time for me to start any business venture.”

Peter just barked at both Hoss and Oria “Just park your butts and listen to what she has to say.  This ain’t ‘bout no business venture!  I said she’s a cute young thing.  So just park your butts and listen up!”

Oria and Hoss looked at each other and simultaneously sat down on the bench close to the boardwalk facing the ocean with Peter and Cindy close in tow.  They knew an order when they heard one.

Cindy felt nervous as she eyed the three men facing her on the beach.  In her job, she had no qualms neither speaking business with men nor directing their actions.  This was different.  She had only gotten started in this business venture a few weeks ago. The one fellow was good-looking and the other two looked like throwbacks to the “Woodstock” days.

Cindy took a deep breath.  “Thanks Peter for introducing me to your friends.  I wasn’t planning on making a formal presentation here.  Like you, I’m on vacation.”

Peter quickly responded in an apologetic voice.  “I’m sorry; I know you’re on vacation.  I just thought since you asked me if I was the type that might be interested in a business venture, you could spare a few minutes to share your concept with us.”

“That’s fine.  I’m ok spending the time with you; it’s just that I don’t have any of my usual business materials with me.”

Hoss hated it when Peter set him up with one of his business deals.  Peter was always trying to get him hooked into one deal or another.  He growled back at Cindy “Look, nothing personal, but my brother is always setting me up with these get rich quick schemes.  If you got something quick, go ahead and show us.  Otherwise, just set up a time with Peter.  Is that ok with you?”

“That’s perfect.  Let’s set up a meeting to meet at a future date.”

A large commotion complete with gunshots interrupted their conversation.  Oria turned and saw Karen lying on the ground with two men wearing Florida Space Shuttle T-Shirts grappling a large well-muscled man.  Out of nowhere, two uniformed police officers with guns drawn ordered the men apart and place handcuffs on the muscled man.  He managed to kick one of the officers hard across the face before the other officer subdued him with a club.  A young woman near the scene was screaming.  Someone shot her baby!

Oria seeing the commotion jumped off the bench and ran to Karen.  She said she was shook up, but otherwise ok.  Oria then approached the screaming woman.  She was holding her baby who was bleeding all over her t-shirt.  Oria forced his way through the crowd circling the injured baby.  Several people were screaming for a doctor.

Oria finally reached the baby and pulled out an emergency trauma unit (ETU).  Oria tried to comfort the woman and get her to put the baby back in its carriage.  She laid the baby there as Oria gently moved the ETU over the baby’s injuries.