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Chapter 60 - Back to London

Tamara made the call and the person she wanted to speak to answered her call.

“Dr Carter here.”

“Hi there, Dr Carter, my name’s Tamara Alexandre and I’ve begun a collaboration with Dr Sean Pomeroy’s group in Physics on correlated electron systems,” she began when the person she was told to contact got on the phone. “Dr Pomeroy said you might be able to help me with some high-speed photography.”

“Hello, Dr Alexandre...”

She chuckled. “Not doctor yet, but soon, I hope. I just began my doctoral work at Johns Hopkins and their APL.”

“Ah... Alexandre... by any chance, are you that young Draper Prize recipient from last year?”

“That’s me. My research is extending that work but I find myself in need of a camera that can capture frames in excess of 80,000 fps and I need a resolution of around 1280 x 800. The APL has a Phantom TMX 7510 that I’m using but I need a faster one. I heard about your department’s 70 Tfps apparatus; that’s way more than I need but I thought perhaps you know of something not so complex and that led me to call you.”

“I’m pleased to meet you, even if it’s by phone, Miss Alexandre...”

“Just Tamara, please.”

“Sure. Congrats on the Draper Award; that was outstanding work.”

“Thanks.”

“Dr Pomeroy was right to refer you to us; we’ve developed a portable advanced optical detector and can theoretically capture images at about 200,000 fps, but you do know that the limits of data capture and storage apply at such a speed, don’t you?”

“Sure; I faced that problem with acquiring the data from my high-resolution MRI coils. We have to compress the data; it comes in so quickly for each scan, so the scan is very similar to a video for data capture. We have a team at the APL working on lossless data compression. Some of their work isn’t classified.”

“Oh, that’s right—you’re the person behind those innovations too,” Carter said. “Say, we currently don’t have the resources to work on improving data handling above the 200,000 fps rate, but... tell me, Tamara, are those data algorithms you’ve developed classified themselves? Because they may be useful for our video research.”

“Well, DARPA is funding that work but the MRI piece was a side project and doesn’t use anything classified.”

“All right, how about this? Ordinarily we rent out the use of those ultra-cameras which we’ve developed, but if we can work out a collaboration arrangement, possibly you could license your data algorithm in exchange for the free use of the cameras in your project.”

“I don’t see why not,” Tamara said. “I think it would need to be a non-exclusive, limited and non-transferable license, since we’re using those algorithms commercially.”

“Understood. Okay, email me the details of your planned camera use and get me what your folks want for a licensing agreement and I’ll get things started.”

“Sure, and thanks.”

“It was a pleasure talking to you, Tamara. When I get your project info, I’ll be happy to advise you on the best ways to use the cameras. We have two we could lend to you to use. I hope to speak to you soon.”

“Bye.”

Tamara found Emma in her office and told her about that conversation.

“So they rent those cameras for about $2000 per day, Emma. I think that the data algorithms are APL property since their employees worked on them. The APL will be licensing the MRI coils for manufacture the way they did for the unit where you did the magnet development. And the data-handling algorithms have commercial value too.”

“That’s correct, Tamara. You’re really thinking like an entrepreneur, aren’t you.”

“Sure. That’s ‘cause you and the patent attorneys keep pounding this stuff into my head.”

“That’s ace. So get me the outline you plan to send to Carter and I’ll check with the APL administration for the licensing part of the deal. Now, about the work on the coil-force data. How far have you gotten?”

“Up to the point where very accurate timing measurements are needed. That’s what the cameras are for. Our cameras are too slow; they have about a twelve microsecond response. The Caltech cameras can get to five microseconds and down to 600 picoseconds if we sacrifice a little image resolution. That will allow calculating target inertia effects which will allow seeing how the field strength develops. We still can’t figure out how that coil force field propagates. And I want to run an idea past you about that problem.”

“Oh? This should be good,” Emma chuckled.

“Now stop that!” Tamara complained and Emma just grinned back at her. “So if the coil force is to have commercial possibilities, we need to see how it scales up, right? We need to map the field of force, especially looking for edge effects. We saw a huge scale-up problem with the accumulator and also when we increased the size of the small coils.”

“Correct; go on.”

“My idea is not to just build a larger super-coil; I did some calcs on the geometry of an array of super-coils arranged so that the direction of the projected force is aimed at an area in the center of the coil arrangement. We would orient the coil array horizontally so that the target ‘object’ would be the surface that the coil is resting on. But since we don’t know anything about peripheral effects, like air displacement or lateral forces when a large area is exposed to the energized coils, the experiment should be done in an isolated area.”

“How big a coil array are you visualizing?”

“About a half-meter diameter, with a mass of 100 kilograms inclusive supported by it. My calcs show that the half-meter coil, drawing one ampere of current, has the ability to produce roughly 12,080 joules plus or minus 6 percent, and raising the 100 kg by one meter in a second will take 9,800 joules.”

“Did you account for inertia of the moving parts?”

“Yep. Everything attached to the coil would have to be well secured and the coil assembly would need to be enclosed in something so that when it moves up, it can’t fly away. The current to the coil would need a one-second auto-cutoff too and damping resistors to kill any induced current in the circuit.”

“You said ‘isolated area.’ What do you intend by that?”

“Maintaining a five-hundred-foot area open around the coil should be fine,” Tamara said. “The enclosure it’s inside of could be made of any non-magnetic material but the walls should have strain or pressure gages located at intervals, including the roof. And remote visual monitoring should be done with standard slo-mo video cameras, the 480 fps versions we have should work just fine. There should be three cameras, 120 degrees apart in a circle. And several ionizing radiation detectors too, just in case. We had no hint of any kind of radiation in previous tests but scaling up may open a portal to more than just the coil force repulsion when it lifts that mass off the ground.”

“Hmm, more science fiction, Tamara. Sounds like you’re visualizing anti-gravity.”

Tamara laughed. “Not really; it’s just mag-lev without the mag. It’s somewhat equivalent to a ground-effect vehicle, actually. I think that, at the macro scale, the coil force repels most normal matter and my coils seem to focus it centrally, so it appears that the forces produced by the assembly should remain directional. I hope. That’s what this macro test should show.”

“So we already know that the coil force seems to be relatively safe around people,” Emma said. “Remember, I told you that James accidently walked in front of an energized coil and he said that all he felt was tingling and a push away.”

“Oh right, I remember how angry you were then when you learned how careless he was,” Tamara said. “Hey, we should get him to try a human version of the frog-levitation trick. Remember that Dutch experiment? They used a 16 tesla magnet to make the frog float. That’s ‘cause the water in cells of organisms is very weakly diamagnetic so the frog’s tissues were repelled by the magnet. I saw the video of that very confused frog floating in the air over the magnet. So funny.”

“Yes. Well. I don’t favor deliberately stupid acts,” Emma told her. “If this invention goes commercial and people begin to think it’s antigravity, I have visions of some plonker trying to be Superman and jump off something.”

“Ugh, yeah. The field drops off so quickly, by the time the ground is close enough for the field to repel the generator, he’d be going so fast that he’d be squashed by the inertia caused by the field’s stopping him. Yuck.”

“Well then, my dear, leave me your calcs and the sketches I see that you’ve made. Let me go over them and I’ll check with the APL bosses on whether your plans look feasible. We’ll also need to figure the costs and do a budget. I reckon you’re planning on using some more of your Draper money for this experiment?”

“That’s right; that’s what I planned. This is on my dime.”

“Huh, it’s so funny,” Emma reflected. “That’s just what I did when I began my own research. I funded it myself. Okay, get outta here, girl. Go play with more of those data numbers; perhaps they’ll suggest a new Theory of Everything to you,” Emma grinned.

~~~~

During the next several days, events involving the loan of the high-speed cameras moved surprisingly quickly, given that attorneys were involved. The licensing agreement for the data algorithm was ready within the week and Tamara had sent her proposal for using the cameras to Dr Carter. The APL attorneys had contacted the Caltech attorneys directly and soon the details were finalized and the agreements had been signed.

Transporting the cameras, which were fairly large, was the next challenge, since all of the previous rentals of the units were within California, mostly in the LA area, where they could be transported by truck. But Carter had an idea; JPL, the Jet Propulsion Lab, a NASA division, was run by Caltech, and NASA employed their own aircraft to fly weekly shuttle trips between JPL and the NASA Goddard headquarters in Greenbelt, Maryland. The flights used Joint Base Andrews for the D.C. terminus, which was only 25 miles distant from the APL. The cameras were sent out on a NASA flight and an APL vehicle was at the airfield when the flight arrived. Soon the cameras were installed at Emma’s coil force testing lab and the engineers and techs had begun collecting the coil-force data using the setups that Tamara had designed, to measure, in exquisite detail, the precise timing of the activation of the coil force.

The very-large-scale experimental setup which Tamara had proposed took longer to get approval. The APL administration wanted to be very sure that the proposed experiment would not pose a hazard to people and facilities in the area. The APL did have an open area on its grounds which could potentially be used, and after Tamara provided reams of calculations showing the maximum range of any forces using the most stringent of assumptions that the APL’s engineers could devise, she got her approval.

Beginning of September

Right after Labor Day though, Tamara and Barbara finalized their arrangements to go to the Volleyball Superbowl, and this year they drove up on the Thursday before the team competitions began. Again, Peter and Terence accompanied them and they stayed in their teammates’ RV and camper. During the opening ceremonies on Friday evening, their team was recognized as the second-place finishers in the “B” division from the last year. But this year, playing other “A” level teams was a whole different world for them, totally unlike the games the previous year had been. The matches were very close, and by the quarter-final round, Tamara’s team was in third place.

Both Tamara and Barbara had made numerous important plays and when they were at the net, Tamara’s spikes were deadly, sometimes forcing four defenders to cover her—which left large open areas undefended for when Tamara faked a kill, allowing a teammate to make the score. But it was Dawn’s skills and experience that really kept them in the games. She was an expert setter and also a defensive specialist who had good offensive and serving skills, rounding out a complete player. Her setting skills gave their team two superior setters and this allowed the team to run offensive plays which were difficult to anticipate. Dawn’s defensive skills were what kept them in the games though, because the opposing teams all had very powerful offenses.

The tournament ended with Tamara’s team in fourth place, but Dawn was fairly pleased with that result. There had been ten “A” women’s teams entered and the members of those other teams had played together for years; while their own team was an inexperienced newcomer to “A” level competition. In fact, as she pointed out to her team members, their scores were very close to the top team when they played them, only losing by the scores 26-28, 25-22, and 27-29. And the worst score that they had in losing any game was 21-25. The men’s team was third again this year in the men’s “B” competition. Both teams vowed to meet during the winter and spring to work out. But this trip was over now and it was back to work.

Mid-October

During the following six weeks, Tamara concentrated on the scaled-up coil apparatus. She had a non-ferrous test frame built to contain a polypropylene disk which would hold the coil assembly and its payload, and the frame’s supports were sunk five feet into the ground using large concrete footings. Then a small pole-barn structure, consisting of aluminum support members and fiberglass corrugated panels, was built around the frame. The panels were fitted with pressure sensors and strain sensors; these were placed to monitor any direct effect of a force on the structure’s walls and roof. The most difficult job was building the coil assembly itself and Tamara worked on that project with her engineer, Betty Miskin, and John Wolbers, one of Emma’s mechanical engineers.

London, U.K.: middle of October

In mid-October, Tamara took a break to travel to London with Peter, Barbara, and their parents. Emma had given them permission to stay at her Lambeth flat, and Kevin and Denise were to join them so that they could travel together to St James’ Palace, where the gallantry awards were to be presented. Kevin and Denise would be staying with Kevin’s long-time friend Janet Hadad, CEO of the Coris Foundation, and her husband Elliot, who lived in Beckenham. Kevin wanted to meet with Amelia and Janet to discuss some of the foundation work Amelia had been doing.

For the day of the awards, Emma had recruited Sir George to be the group’s guide and protocol advisor. The award presentation would be nothing like the formal investiture ceremony that had taken place during the summer. Instead, this was a mostly informal affair, attended only by the awardees’ families and several Crown officials. Since Kevin had no remaining family and Denise’s mother couldn’t come, Janet and Elliot Hadad attended as Kevin’s and Denise’s family representatives.

The Duke of Gloucester welcomed everyone and told them that the queen would be there momentarily; then he gave the awardees their instructions and as he was finishing, the queen entered the room.

The queen was gracious and effusive in her comments about the heroism of the five young adults as she presented Kevin, Denise, and Peter with their heroism awards. Then she looked over to where Tamara was standing.

“And here is Miss Tamara Alexandre,” the queen said, looking at her and smiling. “We are delighted to see you again; please approach us now, my dear.”

Tamara shot a look at Sir George but he just flicked his eyes from her to the queen. She walked over and curtseyed, briefly touching the queen’s hand as she extended it.

“Ah. Miss Tamara. We were most pleased when we heard that you planned to be here with your friends to receive our recognition of honor. We only recently heard more than just a hint about your own role in your friends’ heroism, my dear. As of last week, our police investigators had finally deduced, from the evidence collected from that unfortunate affair and from questioning the miscreants, that you played a substantial role in helping to subdue those criminals, allowing their capture. You alerted the others of the threat and then ensured that Dame Emma reached safety. We saw the video of your marvelous explanation about the magic of science and engineering and our police officials have come to believe that it was your own magic, using some kind of secret device, which disarmed those criminals. It could have been done in no other way. Is this not true, my dear?”

Tamara blinked at the queen’s intensity and made an instant decision. “It is true, Your Highness. I have been working on a device to allow wireless power transmission and from that research, I developed an application of it which has the effect of producing an ultra-radio signal which can heat metals at a distance. It’s very experimental, delicate, and temperamental, but fortunately it worked when I needed it to.”

“Ah, this is precisely what our investigators have deduced. We assume that you do not plan to make such a device commercially available?”

“No Ma’am. I am under contract with our Defense Department for applications related to that kind of electromagnetic effect, but when or if such devices do become available, I am sure that my country’s allies will be given access to such technology.”

The queen nodded and smiled. “This is just the answer we were told to expect. Indeed, Miss Tamara, your impressive inventions and service to our nation were well worthy of our conferring knighthood on you. But your own heroism in that unfortunate event demands our recognition of that fact, as well. Accordingly, we hereby officially recognize the gallantry of your actions in that affair and present you with The Queen’s Commendation for Bravery.”

Tamara was speechless but merely nodded as an official brought a presentation case to the queen who opened it and handed it to Tamara, as she took Tamara’s hand.

Recovering, Tamara nodded to the queen. “Thank you so much, Ma’am. I appreciate that you consider my act to protect my friends as gallantry; it was my own protective imperative which guided me in helping them.”

“We appreciate your sense of modesty, my dear. We are very pleased that everyone involved was safe and uninjured. Thank you again.”

Tamara curtseyed again and returned to Sir George’s side, who nodded approvingly at her as the queen left the room. Then the Duke of Gloucester reassumed his organizer’s role to oversee the rest of the award ceremony, including supervising the taking of some final photos by the official photographer. He then handed a copy of the latest issue of The London Gazette, where her award citation had just been published, to Tamara .

“Here’s the copy of the official announcement, Miss. When Her Majesty learned about your true role in that affair, she wanted you included in today’s awards.”

“Thank you, sir,” Tamara replied. “It was very kind of her to recognize me that way.”

National Security Agency, Fort George G. Meade, Maryland: about the same time

“So what did the boss want?” Mel Bearton asked his partner as he came in the door.

“This is weird and I’m uncomfortable with this assignment,” Seth Parker answered. “We’re supposed to pick up the girl and bring her here to be questioned—but no one is to know where she is.”

“What?” Bearton exclaimed. “That’s basically kidnapping!”

“Tell me about it. The boss assured me that there’s a national security justification for doing that. Communication security, and that’s NSA’s domain.”

“What communication? The only communication, if you can call it that, that her journal articles mention was the theoretical possibility of detecting brain activity at a distance from a person. She theorized that a charismatic person could possibly cause a response in other people close by. I read the articles; no way does that fit the definition of communication,” Bearton objected.

“Yeah, but the boss thinks that this kind of research can lead to mind reading. He said that if this is a skill that can be developed, nobody will be able to keep secrets. He thinks that this is an area that the NSA should be keeping tight control of. He wants to get the girl to tell the agency scientists everything she’s learned and he plans to intimidate her into working only for the NSA.”

“Damn, he’s gone bonkers. Is he aware of the contacts that kid has? Not to mention a bunch of DARPA agreements? True, we’re a DoD agency like DARPA, but Secretary O’Rourke has gotta know all about her. And our research into her background showed that she’s got ties to people in the CIA, the FBI, and the State Department. Hell, even the president—he gave her a Medal of Freedom. And the boss thinks that he can intimidate her?”

“All we’re supposed to do is pick her up and bring her here,” Parker said. “She’s returning from London tomorrow, from what the intel section people told me. We’re supposed to get her separated from the people she’s with. The boss said he’s arranging to have contraband slipped into her luggage when her flight’s unloaded and we’re supposed to get the Border Control people to take her into custody and bring her to a private office; we take it from there.”

“So what kind of contraband?” Bearton asked. “Something that Border Control can hold her for?”

“Yeah, it’s nasty though. Boss is arranging for $10,000 in counterfeit bills. That’s the intimidation factor.”

“Blackmail, more like,” Bearton objected. “This is illegal as shit. If it gets out...”

“Boss says we’re covered. We gotta get to B.W.I. [Baltimore-Washington International Airport] now to get the Border Control people set up to take her into custody. We tell them that we got a tip and there are national security issues involved. Her flight arrives tomorrow, early afternoon.”

Muttering unhappily, Bearton left with Parker for the airport.

Westminster, London, U.K.: two hours later

The group, Janet and Elliot Hadad included, met again for an early dinner which Sir George arranged. Amelia and Jeremy couldn’t be there; they had rehearsals—Amelia for a musical and Jeremy was in the orchestra. The travelers from the U.S. were scheduled to return home the next morning. Barbara had been delighted to meet Kevin and Denise, who in turn were amazed at her empathic power. Tamara agreed with the others that they should try to stay in close contact until their graduation.

While the older folks were talking among themselves, Kevin gave Tamara and Peter an update about their plans after graduation. “Westphalia University contacted me and Denise about a week ago; they want us to apply to their university—me for my graduate work and Denise for their med school. They had a special educational proposal to discuss and we had a video conference with them. Their proposal looks very enticing, actually.

“So Denise and I are considering that idea; they have a highly rated med school and Mr Gerston is assembling an international poly-sci and economics think tank there. Gerston’s trying to get a rep for it like the London Economics Institute has. One of my profs at the London Economics Institute told the class that from what he was seeing, that new institute of Gerston’s was shaping up to be one of the five top research and teaching institutions in the world for international relations. Some high quality people have already joined Westphalia’s faculty and the institute.”

“For sure,” Peter said. “My grandmom is a department chair there and Tamara’s mom was just hired. I think that they’re top scholars.”

“And Emma’s father-in-law is the Political Science Department’s chair.” Tamara added. “He actually has his doctorate from the London Economics Institute.”

“Nice. And Westphalia’s right in your neighborhood, no?” Denise asked.

“Only about a half hour from the APL, where Tamara spends most of her time now,” Barbara told her. “I’m at U of Maryland and that’s just a half hour away too, unless there’s bad traffic.”

“Oh, we know all about bad traffic. We live in Atlanta. So, Cindy Denison—remember we told you about her?” Denise asked.

“Only a few dozen times, I think,” Peter responded, grinning.

“Right. Okay. So Cindy’s in med school at Georgetown University in D.C.,” Denise said. “If we went to Westphalia, then we’d all be relatively close. Cindy’s brilliant and comes up with great ideas. Kevin’s a really good planner and has ideas for things his foundation can support. It would be so cool to have all of us work together, like Kevin mentioned when we were in Cambridge back in the summer.”

“I’m unclear on what it is that we’d be doing,” Peter commented. “We all agreed to stay in touch and that we’d do some kind of big project together. Tamara’s even negotiating to buy a parcel of land but...”

“Really?” Kevin interrupted. “If that was prompted by our conversation about working together, I hope it’s a rural property. In your area?”

Tamara nodded. “I think that your thoughts have aligned with mine, Kevin. My sense is that we’ll be doing some kind of research in education methods, using psychological and neuroscience research methodology based on my MRI work in discovering new neurological pathways in the brain. My own goals include bringing cheap energy technology to disadvantaged people everywhere and give them ways to support their families—and I anticipate that providing a good education is an important element of raising standards of living. You do that in the Coris Foundation, right?”

“We try. Education’s one of our core focus areas,” Kevin replied. “You’re right in your assumption that my grand plan is to try to do something on a larger scale than what the Coris Foundation can accomplish.”

“I’m channeling most of the money I’ve been getting from licensing my inventions into a foundation myself,” Tamara told him. “I had my lawyer set up a charitable foundation. The property purchase I’m negotiating now is because I had a premonition that I would need it for one of my goals. Perhaps it’s really for our group’s goals.”

“Is that enough of an answer, Peter?” Denise smiled at him.

“Yeah, but how would an electrical engineer fit into those plans?” he asked.

“I think that you’ll get that answer when the time is right,” Denise responded.

“We do need to keep in touch,” Kevin said. “Denise, honey, how about let’s tell the Westphalia people that we want to come for a visit to talk to them some more?”

“Yeah, I think so. I’d like to talk to some of the med students there too. I was leaning to Georgetown where Cindy is, and for your program in international relations, it’s the top school in the country. But the deal from Westphalia sounds better, ‘cause they said you’d be able to incorporate what the Coris Foundation does into your program and link it to their new institute. Another thought: I like the way Westphalia does their MD-PhD program better. Also, it’s not like Cindy and I’d even both be at the school at the same time. She’ll be doing her clinical rotation classes then so she’d be in the hospitals all the time. Besides, if you and I wind up going to different schools, it’d be hard to see each other except at night, and one or both of us would need to commute.”

“So even if you both went to Georgetown, we’d still be close enough to see each other frequently,” Tamara said. “Peter and I go to Hopkins but I’m mostly at the APL these days. And Barbara mentioned that she’s going for a PhD in psychology and she’s at Maryland, in College Park. Did you know that she’s been working on an applied psychology project about the Avery Program? She got interested in it when she heard that her cousins’ school had started to run it.”

“That’s awesome, Barbara!” Denise exclaimed. “Cindy plans to go into psychiatry but she wants to do it from the research side—like you, maybe. If you want to hang with us when we get our group together, I think that the Avery Program will be kinda like the other projects we might be working on. Think that you’d be interested?”

“Um, it’s so undefined... maybe,” Barbara said uncertainly. “But I can’t do anything to interfere with grad school though.”

“None of us want to, Barbara,” Kevin told her. “We’ll all still be in school for several years more. Our idea still needs a lot of thought.”

“Sure. Something about the Avery Program got me interested in how it works with kids,” Barbara said. “So I’ll keep it in mind.”

Peter noticed that Tamara had developed a very thoughtful expression. He looked a question at her.

“Later,” she muttered. “Something’s happening. I’ve been feeling it stronger lately. I’m gonna text Mom; see if everything’s okay.”

She used her phone for several minutes and then looked up.

“Say Kevin?” she asked. “How do Amelia and Jeremy figure into your plans?”

“Amelia’s already a Coris Foundation director and she’s doing great. She likes that work too but has a lot of schooling to go yet. I’m thinking that she’d make a great CEO when Aunt Janet eventually retires, in fact. Jeremy wants to go into international law so he’s gonna need lots of school. He’s got a head start; some universities here are already recruiting him and promising him legal intern jobs—he’s shown an outstanding facility for research and has an amazing memory for details. So long-term, a few years longer than for us here, they will probably be joining us in what we wind up doing.”

“Hey guys,” Denise said. “Need to get going, unfortunately. We need to be at the airport at about 6 a.m. tomorrow so we’ve got a hotel room out there. We’ll keep in touch, okay?”

After some hugs and handshakes, Kevin and Denise left and Janet and Elliot left soon after that. George and Isabella brought Tamara and Peter and his family back to Emma’s Lambeth flat. After another farewell ritual, the Marshalls left and the Winsbergs and Tamara went into the building.

“My phone buzzed when we were saying goodbye out there,” Tamara remarked as they waited for the elevator. “I told Mom about my getting the award too.”

She pulled out her phone looked at it. “Okay, Mom and Dad say congrats to me and to you, Peter. They’re sorry that they weren’t here to see it. There’s no problem with them but Mom says that Dad’s gotten a premonition of something too but his is very weak. Peter, do you feel anything?”

“Only that low-level kind-of warning feeling that I’ve had for several days.”

“What kind of warning?” Claire asked as Barbara looked at Peter in alarm.

“Why haven’t you told us before?” Barbara demanded.

“Calm down, everyone,” Peter urged as his dad was starting to speak. “I got this ‘not-gift’ from Tamara’s spirits and they run this warning service that tells us when something’s gonna happen. But this time it’s a really low-level thing, so it means we should keep alert. When that Russian crap happened, it was a very urgent warning and this isn’t anything like that.”

“What do you think, Tamara? You feel it too?” Barbara asked.

“Yeah. But in my case, the urgency’s picked up a bit. It doesn’t seem to be a personal danger warning; I know what those felt like, so I’m sure this is a general warning. I’ve had the feeling of like someone watching me for weeks now.”

“All we can say, Tamara, is to watch out,” Scott commented. “We know that you do, but still...”

“All right,” Claire said, “We have a 9:35 flight; the car service said to allow an hour from here, and the airline said to arrive an hour and a half before departure. So we’ll leave here at 7. Pack everything tonight except stuff for the morning. Tamara, I like how you travel light and how you taught Peter how to do it too.”

Tamara laughed. “Yep. Only three days away means nothing complicated to pack. But getting a dress into my carry-on so it isn’t smooshed was interesting to do. Dad’s the master at packing light and he taught me.”

Early the next morning, they left for the flight home and Tamara had news for the others.

“I had something like a dream last night,” she told them. “A not-dream—more like a vision, where Ayizan Velekete gave me some... instructions? Advice? Warning? Maybe all of them. I mustn’t go through Customs at Baltimore. Don’t ask why; I never get any details. I’ll probably figure it out afterwards. But my feeling of foreboding is very strong this morning.”

“How are you going to skip Customs?” Scott asked.

“I have an idea. So we’re on British Air again,” Tamara replied.

Scott nodded.

“Okay, I’ll need some cooperation from the Brits first, then some U.S. officials involved. It’s good Dad has those connections. I’ll call Sir George; he can fix it with the home secretary; he knows her. I’ll try to stay on the plane after everyone gets off—he’ll need to set that up. That way I won’t have to go with the entire passenger horde to Customs at the international arrivals hall. Next, I’ll get Dad to call Mr Masters from the State Department and they can figure how to get me off the plane and avoid Customs in the terminal. You guys take my carry-on and I’ll keep my backpack. I do have a diplomatic passport so I bet that I can get through a checkpoint that doesn’t serve the current arrivals. At least that’s what I assume.”

When they got to the airport, Tamara called Sir George and explained the problem; that she had heard that she would be facing some kind of danger at the Baltimore arrivals terminal.

“Maybe it’s another case of industrial espionage,” she offered.

“I’ll get Patty—erm, the home secretary—to arrange for you to stay on the flight after it arrives. What’s your flight and seat number?” he asked and she told him.

When she got off the phone, she told the others, “That’s set; I’ll call Dad at 6:30 his time. He gets to work at 7. It’s around 3 a.m. there now, so I’ll call about two hours into the flight. It’s good that British Air allows phone use on international flights—and I’m glad that I’ve only been using this pay-by-minute phone that I got for my international trips and not my regular one; I’ll bet my regular phone is being monitored. I’ll send a text to tell Dad that I’ll be calling later.”

Tamara had arranged for first-class tickets for everyone, so they were among the first to board when the passengers eventually were called for boarding. As everyone had finally got settled and the cabin crew began preparing to close up the aircraft, some noise at the door behind the first-class cabin prompted Tamara to look back there and she saw a burly man with a backpack enter, say something to the crew member there, and go down an aisle to the rear of the plane.

Tamara whispered to Peter, “Cool; they sent an air marshal. Maybe that’s because of my request.”

“How can you tell?”

“Lots of ways. Late arrival, back of the plane, very plain clothes, doesn’t stand out at all. He’s carrying a Marine backpack like Stuart has, too—he has that warrior look that Dad and Stuart have, so I’m guessing he’s a retired Royal Marine.”

She attracted the attention of a crew member. “Miss? Excuse me, but I’m sure I recognized that last man who came in. He served with a friend’s dad—I’d like to say hello when we’re under way. Can you let me know his seat so I don’t have to hunt? If he needs my name, it’s Tamara Alexandre.”

The woman looked confused but then agreed to get her the man’s seat number. Soon they were being pushed back and the crew began the passenger instructions as they taxied to the runway.

“You’re gonna go talk to him?” Peter asked.

“Right. About what happens when we arrive. We’ve got about seven hours till then. I’ll call Dad in two hours.”

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