A Glint In Time (History and Time) by Frank J. Derfler Page B

shout.
    Two men came out of the other side of the building, hopped into a golf cart, and started after them. Sally quit running in any rhythm and just pumped her legs as fast as she could. Ted was still with her as they made a turn around an ornamental planting. She heard the golf cart right behind. Suddenly, a figure seemed to unfold itself from the ground next to the path.The figure pointed a stubby pipe at Sally and she saw a cloud of smoke. She heard the golf cart engine die out and then the sounds of the cart crashing into shrubbery.
    "Shit man, cool. It worked!" the green suited figure said.
    Sally stopped and turned to see Ted and the green figure looking at the crashed golf cart. As they turned back toward Sally, she heard Ted say, "The aerosol fiberglass?"
    "Damn straight." The other man replied. I hit the driver in the arms and chest and it was like an instant body cast."
    Sally now saw that the green figure had on a kind of green body suit and camouflage paint to match the foliage. She saw a grave-like opening in the grass under a tree. Apparently their jolly green savior had been laying in a hole covered with sod.
    "How far to the hide?" Ted asked.
    "Had to be across the river. This place has video cameras everywhere. They can see us now, by the way." the other man replied.
    Ted looked at Sally and said, "Come on, let's get to the river."
    "Spare air?" Ted asked as they ran. "Yeah, I've got five.Any more coming?" "No, " Ted said, "this is it for now.
    "I know you!" Sally said as she ran. "You helped move my satellite antenna in Florida. You're part of the volley ball team."
    The green man laughed, "Yeah, and now the other side has the serve."
    It only took them a couple of minutes to reach the river. Then the man in green reached into his pack and came out with three silver pressure bottles -each one about the size of a baby bottle. Each silver bottle had a small mouthpiece.
    "Sally, this thing is called Spare Air. It's just a small Scuba tank. It's good for quite a few minutes at the shallow depth we'll be at." He tore at an envelope at the side of the tank and gave her a pair of swimming goggles. “Put these on. Keith, what's the track?"
    The man in green, now identified as Keith said, "It's a thousand beats to the crawl. Then one click on a one two zero. I'll cover and divert."
    Ted said,"He means it's a thousand flipper beats, about a thousand yards, down to where we'll crawl out of the river. Then we'll head southeast for one kilometer to the place we'll hide. Our guys will be watching for us. We'll keep you between us, but if we get separated, then follow that plan. Go for a thousand steps, get out of the river, put the sun on your right ear and head out. Keith will be in back covering our tracks and acting as a diversion."
    "But Bill and Janet!" Sally said. This was all too wild and she wanted to slow things down.
    "We'll worry about them when we get safe. Right now we're going to disengage, assess, and reorganize. We have
    friends, safety, and communications on the other side of the river. Now let's get going."
    Ted's words were punctuated by the sound of more voices and golf carts coming in their direction.
    Ted led the way over the wall and down the slope to the river. Keith stayed at the wall. When she got her feet into the water Sally looked back up the slope to see Keith throwing four black spheres down the path and into the brush on either side. Then he unrolled what looked like a strip of soft putty two feet long and an inch wide and laid it on the wall. He attached a small black one inch cube to one end, unwound a thin wire from the back of the cube, and stuck it into the other end of the putty. Finally, he took a Beretta automatic with a silencer out of his bag.
    Ted pulled the pin on the Spare Air and handed it to Sally. "Take a breath."
    She put it in her mouth and pulled in canned air. "Try to keep your breathing rate down. We're going to be right on the edge of the supply."
    Sally put the