Reinke Faces Life

It happened in Church - October 19, 1962

Chapter Fifty Eight - Quick Trip for Rx

Friday 09 Nov (continues)

Lunch

Jody put out the canned lunches from the crats. She had them saved from their Lunch-less lunches. Now she could see the wisdom. No one griped.

John, Sam, and Brother Kevin huddled up! John would be on the roof. Brother Kevin would take the new Lurp to the roof opposite the Church and scout Broadway. He’d signal John to call Sam. If they need the 57 Ford to pull the grate, Sam would signal John.

+++++

Marie Does Kabuki FFT

Marie gathered all the chosen 12 in the ‘radio room’. She even invited the losers. Everyone was excited. The losers knew that there maybe more radio operators needed.

Marie handed out the prepared texts. Pages and pages of it. She read a sample:

*** begin quote ***

All of the FFT algorithms discussed so far compute the DFT exactly.
A few “FFT” algorithms have been proposed, however, that compute the DFT approximately
with an error that can be made arbitrarily small at the expense of increased
computations. Such algorithms trade the approximation error for increased speed or
other properties. For example, an approximate FFT algorithm by Edelman et al.
achieves lower communication requirements for parallel computing with the help of a
fast multipole method. A wavelet-based approximate FFT by Guo takes
sparse inputs/outputs (time/frequency localization) into account more efficiently than
is possible with an exact FFT. Another algorithm for approximate computation of a
subset of the DFT outputs is due to Shentov. Only the Edelman algorithm
works equally well for sparse and non-sparse data, however, since it is based on the
compressibility (rank deficiency) of the Fourier matrix itself rather than the

*** end quote ***

She said: “Now Classmates, you will have to often send and receive material that you don’t understand. Here’s some practice. I’ll tell you why after we finish the exercise. We’ll arrange in pairs. First person will encode and send line number one. The receiver will decode it and then proceed to line number two.”

They played with that a while.

Then, Marie told them: “We’ll now play pass along. Number One will send a message that you’ve never heard before. You’ll take it and decode it. Then, you’ll encode it in the next key and send it to the next person. Twelve will send it to me and I’ll see if I recognize it. Now you’d never ever do this in real life since you are giving anyone listening an ‘open sesame’ into the encryption scheme. That’s what we really want to do. I’m not going to do any coding this session; we want it to seem like you found some material and are practicing.”

That was longer and harder.

Marie was pleased. The class worked really hard. If there were folks listening. This would be just what they needed to confirm they could listen in.

Marie only had one concern. Was she lying?

Marie asked the Classmates to rejoin her about 5PM for the final act of Kabuki. She had to identify herself to the eavesdroppers.

+++++

Plan: Recoveries

Brian subbed for Brother Kevin! He and June sat down to talk about recoveries.

June’s first concern was that their fifty new friends would want to recover their ‘stuff’ too. That would present innumerable problems. She knew that Marie was busy, but maybe she could answer a written question. June drafted: “Of the captives, how many may need an individual recovery?” She passed it to an adjutant and directed: “Please take this to Marie and wait if she wants to answer.”

They already had the guise of security team of Eighths, not including the person whose apartment it is, ‘clear’ the apartment. So that was easy to agree on.

Brian wanted to have Lurp scout the location at first light. Then the ‘hammer’ team would locate themselves to spring on an intruder if needed. The ‘anvil’ team would clear the location. Entry would be gained by June’s, or was it Jody’s?, five pound sledge on the door. They wouldn’t waste time looking for keys.

Green, yellow, or red.

Depending, then the resident would be escorted up and aided to select their stuff. Pillow cases, with their name marked on them, would be their ‘suitcase’. Apartments would be scanned for any thing on the ‘Needed List’ like firearms, tools, gold, or such.

June had the idea of breaking into a neighboring apartment and letting their new friends to ‘shop’ for things they needed.

John had scratched out his schedule for them: “9th: 125 Vermilyea; 10^th: 549 Isham; 11^th: 25 Indian; 12^th: 100 Post Avenue; 13^th: 62 Seaman Avenue; 14^th: 211 west 211^th Street; 15^th: Abandon shelter. 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th: Base #1 South and Base #2 East 19^th, 20^th, and 21st: Base #3 West and Base #4 North 22^nd Vermont!” June and Brian reviewed the specific pages for the six individual recoveries. Each presented unique security problems.

They agreed to slide the ‘9^th: 125 Vermilyea” to the 15^th and do it in addition to abandon the shelter. Maybe they could gain a day by doing two individuals on one day or work faster at the bases. June could appreciate John’s intensity on the schedule. Seeing it laid out like this and, knowing the snow and Bravo Golf’s threats, it was no wonder he was worried.

The adjutant returned. “Classmate Miss June: Most (44/50) of our guests are not from the neighborhood. They were captured while they were passing thru. Of the six remaining, they can be covered in Base South and Base East. We will have to get them all some basic stuff asap. Love, Marie”

June was surprised, but it made sense. Marie was a whiz.

Brian knew that they’d be lucky to hold to that schedule. It wasn’t like a real army. These were kids and housewives. He began to wonder what more he could do to raise their chances. He proposed the Lurp go out on foot but that the others go by bus. It would minimize their time on the streets. He’d socialize the idea with John, Marie, and Brother Kevin. It was trading noise for exposure. Seemed like a good trade off to him.

+++++

At the Alpine

Snake was screwed. You can’t make it in a survival situation all by yourself. He’d hoped that he could worm his way into another group by using the gang that knocked off Boss Craig as his ‘dowry’. Didn’t look like that was going to work. He’d have to find that gang, scout them, and make a great case. Otherwise he was a target for the next gang that found him. Where could they be?

+++++

Off to the Rx

Sam assembled the entourage half in the Church and half in the school. Shortest distance to the ‘corner stores’ was from the Church Sally Port door. He positioned the new Lurp there for the dash across the street and up to the roof. That was the ‘air cover’ and recon. Lisa’s team was ready to pop out as the forward guard. Isabella was to be right behind her and spread out to silently handle any dogs, or other strays of the two legged kind. Guns made noise. It was like sending up a flare - ‘here I am’. Jody, Roy, and TomT were last in line with the tools and shopping carts. They left the gas and the explosives at home.

Doc Jenn presented special problems. She was relatively immobile and they needed her at the drug store to do the choosing. She wasn’t up for all the walking. Getting from the school to the Church was easy. If you could walk. So, Sam had himself, the ‘long leg’ as portage team, the ‘short leg team’ as security and Linda’s rear guard staged at the main door of the school. Isabella’s team would bridge back to them as they all exited.

Linda’s team was to go out first to take positions on Isham Street towards Seaman. This would allow the Classmates and Guests to enjoy some time in the street that had doubled as the school yard. On schooldays, the police closed the block for the school’s use. ‘Short leg security’ would emerge next and then ‘long leg portage’. Portage would head for the drug store followed by short leg security

All to go to the corner store.

John was in position. His adjutant was in the stairwell to relay his findings to the two doorways by phone. Marie and the communicators joined him on the roof, Brian and June joined as well. The school windows were filled with spectators.

John signaled to release the Lurp. Brother Kevin and team exited moments later. The spread out along the line of parked cars. Like a foot ball line. Left end, left guard, left tackle, center Brother Kevin, right tackle, right guard, right end. After a short pause, the two ends crossed the street. Then the two ‘tackles’ and Brother Kevin, who proceeded right into the building. The remaining two ‘guards’ crossed the street and directly into the building. Finally the two ends rolled up into the building.

John wanted to bet Marie that they came back across in the same fashion. No sucker money today.

Brother Kevin and the ‘tackles’ came up on the roof. The tackles split and went to the west end - north and south — of the building roof complex. There were at least a half dozen apartment buildings with adjoining roofs covering a city block.

Brother Kevin was by the door as the ‘guards’ came up and were directed to the east end north and south corners. Finally the ends arrived and they all proceeded to east end center.

John could not see the heavy breathing but they all had to be sucking air from six flights of stairs. John had a bird’s eye view because despite the school being only four stories high and the apartment buildings being six. The school was on the top of the hill and the apartments were on the down slope. The school was on the highest ground around. Only Fort Tryon Park on the Hudson River down between 181^th street and 190^th was higher. So he could look down on the roof. ‘Good ground’ as military commander would agree.

Evidently, Brother Kevin liked what he saw. John saw him lean out over the roof to look down. He signaled: “OK clear. All stores grates appear intact. Suggest Ford.” With that John ordered the next teams out from the Church. Then he turned over command to Marie and went down to join the school contingent. She thought ‘be careful’ but didn’t say it.

The Church units spilled out on to the street. Isabella and her team moved like cats along the car line. Lisa’s team rolled down the car line to Broadway. Finally Roy, Jody, and TomtT came out and were walking like a family on their way to do the grocery shopping. Complete with the grocery carts. Lisa’s team crossed the street midway between the Church door and Broadway.

Marie lost sight of them as they rounded the corner. She could see Isabella almost at the School. She signaled the adjutant manning the phone and the teams began exiting the main door. It moved exactly as planned. Marie could see Linda’s team taking positions at the corner behind cars parked on Seaman Avenue. By the time she looked back the portage team had Doc Jenn at Cooper Street and moving down the hill briskly. How brisk would they be on the way back? Many Classmates and a few Guests walked out in the sunshine. Marie noticed one problem. The Guests had no shoes. She heard the Ford fire up and John was rolling. She made an executive decision. She needed to modify the mission slightly.

She lit a flare to attract the attention of the Southwest Roof Watcher. She coded: ‘tell brother kevin to tell team to hit the shoe store near drug store. guests need footwear and socks.’ She received an acknowledgement. And the watcher sprinted to Brother Kevin. Brother Kevin turned towards the school and code ‘understood will do good thinking’.

She could see him coding to someone on the ground. Probably Lisa.

Grated Storefronts

John was in his glory. He loved to drive. Even if it was only a block. He had to uncouple the trailer but that only took a moment. He made a tight u turn - Isham was a wide street, but he made his turn tight as he was taught. He could have rolled to the corner, but he sped a little. Hey a leader has some perks. Besides the 15 seconds he saved was minimizing their exposure. Right? He left the car double parked and went to inspect the targets.

The drug store had a well maintained grate. No rust here. He’d have to pop it. If he could. There was a sign in the window that said: ‘for after hour deliveries, see shoe repair’. John wondered. The shoe repair store was the last one of the five - drug store, corner deli, greeting cards, shoe store, and the shoe repair. Only the drug store and deli had good roll down grates. The others were old and rusty. On a hunch, he started with the shoe repair. Its grate yielded to the tire iron. The five pound sledge on the door and he was in. Open the old cash register and shazaam keys. He respectfully closed the door and lowered the broken grate.

(Unbeknownst to John, the drug store owner and shoe repair fellow were father and son. The shoe repair father owned all the stores. All the renters were relatives. John was just lucky. He guessed that a drug store would only allow a trusted person to accept deliveries. And those deliveries would need to be locked up and or refrigerated. Therefore, a trusted person with keys. As said, ‘lucky’.)

John had all the grates and doors open in a few minutes.

Roy told laughingly him about Marie: “Your betrothed said bring home shoes for the guests. Can’t you even run a raid without help?” John just shook his head. The girl was amazing.

Doc Jenn was ported inside and was directing the pharmacy recovery. Roy, Jody, and TomT were recovering the rest of the store. Kids games, candy, ‘women’s stuff’, and some kids’ underwear. John went in the shoe store, identified all the men’s and women’s sneakers, and brought them to the street. He also took all the socks and socklets, or were they called sockettes?, he could find. Size didn’t matter. How were the going to get all this stuff home? The deli yielded some big trashbags. Doc Jenn was done and being pushed out in her brand new wheelchair. Followed by a grocery cart of drugs. Followed by a grocery cart of ‘comfort items’. John put all the sneakers and stuff in the Ford. Roy and TomT joined him. Jody was pulling the loaded cart back to the school. The freed up members of the portage team, and the carry team, were loaded and heading back. John closed and locked the stores. He coded Lisa: ‘withdraw at your leisure.’ Meaning as fast as possible!

John pulled carefully to the front of the school. All the folks gathered around and helped him unload. The socks and sneakers went to the gym. Between the all the sources, everyone now had something on their feet. John pulled the car back to the trailer by the Church but left it unhooked. He’d find some more excuses to drive.

John went to the school and welcomed all the returnees. Thanking them. When Lisa arrived, he asked her and the team to hold the Isham Cooper street corner for a little while to give everyone some ‘yard time’. He went to Sister’s office to get the bell she used. He waited an hour and went to the front steps and rang it once. The Classmates explained the significance to the Guests. When all the ‘inmates’ were back in from the yard, he signaled the L’s to bring it in. He called up to the roof and told the adjutant to have Marie signal Brother Kevin home and close up the roof.

The afternoon was a great success. Brian, Marie, and John got to work on Canned Ravioli for dinner.

Drill: Recoveries

Everyone, not working the OPs, was summoned to the gym. It was close to dinner and a little fresh air made everyone hungry.

June ran over the ground rules for recovery.

Security team would clear the apartment. And the one next to it. The Classmate would recover their apartment and a team of Guests the ones around it. When the Classmate was finished, they were all done.

The Classmate was to take a pillow case of undies, a pillow case of warm clothes, and a pillow case of their family’s ‘treasures’.

Upon return, the Classmate was to take a change of clothes. The three pillow cases of undies, warm clothes and treasures would go to the ‘empty trailer’.

The Guests would recover anything that seemed useful to the Guests. Upon return it would be displayed in one of the classrooms. Everyone could build from that.

Food would be taken to supplement their supplies.

June opened the floor to questions. No one asked about bodies. All the other questions were trivial.

+++++

Marie’s FFT

Marie needed to finish Kabuki. It was her intention to give the eavesdroppers her prize winning paper in code and make it look like she was training the twelve Operators. She had twelve copies of her paper written out by hand; she of course had it memorized. The trick was to do this so that the eavesdroppers believed it was test traffic. To do that, she marked the lines in the draft with different random numbers from 0 to 12. She used the fourth digit of the natural log tables she had memorized for random numbers. If the eavesdroppers could figure that out from a relatively small sample, well shame on her. Marie started: ‘Fast Foruier Transforms have a novel application to cracking encrypted television program transmissions.’ The numbers indicated who was to encrypt and code the next line. Marie would give them a hand signal when they could begin to transmit their ‘answer’. It would look like a round robin training exercise. It took about an hour to transmit the entire paper twice. They wouldn’t know if it was worthwhile until they got to Vermont.

Marie thanked her Classmates for their effort. They just wanted to understand what the paper meant. It took Marie a half hour to explain it in terms they could understand and in away that made it seem like an adventure puzzle. She didn’t know she had spawned about 23 future mathematicians that evening. She was inspiring.

Brian was watching the activity. He raised his eyebrows to Marie. Everyone else left. Brian queried: “You’re done with the CBs, right?” Marie, puzzled at the question, answered: “Yes, John has one more task and then Kabuki is finished.” Brian explained: “No reason to leave these operational.” John’s paranoia had rubbed off. Brian went to each CB and removed the antenna wire, unscrewed the fuse, and put the antenna wire back. He put all the fuses in the teacher’s desk at the front of the room. “Please Tell John?” “OK”, but she did think he was nuts. They left the room and Brian locked the door. If John was worried about a turncoat, so was he. Brian learned from Brother Kevin’s retelling of the Pawn Shop engagement. Brother Kevin, as a combat vet, never discounted his hunches.

Paranoia gone wild

Brian had a hunch. John’s first thought was to be suspicious. Maybe he’d gotten over it. But, Brian was supposed to be S2. He was ‘paid’ to be suspicious and devious.

He grabbed Sam and they took all the spare guns to the arms locker. The locker had plenty of room in it. They accounted for all the explosives. All the M1As were assigned to a Seventh or Eighth.

Brian wasn’t finished yet.

He selected a rifle that looked like an M1A. Sam and he figured out how to partially strip it down. At least until the got to the firing pin. That they held out and reassembled it. Sam dry fired it and everything worked. Except it was a toothless tiger. They loaded it with a clip of live ammo.

Sam locked the armory. And Brian checked it. He took the toothless tiger. He hoped his treachery, his deviousness, his preparation was unnecessary. Most of all he hoped it wouldn’t get him killed if he needed a real gun.

Sam never said, or even thought, Brian was crazy. If fact, he thought he might well be getting smarter!

Brian was planning to leave his Tiger in the kitchen atop the refrigerator. As one might expect someone who was busy, needed a safe store, and being distracted. Having a live M1A was a great honor and responsibility among the Classmates. They were NEVER left unattended. Family members showered in pairs so that one could hold the rifle of the one taking a shower. Otherwise, the rifles would probably be in the shower as well. After Church Day, Classmates were never unarmed. Atlatls being waterproof were often worn in the shower. Classmates had learned that lesson - you are responsible for your own safety.

+++++

Dinner

A hearty Italian ‘dinner’ of ravioli was served. The Classmates and guests were flushed with success. After dinner, chess, checkers, cards, uno, and host of other games broke out. Courtesy of the drug store. It was a good time. Everyone felt ‘normal’. Since dark comes early in the fall and there was light discipline, folks filtered out for their ‘ancestral homes’. Everyone had their favorites. Most families had a classroom on the second floor as a base location. Even when the family had OP duty, most stayed at their classroom, while those on duty went to ‘work’. It furthered the illusion of normalcy. June and Doc Jenn chatted about what it would mean when they abandoned the shelter.

Staff meeting

Master John opened: “Bravo Zulu, everyone. We are doing good! If we pull off the recoveries, we can be on the road as scheduled or close. I’m excited.”

Centurion Sam continued: “549 Isham tomorrow. It’s about four blocks further than what we did today. It’ Roy’s. So well, push off after breakfast. Lurp before dawn. Sam with the first half of LongLeg on point and Roy with the second half of LongLeg for the rear. Isabella splits her team half with Sam and half with Roy. Rejoin on the site. Three Guests with the two grocery carts between Sam and Roy. Lisa and Linda on the school roof for defense. CBs with Brother Kevin, Sam, and the School. Be back in no time.”

CoS Brother Kevin added: “The new heavier Lurp is useful. More about defense than running. We’re going to carry rifles and atlatl in case we have to be quiet.”

G1 Personal Marie chimed in: “Kabuki is finished except for John’s part. Boy Scout James has identified 20 trailers that have valuable stuff in them for Vermont. We have more trailers than drivers. We’ll need to restack driving on the trek.”

G2 Intelligence Brian thoughtfully mused: “John and I will carry the CBs down to the jump off and put them back in the radio room when we are done. Remember radio silence unless we’re in big trouble. We need to use the bus if we want to do two individuals in a day.”

G3 Training Roy reported: “All hands can hurl and code. Driver retraining being done. Maybe we can get a real tractor to practice on?”

G4 Logistics Jody credits Brian: “With Brian’s help we have about 1750 krats and over 1000 crats. We have ample bulk food, but limited selections. Water can be pumped from the shelter, but no place to put it.

G5 Morale June summed up the day: “Everyone seems happy. On to Vermont.”

John concluded: “Let’s resume right after breakfast.”

Time With Marie

John grabbed a baby bucket and went to the kitchen. She did the same. He washed and she dried. Silent happy homemakers. They went to the basement and did laundry. It was domestic duties. They wouldn’t have this quiet in a few days. Who knew when this simple time would be replicated. John complemented her on the shoes; she on his smarts to not rip stuff unnecessarily. Besides being efficient, it also disguised their presence in the area. But neither of them thought of that. Marie nursed the children while John folded fresh clean towels. The essence of leadership is service to those you lead. They loaded the dumb waiter and lugged the baby buckets back to the gym. John unloaded the dumbwaiter. They got settled down.

The chores took the sexual starch out of them so a ‘marital kiss’ and they were ready for some shut eye.

+++++

Up In Vermont

Colonel McSwain was at his Arlington Hall Nashua, NH desk. He’d already told his long suffering wife to take their children to her parents for Thanksgiving in Manchester. And he’d make it up to her at Christmastime. A most perceptive woman, she said “It’s those children, isn’t it?” She knew the wives of all the ears. They had a mutual aid and bitching society. She was a good soldier; he wasn’t worried about her, but this thing was getting leakier every day. “You are going to bring them home for Thanksgiving?” “My love, I’m going to bust a gut trying.”

“In that case, I forgive you. Now get to work. May I meet these children?” “Dear, you’ll be lucky if they aren’t living here.” “How many rooms should I have made up?” So clearly the leaks weren’t too specific. “Between us only?” “Of course.” “Even the gals mag?” He didn’t’ call it the ‘bitching society’ to her. “OK” “Less than a hundred.” Her eyes widened. “That’s unbelievable.” “You have no idea. It’s the biggest thing that hit VT since the Holstein Cow was invented.” “Well, you better get back to work. And for Christmas, I want as my present, and my make up present, to meet these children that have everyone in a tizzy.” “I’ll see what I can do.” She put his TDY bag by the door. And, was arranging a long vacation with the grandparents. His father-in-law was a retired Marine officer and his mother-in-law was a Marine officer’s wife. There’d be no leaks there.

Colonel McSwain was going over the Regimental orders for deployment. When that pesky sergeant knocked. “Permission to interrupt the Colonel?” “Hold fast a moment. He slid the rolling desk top cover over his desk. “Granted. Enter!” “Colonel, sorry for the intrusion but we have to talk.”

“Yes, we do. Now I assume this has something to do with why the head of the VT State Police woke me up at 4AM. Screaming about my MI and CID people roaring thru Bennington at 2AM so one of my people could talk to his kid at a private school.”

“It does, sir. But, in my defense I didn’t want to wake you and the Misses at 1AM since you had just left at 9PM after 36 hours straight. I merely used the old non-coms network and Krotch over at CID put his personal squad on it. Those are the same fellows who drove you and your car home last night. The ones who carried you in and explained to Misses Colonel that you were not on a bender and that I had ordered you to bed.”

“Well, I told the jerk top cop, when he threatened to wake up the Guv, that he should just say the word ‘children’ to the Guv and that I was sure there would be a new Top Cop by dawn. Did you ever notice that political appointee gurgles when threatened? Wonder if he did call?”

“Sir, begging your pardon, but did you know, late at night here, when the boys can’t sleep, they need a challenge? And, you know that the Cop Shop has refused our repeated invitations to help them with their COMSEC? And, you know the Senior NCO of the Cops is married to Kroc’s sister-in-law? And, would you believe it just so happened that one of our little ears was practicing, before his official shift, on their radio traffic? And, sure and begorah, if he doesn’t hear the call to the Governor himself. And, while we would never eavesdrop, the young lad was practicing and not realizing what he was hearing. It’s rumored that he did say you said ‘children’, to which the Governor launch into a terrible string of profanity. Do you think he might have been a Misguided Child at one time? Any way, when he calmed down a little, I believe it was mentioned that it was good thing the Top Cop’s father was his child’s godfather and how he didn’t have the brains of something called ‘an REMF star with another BIG idea up his pea shooter’. It was quite colorful and good practice for our lad. The traffic went very fast. The Guv before he hung up said if the Top Cop used that word in a sentence again; he’d be managing a DMV office at the Canadian border as an outside greeter. Quite colorful.”

“Now for all this angst, what do I get”, the Colonel continued wearily. It was like managing a frat house with eight sorority houses nearby — one in each direction.”

The sergeant continued: “I have the shift for you.”

The colonel shot up in his chair and said: “Now that’s a payday!”

The sergeant grinning gleefully: “But I have to extract a price for it. Shall we discuss terms, or will we just assume that like always you’ll see the wisdom of the idea and cave, … err, I mean grant an old Irishman his heart’s desire.”

The colonel shot up in his chair and said: “Let’s have a cut the crap session. First the closest you have ever been to Ireland is every Irish Bar in the Pacific Theater. Second, if you didn’t have such strange hang ups about being an officer, you’d be sitting behind this desk. And, third, I know you were born in little bravaria in the Yorktown section of New York City, and paid your way thru graduate school by hustling marks at cards and pool. That graduate school being no other than Cooper’s Union, aka the poor man’s MIT, where you earned a double doctorate in Mathematics and Political Philosophy. Didn’t know they offered that. Some combination. You chucked all in when your beloved twin older brothers went down with the Arizona. And you have been a royal pia to ever commander you ever served under. Also, you are the only NCO I know to have four JSCMs, a silver star, many other decorations, and nineteen classified letters of merit. So can we cut the crap. I’m sorry. I’m tired. My wife has left me. And I am trying to get my kids home.”

The sergeant continued: “Ahh, Colonel, now who’s shoveling it. It just so happens that Misses Colonel called me this morning to thank me for your ride home, and asked me to watch out for you while she’s at her parents giving you a clear deck to land that plane from the German kindergarden. She’s worried about you. I promised that I’d see that no harm came to you. Smart woman your wife.”

The colonel grinned: “OK what do you have for me, what’s it going to cost, and how much security do I need to worry about?”

The sergeant, now free of all restraints, explained: “The shift, cut another group in on the fun, and no worries at all. We put all hands on the shift because the pocket protectors were definitely concerned. The last time we ever saw them this concerned was when the porn channel adopted a time shifting encryption key change. Surly you saw the lights dim at the datacenter when that happened. We earned their undying adoration when we gave them the Fast Fourier transform that linearized all the shifts. So they owe us big time. They told us we would be SOL if the bad guys got this. Lot a people on the border would die because we could no longer eavesdrop. So we did an all-hands all-the-time push.”

“Mama D hit on the key fact is First Graders. What do they learn, what do they know? Any way, John Junior’s oldest girl — did you know he and his wife are on the pop them out annually plan — is a prodigy and has a scholarship to snooty school in Bennington. He went up to ask - with an assist from CID — what she had learned in her first year there. Alphabet forward and back, time & time zones, the area of a circle, add - subtract - multiply and divide. That gave us the shift.”

“Slower, please. I’m an officer.”

“They have two strips of alphabet forward and back. A-Z Z-A. The start is lined up on time modulus 10. The shift is multi-syllabic. First, it’s alternately upper strip then lower strip. Then it’s Pi. 3.14159265 First 3 forward, 1 back, 4 forward, 1 back, 5 forward, 9 back, 2 forward, 6 back, 5 forward. And it repeats. Finally, PI is applied to time zones +3 -1 +4 -1 … for an additional shift and alternate. It’s so simple a First Grader can do it in their sleep.”

“We swore the Head Pocket Protector to secrecy under pain of us calling the porn channel and helping them with their security. He personally coded the crusher and gave us their traffic back in about an hour. We can now read them in real time.”

“Boss, we really need the kid that designed this. With a little math education, we can have stuff that NO ONE will read EVER! And they will spend a lot of cycles learning that. It’s the alternating first shift that makes it so hard. Good thing CRYPTO DOG is under time pressure or lazy. If he had made it ten offset alphabets, we’d be watching the porn channel with the pocket protectors. And I’ll go out on a limb, he’s an egotist. If he had shown it to TOP DOG, she’d have improved it with 52 alphabets all offset by one. He’s a fool. Thank goodness for us. And if they — Top Dog, Under Dog, or Crypto Dog — ever gets wind that we can read their traffic! They can have their traffic unreadable in a heartbeat by saying subtract, multiply, or divide instead of add. If one of their coders loses their material, they can recreate with a pencil and paper. Be back in business in minutes. It’s stunning, simple, efficient, effective, and elegant. I’m not often impressed. This is unbelievable. And to bring it up in less than two weeks. Unthinkable.”

The colonel was nearly speechless. “Back in the day, this would have gotten you another classified letter.” The sergeant squeaked: “I’ll trade that letter for some time with the kids.”

The colonel, now in control, said: “OK, whose first born do I have to sacrifice?

The sergeant laughed: “It’s easy. The Ranger’s Regimental Top called the Top Kick of the Porcupine Herd in CID and asked about his sister’s trip to the specialist in Pittsfield. You know the military censors monitor all the traffic. I’ve told you for a while that’s ‘security theater’ at its best. Now Porky Kick needled Kroch who inquired if I might have any influence in a TDY for the Porcupines. I said I might and that his sister might need to visit a whole string of doctors to get a cure. But, I was sure that the Roger’s Regimental Surgeon would be available to consult.”

The colonel was confused, but he knew he didn’t like what he heard. “So after the Old Sergeant’s Society has chatted about the most secret op in Vermont history, what papers am I to sign?”

The sergeant, now driving the bus, suggested “If the colonel would be so kind to brevet the State Police Undercover and Swat teams to the Pittsfield spat. I’m sure it will be a long time before the Colonel’s oldest daughter gets a speeding ticket or spends any meaningful time with her sleazy boyfriend up at the notch. It seems there’s a serial killer loose in the notch area. Or so I’m told by the sheriff of the county. Since CID registers all the VTMID personal license plates, family plates, and all those ‘persons of interest’ adders with an ‘investigate all suspicions’ to all of them, his car is investigated regularly. The sheriff estimates that, when his 8 minute donut timer goes off, some hair can be mussed, lipstick smeared, clothes wrinkled, but no unbuttoning or ripping has had time to occur. He figures that drummer is going to think his car’s bugged or his little willie is going to go thru that drum first. Of course, since the young girl is my first godchild, I’ve expressed considerable interest in the sheriff’s continued diligence at catching this dangerous serial killer.”

The colonel was secretly pleased. He really didn’t like that boy. He was just lusting after his seventeen year old daughter. He was drummer in a rock band. The colonel had been a drummer once. His daughter had just told him last week that the State Police had stepped up patrolling the notch because of a serial killer. She thought that was nonsense given the new 10/19 ‘must carry’ laws. She, and the other girls, thought that while the little berettas (Beretta Model 70 .32 Cal Pistol) were ‘cute’; all the require range time by all students was over the top. “Well, remember we have no status over the COP SHOP. I’ll draft the order.”

The sergeant said: “Begging the Colonel’s pardon, but I took the liberty. All he has to do is sign the ‘request’. And, I’ll be on my way.”

The Colonel, signing the document, said: “Not so fast, shifty. How worried do I have to be about security?”

The sergeant said: “The Colonel’s concern is baseless. The Porcupine’s Top Kick is an only child. And, has no friends or relatives.”

The Colonel, laughing, said: “Yeah, I forgot, all sergeants are split from the same Top Sergeant cell, and have a hive’s memory. Dismissed. Before I call the MPs on you. … … And as an after thought, notify me if we hear any more about the kids. Pass the word to the ears team, that we are busting a gut.” “Yes sir. They know that the Rangers and their two groups of new friends will be doing splendidly. By the way did I tell you that the Porcupine Herd adopted a new logo of the Pine Tree and have arm bands to match the patches on their helmets and BDUs. When should I say they should join the First in Bennington? Would this afternoon be too soon?”

The Colonel said: “Argh! That’s fine; get out of here you troublemaker.” After this was all over, he’d have to figure out how the ears team was listening to the Green Line.

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