Follow Focus
38
The Home Stretch
“Dale” by Hank Shiffman, ID1640762998 licensed from Shutterstock.com.
WHEN I FIRST STARTED working for the State Department, I figured I’d never be seen in anything but a black suit and white shirt. It didn’t take long working in South and Central America before I loosened up that style considerably. I usually still had a fairly conservative suit with me when we traveled, but most of the time I wore slacks and a sport coat. Of course, a shirt and tie were always required.
At the embassy in Muscat, I stripped off my jacket as soon as we walked into the office. It was just too hot to be wearing it. Thursday was no exception when Ronda and I went to work. As soon as we were in our office, we both pulled off our jackets and hung them next to the desk. We went to work getting what we needed for the next trip set up. This would be a one-week trip to Pakistan and Nepal, so we’d leave Monday and be back by Friday. We just had to confirm our appointments with our trainees, and have the crew pick up the equipment and supplies.
The next few weeks would test the range of our little plane as well as our endurance. Luke and Jay had assured us that the range was not a problem and we would have a faster and more comfortable trip in the little plane than on a commercial airline. After Ronda looked up the flight connections in our OAG guide, we had to agree. Just the flight from Islamabad to Kathmandu—about five hours in our plane—would be eleven hours with two connections via commercial airlines. And with our plane, we knew and trusted the pilots. We’d heard that a lot of the Asian airlines that would fly to the destinations we wanted to go to were using equipment that had been retired by other airlines and picked up very used.
We were going over the timing when two figures darkened our door.
They would have been as at home guarding Al Capone in Chicago as approaching us in the embassy. They wore black suits, dark shirts and ties, and sunglasses.
“May I help you?” I asked. The last time I’d seen people who looked like this, they were gunning down Clyde Warren on the streets of Chicago. FBI. That must be it.
“We’re looking for Nate Hart and Ronda May,” the taller one said.
“You found them.”
“What do…?” the smaller one started. A woman! “I mean… we’ve been assigned as security for you two. No one told us you were so… young.”
“Yeah. I’m surprised by it myself. They were supposed to get us older bodies or at least rugged faces. Who’d believe anyone our age could possibly need security?”
“Who’d believe you had already been kidnapped and were transporting secret government documents?” the guy said. “That’s true, isn’t it?”
“Afraid so. I don’t expect a recurrence of that kind of event, but the boss doesn’t want to take any more chances. I’m Nate,” I said, holding out my hand to shake. Ronda stood beside me.
“Ronda,” she said as she shook hands.
“Oh. Uh… Eldon Brown. This is Jackie Brown.”
“Related?”
“Married,” she said. “Our boss said it was a perfect job for married partners.”
“It isn’t really all that bright inside,” Ronda said. She motioned at their sunglasses.
“Sorry. Getting hit by the tropic sun when we landed was a shock to our eyes. We’ve been stationed in DC and it is nowhere near as bright there,” Jackie said. They took off their sunglasses and we were able to get a better assessment of what they looked like. I guessed in their forties.
“Isn’t that the truth? We were there over the weekend. Still trying to get readjusted to the time zone and the temperature. I’m afraid we won’t be going much of anywhere in the next two months where it isn’t hot. You might want to dress a little less warmly,” I said.
“We’ll see how it goes. Just about everyone in the department dresses like this. I guess there isn’t actually a requirement, though,” Eldon said.
“As you can see, our office is a little cramped for holding a meeting. Why don’t we step out and get coffee?” Ronda suggested.
“Is that common?” Jackie asked. “I mean you leave the embassy grounds on a normal basis?”
“We don’t live here. We have a home about a mile from here toward the airport with our family. We’re pretty comfortable here in Oman. It’s a great place. And when we’re just walking around or going out to eat, we aren’t much of a target. It’s really when we’re transporting the materials to make passports and the equipment for it that we’re vulnerable,” I said. Ronda and I grabbed our jackets and led Eldon and Jackie out of the chancery, leaving a message with the receptionist that we’d be back in an hour.
“That monstrosity across the way is the British Embassy,” Ronda said, pointing. The receptionist had immediately called a car and driver for us and he pulled up while she was pointing things out.
“You have a driver dedicated to you?” Jackie asked.
“No. The embassy has three cars and a school bus with drivers and we take them as we need them. The receptionist keeps track of where drivers are and where they are needed,” Ronda said. “It’s not unusual for the drivers to make two or three trips in a row to one of the European-style cafés. He’ll pick us up again in an hour.”
We went into the European-style café. The big difference between this and an Omani café was that there were women in this one. Women seldom entered the Omani cafés and only in the company of their husbands. The atmosphere here was a little brisker, and the café served western food.
“Now, tell us a little about yourselves so we know who is watching over us,” I said. “What is your department?”
“Department of the Treasury, Secret Service Agency,” Eldon said.
“Whoa! Is the secret service, like, assigned to protect the president?” I asked.
“There is a group with that assignment,” Eldon laughed. “We aren’t a part of that contingent. We’re on loan to the State Department and your duty.”
“I had no idea the Secret Service was part of Treasury,” Ronda said. “I thought you were a part of the Justice Department, like the FBI.”
“The Agency has had a lot of overlap with other agencies, but when it was founded as part of Treasury right after the Civil War, it was primarily to combat counterfeiting. I guess that’s what brought us to the attention of the Consular Bureau in your case. I understand the attack you experienced just a week ago was by terrorists seeking to counterfeit US Passports,” Jackie said.
“Yes. It’s considerably riskier than counterfeiting, though,” I said. “With the equipment we install in consular agencies and the supplies we provide, a terrorist could create legitimate passports that were indistinguishable from the real thing. Except for one thing, which we don’t advertise.”
“What’s that?”
“Every passport has a seal of the United States Consular Services embossed in the last page. Technically, without that, it isn’t a legal passport.”
“Technically?” Eldon asked.
“How many times was the last page of your passport checked by passport control on your way to Oman? I assure you, having traveled to over a hundred countries in the past two years, including numerous entries back into the US, no one has ever run his fingers over the last page of the passport to check for the embossed stamp.”
“Wicked. But I’ll bet every passport submitted for renewal is checked,” Jackie said.
“No doubt. The issuance number would also be checked, so a passport that wasn’t legitimately issued and registered would be flagged when checked. It’s always a risky operation. At any time, the US could issue a directive to all their ports of entry that the number and emboss had to be checked. To my knowledge that hasn’t ever been done.”
“So why are we putting this valuable technology in hostile areas?” Eldon asked.
“Efficiency,” Ronda answered. “Prior to the introduction of this technology, the issuing of a passport or visa could take six months or more. Many times, especially in locations where there is a refugee crisis, people might not be able to survive that long. This cuts the time required to a few days, with some able to be turned around in an hour if necessary.”
“It still seems like a dangerous thing to do,” Jackie said.
“I agree,” I said. “Ronda and I travel as diplomatic couriers with a diplomatic passport. But we are required to have both our diplomatic passport and our tourist passport stamped upon entering or leaving a country. I assume that you have been issued such a passport as well.”
“Yes. And we were instructed to have both stamped, though I didn’t understand why. That’s good to know,” Eldon said. “So, what is our plan and mode of operation?”
“We’ll have a kind of shakedown cruise next week. We’ll be traveling to two countries that are basically friendly to the US and the embassies are in desperate need of the technology. According to our latest figures, Pakistan has had an influx of over 100,000 refugees from Afghanistan in the past two years. War, famine, internal strife, and earthquakes have sparked this,” Ronda said.
“One of the first locations we went to when assigned this job was to go to Calcutta and train the operators for the new embassy in Bangladesh. After the war for independence, over a million Pakistani nationals were displaced. Most have made their way back to Pakistan through India. Many, however, have migrated through Nepal. Pakistan is facing such a crisis of refugees from the other direction that they don’t want their own people back. Which isn’t surprising. Many of them were born in East Bengal. They have no roots in Pakistan,” I said.
“Okay, now let’s talk about how we can keep you and your equipment safe.”
We had a good meeting that went a lot longer than the hour we’d planned. We decided to get together with the crew over the weekend and make sure everyone was on the same page before we took off on Sunday. It would be interesting.
“The directive for the week says that we should plan a stopover in Bangladesh,” Ronda said. “That was our first installation two-plus years ago, but we actually did the training and delivered the equipment to Calcutta. The new embassy in Dacca has requested that we stop by and make sure their new tech is up to speed and the equipment is functioning correctly.”
“Is there a problem?” I asked.
“No. Not according to this. But they have a new operator and Mr. Martin would like us to install the failsafe on the equipment.”
“Okay. Luke, how’s it sound to go to Dacca after Kathmandu?” I asked.
“We should be good for that with no problem. We’ll still need to stop for refueling in Bombay on the way back,” Luke said. He and Jay went to the cockpit and started warming the plane up.
“In order for the system to be effective, Jackie and I need to disembark first when we arrive in Islamabad. We’ll wait until the plane is met by customs and when we’re satisfied there is no present danger, then everyone else can deplane,” Eldon said.
“I’d like one other criterion,” I said. “I’d like to be assured that we have an embassy car ready to take us to the chancery.”
“Yes, sir. That should be a standard part of our checklist. We’ll verify that the car and driver are from the embassy. What about the crew billeting?” Jackie asked.
“We make arrangements for housing as near to the airport as possible,” Nancy said. “We’ll be at the Crown, five minutes from the airport.”
“Is that considered safe?” Eldon asked. “I mean, to have everyone split up?”
“It helps us with having everything ready to take off when we get clear of the embassy without having to wait a long time to get the plane ready. We just call their room when we’re ready to leave the embassy and our people have everything ready to go by the time we get to them. They’re really top notch.”
“I’ve no doubt about that. I just want to make sure we’re providing the right level of protection for everyone.”
“Once we’re inside the chancery, I don’t anticipate we’ll need anything until we’re ready to leave again,” I said. “Of course, we never needed anything getting on or off the plane until a week and a half ago.”
“The embassy in Islamabad is well secured, with twenty Marine Security Guards stationed there,” Eldon said. “Once we get you to the embassy, there should be no problems. Our highest areas of risk are between the plane and the car. That’s when we’re carrying equipment, luggage, and are distracted. We’ll use our first stop as a training mission and go through all the processes. We’ll ask you all to remain in your seats until we call ‘clear.’ We’ll also ask the group to stay together when we are moving supplies so we aren’t strung out in different places, leaving one person vulnerable.”
“We’ll cooperate fully, Eldon,” Ronda said. “Can we all relax for a while? We have three more hours to Islamabad.”
It all went off perfectly in Islamabad. Since we were arriving Sunday evening, our stop at the embassy was only long enough to deliver the equipment. Then the four of us were shuttled to a hotel only about eight blocks away. Eldon and Jackie went through the full process of sweeping our room and then moving into their own room next door.
It took Ronda and me a few minutes to convince them that they could sit with us when we went to the hotel restaurant for dinner. They were a little nervous about it, but accepted that they could be as watchful at the same table as from across the room.
There was a little tension when we got to the embassy Monday morning over Jackie and Eldon being armed. They agreed that they did not need to go into the chancery with us and stayed outside with the Marines.
We completed our training and equipment installation in the morning, delivered our dispatches to the ambassador, and had lunch with the Consul General.
“There are over a hundred American citizens working for the embassy in Pakistan,” he said. “You’ve trained two teams with equipment this morning. They will make the rounds of offices here, in Lahore, and in Karachi. Lahore is probably the busiest at the moment, but I expect we will open a satellite office in Peshawar so Afghani refugees don’t need to travel all the way to Islamabad to get consular services.”
“Will you be issuing a lot of visas to refugees?”
“Surprisingly not. Just because they are fleeing problems in Afghanistan doesn’t mean they want to immigrate to the US. They want a safe place to hide until they can go back home. Most do not have papers, so the Pakistani government has asked us to help in issuing IDs. We’ll probably issue more IDs than passports and visas combined.”
It was a pleasant luncheon, during which, the consul general wanted to hear all about what had happened in Iran. He seemed genuinely pleased that the State Department had assigned security to our mission and wished us good speed on our remaining assignment.
The crew was waiting at the plane with the engines turning when we arrived. Eldon checked all around the plane while Jackie checked inside to be sure it was our crew who were onboard. Then we were permitted to board and were soon on our way to Kathmandu.
That trip was reminiscent of the trip from Kabul to Tehran. We were flying into the Himalayan foothills and the weather was rough. We had rain and wind buffeting the plane around, but the guys brought her in safely. We all had to re-collect ourselves before we were ready to disembark. An embassy driver was waiting with the customs official. Our passports were quickly checked and stamped, then we loaded our equipment into the embassy car.
We arrived at the chancery after hours, of course, but the car was permitted to enter and park while we took our bags and walked half a mile to a hotel. We ate at the hotel and went to sleep before making our way back to the embassy. Once again, Jackie and Eldon were detained at the entrance and we were allowed through to retrieve the equipment from the car and get set up.
I guess the mission here was modest by comparison to the one in Islamabad, but it was obviously prepared for growth. There were a number of empty offices and we were taken to one to set up the equipment.
Our trainees were harried. They weren’t convinced the equipment would help with their jobs and only saw it as ‘one more thing’ they had to deal with. The Deputy Chief of Mission we met with, though, begged our forgiveness for her personnel as we had lunch together. It was one of the few times we’d met a woman in one of the top two positions in an embassy.
“Our people see this as yet another responsibility put on their plates,” she said. “I’m sure you are aware of the war for Bangladesh independence of just a few years ago. Nepal, India, and Pakistan are still dealing with the refugee crisis that brought on. The fundamentalist Muslim Pakistanis were nearly all displaced when the Bengali guerillas fought back against the near annihilation of their more liberal populace. I will say that the Pakistanis asked for it. Their religious jihad against the intellectuals and secularists came back to roost as they were all deported from the country. Nearly two million displaced Bengalis flooded back into Bangladesh and took over the homes and businesses of the displaced East Pakistanis.”
“That’s terrible,” I said. “I mean, I agree there was some justice to it, the way you describe it, but why can’t people all co-exist?”
“That’s a good question,” she laughed. “The sad truth is that they can’t. Some of the Pakistanis made their way into Nepal and some into India, attempting to be repatriated into Pakistan. The problem is that even though they are Muslim and ethnically Pakistani, they have been fifty to a hundred years in what was termed East Pakistan. They have no roots in Pakistan proper and are looking for friends and relatives only remotely interested in them. And the 1965 division of Kashmir into an Indian administration and a Pakistani administration makes the transit even more difficult.”
“And your people are dealing with the fallout from that war yet?” Ronda asked.
“Indirectly. Nepal has rejected the Pakistani as immigrants in most instances and sends them on their way. It is a Hindu country. Pakistan and Bangladesh are over ninety percent Muslim, though Bangladesh could be considered more secular. We field a fair number of requests for visas to the United States, but mostly they are being directed northward into India—the area known as Kashmir.”
“I’ve heard that area was claimed by both India and Pakistan,” I said.
“And so, we have back pressure and conflict. Each morning, our staff is briefed on the current situation on all fronts.”
The deputy accepted delivery of our dispatches and we returned to our hotel with Jackie and Eldon. We let the crew know we’d head for the airport first thing in the morning.
Wednesday, we were off to Dacca. I’d decided that instead of trying to retrofit the equipment we’d installed over two years ago, I would replace the camera unit entirely. It was just a lot easier.
We got the equipment to the chancery, which was a three-story structure, newly constructed of white stucco. It had round corners and a fence around the grounds. We were told the ambassador was not available to see us that day, and we could train the staff and replace the equipment, but we’d need to wait until Thursday to deliver our packet and get his picture.
It turned out that the operators had not had formal training, but had been trained by the former operators. I seemed to recall that the Chargé d’Affaires was one of the people we trained in 1972 and he had long since moved on. So, we went about the process of installing the new equipment and training the two new technicians.
There was no problem with Eldon and Jackie remaining armed at this embassy. There were as many Marines here as there were in Pakistan and the building seemed to be very busy. As long as we were there, we got right at making IDs for everyone since only about a third of the employees seemed to have one.
“There hasn’t been anyone really authorized to use the equipment in a year,” Susan said. She was one of the two employees to be trained. “And the embassy has really grown since the ambassador arrived last April.”
“It seems really big for such a small country,” I said.
She looked at me curiously.
“Bangladesh is not a small country,” she said. “You may think that geographically we are nothing, but the country is the eighth most populous in the world.”
“My word! I had no idea! You mean, like up there with China, India, the USSR and the US?”
“It is helpful to put things in perspective, I suppose,” she said. “As the eighth most populous nation in the world, that still means Bangladesh has less than a tenth the population of China. But the United States, the third largest nation in the world, has only a quarter the population of China. Bangladesh is not so far behind the US.”
“Susan, what drives the most traffic here regarding visas?” Ronda asked.
“Well, the nation is only four years past winning its independence. It was a brutal war and there was a lot of ethnic purging—genocide of Bengali Hindus that killed two or three million people. Another two hundred thousand were killed in battle. Sadly, the people lost were those any nation can least afford to lose. The educated and intellectuals who held the knowledge of how to rebuild and govern a nation.”
“We heard some of the story when we were in Nepal,” I said.
“Nepal would only have a part of the story. They kept as far away as possible from the conflict. Nepal, for only being around the fortieth or fiftieth most populous nation, is ninety percent Hindu. They are rightly cautious when dealing with either Bangladesh or Pakistan.”
“What would you say started the revolution? It seems there was a lot in common. It was even called East Pakistan, wasn’t it?” Ronda asked.
“History may show that it was the first revolution started by a natural disaster. In November of 1970, the Bhola cyclone hit the southern shore of Bangladesh at full force. It was the deadliest tropical cyclone in at least a hundred years and hit the islands off the shore with winds of 150 miles per hour. The storm surge flooded the entire Ganges delta, wiped out villages, destroyed crops, and killed as much as 45% of the population in the area—between 300-500,000 people. The Pakistani government, all centralized in Islamabad, failed to recognize the severity of the crisis and, as a result, lost nearly all its representation in the elections. They couldn’t have that, so they decided to wipe out the opposition.”
“Susan, you are quite a historian on this subject. Are you Bengali?” Ronda asked.
“My mother was a Bengali, but I was born in the US. I studied South Asian history and culture in college before I joined the Foreign Service. It has been an eye-opener for me to be assigned to the country so many years after my mother left it.”
We ended up having dinner with Susan and Rena, and then joined Jackie and Eldon at our hotel.
“You have my sincere apologies for not being available for a meeting yesterday,” the ambassador said when we met him in the morning. “I understand that I am to have my portrait taken for Henry’s wallet.” He chuckled a little. “I’d appreciate it if you did not tell him I said that.”
“We really don’t talk to the Secretary, sir. Your secret is safe,” I said. I set up to take the photo while Ronda delivered the dispatches and received a rather hefty packet in return.
“We haven’t had a courier here in quite some time,” the ambassador said as I positioned him for his photo. “You’ll see these get to Washington?”
“A courier will meet us in Oman this evening. We’re on a regular route since we branch out so much,” Ronda said.
“Yes. A fascinating job you have. Notice anything in our chancery that jumps out at you? What should I be aware of?”
“We got a good start on ID photos yesterday,” I said. “We noted that only about a third of the staff had badges. The Consular Services Bureau has directed that one hundred percent of embassy personnel should be required to display an official ID badge within thirty days of the equipment being installed.”
“Oh my! I’ll bet the girls cringed at that. I’ll get a notice out to all employees and I’ll go straight down to get my own.”
“I’m told all new State Department employees are being badged when they are hired, so anyone new coming from the US should already have an ID.”
“Well, our office is growing as the situation in South Asia continues to be tense and we are providing services here I never expected to have in such an out of the way place. Trade, defense, agriculture, health and welfare, international development, public affairs, and of course, consular services. I expect we’ll have twice this number of employees in the next three to five years.”
“We don’t want to keep you from your duties, Ambassador,” Ronda said. “And we need to head for the airport so there is a hope we’ll get back to Oman by nightfall.”
“Best wishes to you for continued success,” he said. “Thank you for these dispatches.”
We picked up the retired equipment and our escort, then headed for the airport.
I was relieved to get back home and not have any crises to deal with. Our wives were doing fine and our children were doing great. There was once a time when I could come home from school and one or more of my girlfriends would want to make love that night. Now we were pretty happy just to get home and get a kiss, then take care of all the family things that needed to be done.
I guess I missed some of the loving, but I really liked just getting here and being able to play with Alex or listen to Toni read or hug their mother or get all the latest news from Anna.
“Nate, honey? You’ve got some gray hairs!” Anna said as she perched on my lap and sorted through my temple hair.
“Oh, that’s great. I’m only twenty-five,” I said. Somehow or another, I didn’t need to have that pointed out to me. “My father is sixty years old and he isn’t gray. At least not much.”
“No, but he’s going bald in back. You have a lot of hair, there are just a few gray strands in there.”
“Better gray than bald, I guess,” I sighed.
“Maybe you need to find another young girl to fool around with,” Ronda said. “That will put a zing into your step. Susan in Bangladesh would have been willing if you’d have said something.”
“Please, no. I really don’t need any more lovers. I love you three to bits.”
“Maybe Jane will come for a visit,” Patricia said.
“When?” I asked. “I have four days at home with you and then Ronda and I will be off for a three-week circuit all the way to New Zealand. I still can’t believe the guys say they can do that route. Don’t get me wrong. If you guys want to have Jane come to visit while we’re gone, that’s great. But all I’ll be thinking of for three weeks is the two girls we’ve left behind.”
“Besides, we have birthdays to celebrate. Did you two do anything for Ronda’s birthday this week?” Anna asked.
“We were getting thrown all over the airplane getting from Pakistan to Nepal,” Ronda said. “It was sweet that Nancy had a cake, but there was no way to eat it or celebrate. We did get to have a slice with coffee on the way to Dacca. I think Jackie and Eldon were surprised and kind of pleased to get invited to participate with us.”
“They sound nice,” Patricia said. “Are they our age?”
“No. A good ten or maybe fifteen years older than us. They’ve made a career out of being in the Secret Service,” I said. “Frankly, I’m glad to have someone with their experience and training along with us. It takes a little getting used to, but they are watchful and good company, as well.”
“So, we need to celebrate Ronda’s birthday this weekend and then we have Alex’s birthday on Tuesday before you leave again. You’ll be here, won’t you?”
“Absolutely,” Ronda said. “Mr. Martin expected us to turn around and take off for Australia on Sunday. I just flatly told him we wouldn’t be leaving again until Wednesday. I hate to act like a prima donna, but even with the amount of travel we’ve agreed to do, we still need family time.”
“He didn’t object,” I said. “I think he just didn’t know what we were planning. Besides, with the kidnapping and the new security, I think the bureau has been a little spooked about how vulnerable we are. I’ll bet the only person in the State Department with more miles than us is the Secretary of State.”
“How the heck he managed to get married last year, I’d like to know. Maybe their relationship thrives on not having to be around each other,” Ronda said.
“Yeah. Married not long after we were in Cairo last year.”
“How weird is it that we know more about the personal life and travels of the Secretary of State than we do about our friends we graduated from high school or college with?” Anna asked.
“We get their information from the embassy and people we meet,” I said. “Getting that kind of news about our classmates would require that we actually work at keeping in touch with them. Do you think it will be too late to catch up with people when we finish this job assignment?”
“I’ll start putting together lists of people and will see where they are,” Patricia said. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t send letters or postcards to people. I did pretty good at that when we were in London, but somehow Oman has seemed more intimidating.”
Robert and Joanne came by on Saturday with their kids to help celebrate Ronda’s birthday. We also invited Jackie and Eldon, Luke, Jay, and Nancy. It was fun to have a party. The kids got along well together and the adults drank way too much coffee, but we had chicken that was grilled on our stove and a sweet cake called halwa that Tariq made up for us. The kids weren’t sure if they liked the clotted cream topping and Toni complained that she’d really like some ice cream.
Ronda and I went to work on Sunday and Monday at the embassy, making calls and scheduling equipment to be taken to the airport. We weren’t taking a lot of equipment because the only new installation we’d be doing was in Indonesia. After talking to the Consul General there, we decided the country would get by with just one unit, but it would be mobile. The technicians would travel to the four consulates around the country with the equipment on a regular schedule rather than trying to install equipment in each location.
Other than that, I’d be installing upgrades on the existing equipment. That meant swapping out the camera in the photo unit for one with the key lock and failsafe. We’d be checking in with the operators and updating them, while training any new operators in the offices.
We’d be putting on a lot of miles, but the schedule was really pretty relaxed. For us. There was really nothing relaxing about our poor pilots’ schedule. They’d be doing the flying on a trip that was intended to be nearly 19,000 miles in two weeks, give or take a day.
The trip was harder on all of us than we anticipated. We took off early Wednesday morning and refueled in Ceylon and in Indonesia before finally getting to Perth, over twelve hours later. We decided on the spot that the crew needed a full rest day before flying the next leg, so we spent the next day in Perth, even though we didn’t take all day to upgrade the equipment. The consul general was appreciative of our attention to his crew and we had dinner with him that evening.
We were up in the air early on Friday morning for the trip east to Melbourne. We arrived early enough to get to the consulate and upgrade the equipment, even though we had to stay late. It was Friday and everyone was willing to stay a little longer, rather than come back Saturday morning.
Jackie and Eldon were a little unsure, though, when we told them we’d be staying at a friend’s house for the weekend. After considerable discussion, they decided Australia was pretty safe, but they wanted to be sure that we had their hotel phone so we could reach them if needed.
Then Ronda and I went off to meet Dale.
“Oh, it’s wonderful to see you,” Dale said when we reached her house. We hugged and kissed.
“It’s great to see you again,” Ronda said, hugging her. “It’s been too long.”
“Oh, but I have such fond memories of our time in Chicago. What brings you back to the land down under?”
“We’re upgrading some equipment and training some new operators,” I said. “We’ll be headed up to Canberra Sunday, then to Sydney. We’ll jump across to New Zealand, then make our way to Jakarta on the way back to Oman.”
“This is not an official customs office, but would you just show me your passports? I have to see all the stamps you have!”
“Well, we’ve had them replaced once because they were full,” Ronda laughed, pulling her passport from her bag. “This only covers from about January last year to now.”
“How many?”
“About sixty, though we may have been stamped in a few others as we were passing through.”
“It exhausts me just to think about it.”
“It’s even more exhausting to do it,” I laughed.
“Well, let’s get you some food. It’s simple fare tonight. We can go out to eat tomorrow, but I thought you might just want to get comfortable and stay in tonight.” She raised an eyebrow and tugged at her loose-fitting shirt.
“If you could give me five minutes to sponge off the smelly parts, I’d love to get more comfortable,” Ronda said. Oh. Yeah. Dale was a nudist. We could get comfortable.
We took our bags into the guest room and stripped off our clothes. It was funny, we didn’t even do that much in hotels lately. We never knew if one of our crew or bodyguards might knock on the door. It was nice to just watch Ronda undress.
“What?” she said, turning to catch me.
“Just always amazed at how beautiful you are,” I said. “It seems I don’t get enough opportunity to appreciate it.”
“Well, take your clothes off and let’s join another beautiful woman for dinner.”
We went out to the dining room and Dale was running around naked setting the table.
“Nate, would you open the wine? It’s nothing fancy tonight. Just Spag Bol.”
Spag Bol turned out to be spaghetti with meat and mushroom sauce. It was delicious. And the wine was good, too. Both bottles. We hadn’t really been traveling in regions where alcohol was readily available like it was in Australia. We all overindulged a bit. We managed to get the dishes cleaned up and then sat around in the living room with another bottle. I smoked my pipe, something else that wasn’t common these days. I don’t think I’d been quite so tipsy and muzzy-headed since the night I burned my draft card.
I’m not sure how we got to bed. We just all ended up in a pile in Dale’s bed. I don’t think I made love to anyone.
We all moved slowly Saturday morning, eventually getting coffee, and coming to life.
“I’d love to do a portrait of the two of you together,” Dale said, leading us to the studio. She got us positioned on the platform and then started working with us to get the pose she wanted. Of course, that involved us being naked and holding each other while she painted.
“Nate needs to do a new photo of you,” Ronda said. “Don’t you, Nate.”
“Well, I would, but I don’t really have a portrait setup with me, you know? We’ve had so few opportunities to take personal photos this year that all I’m carrying is my Nikon and the bureau’s Nikon.”
“Well, you used to take all kinds of portraits with just the Nikon,” Ronda insisted. “Consider it a challenge to get back to your roots.”
“As long as you both understand, it will be a month or more before I can even get this film developed,” I said. That was another reason I wasn’t carrying a lot of camera equipment. Unlike what it had been in London, I had no facility to process and print black and white film and no good source like we had in Stratford for sending out color transparencies. But I admitted it would be fun to do a session with Dale.
We started with a few basic poses. There was no need to talk her out of her clothes because none of us were wearing any, but I did move her around and we snatched quite a few kisses. Ronda ducked in and out of the picture to kiss Dale and shift her around as well.
“We need a prop,” I said. “You are beautiful, Dale. I just need something to create some contrast.”
“I might have just the thing,” she said. “I made this set of wings for a study I was doing for a religious painting. Unfortunately, the people who wanted the painting wanted their angel to be dressed in a long white robe and not nude. Totally spoiled the effect.”
“You know I have nothing against nude angels,” I laughed. I kissed her and stroked up and down her lean torso. Then she ran to a closet and brought back a pair of red wings and a gold collar.
“Ronda, if you could help fasten the collar on me and then connect the center point of the wings to the back of the collar, I’d appreciate it,” she said.
I wasn’t sure how these wings would work. They weren’t structured and stiff like the wings I’d worked with before. They were a pleated material that was almost plastic in its translucence. Ronda tied Dale’s hair up in a knot while I went to work moving her lights around. This just cried for a strong backlight.
“I really need a black background for this,” I muttered.
“I have one,” Dale said. “It’s a screen on rollers over in that corner.”
I located the screen and smiled. This would be perfect. I’d just need to make sure the wings stayed in the frame when she flapped them. I examined the way the wings worked and was intrigued. There was a wooden dowel handle on each edge of the fabric, so she could wave the wings around and they would follow her arm movements.
“These really look like you could fly with them.”
“My model did a lot of pretending to fly when I was doing the concept. It is fun.” Dale raised her arms and the wings sailed out from her body in an arc that ruffled in the breeze she created. I adjusted a light again and then we started working.
“If you pretend to dance, that would be great,” I said.
“Hah! You want me to pretend to dance instead of actually dancing? Ronda, I have ballet slippers on the shelf behind the screen. Would you help me put them on?”
“Of course!” Ronda hustled around and got the slippers on Dale’s feet. They were golden and matched the collar she wore with ribbons tying them around her ankles.
“Let’s see what you think of this,” she said, stretching her wings and going up on point. It was very cool. I quickly changed to color transparency film and started shooting rapidly as she moved. Occasionally, I called for her to freeze, and as much as was possible, she did so. With the wings just made of fabric, they tended to keep moving even after Dale had stopped.
“Wow! That was spectacular!” I said as I finished the roll of film. “I had no idea you were a dancer as well as a wonderful artist.”
“It’s not that unusual for an artist in one area to enjoy participating in another as well. Don’t you do something besides taking photos?” she asked. “Sing? Dance? Play an instrument?”
“Well, I guess in a way. Ronda and I first got together because we enjoyed dancing.”
“And because we enjoyed the same girl,” Ronda laughed. She spun Dale around on the little posing platform as they danced together. I wished I still had a couple of frames to capture that.
We managed to put away the props and lights, then all take a quick shower before we went out to eat.
Later that night, we finally made love and slept together peacefully.
The time with Dale was all too brief. On Sunday afternoon, we flew up to Canberra and were there to train and upgrade equipment at the embassy Monday morning. Then it was another short hop up to Sydney. We took our time making sure everything was in perfect shape in Sydney. It proved to be the busiest of the consulates, probably because of its proximity to the major airport.
We went on to Wellington, New Zealand to upgrade the embassy, then on to Auckland for training on Friday. We spent the weekend back in Sydney and took off early Monday morning. It was a long travel day, flying first to Darwin, and then on to Jakarta.
Jakarta was a new installation using a slightly different process than other areas. We trained two mobile teams with equipment. They would service the multiple islands of Indonesia. I’d been surprised to learn Bangladesh was the eighth most populous country in the world, but with fifty-five million more people than Bangladesh, Indonesia was the fifth most populous. The islands were strung out over the eastern edge of the Indian Ocean, almost from Australia to Thailand. These two teams would be rotating from consulate to consulate.
When we finally finished there, we got back in the air on the way home Wednesday. It was another multi-hop day, flying to Ceylon and then on to Oman. We were happily in the arms of our family on Wednesday night.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
