“How close are they?”
“We’re not sure,” came the response through Kline’s communicator.
His brow furrowed. Despite their attempts to conceal XLS time travel movements from the Union, the Subdivision had already found him. “What happened to the new encryption procedure?”
“They cracked it faster than anticipated. Don’t worry, we’re going to buy you some more time. Lee ordered that we put the bounty hunter in play. They’ll be distracted for awhile.”
XLS scenarios had been wrong. They had anticipated that JFK’s assassination would prevent lunar exploration, but it hadn’t. The Apollo missions had only been delayed. That wasn’t enough. Operation Yamato’s success hinged on preventing NASA from studying the moon’s Fra Mauro region. That made Kline’s next objective—convincing Henry Ellis that the FBI had indeed found a leak in his department—of the utmost importance.
“Keep me posted.”
Kline terminated the call as Henry’s car eased through the Kennedy Space Center’s front security gate before pulling over to the side of the road. Kline strode up to the sedan. “Did you bring them?”
“You shouldn’t be here!” Henry glanced back at the guard manning the front gate’s security booth. He whispered, “It’s not that easy.”
“We had a deal.”
“I thought we were supposed to be protecting the mission files, not stealing them! Security is tight. There are procedures. I can’t just walk out the door with classified documents!”
Kline’s black polyester suit stretched as he crossed his arms. “Our intelligence suggests that the mission has been compromised. People could die. We need those reports!”
“It’s impossible–”
“You can’t help them from jail.”
The engineer’s mouth snapped shut. His bets with Simon Kingsley had caught up with him. “Let me talk to my supervisor. I’ll see if–”
“No,” said Kline. “No one else can know what we’re doing. We selected you for a reason. You’re clean. Outside the gambling issue, we trust you. We can’t trust anybody else.”
Kline would have balked had the same entreaty been given to him. But 1970 was a different time, and Henry Ellis a different person. Despite Henry’s distress, it struck a chord. Henry exhaled slowly.
“All right, I’ll do it. I’ll get them.”
Kline nodded and backed away from the car. He had a foot in the door, but that wasn’t enough to get him what he needed.
