9 JULY 1940

USS ENTERPRISE

PHILADELPHIA NAVAL YARD

A line of sailors were dressed out in their whites and lined up along the edge of the flight deck on the forward side of the ship. Indy had to stop and remind himself that the navy called that the bough. Indy was no stranger to ships, he’d been on his fair share of them, and he was familiar with their terminology but, could never make himself think in their funny terms. To him, the front was the front and why they called it something else was beyond him. He stayed away from that front end.

Indy also had no reason to go up on the bridge, or anywhere on the big tower for that matter. The officers were up there, decked out in their best uniforms, and standing at attention just like the sailors down on the flight deck. Indy had seen naval vessels going to sea before and knew that the crews usually did this. He also knew it did not leave him any place to be while the tugs pushed the big ship out into the main channel, so, he loitered around the backside of the flight deck, as far away from the uniforms as was possible. The navy guys seemed to prefer he do that and it was all right since he had no wish to join their formations either.

Apparently someone did want his company though. The attractive young woman with the dark hair joined him. At first she said nothing as she fumbled through her case looking for a cigarette. When she found one Indy offered the use of his lighter since he did not wish to see her fumble around even more. When she thanked him he replied, “you are welcome Miss Bitrerlich.”

That stopped her from lighting up. She looked at the man and replied, “you know my name Doctor Jones. Interesting.”

When Indy got his lighter back he lit up one of his own cigarettes and told the young lady, “any kid like you, giving orders to a Marine Colonel, is going to draw attention.”

That drew an unpleasant looking smile from Julia who replied, “he doesn’t wear his uniform in public. It just looks like he’s my man servant or something.”

“Still,” Indy replied, “he didn’t seem to have any problems following your lead and getting that kind of obedience from Chesty Puller is no small accomplishment. You earn that man’s respect and you must be…”

Julia became rather smug but, she still held on to her feminine ways as she asked, “must be what Doctor Jones?”

He gave a slick smile, looked her in the eye, and with all of his charm he told her, “you must be working for Bill Donovan.”

The smile dropped and Julia took another hit of her smoke as she looked back out at the Philadelphia skyline. She was not sure if what he was going to say would be an insult or compliment. His reply seemed to be neither. Finally she just laughed at it, “you are very perceptive Doctor Jones. Annoying, but still it does you credit. I should have expected as much. I’ve read the file we have on you.”

Julia was a bit surprised with this man, no matter how much the OSS had packed into their file drawer on him. Jones was not quite what she had expected. As of right now, Julia could count the number of men who had not given her ‘that look’ on the fingers of one hand. Since she had been assigned to this project that number was only one and now it had doubled to two. Was the guy that slick or, was he really that professional. Julia wasn’t sure. His reputation would have argued he was that slick but, he had a sincerity to him. How did he survive if that was real? He had tangled with some pretty nasty customers over the years.

Julia decided to change the subject, “do you think this is going to work?”

It was a question that had been on a lot of peoples minds. The fact that they were headed out to open sea was not considered a good omen. Indy just cut through the subtleties and said, “you mean, do I think we’re going to blow a big hole in the water where this carrier used to be?”

Julia did not bother to look at him when he said that. She was nervous and hated that. She hated it even more when she could not hide it, “you are a straight shooter aren’t you.”

“Life gets complicated on it’s own Miss Bitrerlich,” Indy replied. “Why make it any more when it’ll do the work for you?”

She became sassy once more, “when you are, to put it bluntly, a spy you sometimes don’t have a choice. You also didn’t answer the question Doctor Jones.”

Jones just shrugged, “it’s not going to work and I doubt it’ll blow up. Even if they get the power to it that they need, which is a big if, they still don’t know exactly what to do in order to turn the thing on.”

Julia replied with confidence, “Doctor Grant seems to think he has everything he needs. He’s confident.”

Indy knew that and he also knew, “that guy would be confident with a row boat in a hurricane. Doesn’t mean he’d make it to shore drip dry.”

After another puff, Julia looked at Jones and, with a perky smile, she said, “and why is it that I get the impression that he isn’t the only one like that around here.”

If Jones understood that as an insult he did not act as if he did. Once again he sincerely replied, “well that’s normal when you pool together some of the biggest know it alls in the country. They’re all used to being the big cheese and suddenly they find themselves in a crew that’s just like they are. Has to be a sobering experience.”

She wanted to laugh and mostly because it was true. Julia had not thought of it like that before and found it an interesting observation. She also thought it interesting that this Jones did not include himself in that number. She put that to him and he replied, “hell lady, I’m just here to read obscure inscriptions.”

“I think you’re being a little modest Jones,” she told him point blank. Not only did Julia firmly believe that but, she realized that was also the mark of a good spy. It meant his ego had not overloaded his brains. It also meant that he could keep a secret and that sparked her curiosity to no end. “I’ve been told you were the guy really behind getting that thing to the good ole US of A.”

Indy tossed his smoke overboard, “exaggeration. I had a hand in it but I wasn’t THE guy. For that you need to talk to Doc Langford or Littlefield. Without them that thing would still be sitting in a warehouse in Cairo, gathering dust.”

“That might be true,” Julia came back with, “but after that they convinced the consulate that you were the go to guy, or, so I have heard. As I understood it, there were problems with the British, then the Nazi’s, and without you, well…”

Indy looked her in the eye, “well what? Ok, I’m sure you guys over at the War Department already know I’m a specialist in recovering artifacts. What’s so surprising about that?”

“Nothing about that per se,” Julia smugly asked. “It’s just I have always wondered who was helping you on that little operation.”

Indy forced a laugh at that, “well you were the one that pointed out I’m one of the know it alls. You obviously read the report. Anybody else would have gotten in the way.”

Julia shrugged slightly and was pleasantly swinging her shoulders as she said, “Achilles.”

Once again Indy acted as if he had to think, “you mean the actual freighter we put the thing on?”

Her eyes locked in on his, “you know damn well what I’m talking about. That ship reached Boston with a hole in it’s side. Kind of funny but, so did the original crate that our object was in. Then I happened to notice in the report that it was pretty much the same size as the hole in the second crate they put around it.”

Indy chuckled, “well you’ve lost me on that one Miss Bitrerlich. I wasn’t on the Achilles and I don’t know anything about a second crate. I never saw that thing after we left Alexandria.”

“Well I was,” Julia replied firmly. “I was on the team that investigated it after it reached Boston. There were forty five caliber bullet holes down in that compartment. I even personally found some splattering of blood on the deck. It was right beneath where the ring was sitting.”

Indy just shrugged, “and why are you telling me this?”

She went on as if he had not even asked his question, “you know, it didn’t make any sense to me at the time. There were no bodies, no weapons, and the crew all said that nothing had happened besides, maybe, they were hit with some kind of Nazi super weapon. I guess it made sense, seeing as how the Germans were trying to stop that ship. It’s just…”

Indy knew exactly what she was driving at and he had personal, first hand, knowledge of why everything was the way it looked on Achilles when it first reached Boston. Up till now it had appeared that no one had figured that much out. What Indy didn’t know was how much this woman had pieced together. From what she had said it was already way too much.

“It’s just what,” he asked.

“Now that we know what that thing is for, and what it does when it’s turned on, I find it highly unlikely that any Nazi super weapon hit that ship.” She tossed her cigarette over the side and then said, “I think it more likely that someone came through it. I think he’s still here.”

Indy just laughed and said, “well you got your work cut out for you, don’t you?”

Julia took a step closer to him. She very much looked like someone who was on a blood trail and had just picked up a strong scent, “and I think you know who this guy is. I think he was helping you.”

Again Indy shrugged it off, “and I think you been working for Donovan for way too long, sister. That’s a bit far fetched unless, well, you don’t even believe the information your own organization is getting.”

Julia remained perky as she said, “I don’t know Jones. I’ve been watching what Doctor Grant has been coming up with. You may not be aware,” she thought about that for a second and then continued, “then again, you might. Grant has a source for his stuff. I know he’s taking credit for it but, we had to have someone to wash the information for us.”

Indy became serious, “I figured something like that might be happening. He was getting way over the head of Doctor Einstein and, no disrespect to Grant but, he isn’t that smart.”

“At least one thing we can agree on,” Julie replied. “And that doesn’t have anything to do with the price of tea in China. He isn’t the only one that seems to know more than he should. How did you figure out it takes a minimum of seven symbols to turn it on?”

Indy snorted a short laugh and looked back towards the scenery, “common sense lady. Once we knew what it did, that’s how many points you need in a three dimensional space to chart a course. My students could have figured that one out.”

“Yet,” Julia was really easy in how she countered him, “somehow all of the biggest know it alls in America couldn’t. You did though. You just pulled it out of a hat.”

“Look kid,” Indy replied, “we don’t even know if that’s true yet.”

“Oh,” Julia said with another of her perky little smiles, “but we do.”

“Your source I take it,” Indy answered rhetorically. Then he asked her, “well if you know all this stuff then what do you need us for? Are we all just laundry men, like Grant?”

“No, we really do need all of you,” Julia replied. “That’s also not the issue here Doctor Jones. I want to know where you’re getting your information from?”

Indy pointed to the hat on his head and said, “right beneath the staples darling. It’s called good old American know how.”

Julia had no idea what the first part meant but, she understood it to be a blow off. She also knew that, her suspicions were right. He was lying to her. She really knew it when he said, “and I’m taking it that you haven’t bothered to tell Donovan yet.”

“No I haven’t,” Julia responded truthfully, “if Uncle Bill were…”

Indy winced, “Uncle Bill?”

Julia rolled her eyes, “he’s not my uncle I just call him that. You’re also trying to distract me again. What I was saying was, If I told him he’d have you sitting in some dark cell underneath Alcatraz Island so fast you’d blink and not even know how you got there.”

“Sounds nice and cozy,” Indy replied. “Why haven’t you?”

“Because we still need you here,” Julia replied. “They don’t pay me to be a mindless slave, Doctor Jones. They pay me to get results and, right now, that’s telling me that you’ll serve us better right here.”

What she was really saying was, keep coughing up what you know or I will slap you in that cell. Indy also realized that she had a better chance of finding his associate if he was still free and communicating. Now that she had put him on notice, Indy could solve those problems but, the real question running through his mind was why did she? Her hard line, that she was taking with him, made some amount of since but, only up to a point. Indy suspected there was something else at work here.

“You’re afraid aren’t you?”

Julia’s jaw tightened, “I spent two years in Nazi Germany, Doctor Jones. In case you didn’t notice, I’m a Jew. When you put that together with being an American Spy, well those are two things that the Nazi’s hate the most. To spell it out for you, after that living hell, I don’t scare very easy.”

“Until,” Indy replied seriously, “you found out there were things out there even worse than Nazi’s. Creatures that are so powerful they could wipe out the human race in the blink of an eye. Even worse yet, they could come down here and enslave the entire planet and there isn’t much we can do about it. With the Nazi’s, well, at least we can keep them in check.”

She was almost angry when she asked, “how do you know that?”

Indy returned the favor, “how do you?”

Julia turned around and stomped off. It wasn’t easy on a flight deck and in high heels but, she managed to make angry stomps any way.