Cally's Plan
“I have a philosophy,” Cally started to speak. “I have a lot of philosophies. This is one of them. Timing; it’s not how hard you hit, it’s when you hit. Take the so-called ‘Phantom Punch’ of Muhammad Ali to the side of Sonny Liston’s head. Not a hard hit, but at the right time. In slow motion, the impact on Liston was so great, it rippled the skin up and down his back. To clarify further, it’s not only the speed of the bat, but the speed of the ball coming to the bat. It’s a simple philosophy, but it takes time to set up.”
“How long do you think it will take to whip us into shape?” Trace said.
“You’re all working men,” Calley said, “used to working until the job is done. I wouldn’t be afraid to have any of you as my backup, as it stands right now. But this ain’t work.”
“We should listen to the man,” Adam said.
“It’s stamina, I’m worried about,” Cally said. “I need to work ya pretty hard for a couple of hours a day for a couple of weeks.” Cally leaned forward and looked at everybody. “I’m not seeing any deserters. If there is, they go or I go.”
“What are you going to do?” Pete said, “Run us around the deck?”
“It’s either that or run alongside the boat,” Cally said. “Look, I just want to make sure that whatever we do, within reason, everybody will be fit enough to handle it. With that in mind, I’ve already made arrangements for a doctor to come onboard tomorrow to give everybody a physical.”
“What!” Coyote said.
Trace spoke up. “I think it’s a good idea. We don’t want somebody clutching their chest in the middle of things.”
“I had a physical five years ago,” Coyote said. “The doc said I had the heart and lungs of a man half my age. Come to think of it, I can’t put in a sixteen-hour day anymore.”
“What if one of us can’t cut the muster?” Adam said.
“Everybody who’s here, now, is fit for this operation,” Cally said. “The only question will be, is how can they be used. Without a doctor’s exam, I’d say there’s little I wouldn’t trust any of you with. I wouldn’t expect Adam, Coyote, Pete, or me, for that matter, to be able to have the same stamina and agility as Trace, Sage, and Makani. However, the older ones among us will be best suited for assignments best left for somebody with maturity and experience.”
“Have you done this type of thing before?” Sage asked.
“I have,” Cally said.
“Were they successful?” Sage asked.
“Not all,” Cally said.
Trace chuckled. “Well, that’s honest—and good. I’d sure hate to be led by a guy whose every mission was a success. That would mean the law of averages is about due to catch up with him.”
“Where would you say the failures came from?” Trace said.
“The unknown,” Cally said. “You can always prepare for what you know and only speculate on what is unknown.”
“How much do we know?” Trace asked.
“Not much,” Cally said. “I understand you have a box full of information. We’ll have to go over that. It is amazing what can be gathered from stuff that seems to be unimportant.”
“How long will it take before you think we’re ready?” Trace asked.
“Have you seen the movie, The Princess Bride?” Cally asked.
“Yeah,” Trace said, “one of my favorites.”
“A movie packed with wisdom,” Cally said. “There’s this quote by Miracle Max, ‘Don't rush me, sonny. You rush a miracle man, you get rotten miracles.’ I think that applies here. But I know what you’re getting at. You got a ship and crew. Perhaps you have more on you than I do. So, to give you some sort of answer, I’d say thirty days minimum. What I mean by that is that’s when we should be ready to storm the beaches.” Cally paused at seeing several confused faces. “That’s a figure of speech. We’re not going to storm any beaches.”
“We knew that,” Coyote said. “We’re not that gullible, are we?” He glanced at a table full of blank looks. “Well, are we? Maybe we are. I’m an ex-Marine. We did all sorts of stupid stuff we were told to do.”
Cally chuckled. “This ain’t a Marine operation. We don’t figure in casualties. We figure zero casualties.”
“It will take about two weeks to get to the island,” Trace said.
“I don’t trust Fiji,” Cally said. “No offense, Pete and Makani, but you know the island better than me, and I’m sure you have your doubts too.”
Pete and Makani looked at each other.
“We don’t,” Pete said.
“I suggest we sail to Samoa as soon as possible,” Cally said. “We can dock there. I have more contacts there. And we can acquire what we need there.”
“In the old days, I could make Samoa in five days,” Adam said.
“Can we be ready to sail in two days?” Cally asked.
“If it wasn’t for the physicals, we could sail tomorrow,” Trace said.
“The physicals are something I need to know as soon as possible,” Cally said.
“I take it we don’t want to do anything here that might look suspicious, right?” Trace said.
“Yeah,” Cally said.
“Allie Charmichial, my shipping broker, knows what’s going on,” Trace said. “If not for her, you wouldn’t be here. She’s the one who started the ball rolling. What I’m saying, is that she might be able to provide some cover for us. An empty cargo ship leaving port is suspicious. If anybody can, she can get us some cargo to Samoa.”
“See what she can do,” Cally said.
“I’ll call her tonight,” Trace said.
“If I know her, she’ll be working the phones all night to have cargo here in the morning,” Adam said.
“There’s one more thing,” Cally said. “It’s the element of surprise. I have a Cessna 208 amphibious plane. It’s in Samoa. That’s where we will part.”
“Does that mean we’ll be on our own?” Trace said, “Or do you have plans for the plane?”
“When we get to Samoa, I’m going to have the plane fitted with a rocket launcher and machine gun. You will have some air support. But that’s a last resort. From overhead at two hundred miles per hour, steering a plane not made for this sort of thing—last resort, desperation. That’s not the reason for the plane, though. We’ll get to the reason later.”
“How does that match against their P51?” Trace asked.
“The Cessna loses every time,” Cally said. “However, if I’m there before it takes off, I can disable it. But it’s better if someone else does it.”
“Why on earth do you have a seaplane?” Adam said.
“It’s a sideline. Sometimes I transport big shots from one place to another.”
“Big shots who don’t want to let anybody know where they are going?” Adam asked.
“Yeah, sometimes,” Cally said, “under the radar stuff.”
“You always had a nose and reputation for that sort of thing,” Adam said.
Cally raised his eyebrows. “And here I am.”
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