Читать книгу Burmese Connection - Ashish Basu - Страница 6

Kip Kimura’s early morning start was going great! Kip knew he had to plan a trip soon to meet up with Dr. Kang, the researcher in the High-Performance Wireless team, at the SCRIPPS Institute in San Diego. That team at SCRIPPS was consulting with Kip’s company for a wireless infrastructure project in Thailand. A couple of times, he had almost booked his tickets, but something important always came up, and he ended up postponing the trip. He always told himself that it was a day trip to San Diego, after all, and he could plan it any time he wanted with a week’s notice to Dr. Kang. Dr. Kang always made himself available.

This time, however, several things fell in place. Kip himself was not over committed; United Airlines had his favorite seat in business class at the right price; Dr. Kang was available, and because of the lockdown, Kip had agreed to drive down to Dr. Kang’s home office in Chula Vista. So, with all the stars aligned the right way, Kip confidently decided to make the trip. The project was not on a tight schedule, and they knew that the wireless technology specifications could change again.

Kip Kimura had obtained a license and started “ConSec” in San Rafael, California, almost immediately after he took early retirement from the US Army. The idea of ConSec, or Consulting in Security, came from Kip’s army buddy Tim Kramer, who eventually became co-owner of the company. ConSec specialized in physical and cybersecurity, breach prevention, mitigation, and conflict resolution internationally. Tim and Kip had a unique set of skills in ConSec’s area of specialization because they were involved in similar work for the Armed Forces and US Department of Defense (DoD). They still maintained their connections with the DoD and the US Army.

The conflict resolution part of their work required Kip and Tim to have a very wide network of international connections. Some of those were through the government agencies, and some of those were outside the formal government structures. That practice was Kip’s area of focus. As the world became more connected, one side effect was social media. With social media taking over the world, tribalism increased considerably. Whether it was election interference in a foreign land or fighting a pandemic, or other kinds of nefarious media influencing, tribalism was out and about everywhere you went.

Much of ConSec’s recent work focused on resolving those types of conflicts, identifying the sources, and preventing those from reoccurring. As a team, they were never short of work; people knew about them in ConSec’s niche market. They were not rich yet, but with a steady caseload from law enforcement teams all over the country and their contacts in the Department of Defense, they were busy. That was part of the reason for the delay in planning the trip to San Diego, California.

Kip’s Lyft driver dropped him at the San Francisco International Airport with plenty of time to spare. Kip managed to check his email and even finished the coffee he purchased at the terminal. He was quite elated when he saw that the flight was departing on time. With COVID-19 lockdowns everywhere, one could never be sure when the flights actually departed. With so many new restrictions, a lot could go wrong; most of the airlines were not yet allowed to sell all the seats. Some flight routes might not be commercially viable, Kip thought.

He hoped that the US Congress would be able to approve a financial relief package for the airlines. After the flight took off into the bright blue California morning, Kip settled down in his seat and opened his tablet to watch the Netflix movie he had not finished last time. The WWII true story was about three brothers saving several hundred Jews in Northern Europe by hiding them in a dense forest. For over two years, the brothers ran a small makeshift village of Jews in the middle of the forest. It had its school, communal kitchen, and ragtag security force. Kip loved the first hour of the movie—the acting and the direction were great. Adversity really brought people together.

Several minutes after the flight reached cruising altitude, just about when the flight attendants were getting ready with their service carts, a passenger started feeling unwell. She was three rows behind Kip’s, so he could not see much, but he could feel the anxiety in the voices of the flight attendants.

After a few minutes of tense discussion and snippets of conversations from a couple of passengers near her, Kip heard the senior flight attendant say, “I would go and talk to the captain. He might consider landing in Burbank so that she can get immediate medical attention. We are not far from our destination of San Diego, but Burbank is even closer—could make a difference of fifteen minutes.”

With those words, the flight attendant went away for several minutes. When she got back, she said, “I tried to explain, but the captain is reluctant to consider landing in Burbank because it would change the connecting flight options from San Diego and save twenty minutes. He did not think it would make a material difference, also Air Traffic Control might not be able to clear us for landing immediately.”

On hearing that statement from the flight attendant, the passengers who were nearby started reacting. A male voice that sounded elderly said, “Twenty minutes can make a lot of difference when someone is unwell. You go and say that to your captain, young lady.”

The flight attendant seemed to make an attempt to say something, “Sir, I understand, but—”

Before she finished her sentence, another lady’s voice picked up the thread, a bit more aggressively, “What is wrong with your airline people? Why are you worrying about flight connections when someone is unwell? Someone’s life is more important than your flight schedules. You know, planes will fly tomorrow, the day after, and the day after that. I cannot believe this!”

That last bit of lecturing opened the floodgate! More passengers spoke up; several of them had graphic tales to tell—stories of suffering uncles, cousins, and aunts started coming out of many seats. One lady spoke of a very sick aunt who got stuck on a plane in New York last month for three hours just because the captain parked the plane away from the gate, and the passengers were bused to the terminal. Her sick aunt had to wait for her wheelchair, which took a lifetime to arrive.

They asked the flight attendant to go and talk to the captain one more time and persuade him. The experienced flight attendant realized the direction in which the conversation was going and how quickly things could go south. She left before things went out of control. This time, the flight attendant came back quickly and said that the captain had agreed, and the flight would land at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank in about twenty-two minutes. Pretty quick, thought Kip.

Kip watched the whole thing unfold and wondered if he should inform Dr. Kang that he would be delayed for his 11:00 a.m. meeting in Chula Vista, but his AT&T iPhone had no bars, so he decided to wait for the plane to land. On landing in Burbank, he would have signal and could call then. He was still hoping that he would make it to Chula Vista, San Diego, for the meeting. He started watching their plane descending into the Bob Hope Airport through his window.

Upon landing in Burbank, the sick lady was stretchered off the plane, and the other passengers were asked to wait in a quarantine room adjacent to the terminal building. Kip noticed a stern looking lady in the corner of the bare room they were in.

As he and a few other passengers approached, she lifted her gaze and said, “Please fill out this yellow application form, and then form a line on the left side of my desk. And please stay six feet apart; we observe social distancing at the Bob Hope Airport, no exceptions. We have a very high standard of passenger hygiene at this airport, and we want to keep it that way.” Nobody disputed her claims, so she shifted her focus on her tabletop.

The form had questions about their general health, travel plans, if they had a fever, if they had visited Wuhan in China recently, etc. It stated that the nurse would take body temperatures with a thermometer. It also said that depending on their answers on the form, passengers could be quarantined at the state-of-the-art quarantine facility located at the Burbank Airport. Apparently, the quarantine facility was so comfortable that some passengers wanted to stay there longer!

After his experience so far, that was the last thing Kip wanted, even if the facility was state-of-the-art, so he followed the instructions. While they were departing, the nurse handed each passenger a set of disposable latex gloves and two surgical masks. She also advised each of them to wear a mask at all times in the Burbank Airport. Kip was happy to note that mask wearing in public places was gradually becoming a norm, at least in California. The whole process was long and inefficient to say the least, but he liked the fact that people were following the process. As Tim would say, “It is the process of compliance that protects people,” not the intent. The nurse took a lot of time, but eventually, she let all passengers go back to the main terminal building. All first half flights were already gone—short hop flights were a lot fewer, anyway.

Kip got back to the airline counter at the terminal and found the only options were late evening flights. Then, he went to the rental car counter and found that cars were readily available, and he could potentially pick up the car from AVIS in Burbank and drop it off at AVIS in the San Diego Airport. The distance was not much, but if he opted to drive in a rental car, he could be stuck in LA traffic for hours. Traffic jams on I5 South were legendary. Interstate 5 (I5 for locals) and other routes to San Diego through the city of Irvine were all likely to be clogged with traffic at that time of the day. The last time he had tried going that way, he was stuck near the UC Irvine campus for three long hours!

Ultimately, Kip decided against going to San Diego. Instead, he called Dr. Kang, explained the situation, and re-scheduled his meeting for a later date. After he ended the call with Dr. Kang, he got back to the terminal building to check the options for return flights to San Francisco and even Oakland. He checked with United, Delta, and Southwest Airlines. The earliest outgoing flight was around 8:00 p.m., which meant he would be home around 11:00 p.m. at the earliest.

As he was checking the flight schedules, one thought occurred to him. He could simply go to his friend John’s house in Glendale and borrow his old car for a drive back to San Rafael. John and Kip were in high school together in Boulder, Colorado, and they had always stayed in touch. Lately, they had not met each other in a few months after the COVID-19 lockdowns. The last time John was visiting a studio in Emeryville, he did not have time to drive down to San Rafael because he had to fly out of Oakland Airport, so they missed each other. Then came the lockdowns. Everybody had to drastically cut down essential and non-essential travel by air. As it was, John did not travel much for work. Kip was the one who did, so he might as well make up for the missed opportunity in the Bay Area. This was a good time for Kip to meet John and his son Joe. He knew John’s wife was at her parents’ place in Santa Barbara looking after them. The extended lockdown had complicated life for the elderly more than others could even imagine.

With a little luck, that option could get him home probably by 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. Kip’s next call was to his friend John. As expected, John Abreo was at home because of the lockdown; his post-production company had switched to “working from home” mode. John readily agreed to lend the old Acura Integra to Kip. He said that the old car was only occasionally used by his son, so Kip could borrow and keep it for a few days. John’s son was college bound, but the admission he was longing for was not in hand yet, so Joe did not have a use for the car during the lockdown, and it stayed parked roadside. John said the car had not been serviced in a couple of years, so Kip should keep that in mind.

Kip knew he would have to visit Southern California (SoCal) in a week, he could always drop off John’s Acura during his next trip. In a few minutes, Kip picked up his backpack, came out of the terminal building, called a Lyft ride, and left for John’s house in Glendale. Like many folks do in Los Angeles, Kip’s Lyft driver used some shortcuts and made it to Glendale quickly. As he was alighting from the Toyota Camry curbside, Kip could see John doing some yard work. His yard needed attention after the recent rains—leaves were scattered all over.

On seeing him, John called out, “Hey, Joey, come and say hello to Uncle Kip—he is here.”

By the time Kip climbed the two steps onto the porch, Joe was out greeting him. Much as he would have liked to, Kip could not hang out with John and Joe for long because John had work. John had to do a series of conference calls with his creative director. John’s company was outsourcing parts of the shooting to a company in Austria where the COVID-19 lockdown was less intense and movie production was going on uninterrupted. Like Norway, Austria managed the lockdown well. They closed the country early and opened early, and movie production was continuing there as per CDC guidelines.

Joe told him that he was hoping to get admission into Arizona, that he had a good GPA, but his SAT scores were low. Joe thought he did not make it in the first list of admitted students because of his SAT scores. Kip encouraged Joe to stay positive and said that his admission would probably come through because of the low volume of international students this year. Kip had read that news item on the internet and also watched the president of the University of California system say so to a reporter on live TV. Joe said he was hopeful because some of his classmates had just started receiving their scholarship and admission offers. After a while, Kip picked up the car keys, joined John and his son Joe for a quick falafel sandwich lunch, and departed for San Rafael.

He topped off the gas talk in a Shell gas station on Los Feliz Boulevard and picked up a few bottles of water and a bag of snacks for the six-hour drive back. He knew once he reached the Interstate 5, he would have a pretty smooth drive at this time of the day. Because of the recent wildfires in Southern California, there was a rerouting of traffic on I5, based on what he had heard on the car radio—Kip hoped that would not impact him too much. He should be able to manage.

As he headed toward I5 Northbound, Kip told himself that he had made a good decision; there was really no point in pushing himself to go to San Diego today. It made no sense to him. It was not a great idea to just wait in Burbank Airport till 8:00 p.m. for the next flight and then learn that there had been a schedule change. Travel had really become a nightmare in 2020 because of the lockdowns. In terms of traffic and driving, it was not just San Diego—he had to take into account the driving distance to Chula Vista as well. Within minutes, Kip drove out of Glendale and hit the freeway, and the car handled itself well. That was one thing he liked about the cars made by Honda. Like his friend John, he liked cars made by Honda for their reliability. The traffic on I5 was light, and he was making a steady seventy-five miles an hour.

After all, ninety-six thousand miles is not that big a deal for an Acura made in the early 2000s, Kip told himself. The temperature outside was seventy degrees and sunny; it was indeed beautiful California weather for driving. Given the beautiful weather and the broadcast from the local PBS station, Kip did not need to stop soon. He crossed the suburbs of Los Angeles, Bakersfield, and decided to do a gas refill and coffee break. He stopped over at a gas station and an adjacent Denny’s at Buttonwillow. After he filled the gas tank, as he was departing the gas station, he heard a noise coming from the undercarriage of the Acura.

He ignored it for several minutes as he went around the overpass and merged onto Northbound I5. He thought the noise was caused by the vibration of a part that had become loose. Kip thought that it may be a loose body part, and at steady freeway speed, the vibration and sound would subside. It did not quite work that way as the sound increased steadily—it did not change with speed. As he was crossing Kettleman City and going toward Coalinga, the sound increased considerably, and he had to stop on the shoulder right after the junction of I5 and State Highway 33. For a few minutes, Kip sat inside the car and thought about the options he had. None of the options seemed very appealing.

Finally, he thought maybe switching off and cooling the engine might help. Kip switched the engine off, let the car cool down for fifteen minutes, and attempted a restart, but this time, the engine would not even start. When the car didn’t start after several attempts, Kip realized that it would be dark in a few hours, and he did not want to be stuck on the shoulder of I5 after dark. With cars traveling on I5 at eighty-five miles an hour, that would be a very bad idea in the middle of nowhere in the truest sense of the term. Also, towing might not be available by the American Automobile Association (AAA) after dark, so he decided to call the California AAA toll-free number from his iPhone.

The emergency roadside service of the AAA said that the estimated arrival of a tow truck from Los Banos was an hour later. So Kip went inside the car, switched on his blinkers, and waited. He wanted the speeding cars to see him because of the blinkers. An hour later, a very impressive looking AAA towing truck came and parked about fifty feet ahead of Kip on the shoulder. The car had all kinds of lights on its sides and also on top of the driver’s cabin. The driver came down from the truck, took Kip’s membership card and driver’s license, and filled out some paperwork. After that, he tilted the cargo section of the tow truck and winched John’s Acura on the tow truck—the Acura fit into the flat cargo bed pretty well. The bed could accommodate sedans and trucks.

As soon as Kip settled on the front passenger seat, the driver started his drive back to Los Banos. The first AAA approved auto shop they ran into was full, so the tow truck driver had to take Kip to Dick’s Auto Repair a bit further down the road toward Merced. Kip got down and explained the problem to Dick, the owner. Dick nodded his head and said he understood the issue; he said he had repaired this type of problems in the past. He said it was quite common with old fasteners.

He explained that some of the fasteners used in the undercarriage had become loose. And those had to be replaced with original Honda or Acura parts as soon as possible; otherwise, the larger parts would sustain damage, which would cost more. He was hoping that the problem would not be complicated because that Acura was his only transport back to San Rafael, and he was delayed. Dick had the Acura lifted in his repair bay and inspected the undercarriage with a powerful flashlight designed for inspection.

After doing a visual inspection, he hammered a few places and declared, “I can repair it—it is not going to be expensive, about three hundred dollars or so, but it will take time because I have to get a part from another store in Morgan Hill. I can get it done in eight hours tops.” When he heard the time estimate from Dick, Kip’s heart sank; he realized that he was looking at the possibility of spending the night at sleepy Los Banos, for which he was not prepared. Not the ideal situation to be in, but Kip had seen much worse days in the US Army.

Dick went inside, made a couple of calls, and came to Kip with a smile. “Good news and bad news: the good news is the part is available and it is coming; the bad news is it will take two extra hours. I’ll have my night shift guy get it all done, and you can pick up the car in the morning.”

Kip could drive long distances for ten to twelve hours in the daylight, but he was not a good nighttime driver because he had a tendency to doze off. Kip reluctantly decided to spend the night in Las Banos to avoid night driving. Dick’s shop was on Highway 152, and on his way in, Kip had seen a Walmart. One block from there, across from the Walmart, there was a La Quinta Inn. Kip was in no mood to go and look for another hotel.

Kip decided to visit the Walmart first because he felt there was a high likelihood that he would get a room. Los Banos cannot be crowded with visitors at this time of the year, Kip thought. Kip had to do a bit of shopping at Walmart for toothpaste, razors, and bottled water. After Walmart, Kip went to the La Quinta Inn to check if rooms were available. Luckily, rooms were available, and the front office staff were very helpful—they even ordered pizza for him. There were few guests, and Kip took a room on the third floor to avoid the white noise from I5.

Kip was in no mood to step out again for dinner, so he had accepted the hotel manager’s offer for the pizza. Los Banos was almost in the middle of California and on I5, so the hotel was not heavily booked during the week. As soon as he was inside his room, Kip called Tim in San Rafael and filled him in about his stay in Los Banos.

Tim joked and commented, “Some people prefer the scenic route to get back to San Rafael from Glendale—what can I say? Please enjoy your vacation. I will see you day after tomorrow, then.” After that, Tim ended the call.

The day had been long and tiring, so Kip had a shower, finished his delicious hotel ordered pizza, watched the news on CNN for a half an hour, and went to sleep. In many cities in the US, there were Black Lives Matter protests. In several cities, the protests had turned violent toward the late evening hours. The next day, before breakfast, Kip called Dick for a status on the repair. Dick said that they had more delays, but the car would be ready for pickup by 10:00 a.m. It didn’t matter to Kip that much because it would still be mid-afternoon when he would reach Highway 101 near Gilroy. He would switch to Highway 280 eventually, but he was a lot more worried about the traffic on Highway 101. Once he was past that bottleneck, in San Jose, Highway 280 was manageable. He had no way to get a better sense of the traffic on the way. I will cross that bridge when I get to it, thought Kip.

His next traffic nightmare could be the Sausalito bound traffic on the Golden Gate bridge, but he thought he could deal with it. Kip had a leisurely breakfast of eggs, bacon, and a lot of black coffee. After that, he walked around the block and completed his three-mile daily quota of brisk walking. Los Banos was a pretty quiet place; Kip liked the simple working-class town. Visitors were probably there only because of I5 or the University of California, Merced to the East. It was also a route to the Yosemite Park, not a popular one but a good one, and there was a lot less traffic.

He used the hotel Wi-Fi, cleared all his emails, sent the two documents Dr. Kang had wanted, and then left for Dick’s auto shop. On arrival at Dick’s repair shop, Kip noticed that the brown Acura Integra was ready and parked outside—Dick had even washed the car thoroughly. Dick profusely apologized for the delay and said that while the repair work was going on, someone had called about the car and his mechanic talked to the caller. Kip asked him what the call was for, but Dick did not know; he went inside to check with his mechanic, but the mechanic had already stepped out for early lunch. Dick said their lunch break was usually one hour, but he was not sure if the mechanic would return in an hour. He had left early for a doctor visit that had to be today.

Kip was in two minds, but in the end, he decided not to wait any longer and risk traffic delays on Highway 101 North and then on the Golden Gate Bridge. He did not want to get caught in traffic on 101 or even 280. Kip paid Dick’s invoice with his American Express and headed for Highway 152 Westbound; he would now be on 152 West all the way till Gilroy, California. For a regular Tuesday morning, traffic on the road was light, and Kip made good time. The car was driving like a charm. Clearly, Dick knew what he was doing—the noise was all gone. The ride quality was very good for a 2002 Acura. Gasoline cars of that vintage were really made, Kip thought. He had to admire the build quality of the Japanese cars—so reliable after so many years on the road.

After a couple of hours, Kip arrived in Gilroy and merged into 101 Northbound. There was a small roadside brush fire near San Martin, so for about three miles, Hwy 101 had only two of the four lanes operating. Contrary to his expectations, Northbound 280 was completely clogged with traffic near Palo Alto, and that slow down added at least twenty-five minutes to his travel. Most of the crowd was for the VC firms and HP campus—some for Stanford University. There was a demonstration going on at the Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza. He saw that the protesters were carrying signage that said, “Make America Great Again” and “Four More Years.” He knew who those protesters were. Finally, around 6:30 p.m. after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, Kip could see his lane. Roads were wet—it had rained a lot over here!

What started out as a short-day trip to San Diego finally came to an end a day and half later! He was really tired from the long drive. Kip parked the Acura next to his Jaguar on the driveway, opened his garage, and went inside. Once inside, Kip made some coffee and sat down with his laptop to clear his email. His flat screen TV was on mute. Kip saw on CNN that the Black Lives Matter protests were now happening in multiple cities in the US simultaneously. Some of the CNN analysts were saying that professional sports teams from the NBA and NFL would soon join the protests. Kip thought it was about time. He was tired of seeing examples of racial discrimination on TV weekly; it was like having two legal systems in the same country. What bothered him even more was that the government and the folks in power were still mostly in denial.

If Kip had time, he would have liked to go to San Francisco and join one of the protest marches. He made a mental note to check the schedule and check if he could go. If he drove down to San Francisco, he would have to commit himself for a full workday. That was the only reason he had not been able to go. He did not have that kind of time right now, but he would in a month or so, and at that time, he would most definitely do a plan with Tim and drive down to San Francisco. Because of the lockdowns, parking in the city had become much easier.

The next morning, Kip woke up at 5:00 a.m. so that he could start the day early after his run on the trail near Marin Headlands—he got back after his five-mile route. He came back from his run, showered, and was about to sit down for breakfast when his landline phone at home rang.

The display had John’s phone number from Glendale, and as he picked up the phone, he could hear Joe’s excited voice at the other end, “Uncle Kip, I made it into the university; they have even offered me the Electrical Engineering honors program I was waiting for. I might get good financial aid as well.”

“Wow, wow, Joey, slow down,” Kip said, “we were talking about this only yesterday at your house in Glendale. I am so happy and thrilled for you. I am sure you would become a great electrical engineer someday. Anyway, very big congratulations!”

He really felt great for the kid. After a couple of minutes, John came on the line. John said, “Kip, I never thought I would bother you like this, but could you please drop off the car this week? Joe will need it on the campus because there is no other form of transportation.”

Kip replied, “No worries at all, John. I had to visit Southern California next week anyway for a project in San Diego. Could I bring it over on Thursday, say midday?”

“That will be awesome. Thursday any time would be all right, Kip. You decide, I don’t want to impose,” John said.

He realized that John was feeling a bit awkward, but in reality, it was not an inconvenience for Kip’s schedule at all. He thought he would let John know next time they met face-to-face in Glendale. Kip disconnected and started planning. If I’m going back to SoCal, it might make sense to connect up with Dr. Kang in San Diego, he thought. After a few minutes of thinking, Kip discarded that thought. It was probably better to keep the schedule flexible for now, at least.

Finally, Kip decided that he would start early on Thursday, drive to Glendale, and return the car. Only after that was done would he plan the rest of the activities. After his last trip got disrupted the way it did, Kip thought that too much detailed planning was not very wise. If he could plan to drive in off-peak hours, he should be fine because the distances in SoCal were not far. After dropping off John’s car, if things went as planned, he could easily rent a car from Glendale or Burbank Airport.

He could drive down to San Diego; he would use United Airlines on the way back. He had lots of unused miles for 2020, and in their mileage program, some miles could expire. Kip wanted to bounce off a few ideas with Dr. Kang about the Thai wireless job. No big deal. Kip spent most of Wednesday in meetings with his partner Tim. He briefed Tim on the ongoing cases and made sure that Tim had all the case files, copies of agreements, email addresses, and contacts for the priority items. After his last trip got extended, he had become wiser.