INGRID DOWS - AN ALTERNATE STORY PART 3 - THE SPACE AGE by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 12 – THE MIDDLE EAST IS HEATING UP

19:52 (New York Time)

Friday, August 03, 1951 ‘C’

AIRBUS 2 of Air Fifinella, taking off from La Guardia Airport

New York City, U.S.A.

‘’Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. We have now taken off from La Guardia Airport and are climbing towards our cruising altitude of 45,000 feet. Our trip to Paris should take approximately six hours and twenty minutes and the last meteorological report from Paris indicated clear skies and a temperature of 79 degrees Fahrenheit. Please stay in your seat and keep your safety belt buckled up until the seatbelt signal switches off. Once at our cruising altitude, our cabin attendants will pass to take your orders for drinks and food. Thank you again for flying Air Fifinella.’’ Norma Jean Mortenson in 1951, at age 25.

Norma Jean Mortenson, sitting in her cabin attendant’s seat next to the onboard kitchenette of the Hughes AIRBUS 2 jetliner, watched on her small monitor screens the reactions of the passengers, who were filmed in continuous mode by the cameras installed in each of the transverse pressurized tubes serving as passenger cabins in the AIRBUS 2. Those cameras were actually meant as a safety feature, to alert the cabin attendants about any possible medical distress situation or abusive or violent behavior concerning a passenger. Today, their flight was full, with 102 passengers aboard, including an old woman who had come in on a wheelchair. Contrary to all other existing airliners not built by Hughes, the AIRBUS 2’s very innovative design had aisles wide enough to allow a wheelchair to easily circulate between the two facing rows of fifteen seats contained in each of the cabins, plus had one wheelchair-accessible washroom situated next to the two seats reserved for handicapped passengers, which also had a stowage space next to them in which a folded wheelchair could be put in. There was also a special lift used for wheelchair-bound patients, while all of the 102 reclining seats aboard were sixty centimeter-wide, thus providing a level of comfort normally found only in business-class seats on other airliners. Many airline executives in the United States and in Europe had mocked this ‘wasted space cutting on the number of paying passengers’ but this actually had made Air Fifinella hugely popular with the traveling public. The only other airline company offering such amenities to its tourist-class passengers was TWA, which actually belonged to the Hughes Corporation, like Air Fifinella, and which followed the same passenger-related policies mandated by Katharine Hepburn and Ingrid Dows. As a result, other airline companies, like Pan Am, American Airline and United Airline, using less advanced aircraft and following old-style cabin seating standards, were having a hard time competing against Air Fifinella and TWA. Even those airlines who had bought Hughes airliners but had then made the mistake of replacing the original seats with narrower, less comfortable seats in order to boost the number of paying passengers, had quickly regretted their initiative, with customers voting with their feet and using Air Fifinella and TWA planes instead. Norma Jean was thus rightly proud of working for Air Fifinella, on top of enjoying the comradeship of her old female comrades from World War 2.

Once the AIRBUS 2 had reached its cruising altitude and once its pilot, Suzanne Humphreys, had switched off the seatbelt warning sign, Norma got up from her seat, imitated by the three other cabin attendants of her flight: Jennifer Brown, Francine Lejeune and Sarah Goldman. All four of them spoke French to a varying degree, with Norma being the less fluent, while Jennifer and Francine spoke it nearly fluently, being from the New Orleans area, while Sarah was of European Jewish descent and was a polyglot. Norma then paired with Jennifer Brown to push a service cart towards the two first transverse cabins, while Francine Lejeune and Sarah Goldman took another service cart and rolled it towards the aftmost cabins.

The faces of the men and teenage boys sitting in the first cabin lit up when Norma and Jennifer started rolling their cart between the two facing rows of seats in the first cabin, not only because this promised them to be served with food and drinks but also because both young women were physically very attractive, something enhanced by their body-hugging royal blue and gold Air Fifinella uniforms, which were specially designed and fitted for women and which consisted of stretching, tight-fitting leotards and double-breasted vests of nearly military-like cut. Like all the women employed by Air Fifinella, which exclusively hired ex-female servicemembers, both Norma and Jennifer wore their military medal ribbons pinned on their vests. In Norma’s case, those included one Silver Star and two Bronze Stars with ‘V’ for valor, plus two Air Medals, won either in the Pacific or in Europe between 1942 and 1944, on top of three military campaign and war medals. As for Jennifer, she wore the ribbons for three Air Medals, plus those for the Pacific Campaign, the Europe-North Africa Campaign and the World War 2 Victory Medal.

The first male customer to be served by Norma, a middle-aged man who might have served in the military before, pointed at her Silver Star Ribbon as she served him with a glass of chilled Champagne.

‘’May I ask how you won your Silver Star, miss?’’

‘’Of course you may, sir.’’ said Norma while giving him a warm smile. ‘’When the Japanese started slaughtering their American prisoners of war and the population of Manila, our forces launched an immediate air assault on Manila in order to save our compatriots and the Filipinos from the Japanese. I was on the first troop transport to land at night in assault mode at an airfield just south of Manila and, once on the ground, helped guide our next planes to land and roll towards their unloading area. To do that, I had to wear an orange vest and hold two light batons and stood in the open while mortar bombs were still falling around me and while rifle and machine gun fire was zipping around. The three other women of my group all won the Silver Star for that.’’ The man opened eyes wide on hearing her story.

‘’Wow! You were wearing an orange vest and held two lit batons at night while in plain sight of the enemy? That must have been a terrifying experience for you, miss.’’

‘’Well, I was indeed terrified at the time but I did my job despite of that.’’ The passenger returned her smile and raised his glass of Champagne to her.

‘’Then I will drink my Champagne to your health, Miss Mortenson.’’

‘’Thank you very much, sir. Here is our menu for this flight, sir. I will soon pass by again to take note of your order.’’ replied a proud Norma before rolling her cart forward to serve the next passenger while the male passengers she passed by discretely eyed her buttocks and chest. Being a cabin attendant for Air Fifinella, first on CH-4 passenger helicopters serving the Chicago – Detroit – Buffalo route and now on this New York – Paris flight, had been a most satisfying job for her. It also did a lot to help her self-esteem and satisfy her voracious need for affection, both of which were the products of a lonely, neglected youth spent mostly in foster homes.

After serving drinks and taking the passengers’ orders for food, Norma returned with Jennifer to go heat the meals ordered by the passengers, then went back with her cart to deliver those meals. One hour later, she was able to go take a break at the back of the kitchenette and, sitting down on the bench seat of the miniature attendants’ lounge, grabbed a copy of the latest FIGARO newspaper, intent on practicing her French reading skills. She quickly frowned on seeing the front-page top article of the Parisian newspaper.

‘’Bloody riots in Jerusalem? What the hell is now going on over there? Don’t the British control Palestine?’’

‘’They were, Norma,’’ answered Sarah Goldman, ‘’but they are increasingly losing their grip on the country and are said to be about to give up on it and quit. Basically, Jewish emigration to Palestine, both legal and illegal ones, has angered the local Arab sentiments and this is increasingly turning into a civil war between Arabs and Jews, with the British stuck in the middle and losing more and more soldiers. Jerusalem in particular is a growing flashpoint, especially since it is considered to be very important in religious terms by both Arabs and Jews, but for different reasons.’’

‘’Those Jewish immigrants, where are they coming from, Sarah?’’

‘’Mostly from Europe and particularly from Germany. While the armistice signed in 1944 resulted in the closing of the Nazi death camps where Jews and other minorities were being exterminated, the Jews of Europe still don’t feel welcomed in Europe, even today. This hostility against the Jews is unfortunately a very old story, with Jews having been persecuted around Europe or chased away for well over a millennium. Many Jews now want to make their old dream of having a Jewish nation of their own a reality. They call that planned Jewish nation ‘Israel’, the same name it bore in the Bible.’’

‘’So, how do you expect all this to end up, Sarah?’’

The Jewish young woman lowered her head sadly at Norma’s question.

‘’In more violence and deaths, I’m afraid. The Arabs living in Palestine, which also has been their home for centuries, are not ready to give their land to the Jews from Europe, something I can perfectly understand, and will most probably fight hard to stop those new immigrants from taking over. Unfortunately, the United Nations is a sad joke and is proving incapable of taking a firm stand on this situation, only issuing meaningless wishes and declarations. Right now, only the presence of British troops is preventing a horrible bloodbath in Palestine. Once they are gone, then it will become an ethnic and religious civil war, with all the atrocities which usually come with such wars.’’ That left Norma both shocked and appalled for a moment before she asked another question.

‘’What about our government? Can’t it do something to prevent such an awful thing?’’

‘’I’m not sure about that, Norma. Our government is mostly sympathetic to the Jewish cause and most probably also wants to avoid such a civil war to blow up in Palestine. However, other governments, like the Soviets, support the Arabs and are arming them. Unless someone does something serious soon, then Palestine will descend into chaos and bloodshed.’’

Norma was silent for a moment while thinking over that. She finally made a suggestion in a wishful tone.

‘’I was General Dows’ driver when she flew to Berlin in 1944 to offer an armistice to the Germans after Hitler’s death. Maybe Ingrid will be able again to bring peace, this time to Palestine.’’

‘’I hope so, Norma, but I am not holding my breath on that.’’

10:09 (Maryland Time)

Thursday, August 23, 1951 ‘C’

Fairchild Aviation aircraft plant, Hagerstown Regional Airport

Maryland, U.S.A.

When Ingrid entered the administrative annex of the Fairchild Aviation Corporation’s aircraft plant at the Hagerstown Regional Airport, she was greeted warmly with a handshake by Sherman Fairchild, who had observed her landing in her personal aircraft, a modified, unarmed two-seater variant of the Lockheed P-38T LIGHTNING turboprop fighter aircraft. The P-38T had entered Air Force service just before the end of the war in Europe, with the result that most of those P-38T had been quickly declared surplus and had either been scrapped or disarmed and sold as private sports planes. However, while it was now largely outclassed by modern jet fighters, it still was a very fast plane with a long range, so Ingrid had bought one as soon as she was able to do so and had then personalized it by painting it the same royal blue and gold colors than those of the aircraft used by Air Fifinella and had also added the name ‘LADY HAWK’ in big pink and black letters on its nose. Next, Sherman Fairchild pointed at a large cardboard box carried by Ingrid.

‘’Welcome to Hagerstown, Ingrid. Uh, what do you have in that box? It looks quite light for its size.’’

‘’It’s a scale model of my proposed XC-152 base design, which I came to show to your engineers today. Do you know if other constructors took on the challenge by the Air Force to build and present a prototype XC-152 cargo aircraft?’’

‘’Oh, we won’t lack competition for that contract offer, Ingrid. Douglas, Convair and Boeing are all working on their own designs for that Air Force competition: they are understandably hungry for contracts after all the contracts Hughes snapped from under their noses in the last few years. By the way, the fact that we are pairing our efforts on this project was kept a secret by us. Thus, our project is still named only as the Fairchild XC-152 GLOBEMASTER II.’’

‘’Good!’’ said approvingly Ingrid while smiling. ‘’That should buy us some tranquility for the next few months, at the least. Quite a few senators and representatives in Congress are being pushed by other aircraft manufacturers’ lobbyists into investigating rumors of supposed favoritism and influence peddling by Hughes Aircraft. Some even try to accuse me of using sexual favors in order to win Air Force contracts.’’

‘’Well, while I’m sure that those accusations are groundless, you must concede that your youth and beauty only help make those accusations believable, Ingrid.’’

‘’I know, Sherman!’’ replied Ingrid with a smirk. ‘’However, I use my physical attributes only for personal fun, not for business.’’

‘’Right!’’ said Sherman, keeping to himself a few thoughts he had in mind about that. ‘’Follow me to our design office: my engineers are dying to see what you came up with as a proposed baseline design for our XC-152. By the way, I already ordered my aircraft mechanics to refuel your plane. That fuel will be on me, of course.’’

‘’Thanks, Sherman: that’s most appreciated.’’

Using a staircase to go up to the upper floor of the administrative annex, Sherman Fairchild led Ingrid into a large room furnished with industrial drawing tables and where a dozen engineers, all men, were waiting. Ingrid then put down her box on the floor, next to a large, empty table, and extracted an airplane model from the box, putting it on the table. Sherman Fairchild and his engineers immediately gathered around the table to examine the model with intense interest as Ingrid started speaking to the group.

‘’Gentlemen, this is a model representing the baseline design I am proposing for our XC-152. However, you will be the ones who will turn this concept into a reality, so don’t hesitate to improve on it as you will work on finalizing it. Hughes’ part in this project was strictly to give you a head start on other aircraft builders who are also running for that Air Force competition, thus what I am proposing today to you is only that: a proposal. If you have ideas to improve on it, then I will be happy to hear about them. Now, to describe this model. As you can see, I used my patented Verti-Wing concept design, along with four high-bypass G.E. CF80E turbofans modified by adding moderate afterburner sections. I am now going to distribute to you copies of the basic design parameters for this model. Once you will have read through its main points, I will then answer any questions you have about it.’’

Ingrid then took out of her box a dozen copies of a four-page document and distributed them around the table, then waited while the Fairchild engineers eagerly read through their copies. Sherman Fairchild was the first to finish his reading and to speak up.

‘’An impressive design I must say, Ingrid. I see that you went for a STOL12 design, rather than for a VSTOL design.’’

‘’That’s correct, Sherman. To have attempted to make it able to take off and land at the vertical while carrying a 47-ton tank would have been too penalizing on my design. Instead, I went with the wishes of the Air Force to get a STOL transport with a good range and carrying capacity. As the saying goes: the better is the enemy of the good enough, especially in this case. To lift vertically with a M48 tank inside and with enough fuel to cross the Atlantic, I would have had to install two more engines, to add to the lift power. That would have made our plane prohibitively expensive and complicated for the Air Force. I also went with the good old K.I.S.S. principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid, which is the golden rule when Army equipment is concerned: our soldiers may be strong and brave but they are not all geniuses.’’

That made one of the engineers chuckle at that remark.

‘’Yeah! I had a sergeant-major who, while built like a gorilla and with enough guts for all of us together, was not exactly a deep-thinking scholar, miss. At first sight, your design seems to be quite gorilla-proof.’’ More chuckles, including from Ingrid, greeted those words. Another engineer then raised his hand for a question.

12 STOL: Short Take Off and Landing aircraft. VSTOL means Vertical and Short Take Off and Landing aircraft.

‘’Miss Dows, why did you choose to make the vehicle deck plating out of titanium alloy, rather than use aluminum alloy plates? Won’t that add substantially to the cost of the aircraft?’’

‘’It will, but aluminum deck plating would simply prove insufficiently strong enough to support such a heavy, compact load as one or two M48 tanks, while steel deck plating would bring a severe weight penalty to our design. Titanium alloy plating would both be strong enough and light enough to fit the bill for our XC-152. Another reason for using titanium alloy plates for the vehicle deck is to provide protection against ground fire to our troops inside our plane. Those deck plates will be linked to titanium side frame beams which will both help stiffen the design and protect the soldiers sitting in the folding seats along the sides of the cargo holds. Since the Air Force wants to have a cargo aircraft able to effect tactical landings at forward airstrips, then we can reasonably expect our future aircraft to encounter enemy ground fire on occasions.’’

‘’A most reasonable expectation indeed, Miss Dows.’’ said an engineer who had served aboard a Fairchild C-142 during the war in the Pacific. ‘’I remember hearing bullets hitting my C-142 while landing in the Philippines in 1944. I see that there is a radar-directed 30mm cannon in the tail, along with an aft-viewing thermal camera. I suppose that it is meant to defend against fighters coming from the rear quadrant?’’

‘’Correct, mister! However, I kept the aerodynamic profile of that cannon turret to the minimum, in order not to penalize the C-152 top speed of Mach 0.9, or 590 miles per hour. You will also note that the incredibly economical fuel consumption of the General Electric CF80E, at 0.35 pounds of fuel per pound of thrust per hour, will allow our XC-152 to easily attain and largely surpass the Air Force requirement for a minimum range of 4,200 miles while carrying one M48 tank across the Atlantic.’’

‘’Can you tell us why you went for a lifting body solution rather than a classic fuselage and wings configuration, Miss Dows?’’

‘’I chose to use my Verti-Wing concept because a lifting body cum flying wing is inherently much stronger structurally and flexes less in flight than a fuselage-wings configuration. That was an important factor when considering that our future plane will have to carry compact, very heavy loads like a tank and may have to perform tactical landings on rudimentary fields, which will induce heavy G loads on its structure. Such a task could well break the back of a standard cargo aircraft with wings attached to a long fuselage.’’

Many more questions and point discussions followed, keeping Ingrid quite busy until a secretary came in some forty minutes later with a message for her.

‘’I am sorry to disturb you like this, Miss Dows, but I have an urgent telephone call for you from Los Angeles. It is a Miss Lamarr on the phone.’’

‘’Uh, I’m coming, miss! Sorry for the delay, guys.’’

‘’Take your time, Ingrid.’’ replied Sherman Fairchild. Ingrid, following with quick steps the secretary to the adjacent office, hoped that this was not some kind of personal emergency or accident and was quite worried as she grabbed the telephone receiver handed to her by the secretary.

‘’Ingrid here! What’s up, Hedy?’’

‘’First, you may relax, Ingrid: nothing bad happened here in L.A. I called to advise you that the White House called here to ask you to attend an urgent meeting of the presidential cabinet concerning the Middle East. The President wants your advice on that question. I was told that this meeting is due this afternoon at three o’clock, Washington time. Do you think that you could make it on time for that meeting?’’

‘’Yes! Call the White House and tell them that I will be there for three o’clock: I will fly directly from Hagerstown Airport to the Washington National Airport and will take a room at the Hayes-Adams Hotel. Did they tell you what exactly the meeting will be about?’’

‘’No! I was told that the subject was highly classified and quite sensitive.’’

‘’Okay then: I will wear my armor-plated panties for that meeting. Thanks for advising me of this, Hedy. Please ask Madam Nguyen to take care of Hien overnight: I will probably end up spending the night in Washington.’’

‘’I will, Ingrid.’’ replied Hedy before hanging up. Ingrid also hung up and thanked the secretary, then slowly returned into the design office while in deep thoughts about what could be happening in the Middle East. In truth, that region of the World was so prone to chaos and conflicts that she had coined the expression ‘Middle East Roulette’ to describe it: while one played ‘Russian Roulette’ with a revolver loaded with one bullet, playing ‘Middle East Roulette’ meant for her having yahoos playing with a six-shot revolver loaded with five bullets...when they were not playing with a semi-automatic pistol.

14:51 (Washington Time)

Situation Room, under the West Wing

The White House, Washington, D.C.

When Ingrid was let into the Situation Room by a Secret Service agent, she found that ten men, nearly all military service leaders or their civilian bosses, were already in the large conference room. Ingrid then went first to the Secretary of Defense, Dwight Eisenhower, to shake hands with him at the same time she asked him a question.

‘’So, what is this meeting about, Dwight?’’

‘’Palestine! The British may be about to pull out of it without installing a proper interim government there. Basically, they are fed up of trying to control that place and are dropping it like a dirty rag.’’

‘’But, what could follow could well be a horrible civil war between the Jews and the Arabs, with atrocities and massacres of civilians on both sides. We must do something about that.’’

‘’That is why the President called this meeting, Ingrid: to decide what we will do about Palestine and whether we should get involved in any way there. The problem is that our intelligence is saying that the Soviets are ready to exploit that chaos by arming the Arabs and supporting them against the local Jewish pro-independence fighters.’’ A bitter expression came on Ingrid’s face as she lowered her eyes.

‘’So, what Nancy saw in her own history is about to be repeated here, in our history, but a few years later. This will quickly get very ugly and may well go on for the decades to come. ’’

Eisenhower looked at her with renewed curiosity: he knew about her ability to remember her past lives and about her secret education at the hands of Nancy Laplante in London, in 1941.

‘’And what did the United States do about Palestine in your adoptive mother’s history?’’

‘’We supported the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, a state which became Israel. That in turn attracted the hire of the Arab states against us and caused them to eventually start a very costly oil embargo against the United States. However, the Jews in Palestine were far from blameless in that conflict, as they conducted their own brand of ethnic cleansing against the Arabs living in Palestine, while openly lying about it. We will have to be very careful about how we will handle this crisis.’’

‘’Well, we will know about that soon enough, Ingrid: here comes the President.’’ Twisting her neck to look at the entrance door, Ingrid saw Thomas Dewey enter, closely followed by State Secretary Henry Cabot Lodge and National Security Advisor Robert Cutler, who occupied a newly established position in the White House. Everybody got up from their chairs at Dewey’s entrance and then sat down on the President’s word to relax. Dewey looked at the faces around the table, smiling briefly at Ingrid, before speaking.

‘’Thank you for coming, lady and gentlemen. We are here to discuss the deteriorating situation in Palestine, where the British are said to be about to let that country go, and to decide what the United States should do about that. Secretary Lodge, you may now brief the members present on the latest intelligence we have on Palestine.’’

‘’Thank you, Mister President. Lady and gentlemen, all our information tells us that the British are about to wash their hands of the whole situation there and have started to pull their troops and administrative personnel out of Palestine, this after suffering numerous casualties along the years due to terrorist actions by both Jewish and Arab fighters. We estimate that this pullout may be completed in about two to three weeks’ time. After that, the country will be controlled by the various local regional administrations and by the armed factions in Palestine: basically a perfect recipe for chaos and bloody anarchy. The head of the Jewish Agency in Palestine, fearing what is to come, contacted our consul in Jerusalem and asked for our intervention in order to avoid anti-Jewish pogroms and atrocities against civilians, to which I replied by promising him that we would consider his request and study the situation in Palestine. As for the United Nation, its Security Council is presently paralyzed by Soviet vetoes and I don’t expect it to do anything but do a lot of useless talking and issue wishful, meaningless declarations. The question is now what we will do on our side about the situation in Palestine? Do we intervene and send a peacekeeping force there? Do we sit on the sidelines while supporting the Jewish Council with material aid and weapons or do we do nothing and simply watch? I must advise you that the Arab governments around Palestine have warned us that any American military aid given to the Jews in Palestine would have consequences for us in the form of an Arab oil embargo.’’

‘’And what do you propose that we do, Secretary Lodge?’’ asked Admiral Radford, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

‘’Personally, I would be partial to supporting the Jewish Agency with economic aid and some military aid, but not for sending troops in Palestine. To be frank, I believe that the Arabs will oppose anything we will do anyway, encouraged in that by the Soviets, who have already started to arm them on a large scale. If we do nothing, the Soviets may well end up controlling Palestine by proxy through their Arab customers, something that we can’t let happen.’’

‘’I agree with that last point.’’ then said Thomas Dewey. ‘’While I have no appetite for sending troops in Palestine, we can’t simply let the Arabs, armed by the Soviets, crush and then massacre the Jews in the country.’’

‘Here we go again!’ thought Ingrid, feeling discouragement as many members of the cabinet voiced their agreement with Dewey’s statement. She finally raised one hand and was then recognized by Dewey.

‘’Go ahead, Ingrid.’’

‘’Thank you, Mister President. Have any of you here read the HOURGLASS files we have concerning the conflicts in the Middle East and the history of the state of Israel?’’

All she got was blank faces, something that didn’t surprise her one bit. She thus went on, speaking in a firm but polite voice while looking around her.

‘’Well, I have, on top of listening to the history lessons Nancy Laplante personally gave me about the future of the Middle East. Basically, if we are not very careful and balanced in our treatment of this crisis, then we will end up with a nearly endless series of Arab-Israeli wars, with pro-Arab terrorist attacks against those supporting the Jews in Palestine and the occasional Arab oil embargo against us, with the Soviets playing the puppet masters in the background.’’

‘’What do you mean by a ‘balanced treatment of this crisis’, General Dows?’’ asked at once Robert Cutler.

‘’What I mean is that the Jews in Palestine are not innocent virgins in this affair, Mister Cutler. In the history known to Nancy Laplante, Jewish fighters engaged in a number of acts of ethnic cleansing, chasing away Arabs from the areas they wanted to control and destroying their villages, all the while denying any misdeeds on their part. If we are to help protect innocent civilians in Palestine, then we should strive to protect both Arabs and Jews.’’

‘’And how would we do that, short of sending troops to Palestine, Dows?’’ replied in a hostile tone Walter Bedell Smith, the director of the CIA. ‘’Aren’t you being a bit naïve about this situation in Palestine?’’

Ingrid immediately drilled Smith in the eyes and hardened her tone.

‘’No, I am not naïve one bit about this, Director Smith. My family was Jewish and saw plenty of pogroms while living in Berlin under the Nazis, while I lived both as a Jew and as an Arab during some of my past incarnations. I also happen to speak Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic and Aramaic and know more about the history of Palestine than you will ever do. The Arabs living presently in Palestine have done so for centuries and are actually mostly the descendants of the Jews who were forced to convert to Islam over a thousand years ago, when Muslim armies took over Palestine. Yes, the Jews of Europe have suffered horribly under the Nazis and are still victims of widespread antisemitism but that does not give them the right to discriminate in turn against the Arabs presently living in Palestine. While we should protect the Jews there from aggression by the armies of the Arab states surrounding Palestine, we should equally tell those same Jews to leave the Arab inhabitants alone and in peace. Only a balanced effort on our part may help avoid the worst in the future.’’

President Dewey looked on, a sober expression on his face, as members of his cabinet either assailed or dismissed her proposals. He finally raised one hand to stop the verbal assaults against her, then looked into her eyes.

‘’Ingrid, if I named you my plenipotentiary envoy to Palestine, would you accept that job?’’

‘’It will depend for how long, Mister President. I have heavy responsibilities as owner and chief aircraft designer of Hughes Aircraft and my plants are presently working full time to produce the aircraft and missiles our Air Force and our Navy ordered on an urgent basis. I am also a single parent for a nine-year-old girl I love very much. I would however be ready to travel to the Middle East for a month or two, in order to try to bring a peaceful solution to the situation there. ’’

‘’Mister President, you can’t be serious about this! She’s only a woman and the Arabs will never listen to her.’’ exclaimed Robert Cutler, making Ingrid shoot a mean look at him.

‘’The Arabs may not normally listen to a woman, Mister Cutler, but I am sure that they will respect the words of Aïsha, the third wife of the Prophet Mohammed and his favorite. I was also some 3,600 years ago Agar, the Egyptian slave servant of the Prophet Abraham who had a son from him, Ishmaël, and thus became the matriarch of the Arab people. You want me to speak in Old Sumerian to prove that point?’’ As the men around the table starred at her with incredulity, Thomas Dewey nodded his head once.

‘’I thus gather that you accept my offer for you to be my temporary plenipotentiary envoy to Palestine and the Middle East, Ingrid. I promise you that you will not have to be away from Los Angeles for more than two months.’’

‘’I indeed accept to be your envoy, Mister President.’’