1.2 It Came Out of The Sky

The Buick sped on W Olive Avenue towards west at a moderate speed. Bradley observed a familiar sight of flat land sparsely covered of weed and bursage. And the range of White Tank Mountains looming in front of him. When he got training to become a pilot at Williams Field, he happened to be a lone hiker crossing the rugged trails through the faulty ridges and deep canyons, creeks and waterfalls over the mountains. During seasonal rainfalls, water tends to rush rapidly through the canyons forming depressions, called ‘tanks’, in white granite near the base of the mountains. Some indigenous Arizonans drew the petroglyphs found on the rock faces thousands of years ago. On a beautiful day, the Blue Palo Verda bloom many yellow flowers, an enduring brittlebush may emerge here and there, bright magenta hedgehogs and Ocotillos wave in the awe-inspiring bliss. Some cactuses stand thirty feet tall. Some trails shaded by ironwood and mesquite.

The Buick stopped at a ranch house at the foot of the mountains in ten minutes. Bradley noticed a bunch of vehicles parked there. He was soon ushered to a large hall with glass walls and a view of the mountains. He saw an entire panorama filled with mountain landscape in the glass panels and tall cactus plants scattered in the shade of the afternoon sun.

But his focus stopped at the man who stood by the glass panels with his back on viewing out through the window. Four-Star General Nathaneal Entwine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – not an ordinary person you’d come to meet.

“Bradley!” he uttered without looking behind, “I want you to show those files to General Howe here with me,” he turned around and Bradley quickly delivered his salute. The General made no further attempt to introduce the rest but Bradley knew two of the faces; Mr Hudson of ATS Command and Mr Randy Gumper, former President of Arizona State Teachers College in Tempe.

“Yes sir,” he stepped few steps up and he could see then the slopes of the mountains up to the crests.

“Bradley! Two million dollars that is a large sum but I want to know what happened to Jair Sivils. You say his company went bankrupt!”

“Yes sir.”

“Explain to the gentlemen!”

Bradley placed his briefcase on a table, “Ben Rich from Lockheed Plant 42 advised to forward these funds to Catai Tours through Arizona State Teachers College as the production was rushed. Those contracts were signed by Lockheed Corporation. Their usual supplier, Titanium Metals, has limited resources so CIA conducts a universal search using third parties and dummy companies. Catai Tours has proven to be reliable and efficient, we received 140 shipments to date, until Mr Sivils demanded a downpayment of two million dollars following an interrupted reimbursement. This downpayment was approved and by the usual route, through Arizona State College, paid to his Swiss bank account. The man in charge is Mr Richard Haroldson and he maintains the 1958 Memorandum of Understanding agreed between Lockheed and the State College. But we received no shipment after that and Catai Tours filed for bankruptcy.

“This was not a safe route but Catai provided us rutile ore in bulk load from Ukraine ordered to a weapon factory in Georgia and by train over the Caucasus reach Armenia. CIA operates an airlift from Souda Bay Naval Base in Crete to pick the payload from the point they call ‘the Dive’ in Lake Sevan.

“On August 23^rd at the Dive, at midnight, in Lake Sevan, Armenian Army confiscated the cargo and waited for the rendezvous. We are not sure whether they are real Armenians or Russians. A tip came from Tehran after the Albatross touched down in water. There was some kind of confrontation but the pilot did not cut off the engines. They managed to pull off and fly without the cargo.

“Here is the Catai File. Sir!”

General Howe extended his arm to receive the manila folder, “Sit down, Lieutenant!” and spoke in a soft voice, “Help yourself to a coffee! Are you the one who is negotiating with these people?”

“Yes sir, since 1959, following Mister Gumper’s departure from the College, I was instructed by Mr Rich and General Cabell to keep track and record of the East European and African Sectors.”

“Did you talk to these guys?”

“I tried to call Mr Sivils but he was unavailable since July. Two weeks later, we heard that Catai filed for bankruptcy and his offices were closed.” He eased on a chair with a cup of coffee. On his routine to keep track of his procurements, he frequently flew to Spain four times a year but not this time.

Viajes Catai was founded a decade after the Civil War in 1949 by Bernet Sivils, Jair’s father, who was a pro-Francoist and based in Barcelona. Sivils made a contract with Markus Shipping Company in Gibraltar to operate tours to the Far East and Australia on a cargo-passenger liner called RMS Media that belonged to the Cunard Line. That was a time the border was open. This enterprise was not all that successful and Jair’s father died in 1954. Jair turned his attention to the Mediterranean when in 1957, a rebranded Greek airline, Olympic Airways, began to fly a DC-6 to Barcelona. Given the period, Spain restructured its economic growth and achieved miracle results during the decade. Meanwhile, Iberia was flying to its colonies in Africa and South America. Jair established destinations in Macedonia by the end of 1957 and continued to open offices in Madrid, Valencia, Seville and Málaga. However, he ran a commission business and always short on payments to his various allotments and charters. He did not own an asset. Jair Sivils looked for other means to obtain capital. In 1958, he was contacted by a middleman from the West to obtain rutile ore from Ukraine, or the Soviet Union, and ship to Tehran and that he’d be rewarded.