Play@YSDC

Bill asked Mary and Jill to excuse them and he took Jim out into the corridor so they could talk privately. "The LT gave Braithwaite the OK to help out," he said, "but he's not to know that we've already got someone on the inside."

"Did the girls say anything about the sleep experiment while I was gone?"

"Nah, just small talk, Sarge," said Jim. "Anything else you need to discuss?"

"Nope, I don't think so," replied Bill. "Do you want to take another turn around the block while I watch the girls?"

"Sure," said Jim. He took a walk while Bill returned to the apartment, where Jill was studying and Mary was packing an overnight bag. "It's for the experiment tomorrow night," she explained when Bill walked in. "It's a sleepover, so I'll need to bring some things. I figured I might as well get it all ready now."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Bill, "I'm not sure it's such a great idea. Brian wasn't exactly dealing with a full deck - who knows if his father is any more stable?"

"Yes, I'm sure," said Mary. "Besides, it'd be a good idea to have someone you know on the inside."

Bill realized as soon as he brought it up that it was at the experiment where he had first met Mary. He had no idea what would happen if he talked her out of going, but if he truly had gone back in time, his younger self might never meet her.

Bill held up his hands in mock surrender. "OK," he smiled, trying to put Mary at ease, "You win. You go, but look after yourself, ok?"

"I will," said Mary. "I can report back to you on what I observe when I'm there each day."

"Cool," replied Bill, "I don't like to think that you might be in danger in any way but at least we've got someone keeping an eye on you."

"Oh?" said Mary. "Who's that?"

OOC,I don't think [b]Bill[/b] ever told her that [b]Harry[/b] is going to be in the experiment.

Bill blanched. He'd not told Mary about the back-up. "Probably better you don't know who it is," he said, "Just be reassured that we'll have someone there."

Mary nodded. "That's good to know," she said. "I'm going to get some studying done. Anything else you want to talk about first?"

"No," smiled Bill he stood up. "I'll let you get on with your studies." He raised a hand and waved goodbye and left the apartment.

OOC,[i]Think I'm done here.[/i]

Eventually, midnight rolled around. A detective and a uniformed officer arrived to relieve Bill and Jim, and they left campus.

OOC,If there's nothing further you want to do tonight, I can move you forward to Friday morning.

Bill Johns's Apartment Building, Rittenhouse Square - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
6:30 AM - Friday, July 18, 1969

Bill returned to the apartment that was somehow his and got there not long after midnight. He was exhausted and was able to fall asleep quickly. When he awakened, he could not recall his dreams, if he had any. Sunlight could be seen through the window, and the clock said it was 6:30. He'd gotten about six hours of sleep, which was enough to get by with a little help from some coffee.

Bill stretched and lay looking at the ceiling as he mentally replayed the events of the day before. He tried to piece everything together. The drug that Brian Anderson was peddling seemed to be linked to something his father had cooked up, something that Mary and the others would be testing. And then there was the alleged CIA involvement in the tests - something that Barney had told him about - where did that fit in?

Unable to make sense of it, Bill got up and headed to the shower. He flicked on the kettle and the TV as he passed, to see what the breaking news was.

Bill was used to 24-hour news channels, but things were very different in this time. There were only three major networks plus a handful of UHF stations, not the hundreds of channels available in 2009 that included multiple all-news channels. The set also needed a little while to warm up. He had to surf through the channels - using the dial, as there was no remote control, though he was sure such things did exist in 1969 - to find a morning news program on CBS. International news was currently being discussed in the early part of the program. Apollo 11 was now close to halfway to the moon with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins aboard. They were expected to touch down on Sunday. In the Vietnam War, casualties continued to mount and sentiment against the war was increasing. There was another war going on at the time too, apparently. The news mentioned that the Soccer War between Honduras and El Salvador was now in the middle of its fourth day. The Salvadoran army was getting closer to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Honduras had appealed to the Organization of American States to stop the war. The OAS was attempting to negotiate a cease-fire, but El Salvador had so far resisted. Still, there was hope that a breakthrough would occur.

OOC,[b]Bill[/b], please roll History.

Bill knew plenty about the Soccer War, as he had been following it at the time and studied it later on, and he still recalled the details. It was called that because Honduras and El Salvador had played a series of soccer games to qualify for the 1970 World Cup in June 1969 that had been marked by fighting among the fans. El Salvador had cut off all diplomatic ties with Honduras the same day it narrowly won the final game, June 26, but the causes of the war were far more complex than that. Honduras was a much larger country than El Salvador, but El Salvador had a much larger population. Many Salvadorans moved to Honduras throughout the twentieth century as a result and squatted on the land there. In the 1960s, Honduras passed a law to take land away from Salvadorans and give them to native Hondurans. It was enforced without regard to whether or not the Salvadorans were in the country legally or whether or not they actually owned the land. Many Salvadorans were deported. This directly resulted in El Salvador cutting off relations and accusing Honduras of permitting genocide, which was followed by border skirmishes.

Late on July 14, 1969, El Salvador invaded Honduras in force. Initially, they made swift progress and soon were close to Teguchigalpa, the Honduran capital. However, the advance stalled as Honduras overcame the surprise and fought back. Their air force bombed El Salvador's oil depots and disrupted its supply lines. Honduras asked the Organization of American States to intervene, and the OAS called for a cease fire and for El Salvador to withdraw from Honduran territory on July 15. However, El Salvador refused to comply unless reparations were paid to the Salvadorans who had been expelled and that those Salvadorans who remained in Honduras would have their safety guaranteed. An agreement was finally reached on the night of July 18 (today), and it went into full force on July 20. El Salvador dragged its feet when it came to withdrawing its troops until the end of July, when the pressure got to be too much. The troops finished withdrawing on August 2. The war hurt both countries and caused economic problems throughout Latin America. The influence of the military in both countries grew stronger, and El Salvador was unable to support the Salvadorans who had been kicked out of Honduras, eventually resulting in a bloody civil war in El Salvador starting in 1979 that would last until the early 1990s.