Chapter 75

Present – Ben and the rest – The next morning

The only reason I slept at all last night was the help from my liquid sleeping aid – bourbon. I kept worrying that Mira could be right and that her baby was ours but I finally got drunk enough that I passed out. The damn wakeup call rang the phone and I knew I drank too damn much because my head felt like Thor was hammering on it with Mjölnir.

The empty bottle I knocked off on the nightstand when I reached for the phone reaffirmed my assumption. Damn, a whole 750 ml of Knob Creek - no wonder I felt like shit. I finally pick up the phone and the concierge much too cheerfully announces, “Ben Blaine, this is your wakeup call.”

I mumble and remind her “Thanks, please don’t forget the other rooms.”

She cheerfully answers, “Do not worry Ben Blaine, I called them first.”

Then I hang up the phone and fight my way out of bed. I have the sheets wrapped around me four fucking times, but after I free myself I head into the shower. I crank up the hot water, slip off my underwear and step into a damn hot shower. I let the water flow over my body, and no sooner begin to relax when someone starts to bang on the door. I bellow, “I’m in the fucking shower and will be out when I’m done. Now leave me the fuck alone...”

Mira occulates me and inquires, “My sister Ira, I do not believe that my Ben feels well this morning. Perhaps I should enter his room and appease his appetites...”

Has my sister Mira totally lost all of her logic due to rampaging hormones? I glare at Mira and icily reply, “Miranda, if you were to forcefully enter his room now, Ben would interpret it as an attack and you along with the dreaded fetus could be injured.”

Mira pauses for a moment to contemplate my assertion and thank God agrees, “Yes Ira, I do believe your wisdom here is appropriate. Besides, Ben and I will share a bed many times later today after he discovers it is our fetus I am carrying. Ira, I did not realize that gestational processes would so greatly increase my desire for coitus.”

Now I understand Safia’s multiple copulations with Alexi more completely, they were hormonally inspired.

We are interrupted as still bound Safia and Zarika shuffle to Ben’s door. Safia immediately complains, “Ira, you must release us from this cruel and unusual punishment.” Zarika reaffirms, “Yes Ira, going to the bathroom was a terrible ordeal and I did not know that much stench could come from one person.”

Safia moves her head in such a way as to pull Zarika’s hair. Zarika pulls back as they both continue to argue. I smile at both of them and counsel, “From your actions I have determined you have not yet discovered your lesson. Therefore you will remain bound.”

Ben finally opens his hotel room door, sees Safia and Zarika, which are still bound, and laughs, “Hell that’s a trick I need to learn.”

I offer, “Ben, I will gladly teach you this trick...”

Ben obviously teases, “Perhaps I could use it on you and Mira the next time she talks about that ... that ... that ... thing being our baby.” He points at Mira’s enlarged stomach.

Mira complains, “You will see today Ben whose baby I am carrying! And when you discover it is yours I expect many hours of compensational copulation. Gestation has made me greatly desire copulation.”

Safia and Zarika affirm, “Yes, we both need sex in the worst way, but Alexi ignores us.”

I can tell Ben wants to say some immoral words so I suggest, “Perhaps we should partake of the free breakfast before our trip this morning?”

Mira questions, “This morning? I thought the test results were this afternoon...”

Ben says, “They are but I found a clinic for treatment of Alexi, Zarika and Safia.”

The girls begin to complain but Ira silences them by grabbing their knitted together hair and marching them toward the restaurant. We arrive at the restaurant, walk inside and everyone stops and stares at us.

I lean over and threaten, “One word from either Zarika or Safia and I make sure you stay in the clinic for years.”

I smile at everyone and tell a whopper, “Sorry for the surprise everyone, we are practicing for a movie. And these two young ladies are pretending to be captured.”

The crowd accepts the whopper and even begin to clap and cheer.

I lean over to Ira and order, “Get them out of this ASAP.”

I am amazed because it doesn’t take Ira any time at all to free the girls. She frees them and adds a threat, “If you two do not behave, you will never see our brother Alexi again.”

I ask, “Where is Alexi?”

Ira replies, “He is not suitable for human contact at this time since his mind is totally occupied with his alimentary canal. I have to keep his hands restrained otherwise he continually disobliges it. I will prepare a plate of food and feed him myself.”

I’m impressed as hell with Ira since she’s been such a great help, unlike her sister Mira who has basically been a huge (not just figuratively) pain in the ass.

Ira takes two plates of food and leaves with them. Mira picks at the food and I threaten, “Don’t you dare complain about the food or you won’t eat.”

Safia and Zarika load up their plates and I inform then, “Girls this is a buffet which means you can come back for seconds.”

Safia remarks, “That is excellent news because I did not get anything to eat last night.”

I get some eggs, a couple pieces of ham and some yogurt with fresh berries. I choose a table, the rest of the entourage follows me, we sit down and thank God eat in silence – the silence reminds me of one of the many meals I had at home while I was growing up.

Present – Jens and the gang – The next day

Quadruple rats! What should have been an easy task, finding Ben, turned into an impossibility. We finally gave up for the night, pulled into a motel which didn’t look too seedy and took rooms for all of us. I made sure to triple check the rooms for hidden cameras and bed bugs. I didn’t find any but I still didn’t trust them so I planned on sleeping in my clothes tonight. The last thing I want is for my nude body to be posted all over the internet.

I called Gretchen and asked, “Gretchen, anymore sightings of Ben’s truck on the traffic cameras?”

Gretchen very crabbily replies, “Hell no! Not only that, they caught my hack and shut it off. So now we’re flying blind.”

That gave me a possible idea so I ask, “I’ve seen a hell of a lot of drones around, is there any chance we can hack into their video feeds?”

Gretchen answers, “That’s a good idea. I will see what I can do.”

There’s a knock on the door so I answer, “Come on in.”

Thom walks into the room, holds up a scanner and assures me, “I swept the rooms for bugs and cameras and didn’t find anything.”

I reply, “I checked my room and didn’t find anything either but I’m still sleeping with my clothes on.”

Thom scans my room and announces, “No need to do that unless you want to since your room is clean.”

Thom informs me, “Did you know they have smart TVs here with internet access?”

I point to the table and reply, “I already have my laptop setup.”

Thom suggests, “I have a few ruminations to follow if I can use your laptop.”

I say, “Go for it.”

He sits down at my laptop, pulls up Google Maps and begins to mark off the hotels we’ve already checked with big red x’s He stares at the map and the red x’s and swears, “God dammit! How did we miss that?”

I dash to the computer, look over his shoulder and ask, “Missed what?”

Thom laughs and says, “Well, I sure as hell know how we drove past that hotel since it’s a little off Colfax Ave. But it’s a chain hotel and my best guess is we will find Ben there.”

I ask, “What’s your thinking on this?”

Thom replies, “Well, they have underground parking for one thing and the second thing is he could be sure there weren’t any cameras in the rooms. Both of those would be a big priority to someone trying to hide.”

I jump up and say, “Let’s get going!”

Thom shoots down my plan, “Jennifer, I would love to do that now. However, we exhausted Liz today and because she’s pregnant she needs her rest.”

I think for a moment and agree with Thom, “Thom thanks for everything, you’re right. If Ben’s there tomorrow we’ll join him soon enough. We do need to let Liz have her rest.”

But there was no rest for me tonight because all I could think of was meeting Ben again tomorrow and what my actions would be. I only hoped and prayed that my plan worked...

Present – Stacy and Samantha – Following Jennifer

We watched as the bitch checked more hotels than I even knew existed and thank God she drew a blank at each one. They finally pull into a crappy looking hotel and went in. I worry that she found Ben.

Bill says, “Don’t get your hopes up Ms. Summers, they have stopped searching for the night and will continue tomorrow.”

The pilot informs us, “Ms. Summers, we are bingo fuel.”

I ask, “What does that mean?”

Bill explains, “It means we have just enough fuel to return to Leadville.”

I ask, “Can we refuel at one of the local airports?”

The pilot affirms, “Of course we can. In fact, it would be preferable because the flight back to Leadville would put me over my operational hours for today.”

Bill adds additional information, “Ms. Summers, he is limited to eight hours of flight time every twenty-four hours. He will need at least eight full hours of rest to be able to fly us tomorrow.”

I smile and order, “Well, that settles it, find us a nice little airport that can refuel the chopper and has a decent hotel.”

The Pilot replies, “Why not use the best, because I would like to get the chopper serviced? We’ll head for DIA”

I giggle and ask, “Dead In Action?”

Everyone laughs and Bill explains, “Denver International Airport.”

We get the clearance to land and begin to approach the airport. I’m looking out the window, see a monster and swear, “What the fuck is that?”

I point out the window to this ugly huge blue horse with red shining eyes, it looks like some sort of devil horse from hell.

The pilot laughs and replies, “That’s Blucifer! Denver’s football team is the Broncos and they built him as a motivation for the team.”

Bill continues, “That fucking horse is a killer: In 2006 a piece of it fell on the artist creating it and killed him. Its official name is Blue Mustang but everyone I know calls it Blucifer for killing it’s artist.”

I complain, “That’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen, please make sure that you keep us as far away as possible from it.”

The pilot laughs and says, “No problem, even the hotel we’re staying at isn’t close to it. By the way, they are sending a limousine to pick us up.”

The damn Blucifer horse keeps me distracted but I finally realize what the pilot said and I praise his actions, “Thank you for setting all of this up.”

Vic asks, “Is there any chance we have a change of gear in the chopper.”

Bill replies, “Of course we do. It will be good to have you smelling like a man again.”

Samantha defends him, “He ... He kept all that shit off me so you’d better not give him a bad time.”

I interject, “Here are the sleeping arrangements for tonight, Bill you and Vic share a room, the pilot gets a room of his own and Sam and I are sharing a room.”

We land without problems, the hotel limousine is waiting for us and takes us to the hotel. We check in and I mention to Sam, “You shower first then we need to send your clothes and shoes out for cleaning.”

Samantha asks, “Do I smell that bad?”

I shake my head no and explain, “Samantha, when you are forced to wear the same outfit two days in a row, you want to make sure it looks fresh. The hotel will make sure that happens.”

Samantha asks, “What can I wear while my clothes are gone.”

I walk into the bathroom, pull out an expensive luxury robe and ask, “Will this do?”

She answers, “You bet, I’m going to shower.”

Samantha heads into the shower while I look at the map and try to figure out where Ben might be...

Present – Ben and the rest – The next morning

Ira returns from feeding Alexi and says, “Alexi is ready to travel. I stand up and order, “Everyone load up in the truck because we’re headed to the clinic for Alexi, Safia and Zarika.” Safia and Zarika begin to say something but one look from Ira and they shut the fuck up. I continue, “I need to take care of things at the front desk.”

I head to the front desk and pay the concierge for the rest of the week. I have no idea what I’m going to do after this week because I’m playing this fast and loose. If I am the father of Mira’s baby ... well, I guess I will need to contact a lawyer – hell no, there’s no fucking way I’m going to divorce Jens, fuck I just married her! To be truthful I have no fucking idea what I will do and just want to hear all my options. The concierge asks, “When will you return?”