Chapter 90

Flashback – Ben – Back at the formerly captured hospital

Colonel Maggie called George back and ordered, “George, make sure you do whatever it takes to keep that prisoner alive.”

George relayed the command to me and I said, “Fine with me.” And I promptly tied the fucker to one of the support columns in the hospital. Then I explained, “Now he can’t jump out a window.”

George asked, “Do you think we should remove the tazer probes?”

I shocked the fuck out of our prisoner and he passed out again. I grinned at George and asked, “You mean those tazer probes? Hell no we shouldn’t remove them - if he starts shouting for the other towelheads to help him, I want to be able to shut his ass up.” Then I opened his mouth and began to check his teeth with my Leatherman to make sure he didn’t have a suicide pill.

George began to complain, “Banzai, sometimes you’re an inhuman...”

I interrupted his tirade, “ ... George, if you are going to call me inhuman, look first at what the fucking towelheads have been doing to the children! Once you figure that out come and talk to me about inhuman.”

I handed the tazer to George and said, “If he starts shouting, I would shock the fuck out of him. The last thing we want is for the towelheads to mount a major offensive to rescue his worthless ass.”

I head up to the roof just in time to see my improvised sniper team at work. I walked up and praised them, “You guys are doing a hell of a job!”

The sniper manning the M107 asked, “Sgt., can I take out some longer range targets?”

I slapped him on the shoulder and said, “Go for it.”

Then I remembered the fire mission George needed to call in so I headed downstairs. He was on the horn again with Colonel Maggie and I waited until he finished. He turned to me and said, “HQ is sending some civilians to interrogate the prisoner.”

I grinned at George and said, “George, out here civilian is slang for CIA. Our prisoner is in for a world of hurt.”

George asked, “What do you mean?”

I said, “You complained about me and the Geneva convention, well that fucking convention will be totally gone when they arrive. They are going to torture the fuck out of him until he talks or dies.”

I pointed to the building the Corporal told me about and mentioned the fire mission, “George, we’re damn sure that building is where the bastard was building his suicide vests. I would suggest we call in a fire mission on it, hell while you’re at it level the entire block.”

George figured out the coordinates on his map and called in the fire mission. The first rounds obviously hit some ordnance because the sky lit up like the Fourth of July. It didn’t take long until the whole block was leveled. I heard rifles on the roof and noticed my improvised sniper team was busy taking out the trash leaving the area of the leveled buildings.

The Corporal whose nose I messed up, came up and reported, “Sgt. I am pleased to announce we now have main and backup power to the hospital.”

I praised him, “Hell of a job and you didn’t electrocute yourself! So if the main power goes down...”

He interrupted, “ ... The backup generators will kick in.”

I found the coffee maker that Colonel Maggie sent, plugged it into a wall outlet, poured some fresh water in it and asked, “Does anyone have any real coffee?”

I didn’t get an answer so I figured the answer was no. I started the coffee pot anyway just to heat the water and when it was done I made some instant coffee from the MREs.

Flashback – Jack – The next morning

I made it to Colonel Maggie’s office - she was already busy as hell on the phone so I began to file paperwork. She looked up and said, “Jack, you aren’t going to believe this but they are sending CIA agents to interrogate the prisoner.”

I shrugged my shoulder and replied, “Yeah I sort of expected it. If the fucker is from Britain they will want to get every shred of information out of him they can.” I thought for a moment and added, “You might want to call and have a little talk with Banzai since he doesn’t play well with CIA agents.”

Colonel Maggie asked, “Why’s that?”

I simply stated the truth, “We’ve both been fucked over by them a couple of times. You know, things like sending us on a mission for them and forgetting to extract us.”

Colonel Maggie said in horror, “I had no idea!”

I replied, “Of course you don’t, those missions will never make it to our files.”

Colonel Maggie asked, “And the agents?”

I replied, “Let’s just say, they never went home.”

Colonel Maggie got on the horn and began to talk to Banzai while John walked in with two plates of food - this time it was pancakes, sausage and eggs. I dug into mine, then Colonel Maggie waved me over, put her hand over the receiver and ordered, “Jack, see if you can talk some sense into Sgt. Blaine, he won’t listen to me.”

I began to talk and Banzai laughed, “Damn Jack it’s good to hear your voice, how’s Masha doing?”

I replied, “Banzai, I can’t talk about that right now. Colonel Maggie is worried you’re going to take out the CIA agents when they show up.”

Banzai laughed and said, “Tell her to send us some real coffee and I will leave them alone.” Then he told me the truth, his voice dripping with hatred, “Jack, I can’t wait for them to get here and torture the fuck out of this bastard.”

I laughed and said, “Banzai, I will tell her that. Now I’m going to enjoy my pancakes, sausage and eggs.”

Banzai swore, “You son of a...”

I hung up the phone on him, looked at Colonel Maggie and said, “Banzai said if you send him some coffee on the next shipment, he won’t kill the CIA agents.”

Colonel Maggie complained, “Sgt. Reynolds that’s extortion!”

I smiled at her and asked, “How much is it going to cost to send a couple bags of coffee to keep him happy.”

She replied, “Almost nothing at all. Hell, I will make sure it’s on the ride with the fucking CIA agents!”

I replied, “A very wise move Sir! Banzai can get cantankerous if he doesn’t get his coffee.”

I continued to eat my breakfast, Colonel Maggie started eating hers and praised John, “Hell of a breakfast today John, if you keep this up I might have to start doing PT.”

I grinned at Colonel Maggie, she glared at me and warned, “Not a single word from you Jack.”

Flashback – Masha – Another day with Tina

Breakfast was over and Louise finally confessed, “Masha, I never realized how serious a problem sugar addiction was until I watched Tina this morning.”

I smiled at Louise and said, “Most people don’t notice the problem and it is so entrenched in the American culture it’s hard to avoid. For example, look at your behavior yesterday: You were tired and thirsty so you had a soda. Did you know they actually add salt to soda so when you drink it, it does not really quench your thirst?”

Louise said, “I didn’t realize that they are sneaky and manipulative.”

I replied, “They certainly are! All the food industry cares about is how many dollars it makes. And if it can trick the American people into eating more food, they will do it. That is why America has the second highest incidence of obesity in the world.”

Louise blinked and said, “I thought we were in first place?”

I informed her, “No, Mexico has surpassed America in percentage of obese population. And it’s caused from the export of soda to Mexico. In many places in Mexico, it’s cheaper and safer to drink soda than the water. They are fighting back and have passed a special tax on soda, but there is a problem with the special tax.”

Louise asked, “What’s the problem?”

I smiled and replied, “As with most special taxes, the people who are affected the most are the poor. Since they can no longer afford to buy soda, they have been forced to drink the water and now many of them are getting sick from the poor quality of the water.”

Tina came over and shook her high chair. I looked at Louise and said, “I think she is finally hungry.”

I picked her up, put her in the high chair, took the bowl of yogurt and set it in front of her. She grabbed the bowl so I quickly snatched it out of her hands, grinned at Louise and said, “That was a close one - I believe she’s not hungry enough yet.”

Brenda came out of the bathroom and said, “Tina’s in the high chair, did she eat?”

Louise replied, “Not yet, Masha tried to feed her but Tina was going to throw the bowl again.”

Brenda asked, “Masha, aren’t you worried about Tina not eating.”

I looked at Tina and replied, “Not really, she could probably stand to lose a little weight.”