Chapter 97

Present – Jens, Ben and others – The trip

I can’t believe Ben! He really – well I’m not going to describe what he did to me, you will have to use your imagination - but it was fantastic!

I walk out into the main area and demand, “I would like one of my manipeds now.”

Once again Mira and Ira combine their answers, with Mira starting, “Sorry Ms. Blaine, but this...”

Ira finishes, “ ... is still our reading time. Besides, why would we give the manicure and pedicure to you when it was Mr. Blaine who defeated us?”

Ben finally comes out of the bedroom and says, “Well, I sure as hell don’t want a manicure or a pedicure so they might as well go to my lovely wife.”

The girls answer with Ira starting, “Mr. Blaine, we never had...”

Mira completes, “ ... that agreement with you. We did not pursue such an agreement because we knew you would not want a manicure or pedicure.”

I ask, “So then what did my husband win?”

This time only Ira replies, “Our admiration. However Ms. Blaine, should you desire a rematch we both would enjoy and manicure and pedicure.”

Mira quickly agrees, “Yes Ms. Blaine that would be a good use of your time.”

I answer with a hint of sarcasm, “Heck no! I don’t want to interrupt your sacred reading time.”

Mira asks, “Ms. Blaine, we are not currently reading the Bible so why do you call our reading time sacred?”

I look at Ben who rescues me by saying, “Mira and Ira, Jens was being sarcastic. She was implying that your life is so structured that you have set times for things like martial arts practice and reading.”

Jens was fighting a disagreement with the girls which she wasn’t going to win so I tried to help her by explaining sarcasm to the girls.

They both answer with Mira starting, “Mr. Blaine, while your life is more structured than Ms. Blaine’s you also could benefit from our example...”

Ira finishes, “ ... yes Mr. Blaine, our schedule is designed to maximize the use of the non-sombalitic time during each day.”

I smile at the two of them and reply, “Sorry Mira and Ira, I enjoy my life. When Jens and I were Marines, we lived a very structured life, mostly directed by others, and now we enjoy the freedom of doing whatever we want, whenever we want.”

Ira complains, “Mr. Blaine that is such a waste of your potential...”

I interrupt, “ ... But Ira, it’s my potential and if I want to waste it then that is what I will do.”

The girls put down their books and Mira announces, “Reading time is now terminated. Ms. Blaine would it be possible to contact Alexi on the communications system???”

Ira finishes, “ ... Yes we question progress on his health and would like to verify his healing.”

Mira adds, “Plus the time for Safia’s download of the fetus is close.”

Jens replies...

I still cannot believe the structured life the girls lead. So, I can’t resist getting in one more dig when I ask, “Is this your allotted time for communication?”

They both giggle and Ira says, “Ms. Blaine, now that we understand your sarcastic attitude we realize that you are taunting us...”

Mira finishes, “ ... Ms. Blaine we do not have an allotted time for communication, this is our allotted free time during which we both desire to use to contact Alexi. However perchance you are correct. Perhaps we should allocate time during the day for communicating with Alexi.”

Ben adds his two cents, “Yeah, I’d like to talk to Thom and see how things are coming with the cabin.”

I walk over to the communications console, setup the connection to Gretchen in the tunnels and ask, “Hi Gretchen how are things going?”

Gretchen replies, “Things are fine here. Linus worked on the Trojan virus and ran into a dead end.”

I queried, “What happened?”

Gretchen explained, “Apparently they had a ‘kill switch’ in the virus which was activated. It not only deleted the virus, it made the system unbootable. And before you ask, yes we did try using the infected copy of the OS and the first time it connected to the internet the exact same thing happened.”

I reply, “Well that’s too bad only because it would have been nice to figure it out.”

Ira and Mira would like to talk to Alexi and then Ben would like to talk to Thom.

Gretchen says, “I will call Alexi, however Ben will have to wait because Thom’s not here right now. He’s in Leadville making up with Inga. By the way, you guys probably missed the news: Samantha Stevens and Adele Arakawa got in the knockdown, drag out fight when they covered the destruction of your motorhome by the terrorists.”

I chuckle and ask, “Who won the fight?”

Gretchen says, “Samantha did of course, you should check it out. It’s being rebroadcast.”

Alexi arrives and begins to talk with Mira and Ira, I kibitz just enough to make sure he’s still healed because his healing was very difficult. That reminds me of Yasmeen and Zarika. I figure they’ve had enough torture so I end the formication spell I put on them. Besides it was getting expensive keeping them in the clinic while the therapists tried to find out what was wrong...

Present – Samantha and Stacy – Stacy is a RPITA

It felt good to kick that Arakawa bitch’s ass; she had it coming along with the added insults. I was finished and was going to start my coverage when Stacy came over.

She says, “Samantha, I’m not sure how you knew, but there are no bodies on the motorhome.”

I look at her and ask, “How do you know?”

Bill walks up and says, “I asked the FBI agents in charge of the scene.”

I complain, “I sure wish I could get information like that handed to me on a plate like you did.”

Bill continues, “Ms. Stevens, if you were a former military operative, they would give you that information?”

Vic walks up, is dirty as hell, grins at me and says, “It was good to see you kick that fat bitch’s ass.”

Bill looks at Vic and asks, “Did you verify the information?”

Vic says, “How else did you think I got so dirty.”

I ask, “Verify what?”

Vic replies, “The FBI agent’s statement that there were no bodies on the motorhome.”

I look at the still smoldering motorhome and ask, “You went inside that mess?”

Vic says, “No I didn’t have to, just close enough to give it a good smell and to take a good look inside. Once you’ve smelled burnt bodies you never forget the smell and there were no corpses on that motorhome.”

From what Inga had told me I was sure that was the case - the problem was now I needed to report it. I decided to call Liz first.

She answers her mobile phone and says, “Samantha, that was a great fight with the Arakawa bitch, and your comments almost caused me to go into labor.”

I apologize, “Sorry about that Liz.”

Liz replies, “Samantha, I’m not complaining, she had it coming. So what do you need?”

I reply, “Liz, there are no bodies on the motorhome and...”

Bill interrupts, “ ... The FBI agents say they all escaped before the terrorist attack.”

I continue my conversation with Liz, “Liz, the FBI agents say that Ben and the others escaped before the terrorist attack.”

Liz orders, “So Samantha, once again you have information the other stations don’t. Do the report with your information and embarrass the hell out of them because they’ve been crying about the death of Ben and Jens.”