Chapter 8

Flashback – Masha, Tanya and Louise and– The evening

The doorbell rang, I checked and saw Tanya accompanied by a few other women. I’m shocked because I didn’t prepare enough food for this many women! I opened the door and Tanya said, “Surprise Masha, I talked to some friends and they wanted to learn Krav Maga too.”

I crimsoned and replied, “Tanya, I didn’t make enough food for this many women.”

Tanya answered, “Don’t worry Masha because I would never show up with this many people without telling you. We all ate on the way over here.”

I looked at Louise and asked, “Louise, do you mind if we eat after the lesson?”

Tanya interrupted, “Masha, don’t worry about delaying your dinner. If you have some mats, we will go and stretch to get ready for the lesson.”

Louise smiled and stated, “Masha also teaches yoga and we usually do that after our Krav Maga lesson.”

So many of the women begin talking simultaneously that I cannot understand them (this is common for people who do not speak the native language of a gathering). I presume a decision was made and Tanya asked, “Masha, would you mind teaching us yoga after the Krav Maga lesson?”

I replied, “I would be most happy to teach yoga. The only problem is I don’t have enough yoga mats for this many people.”

Louise suggested, “Masha, couldn’t we use the training mats instead of yoga mats?”

I thought for a moment and replied, “It will not be ideal because the training mats will not be as sticky as a yoga mat and are thicker which will make the balance moves more difficult.”

Tanya said, “Good, then it’s settled.”

I looked at Louise and asked, “Please show Tanya and her friends to the garage while I get dinner ready for the three of us.”

Louise escorted the women to the garage while I began to get dinner ready for myself, Louise and Linda. Louise returned and remarked, “Wow Masha, you’re going to have a full class tonight.”

I smiled and answered, “Yes I will but this might be the start of something I’ve dreamed of doing. Louise, please bring Linda in for dinner.”

Louise brought Linda into the kitchen and placed her in the highchair. We sat at the table, began to eat and I mentioned, “Louise, please do not tell the other women about my spinal adjustments.”

Louise smiled and said, “Don’t worry Masha, I know better than to get you into trouble.”

We quickly finished dinner and moved to the garage for the Krav Maga lesson.

Flashback – Ben and Jack – Raining hellfire on the Taliban

I head to the com room with Jack trailing me as he asked, “Banzai, what are you doing?”

I gave him my best evil grin and replied, “I’m calling in a fire mission on all the fucking Taliban hovels. It’s time we put a stop to these fuckers so I’m going to level the entire area like we should have done ages ago.”

Jack cautioned, “Banzai, Lieutenant George usually calls in all the fire missions.”

I continued with the grin and suggested, “Okay Jack, do you want to go wake him up?”

Jack admitted, “Not really, and don’t make me pull rank on you.”

I countered, “You try that and I will kick your ass...”

Dammit, Banzai was being unreasonable! Yeah, Lieutenant George liked calling in the fire missions so he could get all the ‘glory’. But this was sure to not only wake him up, it was going to royally piss him off.

I tried to reason with Banzai, “Banzai, you know this is going to both wake up George and piss him off.”

Banzai laughed and replied, “Good, he should be fucking awake.”

Banzai got on the horn, gave the coordinates for a huge fucking area and ordered, “Fire for effect.”

Banzai ran up to the roof and commanded the sniper team on duty, “I called in a fire mission for a large area. Make sure you take out any of the Taliban mother fuckers who try to escape.”

With that he pulled out his rifle, mounted the thermal scope on it, put a magazine in it and began to wait.

Unlike in the movies, you don’t hear a whistling noise when an artillery shell arrives at the target because the shell is moving faster than the speed of sound. We finally heard an explosion and then the whistling noise caused by the fragments of the shell flying through the air. Banzai was watching through his scope and then began to fire - I guess he found one of the Taliban trying to escape.

Lieutenant George ran up onto the roof and yelled, “Who the hell called in a fire mission without my approval!”

Banzai paused between shots and answered, “I did.”