Chapter 32

After the incident with the helicopter survey, the group decided to stick close to home and relax until it was time to be in Poland. John was glad that time was near. As much as he loved fucking each of them, four weeks straight had worn him out. None of his training had left him as tired as he was now.

As he thought about this in the pale dawn light, Tess came out with two cups of coffee. She was walking gingerly, so he asked “You alright?” as she handed him a cup and sat gently next to him.

“Sore inside, I thought you were fucking my stomach last night” she replied.

John said “I seem to recall you screaming for it harder?”

She smiled “You delivered. My poor vagina thinks it’s been fisted.” John just smiled.

“It’s getting close to our departure date. I think everyone is just on edge.”

He replied “It’s another contract. The only difference is where the job is at.”

Mary came out and joined them handing John his phone. It was blinking with a missed call. Looking at it, he saw the country code was 45. “That has to be Henrik” he said as he called Henrik.

When the phone answered it was Henrik’s voice “ John” then a pause “Good morning, I called earlier, too early I guess?”

“No, just wasn’t next to my phone. What can I do for you Henrik?”

“All the permits and visas are completed. Just need to get you and your team on this side of the pond now.”

John was on speaker and when the girls heard the comment, there were grins all around.

John replied “Then we need to book our flights then.”

Henrik replied, “There will be no need for that if you can get to JFK in two days time. I have some meetings to attend in New York and will be on the corporate Jet. Your team can fly back with me, then take the train over to Warsaw, or catch a flight, whichever you choose.”

John looked thoughtful for a moment. “That puts us arriving in Amsterdam on April 26, the day before King’s Day. It will be near impossible to get a hotel. Anyway, your company can help us out on that?”

“We have a corporate house we can put your team in, will that be sufficient?”

John said “It works for us. How will we get there? As I recall, all public transport, except boats, are canceled on that day?”

Henrik replied “Not even I can get around that one directly. I’ll be taking a helo to the office and the corporate housing is adjacent. I myself will be staying in the housing until the 28th. We may as well travel the whole way together.”

“Works for me, we’ll pick up a florescent orange cover before leaving.”

Henrik laughed at the comment. “I see our city left an impression on you.”

“It did, I just hope I can find a game of *Spijkerpoepen for the team to play.”

Henrik laughed then got down to the specifics, forwarding the visas and permits to John.

As soon as Marty got the specifics on time and place for JFK, she was on the phone booking a flight for them.

After John hung up, Pixy asked “What the hell is *Spijkerpoepen.”

John laughed “You tie a nail to the end of a string, then around your waist. The goal is to get the nail into a beer bottle opening. First to get it in wins.

Marty had the JFK flights ready but needed Gunny’s particulars, so John called her.

After making the arrangements Pixy asked “What is King’s Day?”

“Technically, it’s the celebration of their King’s birthday. In real terms, it’s like Saint Patrick’s except everything is orange instead of green with elements of Spring Break thrown in for good measure.”

“I guess I’ll have to see it to understand it” Pixy replied.

John looked at the gathered women “One more thing to discuss, their drug laws are different. I’m advising none of you take advantage of that. Henrik may be a citizen, but he personally frowns on it. If you must imbibe something, stick to beer, they have excellent beer there. Myself, I intend to stay mostly sober the entire trip.”

Tess piped up “Mostly?”

John grinned “Depends on the situation at the time.”

With the logistics ironed out, John got out the package from BINDT that came addressed to PWI via FedEx the previous day. Inside the package, were individually marked smaller packages for himself, Mary, Mei, and Tess.

After handing them out, he opened his own. Looking the contents over he said “Well shit, it looks like I bombed the Eddy Current exam.”

Mary said “I passed that one but failed the Magnetic Particle. Tess said, “I too passed the Eddy Current, but failed the Acoustic emission, Mei piped up. “Surprisingly, I passed all of them.”

Looking at them John said “Under the conditions I’m very happily surprised we’ve done as well as we have.”

The following day, Gunny arrived, packed up and ready to go.

Their flight was that afternoon. After gathering everybody, they headed to the airport.

After checking in, Gunny turned to John’s women and said “When we get to the TSA checkpoint, let me go first. If any of them are perverts, I’ll deal with them.” They all turned to John, who just nodded his head.

After getting there, John could see trouble coming by the way the asshole was eyeballing Gunny and his women.

As Gunny stepped through the metal detector it alarmed and the guy pulled Gunny aside for a search. When he got to her ass she said “Before you get yourself fired, I suggest you let me show you my ID out of my purse.”

The guy stood and got in her face “Are you making threats? You can go to jail and be put on the no-fly list.”

“I am a US Marshal, there is a sidearm in the small of my back. I strongly suggest you rethink your attitude.”

This was news to John and the rest of them. Gunny gave him the ‘wait’ hand signal so he kept his mouth shut.

Meanwhile the TSA guy asked Gunny to produce her ID. After she handed it to him, he called in the number on his radio. Another person took over the screening and the rest of the group processed through.

They sat and waited for Gunny at the gate. A few minutes later, she caught up to them.

John started to ask about the badge but she interrupted him.

“It was Holman’s idea. The reservation has always had a US marshal and the old one retired.

Holman is the official Bureau of Indian Affairs Police representative. I will be the reservation’s US Marshal Services representative.”

John looked at her, “Color me surprised. What about the teaching job?”

“Oh, I still have that. This is more about getting someone Holman can trust at his back instead of a DC bureaucrat like the last one. Besides, neither the FBI or Marshals trump the BIAP by law. It’s mostly a figure head. Given my lifestyle choices, the DC crowd bent over backwards to make it happen.”

John replied “Is this trip going to be a problem for that?”

Gunny replied “I wouldn’t care if it was. The chance to visit my parents’ homeland overrides those concerns.”

“Which one are they from?”

“Poland, specifically Kraków. Somewhere there, I still have family.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind. It will take them five weeks to make the turbine blade we will be following. Hopefully there will be someone in Warsaw with good enough English that I can cut you loose long enough to track your family.”

Gunny replied “It won’t take me more than a week.”

The PA system announced their boarding so they all boarded the flight. John noticed Pixy watching the proceedings with a keen eye, while everyone else took it in stride. Tess and Mary stopped in the tunnel long enough to once over the plane.