Chapter 48

Present – Thom – C130 landed at DIA

I feel great! Masha comes in, gives me something (in spite of the TSIFFTS doctors fighting with her about it) and in thirty minutes I am fine other than being hungry as hell. She's observed me and hasn't dosed Maria yet, so I whisper, "How about you hold off about ten minutes on giving this to Maria."

She surprises me when she loudly states, "Linus has been affected in a more severe manner and if I do not arrive in time with the antidote he will expire."

Maria begins to bawl, "Yes! Please save my Linus and tell him how sorry I am."

Masha assures her, "I will endeavor to reach him in time however it might already be too late."

Present – Maria – C130 landed at DIA

I am devastated since my plan has really backfired! Somehow I have poisoned my Linus and Masha is telling me he may die a painful death. I know I feel so sick I would have to get well to die. I begin to cry and as Thom and Masha leave I shout, "Please hurry and save my Linus!"

Present – Thom – C130 landed at DIA

As we hurry away, I ask a worried question, "Please tell me this won't kill her?"

She smiles and replies, "No, however she deserves to think she may die for taking the drug out of my purse. It will just make her extremely uncomfortable until I administer the antidote."

She leaves and I consider extremely uncomfortable. Hell! I thought I was dying!

But what the hell was Masha doing with something like that in her purse anyway?

Present – Masha – C130 landed at DIA

I practice my calming ritual because I am furious at Maria for violating my purse and removing the tool. Yes, it is a tool we sometimes use to temporarily incapacitate an individual without causing death. There were times, especially with overly rude American women, it had been convenient. Two drops in their drinks and they must rush to the bathroom. Then while they were gone a new drink and two drops of the antidote provided an immediate resolution.

The antidote bottle I had unfortunately leaked. However Miranda gladly supplied me with replacement antidote. But because of Maria's actions, once again I have been placed into the spotlight. I know I will have additional occurrences to explain in the future.

I also need to keep my word. I discover in which hospital Linus is residing and Byron has a taxi convey me there.

Present – Jack – Commercial flight landed at DIA

I am shocked when Masha doesn't meet us at the main entry hall of DIA. Thank God Ivan is distracted by all the multi-colored paper airplane sculptures which hang from the ceiling, because I told him Masha would be here to meet us. He says, "Papa, I want."

I smile, hug him and promise, "I will make you one later."

I continue to scan the crowd for Masha, then I notice a couple guys who look threatening and start moving away from them. I almost make it to the men's room when one of them steps in front of me and asks, "Jack Reynolds?"

I sure as hell don't want a fight, not with Ivan here so I reply, "That would depend on who's doing the asking."

He pulls out his badge and flashes it. I say, "Not so fast! I need to have a better look at that."

He hands me his ID, I look it over and think: What the fuck do they want with me.

I answer, "Yes I'm Jack Reynolds."

He mumbles, "Please follow us."

Well, thank God they didn't want to cuff me. We head out of the building and Ivan says, "Papa, these bad men!"

I want to mutter, 'out of the mouth of babes' but wisely keep my mouth shut.

Present – Liz – C130 landed at DIA

After I leave the two bitches with Byron, I head over to find Thom and Maria and see what the hell is going on. I'm surprised when I see Thom at his usual place, by the coffee pot sucking down go juice and eating pizza. I walk over and question, "Byron told me you were on death's door."

Thom laughs, "I thought I was too but Masha fixed me right up."

I ask with surprise, "Masha? Not the TSIFFTS doctors?"

He takes another drink of coffee and replies, "Yeah, I guess it was some sort of practical joke stuff she had that caused gastritis. She gave me the antidote and now I'm fine, in fact I think it cleaned me out some."

Thom takes another drink of coffee as I ask, "What about Maria, is she better too?"

He starts to laugh so hard coffee comes out his nose and he chokes. I beat him on the back until he can finally talk and complain, "Dammit Liz you should know better than to ask a man a question when he has a mouth full off coffee. Masha was so pissed at Maria she went off to heal Linus before she would give Maria the antidote."

I interrogate Thom, "I heard it was your actions that incited this whole incident."

He gives me an innocent look and says, "Liz what the hell are you talking about?"

I diplomatically remind him, "Thom we both know you have a way of insulting women. Just look at the many times our paths have crossed. I heard you insulted Maria and she tried to get even."

He laughs, shakes his head and answers, "Well look who's laughing now."

I begin to complain when Byron runs up and says, "It looks like all hell broke loose at the psych hospital!"

Thom drops his coffee cup and yells, "Dammit, I was worried Matt and Jim would go off halfcocked without Linus there to ride herd on them. Let's get our asses to that loony bin."

We run out of the C-130, head to a car and I ask Byron, "Where are the girls."

He looks at me and says, "Oh hell I forgot about them!"

Thom questions, "Were those the two girls you brought from Somecrackistan?"

I laugh and admit, "Yeah I left them in Byron's care."

Thom orders, "Byron, you lost them so you need to find them."

Byron questions the order and I can tell they'd already given him some crap too, "Are you sure Thom?"

He says, "Hell yes! Now get out of the car so we can rescue Jennifer."

Present – Byron – C130 landed at DIA

Damn! Where did those two girls go? I think they would be nice enough individually, especially the older one, but together they were a real problem. They immediately started whining at me and complaining about their husband Ben (when did he marry them and does Jennifer know about this?). The young one had a mouth worse than a sailor and asked, "Hey Papa Smurf, tell me where my husband Ben go or I will bite your dick and feed it to you?"

The older one adds (well she mostly made sense) to the problem when she asked, "Grandpa, do not hear her! Tell me where husband mine go?"

I got the damn phone call about the psych hospital and ordered both of them, "Look this is an emergency, just follow me."

I then head off to find Thom and assumed they were right behind me. In all the excitement I forgot about them until Liz reminded me. Now I have to waste my time, which would be better spent at the psych hospital gleefully kicking Megan's rear. That thought makes me smile! Perhaps dealing with the two crazy girls isn't as bad as dealing with one crazy woman, especially with Thom along to stir things up. I know how he feels about Megan. I decide my job is the lesser of two evils and happily begin my search.

I walk up to one of the men standing watch and ask, "Did you see the two girls?"

He says, "Yeah they were talking about something but it was in some damn language I couldn't understand?"

I question, "Did you see where they went?"

He shook his head, "No I got distracted, turned around and they were gone."

I walk around, questioning everyone else and get the same response. I try to put myself in their place: If I was a villager (and they were certainly both that) in America where would I go? I begin to survey the area and something catches my eye. I think for a moment and ... Oh hell no! I sure hope they didn't go there! If they did, this is going to be worse than bad.

Present – Jens – At the psych hospital

The orderly never gets enough nerve to try anything when Megan comes into my room and orders, "You can leave now, I need to talk to my patient."

The minute he leaves I swear, "Megan you fucking bitch! I know what you did!"

She smiles innocently and declares, "Jens, I don't know what you mean."

I snap, "Like hell! You set me up by giving me an amphetamine. Just what the hell did I ever do to you?"