Chapter 100

Flashback – Masha and Tatiana – Secret location

I informed my team of the Major's secret Morse code message hidden in his blinks. We quickly translated it but then began the hard work of deciphering it. Our immediate concern was because the message did not appear to make sense...

Tatiana swore in frustration, "What the hell does all this mean! It is always the letter C, followed by a number then an R or an L.

She correctly identified the pattern: It started C 60 R, C 45 L ... and continued.

I speculated, "There is always an L or an R. I wonder if those are the turns that were taken, but what are the numbers that follow the C's?"

Tatiana added, "Then what is the S40 without an L or an R? And if he was romantically entangled with a young woman would he accurately keep track of the turns?"

I answered the question out loud, "He might if something was annoying him enough to also keep track of the time."

I looked at Tatiana and we both said, "The clicks of the meter in an old taxi!" Yes! We had deciphered the code but there was still one main problem...

Flashback – Major M – Held Hostage

I was still not sure how I did it, but the damn meter in the taxi made this annoying clicking noise that for some reason I counted. Okay, I guess I always had a bit of CCD¹ and I counted everything since I was a kid. I knew the precise number of steps from my house to school (1037), the steps from my locker to each classroom and other what seemed useless at the time 'counts.'

¹ CCD – Constant Counting Disorder – one of the manifestations of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

I only hoped that someone could decipher what I was telling them but the big problem remained, I didn't give them the initial starting point...

Flashback – Masha and Tatiana – Secret location

I initiated a conference for my team, announced the information we had discovered, put them on speaker phone and requested their thoughts?

Olga stated, "According to the Major's dossier, he has exhibited some indices of OCD. So it is a possibility that your assumptions are correct."

Maria added, "After looking at the patterns it is the only thing that makes sense."

I reminded all of the most troubling fact, "If the assumption is correct, we have an immediate issue because we do not have the starting point."

Maria provided some of our solution, "If we add up all the clicks, that should give us the maximum numbers of seconds they were in the taxi, this would give us a general idea how far they traveled."

Olga questioned, "What about the FSB agents? Would not they have been in proximity of the Major when they were killed?"

I agreed, "Yes, they were following us closely every time we went out. But do we know where the FSB agent's bodies were found?"

My team was silent because that information had not and probably would not be readily released ... I paused and then ordered, "Okay. Maria and Olga, you need work in Moscow to determine where the bodies of the FSB agents were found while Tatiana and I will proceed to gather information on the starting point."

I looked at Tatiana and confirmed she had already changed clothes and put on a wig. I needed to hurry and change to a disguise because one never knows when the bastard Chechens would kill a hostage. We needed to descend to the street and ask some of the locals if they saw the bodies of the FSB agents...

Flashback – Jack and Colonel Maggie – Under fire

Shit! Had this whole fucking village been taken over by Chechens? We were catching fire from three different directions and three different buildings. Oh, we were giving them hell firing back, but the problem with jihadists is they don't fucking care about dying and – well, for the first time in my life I had a hell of a reason not to die!!!

Colonel Maggie ordered, "Give me one of your extra weapons."

One of the Spetsnaz tossed her a spare AK and now she was fighting the bastards too.

I finally got a rifle so I could fight back. Hell, you'd think that the Spetsnaz would know all Marines, even female Marines, were riflemen. We were kicking ass then it happened...

They started firing the RPG's! I looked at the troops and ordered, "Let's get the hell out of here!"

Jack suggested, "Bounding overwatch to leave so we can keep each other covered."

The Spetsnaz Sgt. argued, "No! You two are the primary targets. Leave while we keep them occupied."

More RPG's were fired and exploded closer to us. Jack yelled, "Fuck this shit - let's move it."

We started to leave and then were surprised as hell...

Flashback – Ben – In the hospital

My Spetsnaz guards hauled ass with my bed out of my room after I called attention to the strange box. When we were what they considered far enough away, we stopped and they called their bomb unit.

A Captain came up and apologized, "Sgt. Blaine we are sorry about the unknown package in your room. The two Spetsnaz who were ordered to watch your room are now facing serious discipline charges."

That was one thing I had discovered: While the Spetsnaz were hellaciously good fighters, they sucked at sentry duty because of their attitude. Most of them felt it was beneath them to pull sentry duty.

I thanked him, "Captain Sir! Thank you and your men for getting me out of my room so quickly. However I was wondering if I could have access to a phone?"

He moved me closer to the nurse's station, they handed me a phone and I called the number on the card I was given...

When I finished the Captain remarked, "Sgt. Blaine, that was a remarkable gift that you gave your doctor."

I smiled, "Well hell, he deserves it. He put his life and the life of his family on the line for me."

Yeah, I had called President Putin and asked if he could arrange for Dr. Voskoboynikov and his family to have a vacation in America at my expense. Hell, it was the least I could do and I figured there weren't many Chechens in America.

I questioned, "Sir! I was wondering how Jack is doing on finding the Major."

What he told me next worried the hell out of me...

Flashback – Jack and Colonel Maggie – Under fire

Damn, was that a sight for sore eyes! A fucking BTR-80² rolled down the street toward us firing its smoke grenades to give us cover while both the 14.5mm and the 7.62mm machine guns were shredding the buildings. There's one thing I had to say, it didn't seem like they were concerned about collateral damage.

² BTR-80 An 8x8 Russian armored personnel carrier. Armed with 6 - 81mm smoke grenade launchers and one each of a 14.5mm and 7.62mm machine gun.

It stopped, the doors opened and we hauled ass inside!

We barely got inside the BTR-80 when a lieutenant got in our faces and yelled, "What do you think you are doing? You did not have permission to leave the hospital."

I stood up, pointed to my rank and declared, "Excuse the hell out of me boy! Just who do you think you are that justifies talking to a Colonel like that? Now we appreciate you showing up when you did but if there's any ass chewing to be done around here, I'm going to do it."

I turned, winked at Jack and yelled, "Sgt. Reynolds, what the hell were you thinking leaving the hospital the way you did in your service uniform? Didn't you realize that you would make a hell of a target?"

I could tell Maggie was saving face so I played along, "Sorry Ma'am. But I thought the risk was worth the reward."

She yelled, "Sgt. since when did we tell you that you could think? If you ever pull a hair brained stunt like that again, I'll bust your ass all the way to PFC. Now tell this lieutenant where we are headed."

Yuri gave him directions to the internet café and the lieutenant complained, "But my orders were to bring you back to the hospital."

Maggie got in his face and said in Russian (Yuri translated for me), "Lieutenant what rank was the officer who gave you those orders?"

He sheepishly replied, "My Captain, Ma'am."

She continued, "That's what I thought! Since I outrank him; take us to the internet café."

I decided sometimes officers can do the right thing...

Flashback – Ben – In the hospital

When the Captain told me Jack and Colonel Maggie were pinned down it pissed me off and I demanded, "Help me into a wheelchair, I need to go and help them."

He laughed and argued, "Dr. Voskoboynikov has left orders that if you try to leave your bed we are to put you in restraints."

I was pissed and yelled, "Well someone has to do something for them!"

He answered, "Do not worry. I have a BTR-80 headed toward them. We will have them back here soon."

I swore, "You sure as hell could have told me that in the first place!"

He glared at me and reminded of our respective ranks, "Sgt., is this the way you address your American officers?"

I apologized, "Sorry Sir! You are right."

Another soldier came up and motioned to the Captain. They then moved far enough away that I couldn't hear them. The Captain came back and asked, "Do you know a nurse named Tatiana?"

I replied, "Yes Sir I do. She is sort of my girlfriend."

He explained, "The package was addressed to her and once we determined it was not a bomb it was opened and the person who opened it was covered with a large amount of putrid dog feces."

I gave him a strange look and questioned, "How did that happen? I thought you checked to make sure it wasn't a bomb! And who sends someone a dog shit bomb? Is this some sort of strange Chechen message I don't know about?"