Chapter 104

Flashback – Masha and Tatiana – Secret location

I ordered, "Tatiana stop the taxi on the side of the road."

So far the directions had been perfect and there were only a few more turns but it was obvious which building housed the stupid Major. I pointed and commented, "What a devious building to function for holding the captured Major. We would have never discovered it without the precise directions from the Major. Yes, the last few turns indicated the Chechens had defiled an abandoned Orthodox church (a relic from the Soviet experience when many Orthodox churches were closed or relegated to other duties) to house their base of operations and the Major.

Tatiana asked, "Masha, what is our plan?"

I directed my second bag toward her and said, "Please change your disguise. We will exit the taxi and proceed the rest of the way on foot..."

I looked in the bag of clothes, smiled and offered, "Masha, you are a genius." Yes, the bag contained the clothes of another old grandmother. The Chechens would readily believe we were coming to our old church to worship God and would probably not risk revealing themselves. What danger could two old grandmothers pose to a band of revolutionary Chechens? Plus, the clothes and bags we carried (all old grandmothers seem to carry large bags) would conceal our many weapons.

I was almost changed when Masha ordered, "Tatiana duck."

I quickly ducked and wondered what had happened.

Masha's phone rang, she answered and then swore, "What are those two doing?"

I questioned, "Which two?"

She stated, "The twins are in Israel and have just initiated some major problems."

I considered that right now we need to keep our heads in this game or we might lose them...

Flashback – Major M – Being held hostage

There was a hell of a lot of yelling and I could tell by the tone most of it was orders. I heard weapons being readied and then what sounded like a large vehicle left. I squirmed a bit then some bastard hit me and ordered, "No move."

Shit, I guess they didn't take everyone and left a different bastard guard.

I decided to try something to improve my tactical position, "Hey haji, are you wearing one of those man dresses?"

I heard him moving around then felt him punch me in the stomach. What he didn't realize is I could take stomach punches all day long.

I taunted, "Well I guess that was a yes. So tell me, are you a fucking pedophile like Mo-ham-head? Do you have a 6 year old slave wife?"

He yelled something unintelligible and punched me again.

I knew I had his attention so I laughed and continued, "I guess that was a no. Ah, now I understand. Like Mo-ham-head, you like little boys."

That really got him fired up and he continued to punch me. All the while, I worked on getting free...

Flashback – Ben – On his mission

Well, I certainly got the attention of the fucking Chechen bastards! Rifle fire erupted from several of the buildings but the fuckers missed me because I was rolling around like crazy in this wheelchair. I pulled up one of my AKs, aimed where some of the fire was coming from and fired two quick shots through the window. The bastard tumbled dead out of the window. I kept rolling, marked my second target, pulled up the AK, fired a short burst and another was dead.

A small group ran towards me and shouted, "Allah Akbar!" I lowered the AK, rolled crossways to them and let loose a long string which took out most of them while the other fuckers jumped behind a short wall. I yelled, "You pig fucking cowards! What's wrong? Can't you even take on a man in a wheelchair?"

By now I had also attracted the attention of the Spetsnaz so they were running toward me and yelled like crazy for me to take cover. Then a truck came roaring into this little park from a side road. I saw it was packed to the fucking gills with the bastards so I pointed my wheelchair down the hill and let it rip...

Flashback – Glen

My aide came in and said, "Sir, you need to see what's on the news from Russia."

I thought, what the fuck has gone wrong now? I headed into the conference room where the television was located and I cautioned, "Don't tell me that's Sgt. Blaine in the wheelchair."

My aide answered, "Unfortunately Sir, it is."

The Chechens were shooting at him and he was returning fire while I complained, "What's that crazy fucker trying to do, get himself killed?"

Flashback – Jens

A special report came on and I couldn't believe it: Did my Ben go crazy? He was outside the hospital in a wheelchair and it looked like he was taking on the whole Chechen army. Then a truck headed toward him and I couldn't believe what he did next. Unfortunately the news crew quickly lost him...

Flashback – Jack and Colonel Maggie – Inside the BTR-80

I yelled, "What's that crazy fucking Banzai doing now?"

Maggie questioned, "Is that a bedpan he's wearing for a helmet?"

We saw a truck full of the Chechen bastards come in from the side of the park. Banzai pointed his wheelchair down the hill and accelerated at a tremendous speed.

Colonel Maggie ordered, "Lieutenant, let's chase the truck and see if your men can shoot the hell out of it."

I complained, "Hell, let me on the 7.62, I'll kill the fuckers."

As we began to chase the truck, I was shocked as hell at how fast we all were going...

Flashback – Masha and Tatiana – Old Orthodox Church

I warned, "Tatiana, I believe that something has forced most of the Chechens to leave."

She replied, "If that is the case then we need to hurry."

I ordered, "Remember, we are old grandmothers and can not move that quickly..."

We stepped out of the taxi as two old grandmothers and shuffled toward the Church. Masha instructed me, "Tatiana, hunch slightly more and shuffle your feet more."

I obeyed, we reached the front church doors then Masha stated, "These doors are old and have not been opened in a very long time. So the Chechen rebels must be using the back doors or a side door."

We shuffled our way along the side of the church...

Flashback – Ben – On his mission

Damn straight, I was having fun now!

I lowered the hell out of the seat in this wheelchair so my center of gravity was lower by cutting the original seat, then I used Sergey's tactical vest as the new seat. It was harder to manually operate the wheels, but my plan was to head downhill as long as I could and when I ran out of hill, turn and face the fuckers...

Thank God I saw the truck coming in time for me to get headed downhill, and now I was flying. Hell, this wheelchair was going so fast that the front wheels shook and rattled like they were having an epileptic seizure! I figured any minute they would break off and send me flying. I knew the fucking truck load of Chechen bastards were behind me, so I pointed one of the AK's behind me, rested it on my shoulder and fired short bursts. I wasn't sure I was hitting anything because the wheelchair and the AK made too much noise...

Flashback – Jack and Colonel Maggie – Inside the BTR-80

I couldn't fucking believe it! Banzai in his crazy assed wheelchair was outrunning the truck and the BTR-80. I manned the 7.62 machine gun and began to fire at the truck. But the way this bastard bounced around on its eight damn tires it was almost impossible to hit anything.

Colonel Maggie was beside me and said, "Damn Jack, can't you hit anything?"

I complained, "Hell no! Not the way this thing is bouncing around. Do you think you could do better?"

I answered, "Hell yes I could!" I took over the machine gun, then I realized the old fart was right, you couldn't hit shit with this damn machine gun because of the way this APC bounced.

Jack laughed, "I told you so. Now move back over and let me keep trying."

I yelled, "What the hell does Sgt. Blaine think he's doing?"

Jack answered, "My best guess is he found out what the Chechens were doing to this town, knew it was because of him, so he eliminated the danger to the town by making himself the target."

I complained, "If he gets fucking killed the old man is going to have both our asses..."

Flashback – Masha and Tatiana – Old Orthodox Church

We found a side door which was missing and I gave hand signals to Tatiana. We slowly walked around the doorway but we actually tactically sliced the doorway like a pie. No one stood guard so we slowly entered the abandoned church. The first thing we noticed was the entire back of the church where the iconostasis would have been located and even the back of the church was missing. I whispered, "That is how they hid the truck in the church."

We heard a voice in English as it taunted, "Mo-ham-head was a common thief."

Then someone swore in Chechen and we heard the sound of grunts. I stated, "Tatiana, the Major is provoking his guard to beat him."

She replied, "Now is the perfect time for us to attack."

We removed our weapons from the bags and...

Flashback – Major M – Being held hostage

I heard two distinctive pops from a suppressed weapon and the bastard immediately stopped hitting my stomach, groaned like crazy and fell into my lap. I yelled, "Who the hell is there?" But I didn't receive an answer. Even though whoever it was walked quiet as hell, I still heard them approach me so I added, "Look, I'm an American Marine and if you rescue me you will have a friend forever."

There was still no answer but I felt the tape holding my arms and hands being sliced. I tried to grab one of them but got the hell smacked out of my hand. I tried it again and they punched my face so I figured they wanted me to wait patiently. I heard them run away, pushed the dead bastard off my lap, yanked the hood off my head and quickly took the tape off my legs and feet.

I grabbed the bastard's AK, slowly slipped out the door and saw a taxi. I ran to the taxi and saw the driver was unconscious in the back seat. I sure as hell wasn't going to look this gift horse in the mouth so I jumped in and drove the hell away from the church...

Flashback – Masha and Tatiana – Old Orthodox Church

We were old grandmothers again as we slowly shuffled away from the church. The taxi sped past us with the Major driving and Tatiana commented, "Masha, that mission was almost too easy."

I answered, "Yes, we were fortunate that most of the Chechens left otherwise it might have been a large battle."

Tatiana questioned, "I wonder..."

I started to question what pulled the Chechens away, then I became worried and asked, "Masha, do you think the terrorists went after Ben."

Masha looked at me and answered, "Tatiana, it is the only presumption that makes sense."

I wanted to run to get back and protect Ben but Masha cautioned, "Tatiana we must stay in character until we can procure a taxi."

This situation was полнии пиздэц¹ but Masha was correct. We needed to stay in character until we found a taxi...

¹ Polnyi pizdets - Russian 'mat' (Russian underground language which you will not find in most translators and which the Duma (Russian legislative branch) keeps trying to outlaw). Its best translation to English is the term FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition). Mat has gradually moved into more common usage. Even President Vladimir Putin, whose wife Lyudmila, is a philologist, uses mat. For him, it is an authoritarian language. A parliamentarian reported that, at a meeting in the Kremlin, Putin had dismissed the arguments of the Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov by declaring, "We don't fucking need a military base in Cuba!" The obscenity – на кхуи (na khuy) – was a show of power. In the presence of the President, Zyuganov would never have dared to use mat; therefore his was the weaker argument.