Chapter 58

Tatiana (Masha's flight nurse) – in flight

We had inserted an IV in each arm as we tried to provide more blood than Ben was expelling, but it was a losing battle. I looked at the flight surgeon and stated, "We need to do something since his blood pressure is still falling."

He ordered, "Even though we should not attempt it, turn him over in a single motion so we can view his back."

We unstrapped our patient from the backboard, turned him in one motion and it was obvious why we were losing the battle of the blood. There was more blood pooling there than I had ever seen in my life.

The flight surgeon cut the straps on his body armor, peeled it off him and we saw not only bullet holes, we saw many shards of ceramic body armor which had pierced his body. I also noticed many very old scars that I had seen before on victims of caning. I made a mental note to attempt to determine where and when he was caned.

The flight surgeon ordered, "Remove the shards so we can put compression dressings on the wounds. Otherwise we will never slow this bleeding."

I began to remove the shards. They were very sharp, sharper than a scalpel and I cut my fingers frequently, however I would not stop!

My phone rang. I knew from the ring it was Masha but I could not stop to answer...

Flashback – Masha – In Fight

I tried to call Tatiana however she did not answer. Then the flight attendant came up to me and rudely ordered, "You are not to operate cell phones on this aircraft."

I wanted to give her a dose of the syrup I gave Jack but decided it might only accomplish getting Jack in more trouble. I held Jack's hand and questioned, "How do you feel?"

He grinned at me and declared, "I'm all fine, but I'm hungry as hell. Do we get any food on this flight?"

I shook my head and answered, "Jack, if we did get food on this flight, you would be even more sick if you ate it."

He could not stay still in his seat. I debated giving him more of the sleeping syrup but I didn't think I could carry his mass off the airplane by myself. I attempted to comfort him, "Jack my love, we will be there soon and I promise you once we find Ben, I will procure something for you to eat."

Then I wondered how I would keep this promise because the hospital food in Russia was not that much better than airplane food...

Tatiana (Masha's flight nurse) – in flight

We developed a system to treat the wounds. I would remove the shards and the flight surgeon was right behind me and applied compression bandages. Time was of the essence because we needed to turn him onto his back for the bandages to function. We were complete with the upper part of the back had just a few more to go. I took out one shard and OH NO! I caught the flight doctor's eyes and gave him a questioning look, I could tell he saw it too and the look in his eyes told me this was much worse than expected.

But still we would not give up. This brave man sacrificed his body to save almost 50 hostages...

We removed the last of the shards, carefully turned him onto his back and I silently prayed that God would help him because survival was in His hands now...

Flashback – Major M – Undisclosed base

I finished my report and was damn proud of myself. I determined I could let all the blame for this fall on Sgt. Reynolds' shoulders and I would get off Scott free. I closed the report and then ... What the fuck! The damn report totally disappeared off my hard drive.

I searched for it and realized my computer hadn't been running correctly since I downloaded that damn fake picture of Britney Spears. That was one sick joke!

When I fired up my computer virus checker, my whole damn screen went blank then I read ... What the fuck happened to my computer!!!

Flashback – Jens

There was no way in heck I was going to let Ben's nasty Major blame Bens' second best friend (I was his first but he didn't know it yet!) Jack for something that was obviously his fricken fault. Yes, if he had not sent my Ben there in the first place Ben would not have been hurt.

So I waited like until his report was done and then I simply deleted the file.

Ah, what the heck was he doing now? Oh goodie! He ran his virus checker and that meant his computer would crash and he would see, "MESS WITH THE BEST!!! DIE LIKE THE REST PERVERT!!!!"

Flashback – Major M – Undisclosed base

My pet Sgt. came into my office and stated, "Sir, I think you need to come and see this."

I complained, "God, can things get any worse in Russia?"

He responded, "Sir this isn't about Russia."

I walked into the control room and all the fucking screens said the same damn fucking thing my computer did, "MESS WITH THE BEST!!! DIE LIKE THE REST PERVERT!!!!"

Shit that damn virus followed all the network connections and we were dead in the water at a time when we needed intel the most...

The phone rang in my office. I gave momentary thanks to God that phones still worked until I looked and saw it was the Old Man ... Please don't tell me...

Flashback – Masha – Landed

We landed and Jack went crazy. He jumped out of his seat and began to push the people out of his way to get off the plane. But if there's one thing you learn in Russia, it is to patiently stand in line and wait your turn. When he knocked one man down, the man jumped up, swore at him in Russian then made the mistake of trying to punch Jack. Jack ducked the punch then flattened the man. Everyone saw it so they quickly moved out of the way.

We ran to the front of the plane, headed down the steps and at the bottom I saw two men in dark coats waiting for us. I whispered in Jack's ear, "Jack my love those two men are FSB. Be very careful."

We reached the bottom of the stairs, they showed their badges and one ordered, "We need both of you to follow us. We heard you caused a disturbance on the plane."

I knew I needed to do something quickly so I stated, "This man is American and is the partner of the American that was wounded at Beslan."

The other agent questioned, "The one that saved many hostages?"