Chapter 60

Flashback – Masha – In hospital

Some doctors ran past and my love Jack questioned, "Why all the commotion? Don't tell me Banzai's gone."

I didn't know what to say until Tatiana ran over and excitedly informed me, "That was Mikhail Kaeoorov! He is the best surgeon in Russia and is Putin's private surgeon. Oh how I wish I could be in surgery with them." But she held up her hands, shrugged her shoulders and lamented, "Alas, with these hands I would be of no help right now.

I smiled and comforted Tatiana, "But if you had not helped to remove the shards from Ben's back, he might not have lived."

She smiled and nodded, "Yes, that is true. As it was he did die twice during the flight."

Jack annoyed me by interrupting, "Masha, please tell me what's happening."

I looked at Jack and answered, "My love, Ben must still be alive. Tatiana informed me that one of the doctors who ran past was the best surgeon in Russia and is Vladimir Putin's private surgeon."

Jack held me and whispered, "Masha, I will never be able to forgive myself if he dies..."

I crossed myself, pulled out my prayer rope¹ and began to pray.

¹ Orthodox prayer rope – used by the Orthodox to help them concentrate while saying the Jesus prayer (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me). When you pray for someone else you substitute their name for "me". So Masha prayed, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on Ben.'

Flashback – Tatiana – In the hospital

This was strange; I had some feelings for Ben. It was not like me to have feelings for patients, especially those who would probably die.

I watched as Masha prayed, and some might think that's unusual for those in our profession (spies and assassins). However, we were raised from childhood in the church and prayer was ingrained in our behavior. And many of our Orthodox Monks were warriors. With my damaged hands I could not use a prayer rope, so I joined her and counted my prayers on my fingers...

Flashback – Jack – In the hospital

I looked at Masha, saw she was holding some sort of rope and looked to be in a trance - ah she was praying. I looked over at Tatiana and damn if she didn't look like she was in a trance too while she appeared to be counting with her fingers.

I didn't really know how or what to pray so I looked up and asked, 'Well God, I've got a feeling Ben's work isn't yet done here. So how about you give him a few more years to finish his work?'

My phone rang again - damn it's the Major!

Flashback – Major M – Undisclosed base

I had all the techs working on the computers. I called the FBI and the NSA and they had the same problems. I desperately needed intel so I called Sgt. Reynolds. I could tell when he answered he wasn't happy to hear from me. He answered, "Yes Sir!"

I questioned, "Sgt. Reynolds, what's the status of Sgt. Blaine?"

Flashback – Jack – In the hospital

Son of a bitch! The Major wasn't beating around the bush and I sure as hell didn't want to talk to him right now. I made static noises into my phone and apologized, "Sorry Sir ... be bad ... breaking up..."

Then I hung up the damn phone.

Flashback – Major M – Undisclosed base

What the hell! Damn, Sgt. Reynolds just hung up on me! I didn't believe for a moment he had cell phone problems. I called again and heard, 'The phone you have reached is not in service or is out of our service area.'

Son of a bitch! I had a good mind to recall his ass back to America and then send his damn ass to Thule!

My office phone rang, I answered and the Old Man yelled, "What the hell..."

I interrupted, made my own static noises and said, "Sir! Comp ... virus ... phone system."

Then I hung up on his ass! You know sometimes Sgt. Reynolds has a hell of a good idea.

Flashback – General Glen – Undisclosed base

Son of a bitch! I think the Major acted like we had phone issues and then he hung up on me. I called him again and got a fast busy signal. Had every damn piece of electronic gear gone on the fritz? I called my aide, but this time the phone worked fine and I told him to go over and fetch the damn Major for me! That damn Major may think he was smart, but you don't get general stars without knowing all the tricks.

Flashback – Jens

Well, I had all the information I needed for now. I connected to Ben's nasty Major's computer and uploaded a new program that would make sure any document he tried to create with either Jack's or Ben's name in it would automatically notify me and let me control it. Then I went on the IRC² channel the bots³ were monitoring for instructions and issued the terminate command. My order deleted, without a trace, the 'infections' on all the computers. Then I made sure as heck to scrub all my tracks because my simple Britney file had infected the whole government and they were going to be looking for me.

² IRC - Internet Relay Chat. A protocol for real-time Internet text messaging but many times used to control bots