Chapter 71

Present – Masha – FBI interrogation room

I am furious! I never thought the American FBI would act so like the Russian FSB. Special Agent Hotchner came into Zarika's room, showed me his credentials (even though I could tell he was FBI) then told me I needed to accompany him to the local FBI headquarters. Now I am sitting here in this interrogation room and they have turned up the heater to make it uncomfortable for me. Such a childish ploy! When I am released I will make SA Hotchner wish he'd never been born.

The worst part is I have not been allowed to call Jack or anyone else. Stupid SA Hotchner confiscated my phone; I only hope they are foolish enough to attempt to retrieve information from it.

SA Hotchner opens the door, slowly walks into the room and pretends concern with an exclamation, "Sorry Masha, I didn't realize someone had turned the furnace so high! Let me fix that first and then I have some questions for you."

Analyzing his action, I realize he just turned on the air conditioning full force - again such a childish ploy. He sits across from me, smiles and proceeds, "Okay Masha I think we need to talk. So what can you tell me about the battle at Ms. Donaldson's cabin?"

I initiate my featureless facial façade and reply, "I have not given you permission to call me by my informal name. You may refer to me as Ms. Reynolds. I am sorry, but I do not have any idea of what you are talking about. I was in the cabin busy tending my son."

He laughs, "Come now, Masha..." I glare at him and he corrects himself, "Come now, Ms. Reynolds, surely you had to have seen something."

I reassert my previous statement, "I repeat now, and will continue to repeat every time you ask me, I do not have any idea what occurred outside Ms. Donaldson's cabin."

As I expect, he changes the subject, "Well Ms. Reynolds, if you don't want to talk about the battle at Ms. Donaldson's cabin perhaps you'd care to tell me what your relationship is with the Sedankina twins and their brother?"

I smile and explain as if to a child, "They live with us at the cabin and occasionally they watch my son Ivan."

He frowns and questions, "You do know they are spies, don't you?"

I let my facial façade slip to show surprise and counter, "SA Hotchner! That is news for me, since I have been informed they are Ms. Morgan's body guards. Perhaps you should ask her these questions?"

And the game of cat and rat continues! Special Agent Hotchner needs to be very cautious because this cat has claws he doesn't know about.

He begins the next question when we are interrupted...

Present – Todd – Headed to Denver

I knew that SA Hotchner was up to no good when he slipped out of here and once I heard Masha Reynolds was abducted, I knew he was responsible. He was famous for pulling tricks like this. Unfortunately he and the FBI didn't know what I knew about Ms. Reynolds, she was not one to be trifled with. And he could very well end up on the wrong side of the grass when this was over.

It's a long drive to Denver and when I arrive at the FBI building I am shocked at what I see...

Present – Jack – Conference room

With everything settled for the night, and with Todd going after Stupid Assed Hotchner to set my wife free, I look at everyone and announce, "I sure as hell don't know about you all, but I'm tired. However before we all head off to sleep, I'm thinking we need to have people stand watch tonight because I'm not sure there still couldn't be some of the drug cartel army out there."

Jens agrees, "I agree with Jack and I will stand the first watch."

Then I'm surprised when I hear, "We will fulfill the patrols the remainder of the night." I look and see it's the twins and Alexi.

I question, "Are you sure?"

Alexi replies, "Yes Cpt. Jack Sir! We will divide the night evenly between us."

I reply, "I'm not a damn Captain and I'm sure not a Sir! I work for a living."

Alexi laughs and teases, "Whether you like it or not you are our de facto Captain, Sir!"

I was too tired to fight with him so I answer, "I'm headed to bed. Jens it might be nice if you show the twins and Alexi how to operate the alarm system."

Present – Jens – Standing watch

I yell after Jack, "Sleep well Captain!"

He flips me the bird as he and Ivan leave. Liz looks at me and questions, "Are you going to be okay with the twins and Alexi."

Alexi chimes in, "Oh yes Ms. Morgan, she will be fine. After all, she is our Leftenant."

I correct and repeat Jack's admonition, "It's Lieutenant and I was and never will be a lieutenant. Besides I've worked harder than Jack for a living."

He grins, salutes and states, "Yes Sir our Leftenant!"

Like Jack I'm too damn tired to fight him so I order, "Well if I'm the damn Leftenant then come over here so I can instruct you on use of the alarm system and assign a code to each of you."

I instruct them, assign their codes, then admonish, "Alexi, this isn't a toy or a game console."

He salutes and replies, "Oui, mon Leftenant."

I reply, "Well get some sleep, I expect one of you here in 2.5 hours."

This time the three of the salute and say in unison, "Oui, mon Leftenant." Then they smartly turn around and leave.

Sharik comes up to me, nuzzles my hand and I promise, "Okay boy I will get out our secret stash of cookies."

He does his doggie pirouettes, I go to the wall safe (yeah, after Yasmeen stole our cookies I now keep them in the safe) open it and retrieve the precious bag.

I order, "Sit boy."

He sits, I toss him a cookie, he snaps it out of the air and devours it. I take two out of the bag for me but he eyes me soulfully and whimpers. I grin at him and say, "All right!" I pull out a second cookie and this time I say, "You need to work for this one, so sit pretty."

He sits up, I hand it to him, he gently takes it out of my hand and then gobbles it down. I giggle, "I'm not sure which one of us likes these cookies more. But I tell you what, if you're a good dog tomorrow and don't chase Anastasia I will bake some homemade cookies."

He gets excited and does his doggie pirouettes then it's time for us to get down to business. Yeah, I figured I might as well stand watch, especially since I haven't been sleeping worth shit lately. I'm amazed I don't have black bags under my eyes. I check in the mirror and I'm relatively happy with what I see.

Yeah I'd sure like to have a bigger chest, then I remember how Ben used to tell me that anything more than a mouthful was wasted. Damn him and damn his old Major Mike anyway! Since he was programmed by damn Mike for survival, he was now running away on me. I think about finding him, then I remember the dream I had with Steven fucking Tyler and Aerosmith when I caught Ben and what I did with the gun ... Yeah, now that's going to be great when I finally catch Ben.

The alarm beeps, I check the screen and see it's Anastasia the fox. Thank God this alarm is smart enough to ignore smaller sized targets otherwise everyone would be awake by now. I scan the rest of the property but don't see anything. So I say to Sharik, "Well boy, it's time to walk the perimeter."

I grab my coat, night vision goggles, rifle, pistol and the transponder that lets the alarm know who I am and key my access code. I head to the front door and admonish, "Sharik, Anastasia is out here but we're on patrol and you can't chase her. Do you understand me?"

He whines and bows and I figure that's a yes. We open the door, and go outside and find it's a lovely, cold mountain night. The moon isn't up yet and the sky's so clear you can see the Milky Way. I slip on my goggles, flip them on and begin the sweep.