Chapter 2

Four people sat staring with their mouths opened.

"I'd better call Mike and see what he has planned?"

"Hello Mike, Karl, Gina and Marcia are here with their men, we need to decide some things, you coming here or should we go there to talk? He's on his way, now, have you two decided on a date yet?"

If there was any doubts in anyone's mind, this would be the time for any excuses, hemming and hawing. Strange, not a word was said. Mike arrived and sat right down.

"Hi Karl, you mean Jim finally decided to do the 'right thing' with my Gina? Hello Marcia, who do you have with you, I didn't think Jim had any brothers!"

"Hello Mr. M, no, Vassily followed me home, and I was about to ask Daddy if I could keep him too like how Gina got Jim."

Karl and Mike just looked at each other and began to laugh. The tension in the room evaporated. The girls definitely knew how to manipulate their Fathers, and both were grown up now.

Both Jim and Vassily looked up and started to respond as Mike's phone rang. He held up a hand and stood to take the call. "Yes, What!, When! Do we know who? What do they want?" He ended the call and slumped back down.

'Dad, What's wrong?" Gina knew her Father and this was not like him.

"Paul! Paul ... they took him! They want $100 million, but I think they want more than that, they want me to bring the money and to come alone!"

Marcia went to Gina and held her. Karl sat next to Mike and nodded. Vassily, rolled up his left sleeve. held his arm inside up next to Jim's. Together a both scars formed a distinctive mark. "My Brother, we do this, no?"

"Da, my brother, we do this."

Vassily made a call, while Jim borrowed Gina's phone and called also.

"When?" Jim asked, they will arrive tomorrow night, all of them Brother, we all go in harms way together, again."

"Mine too, so it begins again my Brother, so it begins again!"

"You have not told them?"

"No, there was no need, I never expected to see you here!"

Both men now had eyes boring in on them. It was Vassily who answered those stares. "It is how we met. I went back to Afghanistan when our military pulled out. Some of my men were still captives, they were being tortured, killed if they were fortunate. I could not forget them. We have a creed in Spetnaz, much like Jim's people, 'No one left behind'. Jim saw me there and we seemed of a like mind, he and his team helped me to rescue or bring back the bodies of our men. I say our men because on that night we all fought the same battle, killed the same men and saved each other's lives I guess. We were able to reach a place where our Hind's were able to land, we flew out and Russian doctors and nurses tended to the dying and saved those they could. My brother is the only American solder that in also 'Spetnaz'. Those we saved that night and the families of those we only brought out bodies for so moved our men that they would not hear of anything else, we even gave him another name, 'Little Bear'. Those same Spetnaz, are coming here to help rescue another 'comrade', your Paul, for he will soon be our 'brother' too."

Karl spoke. This is all good, too good, but this is America, you don't just go flying in an army of Russian 'Spec Ops' into California.'

Jim and Vassily again looked at each other and heads shrugged. This time Jim spoke. You can if your Father commands nearly 1,000,000 Russian troops and their plane lands at '29 Stumps', 'once a Seal, always a Seal' and I guess some people still owe me. So yep, we be going to war and we will bring our soon to be 'Brother' home, alive and well to our soon to be 'Dad'.

It seemed everyone in the room except Jim and Vassily were in tears now. They were already on phones making plans. Jim called the house and told them he needed hourly updating as to, Who, What, When Where and Why Paul had been taken. No one seemed to question the 'new' guy running this op, in fact many had by now heard of Jim's first rescue of Paul and were glad to have him leading this one.

Arrangements did not start off that easy. The TU-173 was already airborne when the US denied permission for a landing in California for the giant Russian plane. A call from the Russian ambassador, the UN and the Commandant of the US Marines Corps seemed to put that hurdle behind. The Seal commander then added a simple phrase, "Classified OPS Eyes Only" and Military Traffic control took over all the way in.