Chapter 43

Present – Maria – In the equipment room

Even though Liz and my Princess Boss try to convince me, I'm still not sure at all about this bogus, mumbo-jumbo that my Princess Boss can connect to Ben. Bullshit! But I decide I will humor her for now – hell, she's been wounded and I sure don't need to get her upset right now.

Ivan (now that is one annoying kid) comes over and hands my Princess Boss a picture. Jens gets way too excited for her condition and remarks, "Ivan, that looks exactly like the wolf lady I saw with Ben. Come over here everyone and see this picture."

Seeing some brat's annoying drawing is about the last thing I want to do but I slowly move toward my Princess Boss. Liz arrives at her side first and makes a big fucking deal about it, "Ivan that is an incredible drawing, it looks exactly like Ben and I've never seen a wolf look more realistic."

I walk over, take a look at it and I'm shocked but hide my feelings. My Princess Boss asks...

Present – Jens – In the equipment room

I am shocked that Maria (who hasn't been on Ivan's good side) doesn't say anything about Ivan's drawing so I confront her, "So Maria, what do you think of that drawing."

She yawns but admits, "It's pretty good."

Her indifference pisses me off so I fucking let her know what I think, "Pretty good hell! I would say that he's not only captured Ben's..."

Ivan interrupts and corrects, "Unca Ben."

I accept Ivan's correction and continue, " ... Unca Ben's facial features and even part of his spirit. And the wolf is exactly as I saw her."

I hope after the shit I gave her, Maria would make a bigger deal over the drawing but she yawns and misdirects my attention, "Jens, it's time to check your wound."

Thank God Ivan is young enough that Maria's bullshit doesn't hurt him, otherwise I'd be forced to kick Maria's ass again. I politely ask, "Ivan, would you mind if I kept this picture of Unca Ben and the wolf lady since it might be the best drawing of Unca Ben I have ever seen?"

He gets excited by my request, hops from one foot to the other, then smiles and asks, "You will put on refrigerator like my mama do?"

I look at the work of art again and I can't believe Masha would put something like this on the lowly refrigerator. I'm sure not going to do that so I reply, "No, I plan on framing it and hanging it on the wall."

Ivan increases his hopping speed so I can barely follow the movement. I'm watching him and it's making me dizzy but he giggles and offers, "I draw more pictures for your walls."

Present – Liz – In the equipment room

I am highly impressed with Ivan's drawing as Ben and the wolf looked so real - the kid really has a gift. My guess is it comes from Masha and not Jack. Jack doesn't strike me as being very artistic.

I am more than slightly annoyed that Maria is being such a bitch about things. Hell, Ivan is a great kid - so he pranked her, big fucking deal. I decide I am going to have a little talk with her so I ask, "Maria, can you and I talk?"

She's finished looking at Jens' wound and simply replies, "Sure."

I add, "In private."

Maria gives me a dubious look but we walk away from Jens into a corner where she can't hear and I order, "Maria, you need to back off on your scorn of Ivan and cut him some slack."

She crosses her arms across her chest gives me a defiant look and argues, "Liz, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. He's just a spoiled brat of the highest degree."

Well the direct approach fails miserably so I try the logical approach - I appeal to her reason. "Listen Maria, how many kids of his age could hold it all together with what he's been through. He really is a great kid. So he pranked you, you have to admit that was funny."

Maria glares at me takes several steps back and counters, "I hate being made to look like a fool! But even more than that, I hate being told what to do - so back off bitch!"

Present – Ben – At the cabin

We reach another one of my weapons caches while successfully avoiding the drone. I start digging down to reach the cover and Destiny asks, "Just how many of these do you have?"

I start to count the number of my weapons caches in my head, lose count and settle for a half-truth, "More than enough to fight this battle." I reach the lid, clear away any extra dirt, open the cache, pull out my 50 caliber Barrett and start removing all the ammo.

Fifty caliber ammo is heavier than hell and I could use some help so I ask, "Since you removed the rocks from your pack, would you haul some of this ammo for me?" I should have known better than to ask as her hippy chick side shows up and she argues, "Ben, I will not carry any ammo if you are going to use it to kill anyone."

Fuck! I re-affirm my opinion of how she's 'too granola hippy chick'. As I begin to speak, she interrupts, "I don't like your attitude toward me. I am not a 'too granola hippy chick' like you believe!"

I get in her face and challenge, "Well, you sure helped me earlier and I could use the help now. I don't have any plans to immediately kill anyone."

She moves away and counters, "Well, what about later and more importantly, what about Mike?"

I state what for me is an obvious fact of life, "Sometimes death is an unfortunate part of any mission and Mike not only deserves to die, he needs to die - the bastard."

She continues with her errant thinking and states what she believes is an absolute, "Ben, no one deserves to die!"

I feel that I have her in an untenable logical position so I pursue my thoughts, "Oh really, no one? How about Charles Manson or Hannibal Lecter?"

She backpedals and avoids the question with a platitude, "Ben, all life is precious and needs to be treated with respect."

What a fucking joke! I laugh and give her my version of the truth, "Oh yeah! I will respect Mike right after I kill his ass. And you never answered my question about Manson or Lecter."

Destiny pauses for several moments, thinks then she announces, "Ben, it is a shame that we have those sort of people in our world, but killing them because they are murderers makes no sense. Why should we give the government power to kill people when it can jail others for killing people; it's the pot calling the kettle black."

Oh my God, I can't believe she just said that! I laugh and tell her how things really work in my world, "Destiny, governments have always killed people and will always continue to kill people. You are living in some sort of fictional world and need to get your head out of the sand. Now are you going to help me carry some of this ammo?"

She delivers a common phrase I recognize, "I would prefer not to."

I inform her that I know the source of her quote, "Yeah, I've read Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scribner many times. I can't believe you of all people would fall back to Bartleby's defense just because you've obviously lost the real argument.

I continue and tease, "I rest my case: You are a crunchy granola, hippy chick."

For once she's quiet and I wonder if I have offended her. Oh well, if I did she will eventually get over it. I overload my pack, grab the Barrett and command, "Come on, we need to get undercover - if we are out during the daytime the drone will find us."

Then I hear something that piques my interest so we make a detour.

Present – Mike (formerly Major and then Captain M) – At the cabin.

We land at the cabin, the helicopter spools down it engines, the captain comes to assist me then what the fuck! There's a loud as hell noise and pieces of metal and hot oil rain down on us. We look up and see there's a fucking big hole in the side of the helicopter engine. I begin to count and 2.5 seconds later we hear the report of a rifle.

I order, "Captain, Blaine is shooting at us with some sort of fifty caliber rifle and he's just disabled my helicopter. I want that bastard found! He's approximately 2500 yards from here."

Present – Ben – At the cabin

Now that was too much fun! I loved putting a fifty through the engine on Mike's chopper and blowing it to hell. Shit if he wants to come to my cabin and hunt me, I might as well make sure he stays for the rest of the fun like everyone else.

I get another great idea, take aim again and Destiny whines, "Ben, don't tell me you're going to kill Mike."

Her complaint doesn't faze me as I touch off another round. I look at her and answer, "Hell no I didn't kill the fucker right now, but that won't stop me later. Now let's get the hell out of here. Anytime you fire more than one round from a location you give your position away."

As we leave the area, I see something that gives me the best idea of the night...

Present – Mike (formerly Major and then Captain M) – At the cabin.

I begin moving in my wheelchair to get away from the hot as hell damn oil spraying out of the hole in my helicopter's engine and then things get unbelievably worse - the fucking bastard Ben shoots the hell out of the wheel on my wheelchair! Shit, the fifty blows it right off the frame and without the wheel I tumble to the ground.

I worry that the fucker is going to shoot me next so I order, "Help me get the hell out of here! The crazy asshole is shooting at me now!"

The captain and a private come over, grab me and haul ass toward the tent...

Present – Jack – In prison at the cabin.

Even though I'm older it hasn't diminished the effect of my training. I still wake up when I hear the wonderful report of a fifty caliber rifle being fired. I look around and see Linus is also awake. He points to his ear and questions, "Think that's Ben?"

I whisper (hoping to keep Masha asleep), "Yeah, that has to be my boy."

We hear one more ballistic fifty caliber crack, then it stops and I add, "That will probably be the last shot Ben fires. He knows that if he fires more than a few shots from his location, the greenies will be able to find him."

Masha who was obviously fooling me about being asleep compliments my action, "My Jack, you trained him well but one man against a whole company is a suicide mission."